Elizabeth Pryce's books are for sale at:
- The Okanagan Bookseller (Penticton, BC)
- Penticton Museum
- Oliver Museum
- Oliver Archives (City Hall)
- directly from the author via telephone at (250) 497-8088
Vol. 1: Skaha Crossing
In this first part of an historical fiction trilogy, B.C.
historian Elizabeth Pryce celebrates the bonds of friendship and romance,
along with the hardships and achievements of her dynamic characters:
Two Way, the son of an Okanagan chief; and the self-reliant trapper,
Rayne McAllister.
The novel spans the first sixty years of the 1800s, bringing to
life the fur trade and frontier era of British Columbia history.
Pryce creates Skaha Crossing, a fictional rest stop
on the Hudson's Bay Fur Brigade Trail, linking the fur trade of the
north at Fort St. James with its southern inland capital at Spokane
House. Skaha Crossing becomes the first settler
community in the southern Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Pryce
has written a story rich in character and history, creating a strong,
peaceful bridge between two cultures and two eras of Canadian history.
The cover artwork was commissioned for Skaha Crossing and
painted by southern Okanagan artist Jill Leir Salter. It depicts
the Twin Falls at Okanagan Falls, BC as they existed prior to any
development in the area.
Vol. 2: Skaha
Skaha is the second volume in Elizabeth Pryce's
adventurous trilogy of historical fiction set in the Southern Okanagan
Valley of British Columbia. Skaha Crossing, a settlement built by
three generations of the McAllister family through the 19th century,
receives new life in the Llewellyns, a young, tenacious couple who
emigrate from Wales.
Arriving in Canada in 1887, Albert and Sydney Llewellyn attempt
to settle in rural Ontario, but the lure of adventure and gold takes
them west. Their journey is a chronicle of early settler life following
wagon routes travelled by hundreds of pioneers crossing the vast
Canadian prairie through the virtually impassable Rocky Mountains.
The Llewellyns land at Skaha Crossing, leading the settlement into
an era of sternwheelers and freighting, mining, ranching, orcharding
and the early development of the South Okanagan. The two families
struggle toward conflicting goals in both love and life. Two Way,
the wise Okanagan Indian who, with the first McAllister, built the
original settlement, continues to be a strong link to the settlement's
past and a sage witness to its future.
Vol. 3: Skaha Ranch
Readers of the Skaha series are set to be highly rewarded in Skaha
Ranch, the third and final volume in Elizabeth Pryce's trilogy. Set
in the southern Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, the series marks the lives
of an ambitious settler, an unyielding entrepreneur and the families that supported
their endeavours through the 19th and 20th centuries.
In Skaha Ranch, the future of the ranch is in questions
as Llewellyn's only son runs from both family and responsibility;
Thomas is not interested in taking the helm of a venture that brought
him misery in his childhood. There is some hope in the start of the
tourism industry in the valley, and the arrival of an unlikely character
lends promise of better days to come. Skaha Ranch is a coming
of age tale for both is characters and the valley in which the novel
is set. Pryce's genuine love for her home and community is reflected
in the dynamic adventures of the McAllister and Llewellyn families.
