The Joy of writing a Romance Novel

June 2, 2022

I am not alone, being a retired ex-journalist, political hanger on and PR guy, in that writing has been the backbone of my career.

How the tools of the trade have changed. I am old enough that my days writing various screeds go back to handwritten essays tapping on a portable Olivetti, to old Underwoods at the first paper I worked at, to the queen of mechanical typewriters the IBM Electric, to clunky desktops with Word Perfect to a series of laptops to my present HP Zbook. Always hunting and pecking I hate to admit.


Writing, writing, and more writing

But the output! Ponderous, overly wordy University essays, then local stories for the late Guelph Mercury under the inspiring tutelage of my Scottish city editor Vick who scrubbed my prose clean of all unnecessary blandishments, to scripts for TV shows at CBC and CTV, speeches for Pierre Juneau at the CRTC, to notes for Prime Minister Trudeau and press releases at the PMO, to talking notes and news releases  for Ambassador Alan Gotlieb in Washington, to my first published political commentaries for the Star and Ottawa papers when I returned to Ottawa. Then to endless materials and news releases, speeches and coaching lessons for executives, and other material for clients when I ran my own PR firm. I admit some of this stuff bordered on fiction since PR firms, while defending reputations, are really in the good news business. But I learned about convincing prose and the impact the spoken word can have. I did write deliberate short punchy quotes bound to make it into TV clips.


Meaningful Diaries

Then my wife and I had a child and I decided this was such a major event that I started writing a diary a few days after she was born – a full literary work which described the early days of her life, the Gatineau countryside where we lived for several years, our dogs and friends. My daughter, now a successful career woman over 50, loves to hear the account of the harrowing trip in a snowstorm to the hospital for her birth.  It will be her treasure. Then, every Saturday in Ottawa while I was at the PMO I followed the advice of a good friend who had told me to write a diary when I worked in the PMO. So, I spent a couple of hours handwriting as good a description of what had happened that week as I could. When I returned to Toronto I told an editor friend of mine about it and asked him to look at parts I’d typed up. He allowed, as there was a book in it, and I found a publisher and away we went. Close to the Charisma (McClelland and Stewart, 1986) was well-received and I made enough money from it to buy a fine French-Canadian armoire with some to spare. 


A New Venture

My first venture into real fiction took me from 1994 to 1996 to unravel what I hoped was a thoughtful series of yarns about a good man, an Anglican priest, Father Pat, as he deals with the world, the flesh and the devil in a very secular world. In a way I was writing about a life I almost had since I was to be a priest, went to seminary for a year and left it to be a journalist feeling my voice would be heard more effectively in that pursuit.  The Father Pat Stories (Dundurn 1997) came out when I was President of my PR company. My Rogers client threw a fine party. But neither I nor the family was thrilled with this fairly self-indulgent work. 


Retired, and felt I had to try another book. I certainly had time. It struck me during my daily walks with other dog people through a wonderful woodlot in South Aurora (yes, I had become a suburbanite) that this might be a great location and theme for a romantic novel. Something so full of love, dogs and positive emotions that it would be a real tonic to distract from the horrors of the daily news and Donald Trump. Almost no politics, the cast of my book would be vaguely leftish, but it would never come up. Loving sex only. Lots of dog stories and interaction. Cottage life where everyone is happy and there are no rules. This was inspired by the neat caring people with dogs I met daily in the woods. I even have dogs walking up the aisle with my two main characters who fall in love walking their dogs and get married. 


Good Therapy

Just think about pecking away at happy stories for days on end. New wife of a widowed man with a grown-up daughter becoming best friends with her. I highly recommend it as a life affirming activity. And if what ends up between covers is not much more than a Hallmark movie, so be it. Watching them makes millions of people feel better.  There is an end story which sets this book apart from regular romance novel fare. I discovered that alpha Wolves mate for life and that there are documented stories of one losing a mate and like elephants suffering real bereavement and showing it with pitiful howling. Hollie, the book’s chief character is a book illustrator and reads an Ernest Thomson Seaton book about a wolf called Lobo who dies of a broken heart when his mate Bianca is killed. She finds an Algonquin Park naturalist study of the Algonquin wolf who has written about a similar scene. That’s it. She decides to go to the park and spend time watching wolves and photographing them to be the basis for her own drawings for a story that follows a fictional pair who lose a mate. Love never dies becomes a theme, and the subsequent wolf story proves it for wolves and characters in the book. Slow Love which I self-published turned out to be the most satisfying piece of writing I have ever done. Try it. Best therapy ever. Write and imagine good things happening to your characters. What a thought! A total change from a lifetime of writing more “meaningful” stuff.


