When I saw the Daily Prompt on WordPress this morning: “What’s a common misconception people have about happiness?”, I couldn’t help but think about a post I made back in 2017. I’m sharing it again because it addresses that question. And with the passage of time, my own opinion has changed somewhat, so I have made a few small updates.
“It doesn’t matter who we are, what we are doing and what our station in life is, we all have the ability to contribute to something beyond ourselves and (to find) purpose in doing so.” – Emily Esfahani Smith, author ofThe Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters.
According to Smith’s research, it isn’t happiness that makes life worth living – it is meaning. It is rising each day with a purpose. As simple and as uncomplicated as that sounds, I wonder how many of us have been chasing the wrong thing.
Is developing a “meaning mindset” the only true answer to achieving fulfillment?
Living on auto-pilot, or chasing mostly what brings you pleasure, or working long and crazy hours, driving yourself to exhaustion to conform to someone else’s definition of success – do any of these pursuits sound like happiness to you?
Or have you already figured this out?
Update: Our purpose, or anything that fulfills us, can change with time; from education to self-expression, from career and to parenthood and beyond. The main thing is, hopefully, whatever endeavour, it gives a measure of satisfaction and meaning.
I think we are all guilty of “living on autopilot” from time to time. Life and its many challenges have a tendency to do that to you. I do believe in the randomness of life, and yet also believe in self-actualization which helps give you a sense of direction, to give those experiences more meaning than ever.
Something has to generate that singular feeling of being alive in a positive way. What will make me happy? But “happiness” is far too vague a goal to me. What passion or purpose will make me feel more alive?
Some of us may take a little longer to figure out what gives meaning to our days. Sometimes, the smallest things can give meaning, and matter a great deal to someone else. A life with purpose would also take us outside ourselves so that we can’t help but take others into account. At least that is my perception of what Smith’s book is telling us.
My latest novel in e-book format is only 99¢ for all of June!
“An intriguing view of the future … I was both thrilled and, at times, appalled with its methods of survival … I love novels that make you think.” – Marie Ann Bailey
“… A love story of the land, of its people, of friendships and of justice.” – Carol Balawyder
“A timely book – a dystopian future triggered by runaway global warming.” – Atlanta Reader
“Fascinating exploration of a peaceful matriarchal society in a deteriorating & violent world. The book is engaging and suspenseful and hard to put down.” – Luanne Castle
“… An ambitious book that delivers on all fronts … great world-building … and dimensional characters who are easy to root for. I loved the feminist bent as well, along with the Eastern Canadian setting. All in all a great read!” – Carrie
“Two hundred years in the future, society and the environment has collapsed. The story follows the life of Kat, an 18-year-old girl who lives in a matriarchal society in Newfoundland … I found the story captivating and compelling.” – Marie
“Can women rule better than men? Highly recommended to readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic thrillers that raise interesting questions about human nature, power, and control.” – D.W. Peach
“The story balances world-building with real human stakes, and the final choices Kat faces are both heartbreaking and believable.” – Elsie
“A very thought-provoking book.” – Lulu
“A broken lawless world or one ruled by women that seems to work … I settled into my reading chair for what prior experience with this author told me would be a well spun tale.” – Jacqui Murray
*Available on Amazon Kindle, Indigo Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, and wherever fine books are sold.
This is Part Two of the Calmer Girls series setting in pictures.
Calmer Secrets takes place in Newfoundland in 1997-98, four years later than the first book. (The Calmer Girls Book One setting pictorial can be seen here.)
First, let’s take a look at Samantha’s school in Corner Brook, Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus on the west coast of the province. Samantha is enrolled in the Visual Arts program there.
Art Studio Photography LabWhen Samantha returns to St. John’s during a school break, she goes downtown with Veronica and her friends. In one of the George Street clubs, she sees cover band, Cold Plate, and is reunited with her high school friend Kalen there.
George Street, lined with pubs, in downtown St. John’s George Street x 2 x 3: The annual George Street Festival entertainment always draws huge crowds.
Later in the story, tragedy strikes.
The youngest character in the book is brought to the Janeway Children’s Hospital,
the one that existed at that time.
A new facility was built a couple of years later.
The Old Janeway Hospital
The New Janeway, built in 2001The following photos depict Samantha and Ben’s boat tour experience out of St. John’s Harbour.
The Battery at the foot of Signal Hill Samantha takes pictures of an iceberg like this… …and puffins!Check out this real boat tour short video:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A new 5-Star review was published today for The Women of Wild Cove on Amazon & Goodreads, by Luanne Castle, Author. That makes 21 ratings and 12 reviews on Goodreads with an average of 4.24 out of 5, and 10 global ratings and 6 reviews on Amazon.com with an average of 4.4 out of 5.
