The Watcher

Is it too soon to start thinking of another novel?

I've completed the second draft of my Dark Water manuscript but I've sent it to friends and family who will proofread the story. I'm hoping they give me honest feedback and can point out any holes in the story.

When I get that feedback, I'll make any necessary changes and then submit the final draft to a professional editor and a possible publisher. There is still a lot of work to go before we see Dark Water in print, if we see it at all.

I'm hoping it gets published. I like the characters of Inspector DS Erin Hayes, and I'd like to see them move forward in another story.

Last week, after running through my first full read of the completed manuscript, I had an idea for the next case. I've even come up with the title.

Image: Perplexity

The Watcher.

So far, there's not much to this story but that was exactly how I started with Dark Water. When I made the decision to write my first crime novel, I started with the victim and a location where she'd be found, and I built from there. At the start of my outline, I didn't even know who the killer was nor why the victim would end up floating in the Rideau River.

With The Watcher, I'm thinking about creating a serial killer who has targeted people in Ottawa's ByWard Market. There's also a minor detail that I briefly touched on in Dark Water that I'd like to continue in the sequel and expand upon.

I'm even thinking that the case won't be completely solved by the end of the story, with one antagonist getting away (and I'll save them for a third novel).

Wow, I'm really getting ahead of myself.

As I said when I finished the first draft of Dark Water, I was surprised at how quickly I was able to come up with the story, create the bare bones, and flesh out the details. I had a lot of fun writing the story and my own excitement spurred me on.

Now that I'm almost ready to start the final draft and have no major writing to do with it (unless it comes back from the editor with serious changes suggested), I want to keep the writing going. I want to see what Calloway and Hayes do next.

Here we go again... stay tuned.

More Changes

I know, I seem to be talking about nothing but my novel, lately, and with good cause. Ever since I lost my job, working on my crime story has been my new day job and I sit at the same desk over the same daytime hours as I did when I was working from home.

I just don't get paid to be here.

Putting in close to 40 hours each week writing Dark Water is what allowed me to finish the first draft in such a short period of time. And, unlike my old job, this book has given me a great deal of joy. I had a lot of fun putting the story together.

(I was really good at my old job but to say I had fun or that it gave me joy is a stretch. It paid the bills and allowed me to enjoy the rest of my life.)

I'm now at a point in the writing process where I've started reading my book and making corrections to the grammar, spelling, and other errors. In reading just the first two paragraphs of the prologue, I realized that I had left out something from the epilogue, and used that morning to add the new content. I then started from be beginning and read through the story.

By the end, I had cut some material, added new material, and corrected existing material. I also made notes of things that I needed to research more and made sure I had followed all of the clues that the detectives discovered.

And, after reading, I walked away from the book for the weekend.

As I wrote, a couple of days ago, I made some changes to one of the detectives, Erin Hayes. Using an advanced AI search engine, I was able to make her more believable, even if that meant she was knocked down in rank.

At the beginning of this week, I started reading Dark Water a second time, and by the second chapter, I decided to make a major structural change. And this change took me the entire day.

When I started writing the outline, I wanted to structure the book so that each chapter was an entire day, with the exception of the prologue, which spans two days (it's short), and the first and second chapters, which were one day but from the perspective of different people.

The problem with keeping one day per chapter was that the chapters became very long. Some were as many as 60 8.5 x 11 pages, which translated into 80 paperback pages or more. I used asterisks (*) to denote scene breaks, hoping they would make it easy on a reader, but I decided that I need to give up my one-chapter-per-day structure.

So I went through each chapter and broke it up where I thought the scene change warranted a new chapter. Some chapters are as long as 14 pages while a few are as short as one or two pages. After I restructured the book, I've ended up with 58 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue.

I'm hoping that it is now easier to read: I'm currently going through my first reading with this new structure so I hope I made the right decision.

When I demoted Erin Hayes, I made her a Detective Sergeant, which is still a fast track for someone her age, but I thought I'd need to create a backstory that explains her rise in the ranks. This involved me creating another crime story, which actually came pretty quickly, though I find the crime-fiction genre to be my calling (more on that, tomorrow).

Without giving too much away, Hayes is known as the Detective Constable who cracked the Jackpot Kidnappings case, which had reached international recognition. By the time she is promoted and transferred to the Ottawa Police Services, Mickey Calloway had heard of the Jackpot Kidnappings.

While I was brainstorming for Hayes' backstory, I took a look at the image that I had AI generate, a few months ago, of our two detectives. I had already generated a new image of Hayes, alone, which I used for my blog post about her demotion. It's perfect in its depiction of my "ridiculously beautiful" detective and I won't be generating any more.

