Shaded Light wasn't my first published book, but it was my first mystery. And it took a lot of sweat, and a lot of time.

I believe I've loved mysteries for as long as I can remember. When I was young, one of my very favorite games was, "How many marbles are in my hand?" On Sunday afternoons when my parents and I visited with my Grandmother and my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Albert. Uncle Albert and I played Chinese Checkers. After he got tired of letting me win, he would take a bunch of marbles, arrange some of them in his hands, and shake his hands. I would have to guess how many marbles he had. Of course he would try to trick me by keeping all the marbles from hitting the others or going fast so a few sounded like more. I loved trying to guess the right number.

And I went right on loving anything that involved having to follow clues and discover the "truth." Of course, I read a ton of mysteries! That's the background.   The day after Christmas, 1982, I was reading a mystery I had picked up at the library. It was a dud. I threw it to the (carpeted) floor, and began complaining. In the course of my complaints, I said, "I could do better than this."

My helpful husband said, "So, why don't you then?"

I took the challenge and spent the Christmas holidays writing (in longhand). Dreaming up a plot wasn't difficult. Everywhere I go, I am always thinking, "This would be a good spot to find a body." I brainstormed and made a list. Then I remembered the garden. Some years earlier, we'd been walking in a beautiful Japanese garden in Vancouver, and as we came around a corner, I saw a beautifully shaped bush and the thought that jumped into my mind was, "That would be a great place to see two feet sticking out." (No, it wouldn't really – trust me – but writers tend to have weird thoughts.) So now I remembered the garden and decided to use it for the setting.

But then I needed a reason for people to go to the garden, and a victim, and detectives. So, I decided first on a bystander character. In this case, it turned out to be Lorry. Then I needed a guy or two (to get a little romance in) and chose Nick and Kendall (their names were different to start with). We needed a location, so I gave Kendall a family and made his dad a lawyer, and gave them a new estate with a Japanese garden – and then it just started to flow.

So I wrote a first draft from Lorry's point of view. But I realized there was a problem. Having a bystander's point of view was too limiting. So I decided I should try writing it from the point of view of the detective.

I decided to go with police people because I likely know more about them than I do PIs. Which isn't a whole lot. But I found all kinds of books on homicides and forensics, and so on.. And later I talked to some real police people.

Now I had to choose my own personal police people. I decided I wanted to have two people because that allows for more discussion and arguing and all that good stuff. Enter Manziuk and Ryan. I had them both the moment I started to put something on paper. They just seemed to flow, as thought they were real people. I've known several very "big" men, and always felt a little intimidated when they looked "down" on me. And I have a friend who is a little like Jacquie – prone to jump in where angels wouldn't go. I could see Paul and Jacquie arguing with each other, her making up in energy what she lacked in size, him feeling if she would just take it slower and listen, it would all work out. So, I wrote another draft using the police point of view.

Then Christmas holidays ended and I was back to homeschooling.

For almost 10 years, I left my work, even then called Shaded Light, in a filing cabinet. In 1991, I pulled it out and read it. Not bad. I began to work on it, this time combining the two viewpoints and adding others.

When I had the first third of the book written, I took it with me to a writer's conference and found an editor who liked it. But he couldn't' convince his publishing company to go with it. He did, however, give me some good suggestions to make the book stronger.

I continued to work on it.

Then, in 1998, a writer friend suggested I try St Kitts. They read it and made some suggestions. I followed most of their suggestions. And they decided to publish the book, even keeping my title.

So, 18 years after I first started the book, it was finally in print! Then the question was, "How long will it take me to write the sequel?"