The Brown Knowser

If I had known that writing crime novels would give me so much joy, I would have started writing them decades ago. I had so much fun writing Dark Water that I couldn't wait to start the next book in what I hope will become a series: The Calloway and Hayes Mysteries . I have ideas flooding my head, often keeping me up at night, but I love it. A few days after finishing the first draft of Dark Water , I started coming up with a new case, which is set mostly in Ottawa's ByWard Market. This story is even darker than the first novel, with many layers. There's a serial killer in Ottawa and ritualistic murders, but are they actually related? As I said, last week, I've even come up with a title for the next book: The Watcher . And this week, I started laying out the outline for the story. As with Dark Water , I have spreadsheets and notes, with characters and plot lines, and I'm taking what I learned from the first book to be even more organized the second time around. ...

About a month ago, someone from a marketing company reached out to me to invite me to visit Blyth, Ontario, a small village more than 45 minutes northwest of Stratford. It's home to a well-loved brewery, Cowbell . As far back as 2016, I tried, loved, and reviewed their Kölsch, Absent Landlord . The person who contact me represents the brewery and was hoping that I would take a road trip and write a review of the brewery. Unfortunately, I have no plans to head that way this year. I was in Stratford last year and the year before, but won't take in the theatre season in 2025. Maybe next year, I replied, but not this year. The marketing person said that she understood that a drive to Blyth is a long way to go to grab a beer. She then offered to send me some beer, with the hopes that I'd review it. Of course, I said, telling her that I would give a fair review. But I cautioned her that if I had issues with the beer, I would say so in a fair and kind manner (I like Cowbell, a...

Before I was laid off from my job of almost 19 years (I was a technical writer for more than 25 years), last March, I was a creature of habit. I would wake early, get ready for work, and head out. I liked to arrive at the office as early as possible—usually no later than 7—to get set up for the day and try to get as much accomplished before most of my colleagues arrived. I enjoyed working with my peers but wouldn't be as productive as I was when I was on my own. Image: ChatGPT When COVID-19 shut everything down and we all found ourselves working from home, my routine didn't change much. I'd sleep in a little later but I'd still be showered, dressed, fed, and at my desk at a decent hour—no later than 8. In the office, I liked to be done between 3 and 3:30; at home, by 4. Now that I'm unemployed, my weekday schedule hasn't changed much. Because I'm not bound to a 40-hour week, I don't feel the need to be at my desk early. I am usually awake by 7 but wi...

A police officer thought we might need help but we didn't. For a couple of weeks, DW and I knew that we had to get some practice in for water rescues, in the event that one of us overturns in our kayaks while we're paddling in the fjord of the Saguenay River. We're hoping to not fall in but we need to be prepared anyway. The last few weeks, however, have either been too hot, too smoky, or too hot and smoky. We went three weekends without kayaking—the longest gap this season and one of the longest gaps of any kayaking season. I was hoping to put out a kayaking video every one or two weeks but it's been a while. And as I write this, I realize it'll be several weekends before I release any video, as DW and I will be away. I'm sure I'm messing up the YouTube algorithm with my inconsistency in video releases but it can't be helped. So, as I said in yesterday's video, DW and I took our kayaks to Arnprior and put them in at a boat launch at the mouth of...

At the end of this week, DW and I will be heading out on another vacation. This time, we're heading east, following the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, past Québec City, to Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier, where we'll do some camping, hiking, and kayaking along the Jacques-Cartier River. We're hoping to shoot some class-1 and maybe even some class-2 rapids on the river. If the water isn't suitable to shoot with our kayaks, we'll rent a couple of kayaks that are better-suited to the river conditions. As much as I don't want to fall out of my kayak, I don't want to risk damaging it because I don't want to wreck my kayak, obviously; and I'm going to need my kayak for the second half of our vacation. We'll spend a few days in the park and will then continue, further up the St. Lawrence, to the Saguenay River. We have two nights of camping and several more days in B&Bs and hotels. We're going to explore the small towns in this regio...

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 start...

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 a...

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 e...

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 w...

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 sol...

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 writt...

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 bot...

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...

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, op...

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 C...

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...

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 continuou...