Question #4. Which of your books are you personally most proud of, and why?   Works out to be the same as asking about your having a favorite child: the one I’m dealing with right at the time is my favorite. I’m in the process of recording “The Making of Jake McTavish” for an audio version and I’m constantly coming to some phrase I’ve forgotten I used that I feel is “cute” or an “interesting mechanism” to develop some reaction in or from the reader. I’ve been giving away recordings of my first published story, “The Great Liquor War” which I’ve always thought could have been a much longer story with a lot more historical information. However, in the process of checking the recording for things like volume, continuity and understanding, I was surprised by how well the story works to not only tell of the working lives of the time but some of the action around a large construction project. Upper Fort Gary in 1879 --- it'll make sense ina minute The fourth story in “Peop...

Do you remember any history? The pictures that will appear with this posting apart from representing transportation in various eras, have another connection with the subject. Any idea what that connection is? I’ll explain later.                                                                        A "Brake" --- yesterdays pick-up truck  A buggy If you made it through school, you did read some history. Did you remember any of it? Did you find all those facts and dates boring? Have you ever made a mistake and realized, “I should have known that wouldn’t work”? I believe that is part of the answer to the third question about writing.  Question #3. How do you balance historical accuracy with creating an engaging story? To my mind this question is answered within it...

    Bear Flats west of the Alaska Highway on the road to Hudson's Hope sometime in the 1990s. No, it has nothing to do with the question and answer just a picture of great country. Are you writing for your Health, the Money or to make a living? Question #2.  Was there ever a moment when you seriously considered giving up writing? If so, what kept you going? There have been many of those moments, particularly when I was still working a “day job.”  “I just don’t have time right now,” which may have been true but without the catharses (or whatever else you want to call it) of creating, your personality changes, sometimes becoming someone you don’t like.  Sorry, you have to haul that person around with you, so you better do something about your attitude. Better write a story, that’ll help. Perhaps I wrote something, went back to look at it a week later and decided it was trash and I have no business being involved in writing. Perhaps, but what kind of a mood was I i...

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...