The new Calloway (Perplexity)

But I've always thought that the AI image of Calloway was too 'Hollywood' in its portrayal of my lead male detective. Calloway is huge (two metres tall and broad) and has an imposing look about him, but he can be as gentle as he is tough.

I wanted to create a less-perfect image of him, so after attaching the old picture of Hayes and Calloway into Perplexity, I asked the AI tool to make him less 'TV-ready' and to give him a more human appearance.

The image gives him a softer, more rounded face, though I believe that when he wants to look intimidating, he can. The new image also has him appear like he would be a good dad, and that's how I've written Calloway.

So this picture is also a keeper.

Someone asked me, in an earlier Comments section, if I would not use a human graphics artist for my book cover, and they are right. When Dark Water is eventually published, I will seek out a graphic designer (or the publishing company will).

When I had Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary published, the publishers offered a few cover designs from which I could choose. I assumed they had a few stock covers and suggested the most suitable ones for me to inspect. I chose the cover it ended up getting.

I've created these AI images to use as ideas for a cover, and I would show them to the graphics designer as a template. In the meantime, I've created them to use in my blog posts. They were never intended as a final book cover.

I continue to go through the manuscript and make changes as needed. I'm still several weeks away from submitting it to an editor, so there's lots of work ahead of me.

I hope you're not bothered by me sharing my thought process and status of the book. In fact, I hope that I'm building anticipation, so that when Dark Water is finally published, you'll be interested enough to want to buy a copy.

Happy Thursday!

A Demotion

Now that the first draft of Dark Water is done, I've started looking at the story and the characters with a more critical eye. I want my eventual readers to believe that the story is plausible.

For the first draft, I did a lot of Googling and asked ChatGPT a lot of questions. In roundabout ways, without sharing excerpts of scenes, I would describe scenarios that reflected the content of the story and ask the AI tool if what I described was realistic.

More times than not, Chat GPT would chime in with a positive assessment of that scenario, to the extent that I thought it was a yes-bot. Its responses would be encouraging, starting with a "that's a great idea and really develops your (character/plot) well."

If there was something that didn't go well, the AI tool would still give me encouragement but would offer a suggestion that would "tweak" my scenario. Never once did it tell me that I was wrong or unrealistic.

Now that I'm trying a new search engine, Perplexity, I'm being given a dose of reality.

I've been told that I'm not being realistic on one important piece of my story and that my audience would have a rough time believing it, especially if the reader knows anything about the police.

As you might know from following my posts about Dark Water, the two main detectives in the story are Inspector Michael 'Mickey' Calloway and Inspector Erin Hayes. What you may not know is anything about the characters, themselves, as I have kept most of the story out of my blog posts (I've shared the first chapter and the story synopsis in other blog posts but want to keep the overall story quiet).

But I feel I can tell you about the main characters without spoiling anything.

Calloway is 50 years old and a seasoned veteran in the Ottawa Police Serious Crimes Unit. He's lived in Ottawa his whole life and is married, with a teenage daughter.

Hayes (image: Perplexity)

His partner, who is a hard-working officer, was steadily promoted up the ranks from the Niagara Regional Police. When a vacancy opened at the OPSCU, Hayes was recommended by the NRP top brass. Hayes is only 28 when she was promoted to the rank of Inspector.

When I developed Hayes, I did searches on the rank structure with the OPS, checking Wikipedia, Google, and ChatGPT. I learned that making Hayes an Inspector at 28 was a steep climb but possible.

Now that I'm going through my book with a more critical eye, I thought I would test out Perplexity by describing Hayes and giving her the rank I have written. And Perplexity was brutally honest.

It told me that there's no way that a 28-year-old, even joining a police force at 19, would reach the rank of Inspector in that timeframe. It worked out what would be needed to get to that rank, and the youngest that Hayes could be was in her early to mid 30s.

I then gave the search engine more to work with. I told it the age that Hayes finishes high school (18) and to map out what she would have to do to get hired at the Niagara Regional Police. I also asked it to figure out what rank she could be in order to be brought on to the OPS as a highly recommended candidate to join the Homicide Unit.

Perplexity showed me the sources that it accessed to glean the information and I was impressed. It accessed the OPS Web site as well as the NRP site. It looked at sites that support Ontario Police Officers Association. It referenced various news articles from across the province.

Hayes would have had to go to university or college to obtain a three-year degree or diploma, preferably in in criminology, psychology, sociology, or policing studies. While in university or college, she would volunteer with community organizations (such as police auxiliaries and victim services) and/or work in security and crime prevention to gain relevant experience.

