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My daughter Siân is staying here in Saskatchewan for a while to escape from the Texas heat and humidity (Ha! She inadvertently brought them with her). She is in the process of sorting our stuff, including boxes of old photographs and papers. She has come across a number that relate to my early writing days and persuaded me that some readers might be interested in hearing about that time.My first five books, including the first, A MASKED DECEPTION, written in 1983, published in 1985 (    ), were handwritten in notebooks and then typed into an old typewriter.

I wrote small, as you can see, to use less paper. Handwriting the books meant that making changes and adjustments was far harder and messier than it is now. It also meant ending each day with a sore hand and a stiff neck. I used to write at the kitchen table, starting in mid-evening after our family meal, when our three children were settled into their own amusements and all my school marking and lesson preparation was done (I taught high school English). I used to count words at the end of each session and write the total at the bottom of each page. I sometimes feel slightly nostalgic for those days. Nah, I don’t! Shown here is the original cover of the book. I still think I was remarkably fortunate to have such a gorgeous cover for my very first book.