Four trains, heavy luggage, craggy mountains, village of 3,000 people, an astronomical research station, and American-style ranches. But no buses…and no English.

Welcome to my inspiration destination in The Middle of Nowhere, Japan.

Inspiration Is More Than Ideas in Your Head

Many writers are asked where they get their ideas from. I have a few sources:

• where I live
• emotions tied to personal events (but not the events themselves)
• places I visit
• activities I participate in
• shows I watch

memories—no matter how fuzzy—from childhood that I want to revisit

My inspiration comes from anywhere in my world. The more I experience, the more inspired I become.

Travelling to Japan was part research for a character—you may have met Mayumi Enomoto in Teas of Joy—but it also included an inspirational pilgrimage.

Rabbit Holes: Time Wasters? Or Sources of Inspiration?

I like to know the ending. What happened to everyone from my grade school class? To celebrities I used to idolize, but who seem to have fallen off the face of the earth? To authors I stopped reading many moons ago?

And to childhood shows?

Such was the rabbit hole I tumbled down about two years ago. I’d discovered in 2023 that an anime show I’d watched as a kid, Grendizer, was getting a reboot.

In the age of reboots, this can cause eyes to roll, but the original was nearing 50 years of age. The trailerexcited me about rediscovering this relic from the early 80s (originally broadcast in the mid-70s in Japan).

My rabbit hole opened. I located the original episodes, the 25 English-dubbed episodes, and the full series dubbed in French, and a “movie” in German. I even found an academic book on the subject in French.

When the original Japanese episodes arrived (with English subtitles), I watched all 74 over a long weekend. For the next year, I rewatched them all, one at a time, during my lunch break.

And the more I watched, the more I discovered. For a show I’d originally viewed through the eyes of a six- or seven-year-old, it tackled some difficult subjects: PTSD, found family, child soldiers, radiation, war, and many others.

Yes, it had many hokey moments, forced plot tactics, and two “transformation scenes” that could be extended or cut as needed to ensure the show reached its required length for television broadcast.

Once plans for Japan had solidified, I included the suspected location of this series in my itinerary. There is simply something magical about touching—whether through sight, sound, smell, taste, or feel—creations that have affected my life.

The Village in The Middle of Nowhere: Minamimaki

I’d learned in my research that Grendizer may have taken place in a village called Minamimaki, an area renowned for astronomy. Several locations had clear connections to the series: Makiba Park, Jersey cow ranches, the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, and the Yatsugatake Mountains (specifically mentioned in the second episode) were all within a few kilometres of each other.

My train trip took me 1,500 m above sea level. Minamimaki is part of an agricultural area comprising valleys tucked in among mountains. You don’t have to travel here on an anime pilgrimage to marvel at what nature can create.

As my two-car train pulled up to the Nobeyama train station, the signs of The Middle of Nowhere, Japan, surrounded me: an unmanned train station, very few houses, no taxis, and one convenience store at the train station that didn’t even offer sushi. (A rarity in Japan.)

Minamimaki covers 133 km² and has a population density of about 22 people per km². For contrast, Tokyo has 14 million people living in about 2,194 km², giving a population density of about 6,381 people per km².

I definitely found myself in The Middle of Nowhere, Japan.

Landscape and Story

The best settings in a novel are a character unto themselves: they have personality and affect how the human (and sometimes animal) characters behave and what choices they make.

Standing where Grendizer likely took place made that even clearer to me.

I’ll use the protagonist, Duke Fleed (sometimes romanized as Freed), to illustrate what I mean. He has two identities:

• Duke Fleed is the prince of Planet Fleed and pilot of Grendizer.
• Daisuke Umon is a farmhand trying to live a peaceful life, free of violence and destruction.

However, the settings for both identities often act as a backdrop for each respective part.

