Hallowe’en is magical around my house. My street is only two blocks long and most people get into the spirit of the day with decorations. When I take my dog for a walk before work, I pass by the school bus stop where about twenty children line up to board. I’m expecting a festive group on Hallowe’en evening.

October has been busy as I finished the edits for Shadows in Sussex, Book 5 in The British Book Tour Mysteries. As well as writing, I joined two authors Bonnie Klein and Clare Finlayson as well as the Vancouver Sun Reviewer, Tom Sandborn, at the Gibsons Public library to do a presentation called Speak Memory: the role of memory in reading and writing to a full house of in-person and more on Zoom. There were many writers in the audience, and we fielded many questions. I enjoyed the whole process. I should share gigs with others more often. I have a picture of Tom and Bonnie but not of Claire and me. Next time.

I joined a Zoom meeting with fellow Crime Writers of Canada to chat with Louise Penny. What a joy she is. We were able to ask her anything we liked and she answered with honesty and humour. She’s inspirational. It felt like a club meeting—which I guess it was.

What a great time I had with a group of nurses from the BC History of Nursing Society. We were on Zoom and they were joining me from all parts of Canada to talk about Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. They were a lively and interesting group with many experiences of nursing. Some of them were and are in public health nursing (or community health nursing as it is called now) and had stories to relate. If I could persuade them to write those stories down we would have a rich library.

October was a sunny month, too sunny. We didn’t have our seasonal rains. In fact, we had only one small shower after July until this week. Now we have rain. We are supposed to get 40 centimeters (15 inches) tomorrow but the trees still look parched. I was out to Chilliwack for my family Thanksgiving and noticed the trees along the highway were turning brown—not red or orange, just brown as they were drying in the draught. I am willing to endure day after day of rain without complaining (which our standard practice around here) as that rain will help the countryside.

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