I'm not going to list everything that Hayes would have to do, but she'd also have to attend Police College, get hired after graduation, be on probation for a year, and then go through the ranks. Assuming she's a hard-working, dedicated officer—and I've created her such that she becomes a rock star at NRP—by the time she reaches 27, she could plausibly earn the rank of Detective Constable (a rank I didn't see in my previous searches of OPS ranks, though I recognize the rank in many detective novels I've read), also sometimes working as an Acting Detective Sergeant.

By the time she hits 28, when she applies for the position at the OPS Homicide Unit and receives glowing endorsement from the brass at the NRP, Hayes could be promoted to Detective Sergeant.

That's where I'm going to put her in my re-writes. And while I made up the Serious Crimes Unit for the OPS and named other divisions by their real names (the Drug Unit, for example, comes up), I may use the real name of Homicide Unit in the book, to distinguish it from the Guns and Gangs Unit and other departments that handle other serious crimes; though, in doing so, I'm going to have to make other changes to Calloway's past cases (one, that haunts him through this story).

Yes, it's a demotion from the rank I gave her but Google and ChatGPT didn't give me the depth of ranks that Perplexity gave me. DS Hayes has a certain ring to it, anyway.

I have ideas for Calloway and Hayes, and I've written a post for Friday that will explain what I have in store. While Calloway is exactly where he needs to be, hoping to someday become the Superintendent of his department, giving Hayes the rank of Detective Sergeant allows for a lot of growth of her character.

Stay tuned.

Perplexed

AI really struggles with direction. And it can't count.

Months ago, when I was playing with ideas about a cover for my crime novel, "Dark Water," I described the Vimy Memorial Bridge that spans the Rideau River in Ottawa's south end and wanted ChatGPT to create the image such that there was a woman in the river, floating face-down.

The AI tool created a random bridge, crossing the Ottawa River, below Parliament Hill. Buildings in the background didn't match Ottawa's downtown core, but most importantly, the woman was floating face-up in the river.

I wrote about this struggle with AI when I was still just sussing out my story.

It took some time, between breaks in my writing, to come up with an image that was passable, though I wasn't sold on it as a possible cover when it came time to publish my book. And every once and awhile, when I took a break from writing, I'd experiment with other covers.

When I finished writing the first draft of "Dark Water," I wanted to wait a few days before I would read what I had. I wrote the final sentence in the epilogue on a Thursday and started the reading and editing process on the following Monday.

On that Friday, I thought I'd have another go at designing a cover, using ChatGPT. Here's the information that I gave it:

Create a book cover for my murder mystery using the bridge in the attached photo. The angle of view would be below the water, underneath the bridge, looking upward. In the water, floating on the surface, is a woman who is dressed in blue jeans and a black jacket. She has long, red hair that partially hides her face. She is faced down in the water.

I gave ChatGPT the following attachment photo:

Here's what the AI took came back with:

It wasn't even close to what I had described. First, it made up a title that I hadn't provided (ant the kerning sucks). Also, the woman is lying on the shore or on a dry river bed (I admit that the photo I provided shows the water at a low level). I gave the prompt more instructions.

Remove the title. The angle of view should be underwater, looking up at the woman. It's morning, so light shines down, placing the woman in a partial silhouette.

The result was better but Vimy Bridge now only had two arches that were more round. The woman was fine but for a body floating at the surface, her legs seemed to be too low (I've luckily never seen a dead person floating in water, before, so I don't know how accurate that angle is).

Once more, I gave ChatGPT more instruction:

Much better. Make three arches on the bridge and make the angle of view such that the audience is below the woman, looking up at her. The bridge is visible through the water. Have the woman laying more prone on the surface, such that her legs are closer to the water surface. She should also be wearing shoes.

Okay, so the victim now had shoes. And was more prone. But the bridge still had two arches. Also, for the character of Emily Fraser, I imagined her hair much longer.

I decided to go into a much longer, detailed description of my image idea, so wrote this:

Create a realistic, cinematic-style murder mystery book cover for Dark Water by Ross Brown. Underwater view, looking upward toward the water’s surface and a large steel bridge with three arches. The arches are elongated (more stretched than semi-circular) and clearly visible through the water, above. Morning light streams down through the water, casting soft beams that illuminate the scene. Floating face-down on the surface is a woman with very long, flowing red hair that spreads out in the water. She is wearing blue jeans, a black jacket, and shoes. Her back and most of her legs are close to the surface so they catch the light, creating a partial silhouette effect. The camera angle is from directly below the woman, looking up toward her and the bridge above. The water is a deep, clear blue-green with gentle ripples and light shimmer on the surface. The cover should create a tense, mysterious, and haunting mood, blending realism with cinematic drama.

