Local author inspired by unusual news

Strange real-life news stories sparked the idea behind the latest novel by Strathcona County author Mandy Eve-Barnett, who says fiction allowed her to explore how people respond when their lives are pushed to the limit.Eve-Barnett said she discovered three unusual news stories while browsing the internet one evening and was struck by a common thread.“What connected them was their sheer strangeness,” she said. “Each was the kind of event that, if it appeared in a work of fictio