Charity Wiser, matriarch of the Wiser clan by virtue of her wealth and power, is an indomitable provocateur . . . and private detective Russell Quant’s newest employer. There is more than a single rotten apple on this family tree, and Quant has been hired to discover which one is intent on murdering his client.
I was raised on a farm near the small town of Prudhomme, Saskatchewan, Canada with two siblings, sisters, and many cats and dogs and chickens and cows.
After spending my youth as a tow-headed farm boy who dutifully milked cows, worked the fields and graduated from high school, I moved to Saskatoon to discover my future.
From 1980 to 1983 I attended the University of Saskatchewan (UofS) with the original intent of becoming an Optometrist. During these years I supplemented meagre student loans by taking on a plethora of odd jobs, including one dreadful summer working in a uranium mine in Northern Saskatchewan as a bull cook. According to Websters dictionary a bull cook is a person who performs various chores in a logging camp. Close enough. I did everything from scouring pots to cleaning bunkhouses (yech) to pushing a broom to making cinnamon buns in the middle of the night. I toughed it out, learned a lot about different kinds of people, developed friendships, some lasting to this day, and made some cash. The next summer I took a job as a waiter in a nice, quiet, biker bar.
Having changed my major from optometry to social work to psychology I received a rather varied-discipline Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree (with distinction) in 1983. This gave me the credentials to get yet another job as a waiter. I returned to the UofS the following year and took shockingly few classes which allowed me to become a teacher. My father was a teacher, my brother-in-law was a teacher, I was a smart guy with a BA with no career prospects, it just made sense.
Hated it.
Eventually I ran screaming back to Saskatoon and buried myself in a few years of professional rebellion and introspection - if it is possible to do both at the same time. During this time I worked in retail - shoe stores were my favourite choice (beginning a lifelong love of footwear)and restaurants and bars, oftentimes holding down two or three jobs at a time, getting off work at midnight or 1 am then heading out to the clubs and after hours bars with my friends. Ah, youth.
I met some awesome people, had a lot of fun, learned life lessons, danced a lot, smoked and drank, was broke, had a few marvelously tortuous romances and ultimately, came to know who I was. Now it was time to figure out who I wanted to become.
I returned to the University of Saskatchewan a little older, a little wiser and with the idea that it was time to make some serious money, wear a suit, carry a briefcase and have people call me mister. So of course I decided to become an accountant.
1991 was a big year for me. I had been hired by the international audit and accounting firm of Ernst & Young, I wrote the grueling four-day Uniform Final Exam (UFE) with the hopes of qualifying for the Chartered Accountant (CA) designation, I began my current day relationship with my partner and received two more university degrees: a Bachelor of Education (BEd) and a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) (with distinction).
I was successful in my UFE and received my CA designation in 1993 and continued on the path to become the best darn accountant I could be.
As a CA, I was working many hours, weekends and evenings, which left little time for creative writing. But I always knew or at least dreamed that I would someday become a writer. And so one day I quit my job and did it. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but it has worked out okay for me - with the support of a very wonderful spouse.
One of my favourite sayings is: Life is short, but it can be wide. I try to remember to do whatever I can to make my life wide, wide with people and places and extraordinary experiences. And I am grateful for every second of it so far and every second of it yet to come.