There, that aught to do it. I pressed Enter and got the following message:

You’ve hit the free plan limit for image generation requests, so I can’t create that cover right now. Your limit will reset in about 23 hours — once it does, you can paste the exact prompt you’ve written and the AI should render your scene exactly as described.

Ffff... !

Fine, I thought. I had been spending too much time on this and it wasn't productive. I moved onto other things around the house telling myself I'd try again sometime on Saturday night.

On Saturday, I worked on my Peru video, which ate up most of the afternoon and evening. But I did take a break, late in the evening, and posed the same query to ChatGPT. It responded,

I still can’t generate it yet — your free plan image limit hasn’t reset. Once it does, you’ll be able to paste that Dark Water prompt directly and get the cover.

If you want, I can keep your final prompt and have it ready so you can drop it in the instant your reset hits. That way you don’t lose time retyping everything.

Do you want me to store it here for you in a clean, copy-ready format?

Bloody hell. I told the AI tool to store the prompt and told myself that I'd try again on Monday.

At the start of the week, I prompted ChatGPT once again, copying its clean copy into the prompt. I still wasn't able to get my image. Nor on Tuesday. Nor Thursday.

On Friday, I received an e-mail from Bell, which informed me that it was offering me a free one-year subscription to the AI-powered search engine, Perplexity Pro. It was a $249 value.

I thought, what the hell, why not, and downloaded the promo code. I entered a reminder at the beginning of August, next year, to cancel the subscription.

By then, I thought, ChatGPT might let me generate an image again.

I copied the prompt from ChatGPT and entered it into Perplexity, with a few changes and a new image of the Vimy Bridge. I also gave a suggestion for the font style for the title. Here's what the new AI tool gave me:

Honestly, it wasn't bad for a first attempt. But Fraser's legs were still too low for my liking, she seemed to be much deeper in the water, and she was facing away from the viewer. Plus, it seemed as though Fraser had two right hands. Also, I didn't imagine Fraser's hair in a ponytail, so I added the following suggestion to the AI tool:

Place the bridge such that it doesn't look like it's underwater and is diffused by the water. Make the woman more prone, as she is floating on the surface of the water. She should be facing the camera and her hair is not tied back, but is floating wildly about her head.

Here is what Perplexity gave me for its second attempt.

Obviously, there are a couple of issues with this image. Vimy Bridge has only two arches, just as ChatGPT had given it. Fraser was floating on her back with her face visible, and was viewed from the side. Her hair was also shorter than I wanted for my character. And what happened to the title?

Admittedly, I didn't specify to hide Fraser's face so I added a new prompt:

Turn the woman so that she is face-down in the water. Make her hair longer. The back of her head touches the water surface, such that someone who sees her from above the water believes that she could be an animal. Also, you have changed the bridge such that it is now missing an arch: there should be three. And place the title and author as described, above.

Everything about this image is perfect, except for the subject. Fraser is not at the water surface and she is twisted in a bizarre way: her legs and feet are facing in different directions such that it's hard to tell which way she is facing, and she has two right legs. You can't see all of the arches of the bridge but from this angle, it doesn't matter.

Growing frustrated, I tried one more time:

Keep everything in the last image the same but start over with the woman: she is floating face-down at the surface. She has very long, flowing red hair that spreads out around her head. She is wearing blue jeans, a black jacket, and shoes. Her back and most of her legs are close to the surface so they catch the light, creating a partial silhouette effect. The camera angle is from directly below the woman, looking up toward her and the bridge above.

AI struggles with direction and can't count. Fraser is facing away from the viewer. Also, the bridge doesn't have quite the right amount of arches.

Last chance:

Keep everything the same but move the woman so that her head is toward the camera, her body trailing off behind.

I give up.

When and if my book gets published, I'll let the publisher worry about the cover. I'll have some mock-ups prepared but I can't rely on AI to give me a good cover.

I don't know if I'll keep Perplexity, though I have ideas for more Calloway and Hayes books, so I'll see about using the tool to help me with enhanced searches and whether it's any better than ChatGPT.

Happy Monday!

Losing the Spark

When I lost my job, in March, I felt pretty good about it, overall, if you can believe that.

I hadn't planned to retire until I turned 63, in 2028, and my investments manager even told me, a month before my layoff, that if I retired at that time, I'd be financially well off until I reached the age of 93. I laughed, asking her how I'd fare if I retired the next day.

DW slapped my arm and said, "You're not retiring tomorrow. I don't want you lounging around the house."

