Happy New Year!
Greetings from the Far North, where we’ve had so much cold and snow the past couple of weeks that the polar bears have wandered over! Okay, not true. Back in November, my husband and I took the trip of a lifetime with my sister and brother-in-law to Churchill, Manitoba, Polar Bear Capital of the World. Our excursion was one day only, leaving from the Calgary airport about 6:15 am and returning the same night at about 11:15 pm. Super duper long day, but so worth it! We saw 31 polar bears in the wild from the safety of a tundra buggy (basically a huge enclosed ATV seating about 40 people).
We saw a pair of bears tussling like overgrown puppies just meters from the tundra buggy. Here’s one of my better shots.
If you’re a winner, you should have received an email from the author in charge of the giveaway. If not, please email us at: prizes at inspyromance dot com.
Tabitha Bouldin’s winner is Crystal Stewart!
Merrillee Whren’s winner is Bonnie Heringer!
Congratulations!
Specials this Week
Toni Shiloh’s The Trouble with Love is free through January 2.
Reader Gathering
Did you know Inspy Romance hosts a Christian Romance Reader Gathering group on Facebook? Come on over… but don’t forget to answer the questions for admittance!
StoryChats @ InspyRomance
Story Chats releases an all-new episode every Friday. This week on Episode 103, Elizabeth, Valerie, and Narelle talked about CCR set in Florida (kind of the opposite of polar bear country…) You won’t want to miss it!
Listen to our fun show on your favorite podcasting app, through the player on our podcast tab, or watch us on YouTube! Wherever you listen or watch, please be sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
This boar was easily the biggest bear we saw that day. He’d had a meal of a seal kill and was having a great nap, but he needed a good yoga stretch in the middle of it!
Last Week on Inspy Romance
On Monday, Teresa Tysinger mused on a new year, new TBR pile.
On Tuesday, Merrillee Whren announced the end.
On Wednesday, Valerie Comer invited everyone to get so cozy.
On Thursday, Carolyn Miller declared survey time for romance readers.
On Friday, Jaycee Weaver offered a NY resolution to read more romance… and #giveaway
On Saturday, Liwen Y Ho issued a look back at 2022
Next Week on Inspy Romance
Monday: Tabitha Bouldin
Tuesday: Laurie Larsen
Wednesday: Tara Grace Ericson
Thursday: Heather Gray
Friday: Narelle Atkins
Saturday: Toni Shiloh
New Releases
December 2022
Blind Date with the Hero by Tara Grace Ericson
Roadtrip for Two (Roadtrip Romance 2) by Amy R Anguish
Refining Josie (Independence Islands 30) by Carolyn Miller
A Sea Glass Christmas (Sea Glass Inn 5) by Julie Carobini
This bear wandered right beneath the back deck of our tundra buggy. He was so close I could have poked my finger through the grate and touched him. I didn’t. But look at those FEET!
A complete list of Inspy Romance books by our authors is always available on our BOOKS tab. Find our audiobooks and our thank-you gifts for newsletter subscribers there as well!
Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
May 2023 be a blessed year for all the contributing authors!
Happy New Year Valerie and to ALL Inspy Romance authors and readers. WOW! What a great experience to see Polar Bears up close. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes.
Happy New Year!! Love the pics of the bears!!! Something else to add to my bucket list!!
Happy New Year to you also. So cool with the Polar Bear excursion. Thanks for sharing a few pictures. I look forward to what 2023 has in many areas of life
And for all our readers!
Happy New Year, Renate!!!
Happy New Year! This wasn’t even ON my bucket list until fall of 2021, since I didn’t know trips like this existed! But it was a good one for sure.
Happy New Year! It was a very long, FUN day!!
Amazing pictures, you must have been so close to the ears!
A very Happy New Year to you and all the authors and my fellow readers here.
We were VERY close to some of them! Within touching distance of one, and across-the-room distance of several others. Happy New Year!
Your trip sounds fantastic. Wishing you and all the fabulous authors (and families) at Inspy Romance a very happy, healthy, and blessed 2023. Thank you all for your clean, faith-filled reads.
Love the polar bear photos! Happy New Year!!
Thank you, and Happy New Year!
Thank you, you’re welcome, and happy new year!
Happy New Year!
Backatcha!
Wow! Fabulous pictures. Thank you so much for sharing. Happy New Year. God bless you.
Pictures are incredible. What an amazing experience. Happy New Year
Thank you, and happy new year!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed the photos :) Happy New Year
I am very late. When I first heard you say Churchill I was reminded of a couple of blog posts on a different site by Laurie Wood who used this location as a backdrop for her suspense books. She also had some photos of the polar bears.
My niece use to love all things Polar bears and the photos also remind me of her. I do love the photos and seeing them from a distance would be a great thing to do. With my luck it would be like me trying to see a bear when I was in Canada. My friend saw a couple while I was hiking to the Nairne Falls, They always have one on the outskirts of Squamish but not the day I was on the bus. (The driver was going to point it out to me when we went by but no it was a no show).
Happy New Year
Seeing polar bears is “almost” guaranteed on these tours. They only run the tours for about a month in the fall when the bears are congregating on the shores waiting for ice to form on Hudson Bay. Then the bears spend the winter out on the ice eating seals! It’s not an actual guarantee (no money back if bears fail to show) but it’s pretty rare for a tour group to not see any. We just about met their record day, though, with 31 sightings of verified unique bears!