She's Baa-aa-ck

Can't believe it's been so long! Doesn't matter, I'm back. The last four years have been difficult but interesting. Much of the time was spent battling colon cancer, including four surgeries, two bouts of chemo and one of radiation. As of now, I'm cancer free, thanks to the excellent and dedicated staff at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, including my surgeon, Dr. Stephen Kelly, and my oncologist, Dr. Alvarado Figueredo. Am dealing with some nerve damage to my feet and walk with a cane as a result. While this means I'm somewhat slower than I used to me, there is an up side -- you'd be amazed what you can do with a cane. More about that in some future post, but for now, let me just say the cane is lovely -- an old-fashioned-looking wooden one, sent to me from England by my sister Sandra. And it has a name, Lucy, thanks to my younger granddaughter.

The cancer confined me to home for much of the past three years, so I missed a lot of the War of 1812 bicentennial celebrations. But I kept writing. I'm still obsessed with the period and am just putting the final touches on the first of a projected six-book mystery series set at that time. It's called Colonel Nichol and the Murdered Maiden, with the title character loosely based on a historic figure. Robert Nichol was Quartermaster-General of Militia for Upper Canada during the war, a position for which he was uniquely qualified because of his skills. Those skills just happen to fit nicely into the kind of work a detective does, and so it seemed natural to make him the star of a mystery series.

 The other main character is Wallace, Nichol's half-black servant, who is also the narrator. I have no idea where Wallace came from, but he's a fascinating individual. More about him in a future post.