Have you ever heard the phrase “write what you know” ?

For nearly every author I've met over the years, this is true, especially of their first books. They put a little bit of themselves into the story, and that's what makes it real. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about real-life knowledge of how shifters become wolves, or for a mystery writer, how to commit the crime. Especially not true for the most annoying question a writer who includes sex scenes in their books constantly gets about *nudge nudge* how much RESEARCH did you do for *those scenes*. (Even authors who draw on experience in that area, like those in the BDSM community, are still writing fiction. It's a story, not a play by play.)

What I'm referring to with that write what you know are the background details. The things that sometimes make me as a reader sit up and take notice, but more usually, the details that allow me to fall deeper into the story. 

My friend who lives in a southern town and has met a million interesting people, that's where she set her first books. She knows the lingo, the habits, the conversations that happen a million times that are THAT PLACE. The writer who spends time with her family riding skidoos and ATVs—you know where her first books landed. The writer who has knowledge of the African savanna writes a heroine journeying there to find themselves.

In my first book, I wrote about a woman venturing into the remote northern wilderness. She was strong and brave and doing what she needed to in order to feel fully alive. I wrote about her skiing across a broad frozen lake and how it made her feel free and happy and ready to take on the world.

I wrote more, and included people finding community and finding a family. Finding love, and working to keep it growing.

I wrote about places I'd been in real life, then added the fiction to make them into a story.

Today I want to celebrate that for 16 years, and 86 books, nearly all of my writing has been placed in a part of the world that I am very, very proud of.

Canada.

From that first book, Wolf Signs, and the rest of the Northern Lights Shifters onward, I've explored Canada in my stories. From Pacific coast water shifters to the contemporary Adrenaline Search & Rescue books set in Banff, Alberta and Nelson, British Columbia. From the Borealis Bear shifter series in the Northwest Territories to the Timberwolf Lodge werewolves of Jasper, Alberta.

To the completed Six Pack Ranch and Thompson & Sons, and the ongoing Heart Falls cowboy sagas set in Alberta, it's been my privilege and honour to write about a landscape and people I know and love.

Sometimes I don't know it perfectly, and because it's still fiction, I do occasionally take liberties with settings (Heart Falls is a fictitious town set in a real location.)

But I never really thought about not writing in Canada. When I wrote a series with friends back in the early days that was set in Australia, my heroine became a traveling Canuck. I'm proud of being a Canadian, and I love my country deeply.

So here's my nod to 86 books written with Canadian spelling. Thanks for being a good sport while you read about your neighbours who colour and flavour their world in a slightly different way.

Here's to phrases and local lingo that are not perfect english, but perfectly Canadian. A couple words seemingly missing here or there might create a sentence that sounds odd to your ear but is how we say it in my neck of the woods.

To toques, not toboggans or beanies. Although I admit I smile every time you say toboggan because I instantly picture a small snow sled balanced on a person's head!

To what makes us different and yet so amazingly the same—a love for the people who complete our worlds.

I've built fictional worlds in the hopes that in some of the stories or situations, you see yourself plus a glimmer of the forever you deserve, whether you've already gotten it or need to track it down.

Thank you so much for being with me on this journey, and for traveling through my stories to one of the most beautiful places on earth, Canada. My home and my country.

This is where I belong and where I will continue to set stories of joy and happily-ever-after.

With my love,

Viv