Welcome to Victoria

Let me take you on a tour of the beautiful city where I live.

I love Victoria so much, I used it as the setting for my novel, Boom! Listen to Your Heart.

Victoria is an unusual Canadian city, primarily because of its geographic location. It’s actually located in a sub tropical region. I have palm trees growing in my yard! It’s also one of Canada’s oldest cities, rising to prominence during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Lining up for licenses to go to the Klondike

Miners wanting to go to the Klondike had to obtain a license in Victoria.

Tourism is one of Victoria’s main industries, mainly because of its climate, but also its history. It was at one time reputed to be more English than England. It’s also been called the city of “the newly wed and nearly dead" because of the large number of people who retire there.

The iconic Empress Hotel is a recognized symbol of the city, a national historic site. Click on the link to read more about its history.

While I’ve enjoyed High Tea many times there, I didn’t use the hotel in my book.

Nor did I include the famous Parliament Buildings. And having my hero and heroine take a ride in a horse drawn carriage might have been a good idea!

Well known places I did use include the Lieutenant Governor’s mansion and Craigdarroch Castle, both located in Rockland, a well-to-do neighborhood of Victoria. This is the area where I set the MacLure mansion that is the focal point for the suspense part of my story. Samuel MacLure was an architect and you can read more about the homes he designed here.

Government House

Craigdarroch Castle

Other landmarks I used include Russell’s book store, a well known bookseller on Fort Street, and Simply the Best, a small store on Broad Street where you can buy an amazing array of high quality merchandise, including Mont Blanc pens (my heroine purchases one).

I’ve often enjoyed great pizzas at Romeo’s, a mainstay of Victoria’s Italian eateries. I set one of my pivotal scenes there.

And of course you can’t have a story that moves from Victoria to Vancouver without including BC Ferries.

The main thing I like about my city is its size. It’s the capital city of British Columbia, but because it’s located on an island, it hasn’t fallen victim to urban sprawl. Everything is within easy reach, including the bigger cities of Vancouver and Seattle. Traffic jams are rare and short lived. It has a small town feel with a big city’s opportunities for culture and entertainment.

If you’ve never visited, we’d love to welcome you, and if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who’ve enjoyed our city, come on back.

My hero and heroine, Michael and Jessie would be proud if you experienced their city through the pages of their love story.

Ay Chihuahua!

I often introduce pets as characters in my novels, and Boom! Listen to Your Heart is no exception. This time the hero owns two Chihuahuas.

Actually, his ex-wife owns them, but he still takes care of them from time to time. The dogs bring the hero and heroine together in the book—sort of!

Jessie gets roped in to “rescuing” Minnie and Maxie from Michael’s back yard when the ex-wife fails to take them to a kennel as promised, and Michael is on holiday in Panama. She’s never met Michael (at least she doesn’t think she has) and doesn’t like dogs, but Michael’s brother is her literary agent, and so she does it as a favor to him.

Trouble is she feels sorry for the dogs and overfeeds them. Consequently when Michael returns, he has to forfeit a large entry fee for a dog show. Minnie and Maxie no longer qualify for the 6lbs weight limit!

Jessie names the dogs Binky and Bonky because their dog tags provide only a phone number.

Here’s an excerpt when she first goes to Michael’s house to pick up the dogs. She has successfully disarmed the alarm that she didn’t expect, so her nerves are on edge. She goes in search of dog dishes.



When a search of the kitchen proved fruitless, she hesitantly opened several cupboards, looking for something to put dog food in. Whoever this guy was, he seemed to live a bare-bones existence. There were three plates, mugs, a couple of small cooking pots, a frying pan, beer and wine glasses—that was about it.

She glanced around, hesitant to pry into the rest of the house. The dogs yipped, yapped and growled. They’d sensed someone was in the house. She peeked into what was probably meant to be a cozy den. A large home gym that looked like a medieval torture device, a stationary bicycle, and a rack laden with weights almost filled it. The room even smelled like a gym.

“Huh! A jock! Might have known,” she murmured derisively.

French doors led on to the patio and the backyard. Two dogs had their paws up on the glass, teeth bared, snarling menacingly. She snorted a giggle—Chihuahuas, for goodness sake. What kind of man had two Chihuahuas? Not exactly a manly dog.

She’d sooner walk on hot coals than venture into that yard without dog food. The dishes were just outside the door—licked clean.

She hurried back to the kitchen and grabbed the bag of dog food. She fumbled with the foolproof re-closable bag, finally ripping it open. Some spilled on the floor. “Shit!”