Patrick Gossage Insider Political Views

Two Opposites – Mark Carney and Donald Trump

By Patrick Gossage • March 12, 2026
One of the major differences between these two men is that Carney understands the value of well-thought-out strategy, abundantly clear in his Davos speech, which laid out one for middle powers to deal with the end of a rules-based international order and the rise of hegemony. Trump's lack of strategic understanding is clear in his bumbling attempts to justify the billion-dollar-a-day Iran war. His overall tactic of “flooding the zone” – mounting a new initiative or major announcement every day, or even several times a day to ensure press and opposition can never catch up. This tactic has served him well – confusing the world and his would-be opponents into submission under a valley of activity and harsh opinions from the leader of the world. Contrast this approach to leadership from Carney. He is systematically building a nation less dependent on US trade by travelling the world building new alliances and trading partners. And in the scare of Australia giving substance to his idea of alliances with middle powers. All laid out in the Davos speech. It is instructive to appreciate how much Trump was irritated by the Davos speech. Carney got a standing ovation; Trump’s rambling lengthy diatribe did not. He won’t soon forget being so upstaged. He surely recognized an intellectual power he could never match. Carney is a realist and pragmatic when he stated recently “We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.” He is dealing with the world that is being reshaped by an irrational power-mad president, a world the powerful Stephen Miller said “that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.” Does Carney sometimes err on the side of supporting Trump likely to ensure that critical talks on free trade and tariffs have some chance of finding a sympathetic ear? Yes; first he seemed to fully support Trump’s war with Iran. He later made his support more nuanced, saying Trump’s actions were against the rules-based international order. He now says we will not get involved unless a NATO ally is threatened. But generally, Carney is highly rational in contrast to Trump’s self-centered irrationality. Take Trump’s bizarre ill-informed letter to the Prime Minister of Norway, who had no role in deciding if he got the Nobel Peace Prize: “I no longer feel obligated to think purely of Peace (he subsequently engaged in an ever expanding war against Iran). He then reiterated his demand for “complete and Total Control, of Greenland. Thank you!”. His late-night rants, complete with caps, on social media show a mind out of control. Thay are dutifully reported on US news media and often astonish with their non sequiturs and nastiness. One of his more unpresidential quotes came as he fingered White House drapes: “I chose these myself. I always liked gold." The big question for Canadians who are more and more disillusioned with the antics of the President: could these two opposite ever sit down and do a deal that works for Canada. The two do text, and Carney has admitted that in private Trump does listen. But there is also evidence that the trade people in the White House do not like Canada, and as Trump has said, we owe our very existence to the US. And we are “difficult”. They have said that the current trade deal is not good for the US and could be trashed entirely and -deals with Mexico and Canada could be separate and the current trilateral deal may be dead.  Canada was at the brink of reducing the heavy sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, and lumber when Premier Ford’s unfortunate ads during the Rose Bowl that featured President Reagan speaking against the usefulness of Tariffs led To Trump suspending talks. They only recently resumed. So can our world-renowned businessman and banker hope to sit down with the unpredictable and unstable President and cut a deal? Some hope that if we extend talks, the President, weakened by the midterms, the bad economic fallout from an unpopular war, and the fragmentation of the MAGA movement may be easier to deal with. On the other hand he may badly need a “win,” bullying big concessions out of Canada and reaping so-cabled benefits from a weaker free trade deal. There is a scenario where Trump gets a black eye if Carney simply walks away with the conviction, perhaps easily shared with an increasingly nationalistic and confident Canada that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” In any case, what a decisive and challenging future we face with Canada at play. Can Carney win for Canada against his opposite by losing a deal?"