The Women of Wild Cove by Jennifer Kelland Perry
“Jennifer Kelland Perry’s latest novel, The Women of Wild Cove, imagines a utopian community set within a dystopian world. This matriarchal village, one of several in the region, is self-sustaining (with bartering between villages) and peaceful. The book is engaging and suspenseful and hard to put down.
What fascinated me even more than the action of the plot and the characterization is to see how the community functions. These villages are a response to a world ruined by the greed and violence of a male-dominated society. As long as the community is not disturbed by the outside world, the peace holds-and the male peons and consorts seem content with their positions. But what happens when there is an outside threat? And the storyline begs other questions as well. For instance, is the tradeoff to get peace at the expense of the autonomy of the men? As a retired English lecturer, I predict that this novel would generate thoughtful and spirited class discussions.
Perry’s novel is in the best traditions of dystopian and utopian novels; however, she has interjected a thread woven throughout. The community collects the stories of women who have written down what happened to them, both in the “old” world and in their new world. Much of the stories are about the violence and abuse men perpetuated on women, making a strong case for this matriarchal society.”
Read from: Mar 25, 2026 – Mar 28, 2026
Shelved as: read, sci-fi, fiction
The e-book is 99¢ but only until the end of March! *Available on Kindle, Indigo Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple Books, and others.
Ten years ago today, my first novel Calmer Girls was published. I’m sharing a post from one year later, Calmer Girls Setting in Pictures, to give you an idea of how my birthplace of St. John’s, NL made for such a wonderful setting.
CALMER GIRLS SETTING IN PICTURES
Although Calmer Girls is a fictional tale, its Canadian setting certainly isn’t.
It was fun writing a pair of novels set in my birthplace of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and perhaps the following pictorial will better explain why it had inspired me. After all, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
All of these locations are featured in scenes throughout the first novel. Calmer Cove is not included as it is semi-fictional.
St. John’s Harbour
66 Thunderbird Convertible
Samantha and her sister took their first ride in Ben Swift’s T-bird to Signal Hill and along the harbourfront. Later, Samantha took pictures of a cruise ship in the Narrows.
View of Harbour from Signal Hill
Cabot Tower on Signal Hill – National Historic site
Where Ben Swift lives: Gower Street, in all its vibrant colours
x 2
Where Samantha, Veronica and their mother live: Military Road
x 2
Cape Spear. Sam, Ben and Kalen visit here. This is the oldest original lighthouse structure in the province.
x 2: Aerial view of Cape Spear – the most easterly point in all of North America
x 3: Cape Spear National Historic Site – new lighthouse Newfoundland, Canada
House similar to rich girl Crystal’s. She has a party one night where Ben loses his temper. (Canada House on Circular Road, Heritage Property)
St. John’s Regatta at Quidi Vidi Lake, where Samantha and Ben share their first kiss.
Bannerman Park, where Samantha and Ben get busted while kissing. Also where Ben loses it – again! – and punches his buddy Kalen in the face.
The War Memorial, where Ben finally confesses his depression to Samantha.
Planned Parenthood – NL Sexual Health Centre, where Veronica visits!
Thanks for visiting my hometown, which is, in my opinion,
one of the most vibrant and colourful places on earth.
Photo sources: NL Tourism, Government sites, Wikipedia, Google (public domain)
Come back next time for Part 2: Calmer Secrets Setting
Happy Monday, friends, followers and fellow bookworms! It’s March now as well, so after a particularly snowy winter here in Atlantic Canada, we are getting closer to our long-awaited Spring. Yes!
I have e-book news. My publisher, Running Wild Press, has designated March as Words of Women Month. You guessed it—my novel, The Women of Wild Cove, is featured, and is now on sale in ebook form for 99¢ for the entire month. *
*Available on Kindle, Indigo Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple Books, and others.
During a trip to St. John’s last weekend, Paul and I stopped by Coles Bookstore in the Avalon Mall. He had an Indigo gift card from his Christmas stocking that was burning a hole in his wallet, and I thought it would be a great idea to see, for the first time, my latest book on the shelf at an actual bricks and mortar establishment.
I wasn’t disappointed. There it was, in the local interest (Newfoundland and Labrador) section.
We left there and visited Chapters, the big box bookstore in the capital city.
Once again, I was pleased to see The Women of Wild Cove on the shelf, this time in the Fiction and Literature section.
At the suggestion of bookstore employee Megan, I happily signed all copies.
Megan told me they would be displayed as author-signed copies for more visibility.
So, townie friends, followers and fellow bookworms, there you have it. Last time I checked, there was only one of my novels left in stock at the Village Mall Coles location. You can get a copy at either of these locations, or at Indigo.ca, as well as Amazon. 📚
Hey, folks! WordPress informs me that I have an anniversary. As of yesterday, I have been blogging for fourteen years.