I haven't been exactly lounging around the house since I was let go but I have taken longer naps when the mood strikes me.

When I did eventually retire, I had told myself a long time ago, I would keep myself busy: I'd write more; I'd get outdoors with my camera; I'd get in my kayak whenever the weather was favourable.

Now that I've been retired, I've kept the first promise. In a short period, I've written a novel, on top of my blog. I've even gone out for a solo kayak and, at the time of writing this post, I had planned to take my kayak out this morning, weather permitting. If I have a YouTube video out, next week, we'll know if I was able to venture out.

But one thing I haven't done much this year, let alone since I haven't been working, is pick up a camera. With the exception of a couple of model shoots, a weekend trip to Toronto, and our trip to Peru, I have let my D-SLRs gather dust.

I haven't felt inspired, have lost the spark.

A couple of weeks ago, when the smoke from Northern Ontario forest fires kept me indoors, I did venture out, for a couple of minutes, to take a picture of the moon from the end of my driveway. It was an uninspired shot, hastily taken.

When I saw the images on a larger screen than that on the back of the camera, the images of the moon seemed blurry and I felt I had wasted my time capturing them. It was only later that I realized I was shooting through smoke haze, so of course the moon wouldn't be sharp.

But I haven't felt the need to pick up a camera since, and that bothers me. You see, since I've been without work, I've been afraid to spend money, so that's another reason why I haven't gone out much.

Taking photos doesn't usually cost much money, other than the gas that's required to drive to the spot where you want to capture images. Mind you, the model shoots I attended weren't cheap but I had paid for one while I was still employed and the other one will likely be my last for a while.

I still think I will pick up another job in the fall. What I'll do is anybody's guess: I want to do something that brings me joy, as my old job hadn't done that for a very long time. I don't think I want to be a technical writer anymore.

But what kind of scares me is that if I haven't taken photos when I'm 'semi-retired,' will I take them when I'm fully retired?

At the end of every year, I post my favourite photos that I've taken over that year, and this year's choices are pretty slim. Unless I find my spark, I may skip that annual post for this year.

But there are still months left to ignite that spark. I just have to find a way.

Happy Friday!

The Review Process

A cover concept I'm exploring.

Unlike Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary, where I was retelling my own experiences with a fictional character, Dark Matter is entirely made up and I have to keep track of what I had written at the beginning of the story so that if something comes up, later, I have my story straight.

Detectives, after all, like to have facts neatly tied up.

Now that I've completed the first draft of my crime novel, I've started re-reading it to make sure it flows well. And I'm finding that going back to the beginning has raised questions.

Yesterday, I read the prologue, which is only six pages long. And within the first two paragraphs, I realized that I had left something out of the epilogue, which sort of brings the story full-circle.

And so, I spent the morning writing that content for the ending.

After lunch, I started at the beginning of the prologue again and realized I had some contradictions. I also wanted to fact-check something that I had quickly written on my first day. That took about a half an hour to sort out.

It took me the rest of the afternoon to get through the six pages and I was tired, though satisfied that the opening to the novel is ready for a bona fide editor. I don't need to work on it anymore.

But I did make a list of things that came out in the prologue that I will use, going forward, to make sure they're covered later in the story. They are small points but are clues that the detectives should follow up on.

I think the re-read and potential changes will take some time to complete, after which I'll likely read the story one more time, without stopping, to make sure I'm happy enough to send the manuscript to an editor.

Otherwise, I'll start the re-reading process all over again.

I do have DW, my biggest critic, plus some friends who have offered to read the rough draft and give me their honest opinion, so I think I'm on the right path. With any luck, the final draft will be ready by the end of September.

If you're a writer—especially one who writes mysteries—what are your techniques for getting your book editor-ready? Do you have a system that works? Let me know.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get through the book faster as I move along. When I worked as a technical writer and editor, I was able to edit 20 or so pages per day, depending on the content. I'm used to moving faster.

Happy Tuesday!

Remembering Peru, Part 2

One of the things I like the most about putting together a video of a vacation is that I feel I'm reliving the moments that I treasured all over again.

And when I put together the various clips of our time in Peru, last May, I was able to remember the joy of the rich culture and beauty. Without the sweat and exhaustion.

There were moments I had forgotten about our trip to the Amazon Basin: the caramel-brown of the Tambopata River; the breakfast along the river, after having watched countless birds at a clay lick; the night walk in the jungle, where we saw tarantulas and snakes, and heard the night animals come alive.

This weekend, I put together the second part of our Peruvian adventure, where we shared some time in Lima before our kids flew back to Canada, and DW and I made our way to Puerto Maldonado. If you haven't seen Part 1, where we were in the Cusco area and visited Machu Picchu, check it out first.

