Carol Matthews' debut collection of fiction, Incidental Music, consists of seven linked stories about several couples, mainly Tannis and her husband Stephen. Before she wed, Tannis's father had told her "There has to be give and take in a marriage. You'll find the lasting value of a marriage appears not at the beginning but later, towards the end. It is a journey, not a destination."; The couple go on to cope with aging and abandonment, buoyed by the consolations of maturity and a lasting union. Music also connects the lives of Matthews' characters.

Born in Vancouver, Carol Matthews was an instructor and dean at Malaspina University-College, where she has continued as an Honorary Research Associate. Her first book, The First Three Years of a Grandmother's Life (Ryerson, 2006), is a collection of her quarterly columns from Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, written from her perspective as a grandmother, and self-illustrated. She lives on Protection Island, along with her husband, Mike, and Victor, their "poet dog."; 978-088982-234-4

[BCBW 2008]