September started off with a holiday. I joined my friends in the Okanagan and, even with the smoke from the wildfires, we all had a wonderful time with each other and away from our usual responsibilities. My friends swam in the lake and assured me it was warm. I declined the experience. Carly and I have an antipathy to cold water. Refreshing? I don’t think so.

Carly enjoyed a holiday with her marvelous caregivers who live on the beach, so Carly had free runs several times a day. She had a wonderful time.

The seventh book of the British Book Tour Mysteries is back at the publishers after the final line edit. It takes discipline to put my mind back into the story when I have moved on to another series. I enjoy Hampshire, though. That is where Murder in Ashton-on-Tinch (release March 31, 2026) is set. I also love Claire’s new challenges, so once I get back into the book, I enjoy her.

I am working on a new series set in the Nicola Valley of British Columbia. It’s early days yet, so I’m not ready to expose it or even send it out to readers yet. The first book of a series is all important because it has to capture interest in character, setting, and plot, but also has to have enough possibilities to sustain a series. Claire in The British Book Tour Mysteries has a job that can put her into different situations and different problems in each book. I just have to move her to a different area of Britain. This new series has the constraints that the protagonist has a nursing licence, so, at the moment, she can only move around BC. The federal government is working on getting national licencing, though, so perhaps in the future she can go to Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut. I’d love that.

The BC and Yukon Book Prizes took place on September 21^st. Always on Call was a finalist so my daughter and her husband and I attended. I didn’t win. Curve!: Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast curated by Dana Claxton and Curtis Collins won first prize. This is a museum quality book, supported by a local museum, that tells the story that particularly interests me. It was a grand affair, the food was elegant, the waiters sufficiently formal to give the whole event some posh tone, and my publisher came to support me and other authors from their publishing house who were finalists in other categories. They also bought my ticket which I appreciated. My daughter who is ten-years-old in the book acted as an ambassador for the book and in her usual warm and friendly style did me proud. My son-in-law socialized and seemed to enjoy the event. He saw I was fed and supplied with champagne.

What I didn’t appreciate so much was the difficult journey to the event. The Queen of Surrey, our local ferry broke down so we had to que up for the water taxi. BC Ferries had three water taxies running at about 30 passengers a trip to take the hundreds of stranded passengers. If you had planned to take your car, you were stuck. I don’t live on an island, but there is no road to my community. The ferries are our road, and they are old and habitually sick.

I have given up on my garden and let the weeds have it—except for the cabbages and brussels sprouts. They can continue to grow. I am hauling out all the tomatoes today. There is not enough heat left in the day to ripen them. The Hallowe’en decorations are going up in the neighbourhood. Fall has arrived.