Prep for The Briars Befogged

Funerals and school reunions — not good companions in a sentence when it was your 45th reunion — have kept me busy the past two weeks.

Yet The Briars Befogged has received a lot of attention. After years of effort, the manuscript came together.

After I said, “It’s done!”, there was a mix-up with my editor. In the lull, I found a few things to clean up. For example, the snow I added falling overnight Saturday was needed for the windstorm on Sunday:

• Did the scenes in between include the snow? 

• What did it sound like when stepped upon? 

• Did it change how the trees looked? 

• How did it affect the ice fishing expedition that morning? More came up while I worked with Chameen on the cover.

Draft cover using an image developed with AI

I'd planned to base her backpack on my father's from his youth. That would have been an error. Though the WW1 Canadian Military had backpacks like Dad's but more robust, the 1917 Eaton's Catalogue told a different story.

Civilians wore what was called a haversack. It had one strap. The material and size of Dad's were right, but his had two straps instead of one, and it had a different name.

I also researched cameras and compasses. I corrected the manuscript with the new research, and it’s getting ready for your enjoyment. If editing isn’t delayed, it should be ready to download and review by November, before it goes on sale.

One thing: writing about deep winter while it's summer is psychologically bad. I kept wanting to walk into the heat in a heavy coat.

Emily now has the most beautiful red woollen mittens. In my conceptual drawing, AI gave her red leather gloves as it was determined to show she had five fingers.

My father's knapsack, used in his motorcycle tour of Britain in 1950.

A 1916 Canadian military haversack. By 1918, the back straps changed. 

In 1917, Eaton's only "backpack".

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