Continuing along the theme of travelling vicariously via books, when I started the Meg Harris mystery series, I decided I wanted my readers to travel to my country so they too could enjoy its natural treasures. I gave Meg a setting I know and love well, the forests of West Quebec, where I spend much of my time hiking through the woods or paddling the many lakes and rivers.

I wanted my readers to experience the chilling howl of a wolf on a cold winter's night or the haunting laugh of a loon on a still summer night, to feel the hiss of skis gliding through deep snow or the crunch of leaves from boots scuffing through the colour of fall. And I mustn't forget the frisson of fear at a sudden movement within the forest shadows. Is it a bear? A wolf? Or only a squirrel?

I also thought these woods were the perfect spot for murder....

With the fourth book, Arctic Blue Death, I thought it time to explore other parts of Canada, so off Meg and I flew to Baffin Island, I place I'd always wanted to visit. I found it a wild, rocky land with a stark and lonely beauty. It also proved a good place for murder.

So I decided that in every other book, I, Meg and my readers would travel to other wild places in Canada.

In the sixth book, Silver Totem of Shame, we travel to British Columbia, to Vancouver, the city of my birth, and onto Haida Gwaii, the mystical islands of the Haida, another place I'd always wanted to visit. I was overwhelmed by the mountainous islands whose tree crowded slopes tumble into the cold, yet rich waters of the Pacific.

And now I am writing the eighth Meg Harris mystery, as yet untitled. This time Meg and I are going to the Northwest Territories, a flat rocky land riddled with lakes and rivers and short stumpy trees. It too is a good place for murder.