• As Duke, he fights in his mecha, Grendizer, often in harsh environments: underwater, in the mountains, in the Arctic. Viewers rarely see Grendizer in a peaceful setting except occasionally at the end of an episode, with the red setting sun in the background.
• As Daisuke, he cares for the farm animals and often plays his guitar alone or with friends, but often in a natural setting.
• Daisuke usually becomes Duke in the Space Science Laboratory, either by jumping off a nearby cliff or by racing down a chute and jumping into Grendizer’s cockpit. The lab is where he can be whoever is needed.

As a viewer, I can enjoy the stories that unfold in each episode. As a traveller, I could touch where these stories could have happened.

Landscape in My Current Work-in-Progress

I initially travelled to Minamimaki to experience the possible source of inspiration or location (or both) of Grendizer. But I came away with much, much more.

When I write, I struggle with setting the most. I set my novels where I live to make creating settings easier. Creating new worlds, whether planets or villages, requires not only an extraordinary imagination, but also a memory of similar talents so you can track where everything takes place.

My current romance novel will challenge my struggle, though. It’s an opposites-attract story whose idea began with opposing personalities: a tall, shy man in his 50s, and an outgoing woman who’s over a foot shorter, also in her 50s. They live next to each other in an apartment building.

That led to the inevitable question: If their apartments are identical in layout, how has each character decorated theirs to showcase their individuality?

The answer had to expand beyond “he’s tidy; she’s messy,” and their living situation. It needed to fuse settings that others experience daily with the character’s point of view, something I’ve rarely done.

From Pilgrimage to Page

In my romance novels, at least one scene usually takes place along the Iron Horse Trail. However, all characters view it in the same light: as a romantic location to steal a kiss, hold hands for the first time, and share similar romantic moments. If you visit the actual location, you’ll understand why.

This time, the trail carries different meanings for the romantic leads. For one, it’s a place to demonstrate care for the environment. For the other, it is a place reminiscent of fear experienced long ago.

Same trail.

As I continue to write, I’ll discover more ways to incorporate the real-life environment of my novels so that, with each subsequent story, readers hopefully close the book at the end having experienced the same location in a different way.

Spending those few days in Minamimaki, a potential source of inspiration for Grendizer, inspired me to explore where I live and challenge myself by incorporating more of the scenery into my characters' lives.

I can’t wait to share the final story with you!

Spending time selling books in person is always a blast. For this spring, I have the following appearances in Waterloo Region. (Most recent listed up top.)

Saturday, May 31, 2025: Waterloo Bookfest

Outside in spring weather? Check! LOADS of books to peruse a buy? Check!

This marks my fourth year participating in Waterloo Bookfest, co-organized this year by Grand River Writers and KW Writers Alliance. I'll have all my books with me. Drop by to say hi, pick up the next book in the series you're reading, have me sign books you've already purchased, or talk about my current works in progress. I love meeting new readers.

My mentor, Heather Wright, will be selling her writing guides. She's helped shape me into the writer I am today. I highly recommend popping by to pick up a little writing help. You can also buy her how-to-write books online at Etsy.

You'll find me and all my fellow writers at Waterloo Public Square from 2-8PM. 

Thursday, May 29, 2025: Waterloo Public Library

Waterloo Public Library main branch is hosting a local author event, where authors from Waterloo Region will showcase up to three of their own books. Ample free parking is available on site, and bus riders can access the library via GRT route 7 or LRT.

I'll have the first book of Between Worlds and the first two books of Love on Belmont with me.

Saturday, April 12, 2025: Heffner Spring Show

Spending the afternoon at the family business that has helped me so much in life is always a blast. I’ll have both series with me: Between Worlds and Love on Belmont. I'll also have my sale bin with me, where many previous prints are $5 each.

Other vendors include Scentsy, Live Forward Apparel, Inspired Cardz by Jacqueline, Sylvie Stamps, and many more! Full list of vendors is avaialble here.

Time: 10AM–3PM

Address: Heffner Toyota building, 3131 King St. E., Kitchener, ON

Saturday, March 29, 2025: Indigo Kitchener

Once again, I’ll be at Indigo’s by Fairview Mall! The focus this time will be Love on Belmont. The fourth book is in the works, and if all goes well, it’ll be out by Christmas. So…if you’re lagging behind on the series, or want to grab signed copies for a friend or family member, drop by!

