I’ve been writing fiction since I could wield a pencil. Sure, I was an introvert, so sitting in the house writing was not a loss for me, but it’s impossible to avoid the fact that writing is an isolated endeavour. Also, technically, more affordable than skiing—just you and your weapon of choice, whether the pen, typewriter, or computer, and your imagination.

How many writers wish they could write a character like Sherlock Holmes? My guess is most of them. Sherlock Holmes is the best-known fictional character still, although that whippersnapper Harry Potter has quickly risen to number two in recent decades. Put together a deerstalker, a magnifying glass and a pipe, and readers all over the world know what to expect—a mystery.

With everything going on in the world, life on Electric Street is pretty calm this summer. Except for a quick drive to the Maritimes and frequent jaunts to Toronto, I am at my desk, writing drafts and learning new things. Doing my electric company A long, long time ago, I can still remember … my imaginary friend, Susan. Before I learned to read and write, Susan and I shared stories.

Since I am doing a little light research for my Archie Sloss novel, I discovered that the Glasgow Police appointed their first detective in 1819 and followed with a designated Criminal Department in 1821. Is everyone on the same page as me? I’m thinking Netflix's Dept. Q Christmas Special, where DC Rose Dickson (played by Leah Byrne, of course), having a few too many yuletide bevvies, dreams herself into the first Department Q in the cellar of the police headquarters in South Albion Street, Glasgow.

~~~ I can't dance, therefore I write I, like most people, could slice my life into phases. Suburban kid, Journalism undergrad, newly married executive wife, urban single mother … (clip cut here) … eventually civil servant, and now full-time writer. In September 1990, my life path changed, the way it does. Although I had volunteered with performing arts companies, I started my first paid employment with the Dance Umbrella of Ontario, an arts service organization in Toronto providing administrative help to professional choreographers in accounting, grant application writing and publicity.

It’s finally spring and to distract you from all the insanity of the gift that keeps on giving down south, I offer you an update of life here on Electric Street. Doing: March is brilliant when you have a little Irish within you! I was busy with several Ottawa-area events in celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day. First, I participated in a Local Authors Signing at the Heart & Crown in the Byward Market (the same pub where we launched…

PART TWO: Western Australia, circa 1873 - Archie Sloss, the escaped convict and robber, was in hiding from the police with a price of two hundred pounds on his head. How would he get away? Archie tells us that nine days after the police raided the hideout, Donald Macvittie, a respectable Scottish shepherd, bought passage on a ship to England. The police came searching for the escaped Archie Sloss and handed “Donald” a copy of the arrest notice.

This month, the blog is part one of a longer story, because I need to testify. Yes testify … to the remarkable life of Archibald Sloss, born in Stirlingshire in 1830. Archie, alias Archie Baird, the ex-Duke of Portland Prison, Old Dad Sloss, or “The Burglar with the Blue Scar” was my grandmother’s grandfather’s older brother. I had never heard of Archibald Sloss until I started my genealogy research on the internet.

Notre Dame Cathedral has been closed to the public since a fire damaged the landmark in April 2019.