DJ Atkinson
History with a heartbeat. Mystery with a memory. Prose that lingers.
Read my latest Exerpt - The Island Mist
Long Shot
(Finished Editing)
Raised on a Saskatchewan reserve, Thomas Avery—son of the Indian Agent—grew up alongside Cree boys who taught him to track, to listen, and to shoot. When war comes, he carries those lessons to the trenches of Europe, where silence becomes survival and mercy takes aim through a rifle’s scope. In the shattered fields of Passchendaele, he meets Francis Pegahmagabow, a legendary Indigenous sniper whose calm courage forces Thomas to face what the war—and his own history—have made of him. Long Shot is a story of friendship, identity, and the long echo of conscience in a world that’s forgotten how to listen.
The Committee
(In Beta Reading & Editing)
A sane family moves to a small island near Nanaimo expecting peace, ocean air, and maybe a few friendly neighbours. Instead, they collide with a community run on committees, “pilot programs,” and rituals so polite they feel vaguely threatening. When a purple Princess Diana Beanie Baby becomes a local “artifact,” rumours spread, clipboards appear, and the island’s quiet absurdity turns into full theatre. Dark, dry, and sharply funny, The Committee is a satire about bureaucracy, belonging, and the strange comfort of laughing when life gets weird—because it always does.
Keg River
(Currently Writing)
The sequel follows Mary Percy Jackson after her marriage to Frank Jackson in March 1931, as she leaves the life and official government post she built in Battle River and moves north into the harsher isolation of Keg River. The story spans roughly 1930–1935 and becomes less about “arriving” in the North and more about building a life there — marriage, medicine, motherhood, community, sacrifice, and belonging. A lot of the emotional power was created from the shift in Mary herself. In Battle River Prairie, she is still becoming who she is. In Keg River, she begins carrying the weight of responsibility — not only as a doctor, but as a wife, stepmother, mother, and cornerstone of an isolated region.
The Quartermaster’s Ledger
(Currently Writing)
After the war, Eddie Hale discovers that nothing truly ends—especially not the business of war. In abandoned depots and altered ledgers, rifles marked for destruction begin to move again, and Eddie carves out his own way of profiting from what goes uncounted. What begins as an opportunity becomes something far larger: a hidden system already in motion, more organized, more protected, and reaching higher than he imagined. As Eddie refines his operation, he draws the attention of men who don’t steal—they oversee. Officers, officials, and titled figures who profit without touching the work. As pressure builds, Eddie begins to ask the only question that matters: if he took it all, who would stop him?
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I am always eager to connect with readers and fellow writers. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or requests for events. Your feedback is invaluable to me!