Hello world  :)
The follow up to Within This Darkness, in the Douro-Zamość trilogy, is now in the production phase and will be ready soon. I hope (fingers crossed) to have copies by mid or late April.
I am planning a giveaway, but more on that below.

The title comes from a line in the book Imperium, by Ryszard Kapuściński.
Describing a moment when he was a child, in Poland after the Russian invasion at the beginning of WWII, Kapuściński gives this description of a group of hungry children waiting all night for a food shop to open in the morning:
The cold pierced through to the bone, cruel, crackling. Hands and feet went numb. To save ourselves, to last the night, we stood in line huddled tightly together, one close upon the other. Despite the chain in which we locked fiercely and desperately together, all remaining warmth was escaping. The snow was burying us more and more, blanketing us with a white, soft sheepskin.
There are many moments of cold and snow in All Remaining Warmth Was Escaping, and many moments of needing to "save oneself," and I loved this line for the title of the new book.

While Within This Darkness did have an alternate timeline, dating back to WWI and WWII, the new book has a much more significant timeline which follows Eva Obara in southeastern Poland during WWII. It also has another WWII timeline which follows members of the Kutzer family, Eva's enemies, as they flee Breslau, Germany, at the very end of the war.

The book blurb is:
In 2017, after being lost in time for over a century, fifteen-year-old Agata Obara searches for her sister, Dorota, who vanished into the devastation of south-eastern Poland during the Second World War. But the path to Dorota is bound to the secret history of another sister, Eva, and her desperate war against the magical Kutzer family – a war that leads to young Manfred Kutzer’s death march out of Breslau in winter 1945. As history and magic and generations bleed together, Agata’s cousin Jeremy struggles with his own awakening gifts, haunted by the feeling that some secrets are safer, if they are allowed to sleep undisturbed in the darkness.

The contest!
I will mail a paperback, print copy, to 10 people. And as some of you know, I have no hesitations in mailing books internationally - so you can be anywhere, geographically, to be a winner.

How to enter!
First, keep in mind that I will eventually need your physical postal mailing address, and your phone number (Canada Post always asks for the recipient's phone number now).
Otherwise, enter via this google form.
In April I will use the wheel of names spinner to choose the winners.

I might add that the new book will make very little sense if you haven't already read Within This Darkness... so if you're planning to enter this contest, please also consider getting your hands on book one of the series.

Best wishes and be well everyone :)

Happy late November everyone.
I have still been delaying self-publishing book two of the Douro-Zamość trilogy, the follow up to Within This Darkness (which currently sits at a 4.74 rating on Goodreads). I've been querying agents and some publishers, wondering if anyone would take the full trilogy and publish it under their imprint. But also, as I have moseyed my way back and forth to work through the autumn (and as some of you know, I commute by bicycle and by foot and bus... so you get a lot of meditative and contemplative time when you commute the way I do), I've had some good ideas for book two. So the book I thought was finished, is now getting more emotional depth, and feels more deeply connected, to what began in Within This Darkness.

And speaking of Within This Darkness, I had a whim this week, and decided to play around with videos for social media.  I'd be curious to know what you think of this one  :)

Briar, who promotes authors in general, but tries to work with Canadian and indie authors in particular, left a review on Goodreads of Within This Darkness a few months ago. And while I saw her somewhat abridged review on Goodreads, I missed her much lengthier review on her website, for which I am very grateful.  Thank you so much Briar.
(an excerpt from Briar's review)
Within This Darkness is a beautifully written novel that blends history, magic, and deep emotional storytelling. Tomasini does an excellent job of creating a story that is both engaging and thought-provoking. The characters, particularly Jeremy, are well-developed, and the way their personal struggles are woven into the larger narrative makes for a compelling read. The dual timelines and the magical elements keep the plot moving at a steady pace, and the final chapters leave you eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

This book is an excellent choice for fans of historical fiction, fantasy, and young adult literature. The mix of magic, family dynamics, and personal growth is irresistible, and the way Tomasini handles grief and loss is both sensitive and realistic. And, now I want all the secrets because I really liked meeting these characters and need more of them ASAP. That’s not too much to ask… right?