And then, when you have more time, watch Part 2.

In reviewing both videos, something went wonky with the exposure settings on my smartphone, which recorded most of the video footage. The colours are off and at times, the scene seems washed out. But at least the memory was captured.

If you haven't done so, already, subscribe to my channel if you liked this video and want to see more adventures. After all, my YouTube channel is the video extension of this blog, and apparently you enjoy coming here.

Happy Monday!

Done (But Not Done-Done)

It came down to being a numbers game.

One of my karaoke friends had me thinking about how many pages I had written for Dark Water, my crime novel. When I started writing the story, I was quite enthusiastic about it, averaging about 20 or so pages per week.

When I hit the 100-page milestone, I was quite excited.

But every time I met up with my karaoke group, one of my friends would ask the same question: "How many pages have you written?" And over time, that question started putting some unintended pressure on me.

When I set out to write my first-ever murder mystery, I gave the page count a thought. The book wasn't going to be as long as Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary, which is 440 pages. Dark Water, I thought, might be about 250 pages.

Through my writing process, I would go backwards many times as I discovered new clues and as characters changed. I had already outlined the whole story before I even wrote the first chapter, so the structure was there: I just needed to fill in details.

Side note: writing this novel was a lot of fun.

But after I hit 120 pages, I seemed to slow down a lot. I focused more on the legal procedures and researching what was realistic and plausible than the actual unfolding of the story.

It was all necessary but I was producing fewer pages.

The last time I saw my karaoke friends, I was asked about my page count, and I said that I was about 165 pages in. My friend then said, "Isn't that where you were the last time we saw each other?"

I don't think he meant to be hurtful with his comment but it did sting a bit. Yes, I wasn't writing as many pages at my initial pace, but I was making progress.

Last weekend, when DW and I were talking about Dark Water and she had asked me if I had Googled the title to see if there was a similar book out there, she also asked me if I had ever done a word count, rather than a page count.

She had an excellent point. Most publishers are more interested in the word count than the page count: depending on how the book is formatted, pages can differ. And I had been writing my book in Google Docs, which is formatted for an 8.5-inch by 11-inch page, which is bigger than a paperback page.

This week, as I was at about page 175 of Google Docs pages, I felt that I was coming to the climax of the novel, where the killer is revealed. But 175 was short of my 250-page goal. So I decided to do as DW suggested and perform a word count.

The 175 pages that I had written contained 74,416 words.

I did some online digging, and a typical crime novel ranges from 50,000 to 90,000 words. I was in the sweet spot, with a few more pages to go.

Another inquiry taught me that with my word count, I had written anywhere from 270 to 300 pages in an average paperback book. That information got me very excited.

The next day, I was writing full speed on the conclusion of Dark Water. And yesterday, I finished it. Or, rather, the first draft.

The final count is 79,600 words over 184 standard pages, or about 290 to 320 paperback pages. 

In under five months, I have written my first crime novel. It took much less time than that, actually, with our family trip to Peru, a few weeks of editing photos and putting together videos for YouTube, and general distractions that kept me from writing. It would be fair to say it took less than four months to write this book.

I'm done but I'm not done-done.

The next step is to read and revise. But because I had done several revisions over the past couple of months, I don't think I'll have a lot to do before I feel the book is ready to send to an editor.

Wish me luck.

End of a Paddling Era

Yesterday, DW and I said so long to an era.

For five seasons, our kayaks were a means of escape. During the pandemic, it was a way to enjoy the outdoors whist maintaining social distancing. Later, it was a way to get out of the city and into nature.

And though DW and I haven't used our old kayaks since we replaced them with longer boats, our old kayaks had a special place in our hearts.

My red Delta 12.10 kayak sold two weeks ago, after having been on the market for couple a of weeks. I had lots of views but no offers for more than a week, and then a couple of curious people who were looking to acquire the boat for less than it was worth reached out, but we couldn't come to an agreement. But finally, someone with a love of kayaks, who already had a Delta 12.10 for his wife, made a reasonable offer.

Paddling the Long Sault.

I couldn't help but get a bit choked up as I saw my kayak drive away on somebody else's car.

I modified my Kijiji ad but shortly after deleted it, opting to make a new ad for DW's kayak. Hers was a saffron-yellow Delta 12S and though it was 10 inches shorter than mine, it had fewer scratches on the hull.

For two weeks, there wasn't a single nibble on the ad and I even considered dropping the price, though I knew that we were asking a reasonable amount. Deltas are great crafts that hold their value.