She poured food into the frying pan, holding her breath against the unpleasant odor. Then she ventured to the French doors, unlocking one quickly and yanking it open. This evidently surprised the dogs. They jumped back, ears perked. She leaned out to put the pan on the ground, grabbed the empty dishes, and retreated back into the den, slamming the door.

The dogs attacked the food, tails wagging. Jessie swallowed the lump in her throat, her heartbeat thudding in her ears.

She walked back to the kitchen in a daze, and slumped on to a kitchen chair. “Cheap vinyl,” she murmured. “This man has no taste.”

When her breathing slowed, she washed out the dog dishes, filling one with cold water, the other with more food. She ventured back to the French doors, trying not to spill water. Every scrap of food had disappeared from the frying pan. The Chihuahuas waited expectantly, snarling when they caught sight of her, though they didn’t look quite as vicious.

“Hello, puppies. Did Daddy leave you all alone? The uncaring jerk.”

She put the water dish on the floor and opened the door a crack. Before she knew what was happening, the dogs had squirmed through the opening and rushed into the den, heading straight for the water dish. Who knew little dogs had such strength?

They drained the bowl dry in two minutes while she put the food dish outside. “Poor things. You were dying of thirst.”

Two doggy heads swivelled to look at her, ears pricked up, sharp teeth bared—miniature hounds from hell. Fear constricted her throat. It was ridiculous. Combined they were no bigger than her purse, and she was afraid of them. If only she knew their names. She swallowed hard and bent to offer her hand for them to sniff, hoping they wouldn’t tear off her fingers. They barreled past her on their way to the food dish.

Buying Men's Undies with a New Lover

Here's a cute excerpt from Boom!
Michael and Jessie have decided the underwear they've worn for years isn't sexy and that their new relationship needs something with more oomph!

Michael and Jessie went to The Bay to shop for underwear. She’d picked up packages of generic briefs for both husbands, but had never bought undies with a man before.
Visions of Michael in a skimpy thong filled her brain.
First, they headed for the shelves with the shirts. “I’ve developed a fetish for buying shirts,” he admitted. “I’ve bought over a hundred since Linda left.”
“I noticed your closet was rather full,” she teased. He was deliberately delaying the underwear buying, knowing she was excited about it.
He quickly picked out a shirt in the right size, then headed for the tie racks. “My problem is I have no trouble choosing a shirt, but I can never find the right tie.”
Jessie worked her way through the ties, pulling out one or two she thought might be suitable. She lay them one at a time on the front of the shirt he’d picked out, knowing which one she would select if it was up to her.
“Which would you choose?” he asked, scratching his head.
She pointed.
He grinned, planting a kiss on her forehead. “Perfect! Now for the undies.”
He handed the shirt and tie over to a clerk. “Can you hang on to these? My lover and I are headed over to the men’s underwear department.”
Ignoring the woman’s rapid blinking, he made a beeline for the Calvin Klein display.
“Black?’ he asked, holding a bikini thong in front of his crotch.
Heat shot through her. “Nice,” she murmured.
“What size do you think I am?”
Her tongue seemed to be glued to the roof of her mouth. “Large, I’d guess.”
He smirked, hunting through the bin. “Only large, eh? Not XL? Okay. I’ll try them on, to be sure.”
She trailed after him to the dressing room, her face on fire. The female clerk took one look at him, then spied the underwear. She smiled seductively, but her smile turned to a glare when she realized he wasn’t alone.
Jessie glared back.
You wanna fight me for him? Huh? Huh?
“I’ll wait here,” she declared.
The clerk led the way into the change rooms, reminding him, as she glanced at his groin, to keep his own underwear on when he tried the Calvin Klein.
Jessie made a show of being interested in the racks near the dressing rooms, but the breath wooshed from her lungs when she looked up three minutes later to see Michael standing in the doorway wearing only the Calvin Klein and a seductive smile, his hands out at his sides, as if to say, “What do you think?”
The clerk bustled over, looking irritated, but he held up his hand, stopping her in her tracks. “I’m buying them anyway. Just want my lover to see them.”
The well designed underwear hugged the bulge at his crotch beautifully. The bikini style revealed a tantalizing glimpse of pubic hair. Jessie couldn’t take her eyes off him. Neither could a handful of women who happened to be walking by.
He turned. “How about from the back? Look okay?”
She might faint. Her heart was pounding, pounding. “Very nice,” she croaked. “Are they comfortable?”
Hell’s bells! Now she was talking like his mother.
He winked at her over his shoulder, a big grin on his face. “Very.”
“Let’s get a dozen.”

Amazon