Who am I?

I'm a child of the Saskatchewan prairies.   I remember as a child taking a picnic lunch, holding my mother's hand and hiking into the prairie, listening to the meadow larks and trying to catch rabbits.  There's nothing like the night sky from a prairie field, pitch black all around you and then you look up to the brightly lit map overhead and sometimes the awesome display of the northern lights.  I always say I hate the cold but you know, I love the fact that the blanket of snow reflects light and holds back the night.    Everyone believes the prairies are flat but even in the South where the prairies are at their flattest there's the Qu'Appelle valley and miles of interconnecting lakes and hills.  You haven't lived until you've tobogganed down a valley hill. 

How did the writing begin? 

At a year old I started talking and the story goes, I wouldn't shut up.  I think I may have been gently nudged toward paper and pen just to get silence in the house.  It's an unproven theory that makes a good story.  What I remember is my writing beginning with a rather ordinary fascination with Nancy Drew and a mystery.  

The Mystery of the Screeching Garage 

I was eleven years old and walking to school with my friend.  Something was screeching behind the steel door of a local garage and we were determined to find out what.  Our young minds were sure that someone was being tortured and in danger of being killed.  So with an elaborate distraction plan in place that involved me as decoy talking to the owner, my girlfriend entered the yard and furtively peered in the garage window.  Imagine our surprise to discover that in the garage was an owl.  So much for the death and mayham theory.  Instead we learned that the owl was being rehabilitated and scheduled for release.  And yes, we followed up and yes, the owl was released.  That began a fascination with mystery writing, a short lived career that ended with Nancy Drew but the writing carried on.  So, here we are today at the beginning of an adventure, hoping there'll be many more to follow and that you'll keep me company along the way.