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Shirley came up with the premise on Friday [March 5, 2010] or perhaps Thursday, and told me about it: you have two road Sereniteers – basically rural cops – in the Empire of Arko in the Fifth Millennium world. It’s post-conquest, however, and they are a mixed pair, an Arkan man who’s a veteran, grizzled and jaded, and a younger Yeoli woman who is relatively new to police work, holds idealistic views of law enforcement and is utterly upright, honest almost to a fault. Physically, she can kick his butt, and she’s the senior partner, in command.

Tell the truth, since the Rose & Bay Awards are by popular choice, I didn't think I stood a chance with heavy hitters like MeiLin Miranda and Alexandra Erin in the running.

Still, it was an honour to be nominated at all -- only 20-odd works were, out of hundreds on the Net -- so thanks again to Valdary for that. PA received enough votes to make a respectable showing.

Thanks very much to all who voted for it.

But there were enough chalk votes that obviously I've got to do more images of him somewhere, and not just my image gallery. I will ponder upon this. Thank you for voting.

I guess I'm saying this as a heads-up. I keep talking about premium content and not doing it. I actually have two fairly hefty pieces now that I could offer as bonus stories. I want to set up a "backstage pass" subscription option too, where you'd have to go to get into character chats, author chats, and other inside info. And donations... heck, I haven't even set up the page for that yet. Maybe today. This site is set up to use a points system, so I have to do research on that.

It was the quintessential Canadian experience. One slice out of time epitomizes the extreme Canucktivity of it: Shirley leans over in the sled and grabs up a used Tim Horton's cup that someone has dropped. She's picking up litter, it's from a coffee and donut chain founded by a deceased pro hockey player, and she's on a dogsled. It's -20 Celsius, or -4 Fahrenheit. You can't get more Canadian than that.