And, as always, if you bought your books elsewhere, even on Amazon, and would like them signed, do drop by. I love getting to know readers in person.

Time: 12PM–4PM

Address: Indigo Kitchener, 225 Fairway Rd S Unit CRU-04, Kitchener, ON

I hope to see you out this spring!

“Books with strong women” receives an estimated 350 search a month in the Amazon US store. “Stories about strong women” currently returns an estimated 1,200 searches a month. The same with “strong women characters fiction.” But what is a strong woman? Because if there are strong women, there must be weak women, right?

What I Used to Think “Strong Woman” Meant

My childhood was marked by 80s Feminism, which carried over into the 90s. In those days, women appeared to try to be like men:

• shoulder pads that altered the look of a woman’s body
• statistics that compared the economic worth of a woman’s household work to a man’s employment
• women with the same strength as men (generally in the superhero/comic book genre)

TV shows that placed women in traditionally men’s roles:

• Angela Bauer as a marketing executive with a male housekeeper
• She-Ra, rebel fighter against the Horde, whose voice deepened when she transformed from Princess Adora (cute name) to She-Ra
• Claire Huxtable, a lawyer
• Katherine Janeway, captain of the starship Voyager

I’m sure you could add many more to that list. And women need to continue pressing into roles that are traditionally male, such as in construction, automotive, and software development.

However, there’s pushing into careers and roles that are traditionally done by men, and there’s trying to “act like a man.” Although related, they are different.

What a Strong Woman Might Mean Today

Trying to settle on a definition of what makes a woman strong presented a host of problems for me. Was it simply women who fought against the grain? But how does that apply to women who choose to run a household and raise the kids, which are traditionally female roles?

Do strong women have a high amount of self-confidence? Then what about the women dealing with abuse and unable to find a way out of their situation?

Do strong women have ample muscle mass, a physical sign of strength? Maybe. But how does that apply to women who genetically don’t produce a lot of muscle, who may be disabled, or who simply hate lifting weights?

Do strong women shout from the rooftops to stand up for themselves? Some absolutely do. Others build their resistance to inequality quietly. (Of course, some people will argue that the latter group is more “ladylike” than the former. Don’t get me started on that! It’s a topic for a different time.)

The only conclusion I can come to at this point in my life is that “strong woman” means a woman who decides for herself. She will likely pull in opinions from others to help her gain a broader perspective of whatever she’s trying to solve, but she will come to that decision on her own.

Strong Women in Books

This is why all my female protagonists are strong women:

·       14-year-old Juliana Roth from Between Worlds does her best to cope with a move halfway across Canada. Over time, she learns how to take control of her own destiny despite the changes happening to her.

·       14-year-old Elisabeth, a teen in the aftermath of World War I, wishes to choose her husband for herself (against the will of her family), and learns that what we today call mental illness is not a punishment from God.

·       40-something Pauline, a weightlifter, jogger, gymnast, and professional sports mascot, has no problems entertaining thousands—even millions—while in costume, but at the beginning of Tea Shop for Two, she goes silent when she has to address a few dozen tea lovers as herself.

·       40-something Tracy, best friends with Pauline, tries to balance the seismic changes in her family while parenting her disabled teen.

·       Claire, whom we follow from when she opens her own business in the 1960s in her 20s, to her 70s, when she retires, has survived spousal abuse and discrimination, but also raised her family while running her business.

Writing About Strong Women in Books

As I write my novels, I try to avoid creating strong women in the image of men. Instead, I put them into situations that call on them to trust their truth and rise to the occasion. Sometimes this involves gender-bending, as with Pauline. Other times, it involves women in traditionally female roles as mothers pushing the world to accept them as they are while they raise their family, like Claire.

Books with strong women shouldn’t relegate themselves to a single definition: a woman with male qualities who fights. We can most definitely include this woman in our arsenal of strong women, but we can’t forget the women who move quietly through life at their own pace, doing their best to do what’s right.