Blog Tour ~ My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the 

My Last Continent Blog Tour

Please welcome the author

Midge Raymond to tell us more about her novel

Hi Midge, tell us a little about yourself.

How long have you been writing and what got you started?

I’ve been writing since I was a young girl, though as I got older I switched from making up stories to telling real ones. I published my first article in a local newspaper when I was fifteen years old and continued in journalism until my mid-twenties, when I returned to making up stories. I published my first short story in 1999; my first book, a short story collection, Forgetting English, in 2009; and my first novel, My Last Continent, this year. 

Where did you get your inspiration for the story from – were you inspired by people, places or did you draw purely from your imagination?

As with most of my stories, My Last Continent was inspired by a specific moment, and it grew from there. The novel began as a short story that came to me when I was on an expedition in Antarctica and saw a passenger fall on the ice near a penguin colony. He was fine, fortunately, but seeing this happen reinforced the notion that, at the bottom of the world, you are at the mercy of the conditions and of the few people who are with you. This idea stuck with me and, combined with the concern of our shipboard naturalists about the larger cruise ships that visit the region, inspired me to write the novel, which tells the bigger story of what would happen if a cruise liner were to sink in the Southern Ocean, where conditions are unpredictable and rescuers can be several days away.

Your writing is very atmospheric – how do you ‘set the scene’ in your novels and how much research did you need to do in order to bring the story to life?

I love to travel and see new places, whether a new neighborhood or a new country. Often there’s something specific about a place that makes me want to write about it, whether it’s the otherworldly landscape of Antarctica or a wildly bright and noisy street in Tokyo. I find that people are very much a part of their environments, so for me exploring place is similar to exploring character. I love it when my research can be firsthand — the details are so much easier for me to convey this way — but if I can’t visit, or can’t return to a place I’ve seen, I use my photos, memories, and also read as much as I can to get a deeper understanding of a place. 

What do you consider to be your strongest points as a writer?

I love revision. Many writers dislike this part of the process, so I consider myself lucky to enjoy it! I’m at my best when I have a lot to work with on the page, and bringing what’s there to the next level is the most fun and rewarding part of the process for me.

In what skill (as a writer) would you most like to improve?

I would like to enjoy the blank page a bit more. This is my least favorite part of a writing project, how to begin with nothing but an idea. I’d love to be able to organize my thoughts better from the beginning. 

And finally - how can readers find out more about you and your writing?

Readers can visit me online and can also find me on Facebook 

Twitter @MidgeRaymond and Instagram 

Text Publishing
28th July
Amazon UK

About the book..  

It  is  only  at  the  end  of  the  world –  among  the  glacier  mountains  and  frigid  waters  of  Antarctica –where Deb Gardner and Keller Sullivan feel at home. For the few blissful weeks they spend each year studying  the  habits  of  penguins,  Deb  and  Keller  can  escape  the  frustrations  and  sorrows  of  their separate  lives  and  find  solace  in  each  other.  But  Antarctica,  like  their  fleeting  romance,  is  tenuous, imperiled by the world to the north. A new travel and research season has just begun, and Deb and Keller are ready to play tour guide to the  passengers  on  the  small expedition  ship  that  ferries  them  to  their  research  destination.  Except that this year, Keller fails to appear on board. Shortly into the trip, Deb’s ship receives an emergency signal from the Australis, a cruise liner that has hit desperate trouble in the ice-choked waters. And among the crew of the sinking ship is Keller...An  unforgettable  debut  love  story,  set  against  the  dramatic  landscape  of  Antarctica.  Lyrical, page-turning and emotionally intelligent, My Last Continent is a stunning novel of love and loss in one of the most remote places on earth.

And here are my thoughts about My Last Continent..

The glacier, cold waters of Antarctica are home to creatures who survive in bone biting cold. However, their isolation and remoteness does not render them safe from the elements, but rather puts them at the mercy of nature which is so often unpredictable and cruel. The inhospitable surroundings are not a natural environment for humans and yet, researcher, Deb Gardner feels perfectly at home at the edge of the world, where amongst her beloved Adélie Penguins, she has learned to cope with solitude. That is until she meets Keller Sullivan and falls in love… 

Adélie Penguins

Cleverly told in a series of flashbacks, the story moves forwards and backwards in time, which helps to give a clear understanding of both Deb and Keller as individuals, whilst at the same time allows the author to draw you into an isolated, frozen world. A world which is so believable, that you can, quite literally, feel the bone biting cold, and see the penguin colonies in your imagination, and before long you begin to worry about Deb and Keller and all the other people who exist in this inhospitable part of the world..

The writing is wonderfully lyrical with an otherworldly dreaminess to it, which is rather difficult to describe without giving anything away, and I don’t want to spoil anything. However, what I will say is that My Last Continent is one of the most emotionally affecting novels I have read in a long time. It’s so visually descriptive that, even though I will never, in my wildest dreams, travel to Antarctica, I now feel that I have just survived a journey where I stepped ashore on Petermann Island, slept on a bunk at McMurdo Station, experienced fifteen foot sea swells aboard the M/S Cormorant and listened in gentle awe to the purrs and squawks of groups of penguins. 

Everything about the story feels so beautifully realistic that it’s almost like being immersed in a travelogue, with the added benefit of making an emotional connection to both the characters and the scenery. I am sure like me, you will read through to the end with a real sense of affinity, to the people, the landscape and more importantly to the penguins, especially Admiral Byrd.

My Last Continent is a very different love story, it’s honest, believable and so beautifully written that it will break your heart into a million pieces.

Best Read With..Southern fried tofu with crinkly fries and a bottle of ice cold beer

About the Author

Midge  Raymond  is  an  award-winning  short-story  writer  who  worked  in  publishing  in  New  York before  moving  to  Boston,  where  she  taught  creative  writing.  She has published two books for writers, Everyday Writing and Everyday Book Marketing. Midge lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press. My Last Continent is her first novel.

Twitter @MidgeRaymond



Huge thanks to the author for answering my questions so thoughtfully and for spending time with us today and also to Alice at FMcM Associates for my invitation to be part of this Blog Tour.

Blog Tour runs between 21st July- 27th July 2016

Do visit the other stops for more interesting content about

My Last Continent 

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