Five out of five stars.

and two peaceful and calm photos from recent romps along Lake Couchiching.
Best wishes and be well everyone.

I'll admit to a bit of disappointment, but Within This Darkness did not advance from Whistler's shortlist of six books, to their finalist list, of three books. Woe is me. But, best wishes and good luck to the folks on that finalist list.
Otherwise, reviews came in over the last little while from Booklife (affiliated with Publisher's Weekly and their independent book awards), and from Reedsy. 
I'm very flattered by the review from Kathryn B, of Reedsy, which includes:
I was struck by how well Tomasini dissects and presents the timelessness of grief, the flickers of hope we hold to, and then the acceptance of what is. The topics of both shared and individual grief are beautifully handled.
Presented through various voices, Within This Darkness is a page-turner your juvenile readers should not miss. I, for one, am anxiously awaiting Tomasini's next book!
Thank you Kathryn!  :)

Otherwise, my family had a few brief days on the Gatineau River in Quebec recently, and it was beyond lovely. The photos below are from kayaking on the Gatineau River in July 2025.
If you press 'play' on the two videos, turn the volume up loud and listen to the silence.   :)

Best wishes everyone.

After releasing Within This Darkness in February, I began to keep my eyes open for contests where the book might do well, and I entered Within in several contests throughout spring 2025.
And one date I marked on my calendar was June 3 - which was when the Whistler Independent Book Awards were to announce their shortlist. And I'm happy (ecstatic) to point out the following:

Yay!  :)
Honestly, I'm truly thrilled about this. Thank you so much to the folks at WIBA!
Whistler lumps young adult fiction in with general (adult) fiction  - so presumably it is a fairly big category with lots of entries, so I am sincerely thrilled to have made the fiction shortlist.
The book is doing fairly well on Goodreads, and one review that caught my eye recently was one which seemed to recognize the "Canadian landscape" feeling that I hoped would be a deep presence in Within This Darkness, with echoes of the old Farley Mowat young adult classics. 
This is part of Emily's review on May 2, 2025, on Goodreads:
And then there is the setting—a deeply Canadian novel that embraces its landscape, its isolation, its quiet, lingering histories. The forests aren’t just a backdrop; they breathe life into the story, shaping its tension and atmosphere with a raw, untamed energy. Tomasini writes with a reverence for the land, his prose infused with the spirit of old stories passed down through time. 

Thank you kindly, Emily :)

And to finish, here is a photo of my local lake at sunrise, on May 28, 2025:

Just before wildfire smoke became more prevalent in the sky, and morning sunrises, on theoretically "clear" mornings, began to look more like this one below (taken on June 3, 2025).  Good luck to everyone in Saskatchewan and Manitoba right now.  :(

I am very pleased to announce that Within This Darkness is out!

The cover artwork was done by Mark Resmer, and the front cover is a work by Mark titled "Waiting", which was done on wood board with oil paint and spray paint. I hope that readers get a "crafted by hand with love" feeling about both the cover and the book itself, because in both cases it is very true.
Within This Darkness is here on Goodreads, and if you're in Canada, there is a March 2025 giveaway contest for the book:

I'm still unsure how to describe this book to someone, which was also a problem with Close Your Eyes. In my own head though, this is how I think of Within This Darkness:
- young adult, with the sweet spot probably being within a 13 to 15 year old range.
- has magic, but it's not fantasy.
- has an "outdoor adventure" feeling to it, like one of the old Farley Mowat classics like Lost in the Barrens.
- Also has a thoughtful side, especially in Jeremy's feelings of grief and loss, that probably stem from my appreciation for books/stories like The Dead by James Joyce; The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, and Butcher's Crossing by John Edward Williams.
- Has a historical timeline that dates back to World War I and World War II, and this historical timeline becomes more important in books two and three of the trilogy.

Within This Darkness is book one of the Douro-Zamość trilogy.
Douro is the fictional town in Ontario, Canada, where most of the story happens, and Zamość is a town in south-eastern Poland where much of the historical action happens.
Book two of the trilogy will be out in 2025.