A New Canada to Fight for Our Survival

By Patrick Gossage • December 29, 2025
There has been nothing like the mobilization of our country since we went to war against Hitler “for King and Country.” Now we are mobilizing in a new war against Trump’s depredations with renewed patriotic fervour. Our building a resilient sovereignty against the word’s most irrational and powerful regime - who believe we have no right to exist - will require an enormous dedicated and concentrated effort to redefine our nation. . Make no mistake. We are not seen as important in Washington, a lesson I learned as the Minister of Information at our embassy in the Reagan years. Like Trump’s disparaging attitude to Justin Trudeau, Reagan had little use for his crusading father, Pierre Ytudeau. The difference is that with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney r Reagan actually became a key figure in establishing the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), signed in 1988. Ironically, it is precisely the success of this pact that led to 75% of our trade going to the US, a dangerous dependence which is now under extreme threat. The future of the successor to the FTA is at dtake. The US Canada Mexico Agreement (USMCA) is about to be renegotiated and is by no means secure. Bilateral trade discussions on the sectorial tariffs that are destroying our steel, automobile, aluminum and lumber industries were going well but were cancelled on October 23 after Trump, in a fit of pique was annoyed by Ontario TV ads using a Reagan clip to decry tariffs. Prime Minister Carney clings to the hope that these issues will be addressed in the context of the USMCA talks. They are supposed to begin in January. We live in hope. Make no mistake. Trump recently suggested that USMCA’s future was not certain. His strong belief that Canada would be better as a US state _ “and there would be no tariffs” – seems unshakeable. Perhaps the most striking evidence of what low repute Canada is held in the White House comes from Vice President Vance. He has publicly criticized Canada's our generous immigration policies, blaming them for the country's "stagnating" living standards and referring to our approach as "immigration insanity". Vance pointed to a chart from IceCap Asset Management showing that Canada's GDP per capita growth has fallen behind that of the U.S. and the U.K. in recent years. He argues this stagnation is a direct result of Canada's approach to immigration and not U.S. trade policies. He specifically targeted Canada's multiculturalism model, contrasting it with the U.S. "melting pot". Vance claimed that "no nation has leaned more into 'diversity is our strength’... immigration insanity “ than Canada". The White House recently released National Security Strategy (NSS) which also note how immigrants can destroy our democracies. Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist signaled this: “It cites activities by our sister European democracies that “undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence. “‘Should present trends continue,” it goes on, “the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less.” These views are totally inimical to Canadian values.  As is this, Trump’s most outrageous recent anti- immigrant outburst as reported by NBC : “For a second day in a row, President Donald Trump launched into a hate-filled rant against Somalia and Somali immigrants living in the US, saying they’ve “destroyed Minnesota” and “our country.” Minnesota, Trump said, is “a hellhole” right now. “The Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country.“ The NSC also can affect Canada in its focus on the Western hemisphere. an area to be dominated by US interests. The US will secure critical supply chains in its own interests; and insists on the right of the US to have access to “strategically important locations.” The US National Security Council is to identify strategic points and resources in the Western hemisphere with a view to their protection and joint development with regional partners. Obviously, Canada as a source of critical minerals, will be under US scrutiny. Some observers fear that Trump wants Canada to become a “vassal state”. A December Toronto Star editorial states coldly that “Thanks to Donald Trump, we know that nothing about our country is guaranteed anymore, not our sovereignty, our democracy, our prosperity.” We now know the Canadian policies standing in the way of a new USMCA agreement. US Trade representative Jamieson Greer said our online Streaming Act, which will make profitable US streaming services support Canadian programming is a major irritant as is our sacrosanct supply management regime for dairy and poultry products. These both are very difficult bargaining chips for Canada to play. Trump’s love affair with tariffs is unlikely to subside so Canadian products may continue to be frozen out of the US. Prime Minister Carney’s ambitious strategy of finding alternate markets for these may work. And his new policy framework for rebuilding a successful economy, major infrastructure projects and attracting important foreign investment is a significant redefinition of our national political priorities. He enjoys wide public support for his strategy which also receives good business and media support. There is already some optimism about the economy in 2026 - take Bank of Montreal’s recent outlook paper: “We’re looking for a stronger economy in 2026 than 2025. Consumer spending has helped prop up the economy. The “Buy Canadian” campaign has helped, and more people are travelling closer to home. Also, there’s no question that federal government spending has also supported economic growth. As we move into the latter part of the year—boosted by firmer economic growth and lower population growth—we expect the unemployment rate to fall in the second half. “Canada’s position in the trade dispute isn’t as bad as it appeared earlier in the year. The average Us tariff rate on imports of Canadian goods is between 6% and 7%, compared to the 17% rate the U.S. charges the rest of the world on average. (these rates are goods under the existing CUSMA) Sectorial tariffs are heavily focused on certain targeted industries, such as steel and aluminum, lumber, and auto imports and non-USMCA auto parts. These are important sectors, but they represent a relatively narrow slice of the economy. “ In addition there is good news on the overall trade front. Canada’s trade swung to a surplus of C$0.15 billion in September 2025 from a C$6.3 billion deficit the month before and well above expectations for a C$4.5 billion deficit, Exports rose 6.3 C$ 64.231 billion, the largest monthly increase since February. Nine of 11 product sections posted gains. Metal and non-metallic mineral product exports jumped 22.7% driven by a 30.2% surge in unwrought gold; aircraft and other transportation equipment rose 23.4% and crude oil exports climbed 5.8%. We just may have a more resilient economy than we thought. Nevertheless, we cannot count on Trump agreeing to a new trade regime that is as good as the original NAFTA – and the cost of reducing tariffs on key sectors may be too high, Trump’s love for tariffs and distain for us won’t change. We can only hope that a smart, well connected and determined Prime Minister can rebuild an economy that will be immune to the vagaries of our neighbour.
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