Why did you write that story? Because there isn’t enough bragging about this great country. The following isn’t Question #2 as I warned was coming, but it covers perhaps a half dozen questions I have been asked. But #2 WILL be along soon. Lake Ohara, British Columbia, Canada I believe that Canada is one of the best countries in the world. I believe that many of those operations, occurrences or pioneers that went into making it are in the top ten using any method of comparison and a few are unsurpassed on the globe.   The beauty of some areas of the country, such as the Rocky Mountains, their foothills, the Yukon, the Canadian Shield and the Maritime Provinces, in my view, cannot be outdone and is no more than equaled in other parts of the world. Aeriel view of Bear Flats West of Fort St. John BC, Peace River to the left and looking west taken in the 1990s Similarly, the development carried out and discoveries made in Canada in all fields of endeavor, from primary industry, thro...

Why Write?  Because it's not wrong! This saddle was made in Flatrock BC in the late 191? or early 1920s specifically for wile horse racing. It was revuilt in 1984 in Armstrong BC. I keep getting asked questions about writing in general and my writing in particular. In the next few posts, I’m going to try answering those questions. While I’m on the subject, don’t forget to check out GRIT, the arts magazine of Arts North East ( https://artsnortheast.org/ ) and if you have a short story or info about your other artistic endeavors, contact the Executive Director at ed@artsnortheast.org At sunrise (4:50 am) July 17,2018 I was preparing to unload Diesel Fuel on a lease about to be set up for fracking The first question is: . Looking back over your 30+ years as a novelist, what is the biggest lesson you wish you'd learned much earlier?   To answer that question fully I think I should set up some back-ground. Having been involved in sales a little, I know that I’m not good ...

Aspects of "Partners"   During the last few days I’ve been talking to people at the Dawson Creek Visitor’s Center about some of the history of Western Canada, or at least the parts that I’ve read and included in my novels. In this posting I’m simply pasting in the Author’s Note from my novel Partners. The locations either exist or did so at the time and some of the action is also historical. Author’s Note   Old Woman Lake is located in what is now south-central Saskatchewan. Aboriginal legend claims that a group of Assiniboine (or Cree or Blackfoot or Crow, depending on the story-teller) were surrounded here by a group of Blackfeet (or Cree or Crow, again depending on the narrator). An old woman in the group volunteered to keep the fires burning while the rest slipped away in the night. The end of the story also varies with the source; the surrounding or attacking group closes in at daylight resulting in the old woman being killed or adopted, or the camp site vacant wi...

  Let’s Try Democracy Again!   It is true that no positive trade can be negotiated with the fodder headed, self-centered fence post presently acting like he IS the neighboring country to the south rather than its destructive, crime ridden figure-head. It also appears that we will have to put up with that situation for the next 3 years since right thinking people with integrity are apparently also cowards. So that means we have 3 years to concentrate on the development of Canada and to extricate this greatest of nations from the embarrassment of our former prime minister (lack of capitals intentional), the destruction of Canadian values, and the continuing misdirection of the country by his replacement. It’s time to return to democracy, free speech, acceptance of progressive ideas and development of internal and external assets. No, despite repeated assurances from the Carney government, we have none of these but we do have a long list of things that need to be elimi...

Yes, We Could have known “History repeats itself?” “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” “Those who don’t study history are bound to repeat it.” And my favorite, this one from Pearl S Buck; “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” The way history was presented in school always upset me. Students were told how kings, prime ministers and presidents did this or that resulting in some type of follow-up months or years later. With very little research beyond teachers’ instructions, it was possible to discover that kings, prime ministers and presidents didn’t do much of anything that didn’t increase their “electability” or their treasury. Sometimes they were forced to do something outside those parameters by the common man whether they be called peons, serfs or merchants. Or because the common man uncovered what they were trying to hide. The problem with many – and I do mean many – historical records are that, as Winston Churchill ...

  From the Author’s Note For “The Great Liquor War”             There are some events related in the “The Great Liquor War” that are recorded parts of history. Canada’s Transcontinental Railway or Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, and the state of construction in 1884 is roughly as depicted. The last spike was driven at Craigellachie , November 7th, 1885 about two weeks before the end of the story related here.   It is also true that the section east of Farwell (present day Revelstoke) contained a steep section of track known as Big Hill. Many people were killed and many trains wrecked on this stretch before it was replaced by a system of tunnels in a figure eight pattern inside the mountain shortly after the turn of the century. Those tunnels were in turn replaced by shorter, straighter versions in the late 1980s.           The confiscation of liquor, the confrontation...