Two nights ago, someone made an offer that was $200 less than our asking price. I checked out his profile and learned that he was selling a 14-foot Necky kayak. And through our chat, I learned that he was retired, making me guess that he was at least my age.

A Necky 14' kayak weighs 51 pounds; DW's Delta 12S: 38 pounds.

I surmised that he was looking for something that was lighter, that he was a serious kayaker who wanted to downsize. I offered to take $100 off the price of DW's kayak and he accepted. The next morning (yesterday), he picked it up.

I was right in thinking that this buyer was looking for a lighter kayak. He was about five or so years older than me and he agreed that his Necky was now too heavy to lift on his roof rack by himself. When he saw me lift the Delta, one-handed, he was convinced he was making the right purchase.

Even though it wasn't my kayak, I felt a small sense of loss when the man drove away with DW's boat on his car. We had so many great memories with those kayaks and I'm glad that I captured some of those memories in my YouTube videos.

Making memories on the Mississippi River.

We've been out together in our new Delta 14 kayaks seven times and I've shared all but one outing on my YouTube channel (I also have one video where I paddled alone). I'm confident that we'll have many great memories over the next few years.

It's the end of one paddling era. We've only just begun the next era.

Other Dark Waters

I've decided to share a Google Drive folder that contains all of my chapters for my novel, Dark Water, with DW. I've asked her to read my rough draft and provide any feedback.

She loves crime fiction and could tell me if the story makes sense and let me know if I've missed anything.

Over the weekend, we were talking about my novel (she already knows the plot and who the killer is) and she asked me, "Have you ever done a search to see if the title of your book has already been used?"

"There's no copyright on book titles," I told her.

"I know, but wouldn't it be confusing if someone else wrote a crime novel with that title?"

It was a good question.

When I thought of it, I wouldn't have been surprised if someone else had come up with the title, Dark Water. It was a pretty common term and with the word Dark, it would make for a sinister title, so I decided to search book titles that are available through Chapters-Indigo, our Canadian chain bookstore.

Sure enough, there's another crime novel with that title.

There's also a romance novel called Beneath Dark Waters, a Canadian, general-fiction novel called The Tears of Dark Water, a Canadian sci-fi/fantasy book, Dark Water Daughter, and many more that use variations on "Dark Water."

Another novel, Dark Water, by J.A. Armitage, is a fairy-tale story. I don't think there will be any confusion with my novel.

But I'm curious about the crime novel, Dark Water, written by British author Robert Bryndza. As the synopsis states, the main detective in the novel receives a tip about drugs being stashed in a disused quarry outside of London. The drugs are key to a major narcotics case.

When the drugs are located, the skeletal remains of a missing young girl are also discovered. She has been missing for more than 26 years.

So it doesn't look like my book, which involves a dead CBC reporter, her missing fiancé, and an investigative story that would shake up Ottawa City Hall, is similar to Bryndza's book. Yes—SPOILER ALERT—there are references to drugs in my book and a quarry plays a minor role (my quarry is not disused), but they're pretty common elements to crime novels.

But to make extra-sure, I've checked out an e-book copy from the library and I've started reading it. Let's see if there are more similarities than a mere title.

Dark Water was initially used as a place-holder for my book, but as I got more into the story, I started thinking of a final title less and less, and the place-holder has grown on me. But I'm not married to it.

No, who I am married to is about to start proof reading my first draft, giving me her thoughts. I've also asked her to think of an alternative title, in case I feel I need to change mine.

Stay tuned.

Bonnechere

The video shows two days and I put on a brave face.

We arrived at Bonnechere Provincial Park just before noon, even though our site check-in wasn't officially until 2 pm. The park office told us that we could take our site if it was vacated, and when we drove past site 124, we could see the residents were in the midst of packing up.

We drove to a parking spot near the entrance of the park, across from a hiking trail, and decided we'd spend some time wandering while we waited for our site to free up. My neck was starting to bother me but wasn't too bad, at the moment, so I took some video footage whilst exploring the hiking trail.

That's where my latest YouTube video starts.

The mosquitos and deer flies were bad on the trail, and we figured that the residents of the site were gone, so we got back into the car and drove to lot 124, finding it empty. My neck was sore but I popped a few Tylenol and Advil, and we set up our tent and eating area.

The rest of that story can be read in Friday's blog post.

I went to bed that Saturday, wondering if we would only pack up and go home the next morning, but apparently the muscle relaxants, muscle-pain ointment, and two strong margaritas helped. I woke up on Sunday feeling stiff but not sore, so DW and I took advantage of the reprieve and kayaked up the Bonnechere River.