Truth be told—and as many of you know—I don’t blog as often as I used to, but I’ll try to keep posting for a few years yet. And maybe Gord and Lou Purry can do more guest posts to help out!
I have also reached my 2025 Reading Challenge as of yesterday, with fifty books read, all accounted for on Goodreads.
Have you taken a Reading Challenge this year? And bloggers: how long have you been blogging?
Hello, Friends & Followers! I’m sharing with you my favourite reviews for my latest novel today. These critiques come from Amazon and Goodreads.
D. W. Peach – 5 stars
Can women rule better than men?
The future looks bleak for most of humankind. Almost 200 years from now, climate change has devastated the world—destroying food sources, breaking down societal norms, and allowing disease to spread. One part of the world is managing better than most – the island of Newfoundland in Canada.
There, a matriarchal society dominates, relegating men (called peons) to manual labor or to roles as consorts for breeding purposes. Once a day, they’re fed a serum that tempers their masculine natures. Women are fully in charge, allowing men few rights, chemically controlling them, and expecting full compliance.
Katrina (Kat) is eighteen and grew up believing that men are reckless, violent, and the cause of the world’s collapse. Then she meets a “rogue,” a man who slipped onto the island, seeking a cure for his three-year-old son’s disease. She must decide whether to turn him in or defy her community and help him. Kat and Marc (the rogue) are the most nuanced characters with the richest personalities and emotional backstories. They share the POV.
The plot is straightforward, and the story moves at a clip with some slower moments to get to know the characters and the island society, which includes a complete dismantling of the family unit. What I found most interesting was the author’s attention to gender-based power structures, including the obvious role reversals. Women, for so long treated as second class citizens and victimized by men, are now the oppressors.
Perhaps out of necessity, the elders of Wild Cove also exercise rigid control over the community’s girls and women, including Kat, who are assigned tasks and career placements with little or no input. To address a rise in infant mortality, teens are coerced into breeding. The female elders seem to think this is all for the good of humankind’s survival, and I’m curious to see how this plays out as the series continues.
Highly recommended to readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic and dystopian thrillers that raise some interesting questions about human nature, power, and control.
Atlanta Reader – 4 stars
A timely book – a dystopian future triggered by runaway global warming
This take on how global warming could wipe out civilizations around the world is a bleak one that should make us try harder to save our precious planet. The novel focuses on a community in Newfoundland, in northern Canada, where there’s a ray of hope far from the equator. That’s where a matriarchal society is struggling to survive with the “help” of men who are kept as well-treated slaves for their labor and breeding services. It’s an interesting depiction of how even well-intentioned leaders can set up a government that tramples the rights of the many. Besides the oppressed male population, this also includes all the communally-raised girls who are told what they can and cannot do, with precious little room for personal choice. It’s a system ripe for revolution.
18-year-old Kat is something of a rebel who secretly helps Marcus, a “rogue” who arrives from farther inland, even though she’s been taught that men are evil. Will Kat risk her community’s welfare and go against lifelong anti-male indoctrination to help him? Will Marcus succeed in his urgent mission to find medicine to take back to his dying family? The story is told in an unhurried fashion so it takes a while to learn the answers. And the ending leaves open the possibility that the story could continue.
A novel for readers who enjoy dystopian fiction and the “what ifs” that hang like storm clouds over the increasing threat of runaway climate change.
Carrie – 5 stars Great read
This dystopian novel is an ambitious book that delivers on all fronts. I easily got lost in its pages. Great world-building, vivid descriptions, and dimensional characters who are easy to root for. I loved the feminist bent as well, along with the Eastern Canadian setting. All in all a great read!
Bruce – 5 stars Great read start to finish!
This author, J. Kelland Perry, has a style that makes you keep the pages turning and want to find out more of this world in the future. A story of a “What if” scenario that is filled with rich details of survival and growth by a matriarchal society on an isolated island. I would love to see this book turned into a movie.
Amelia – 5 stars
The Women of Wild Cove by Jennifer Kelland Perry is a striking and imaginative post collapse novel that redefines the dynamics of survival and power. Set on a matriarchal island off Newfoundland’s coast, the story fuses speculative world building with intimate emotional depth. Perry crafts a society led by women, sustained by cooperation and communal caregiving then boldly explores what happens when that balance begins to falter.
Through Kat’s journey, readers are drawn into a moral crossroads where compassion and conformity collide.
Her secret encounter with Marcus, a wounded outsider, forces her to question the ethics of her people’s rule and the boundaries of love, freedom, and sacrifice. The novel’s tension between idealism and control between nurturing and domination gives it rare philosophical resonance.
Perry’s prose captures both the serenity and volatility of her world, reflecting the beauty and fragility of a civilization rebuilt on principles of equality. The Women of Wild Cove is both a compelling survival tale and a reflective social allegory one that lingers as a meditation on what humanity must protect to endure.
Jennifer's Journal 