AUTHORS ALERT Two local writers set the scene for their upcoming releases. B Y T O D D L I H O U | I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y K Y L E B E A U D E T T E
PLOT T WIST
When she was 10 years old, Melissa Yuan-Innes’ parents decided to pursue their dream of seeing the world, and uprooted the family to move to Europe. At the time, Melissa had a tight circle of friends, a routine, and a strong desire to stay in Canada. By the time she returned to her homeland a few years later—where she found everything to be different from how she had remembered it—, she had come to hate travel. But things had a funny way of coming around for this Ottawa-born physician.
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Who was Albertine Lapensée? Hockey fans will tell you she was the first female superstar in a sport where fans live and breathe with each pass of the puck. But historians, like Cornwall author Thom Racine, suggest there’s even more to the story. As it turns out, Albertine also lived as Albert.
the Cornwall Victorias. During the First World War, she played against teams from Ottawa, and member teams of the Eastern Women’s Hockey League of Montreal. She earned the nickname the ‘Miracle Maid’, but her skill was so impressive that it led to cruel speculation about her sex.
After her playing days were over, Albertine disappeared and her reputation as a hockey phenom faded from the limelight.
Thom is known locally as a hockey fanatic, a sports announcer, and an accomplished author. Through his research, he has uncovered a mystery that goes back to the turn of the century when Albertine scored dozens of goals for
In his third book—to be released before year’s end and available at select locations in Cornwall—, Thom will argue that Albertine was born intersex, an individual born with complete or partial reproductive organs of both sexes.
The book, says Thom, is a testimony to the incredible athleticism of the ‘Miracle Maid’, the mystery that surrounds hers, and the issues that still resonate in the sports world today. As Thom says,“that’s a hell of a story.”
Yuan-Innes now works as a physician at Glengarry Memorial Hospital in Alexandria and also writes medical thriller fiction under her pen name Melissa Yi. After recently signing a five-book contract with NARAT, a leading organization in worldwide adventure travel, Melissa has come full circle. She has been tasked with creating novels set in exotic locations around the world.
people and get to know their history, I find that more interesting. I perk up.”
“Now I’m more interested in exploring and meeting new people and learning about new cultures,” she said. “If I can chat with
The writer-physician visited the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador in February 2019 to kick off research for her new series. Four more international trips, as part of the new book deal, are planned by the end of 2020. And if that isn’t enough, on top of being a mother and a doctor, Yuan-Innes is currently writing a seventh thriller from her Glengarry home, due out in December 2019.
Thom’s tale will recount how, in the 1930s, Albertine returned to the area as Albert, married to a woman and with a daughter.
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