You can see that video here. Have a break and take a look.

Do me a solid: if you like my kayaking videos (or my travel videos, for that matter), please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Now that I'm retired (for now), I plan to release a video each week.

I haven't had the kind of pain that I experienced that weekend, though the tingling in my neck and left shoulder continue. I have a physio appointment for next week.

Happy Tuesday!

A Pain in the Neck

First off, I can't stress enough that this was an accident. DW wasn't looking to take me out.

Almost three weeks ago, as we were putting our kayaks away and cleaning out the car, after a lovely paddle along Jones Creek, just off the St. Lawrence Seaway, DW was closing the rear hatch of our Nero, not realizing that I was still in the path of that hatch door. We usually give the hatch a good tug to ensure that is closes securely, and DW put some effort into it.

It came down on the left side of my neck, near the base, where the muscles connect to those that stretch over the top of my shoulder. Fortunately, the door didn't come down on my head, or this would be an entirely different story.

Ever since this incident, I've felt pins and needles from just below my left ear, radiating out to my left rotator cuff. Sometimes, the tingling is strong but it has been constant. I've also found it difficult to get into a comfortable position when I go to bed, and I am continuously tossing and turning.

Luckily, I have full range of motion in my arms and the injury has not affected my ability to get in my kayak, though sometimes my neck has felt stiff when I try turning my head.

Last weekend, DW and I decided to go to Bonnechere Provincial Park to paddle the river and possibly Round Lake. And it was convenient, too, as Kid 2 was in town but needed to make her way to a friend's cottage, which is on Golden Lake.

We dropped her off without the need of a detour and were in Bonnechere Park 20 minutes later.

But when I got out of the car at the provincial park, I noticed that the left side of my neck was particularly stiff and I was experiencing pain. It was all I could do to avoid screaming as we set up our campsite.

Our campsite.

Yes, our outing involved overnight camping.

With our campsite set up, I found some Advil and Tylenol in our medicine kit in the car, and I took a couple of each. We had our lunch while I waited for the pain drugs to kick in but they didn't. With our camp site set up, I already wanted to go home.

DW suggested that we soak in Round Lake. Perhaps the cool water would help ease the pain. And, it actually did. We waded out past the beach buoys, which marked out a shallow swimming area, and it wasn't until we were a couple of hundred metres from the shore that we were up to our shoulders. I bobbed in the water and let the cool water and my buoyancy help with the pain.

Unfortunately, once we were out of the water, the pain returned. I suggested that we returned to our site and that I lay down for a bit to rest my neck, which was aching even more.

While I rested, DW drove to Barry's Bay to find a pharmacy. When she returned, she had muscle relaxants, ointments, and heating pads. I slathered on the ointment, popped a couple of the muscle relaxants, and washed them down with a strong margarita.

I then had a second margarita.

I told DW that I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to kayak, that we had made this trip for naught. I was also a bit depressed, thinking that the injury might prevent me from kayaking until the damaged muscles healed.

When the drugs and alcohol took effect, I called it a night, even though the sun hadn't yet set. I remained knocked out until just after 7 the next morning.

And thankfully, the pain in my neck was gone. The pins and needles were still raging but the debilitating pain had subsided.

I popped two more muscle relaxants and we got in our kayaks while the going was good. (I'll have a video of that paddle on Monday.) I was able to paddle 12 kilometres without any problem—we even played in some small rapids.

Pain free... for the moment.

But when we got back to our campsite, I could feel the pain in my neck returning. Before it got too bad, DW and I tore down our campsite and loaded up the car. And not wanting to be doped up for the drive back to Ottawa, I placed one of the heat pads over the affected areas.

By the end of the weekend, the pain had once again subsided but the tingling numbness continued. I made an appointment with my doctor and was able to get a referral for physiotherapy yesterday. Now, I just wait for my physio appointment.

As we head into this weekend, DW expressed an interest in going camping again but I said no. First, I don't enjoy camping anymore but most importantly, I don't want to risk finding myself in the same predicament as last weekend.

While the pins and needles is troubling, it's not as bad as the pain in my neck. I really want to get out and paddle, this weekend, but I think we'll stay closer to home.

This injury has also put me in a foul mood, keeping me from posting much on social media. If you follow me on Bluesky, you may have noticed that I haven't been online for most of the week: I've neglected my morning greetings, my random photos of the day, and my evening signoffs.

I even lacked the energy to write a couple of blog posts this week. I just haven't been in the mood.

Hopefully, when I meet my physiotherapist and we get to the root of the problem, and we can make my neck better, so that I'll sleep better and be able to get back to my regular activities.

Wish me luck.