First and foremost, and as noted in my book's dedication, Correctional Service is probably the least understand and most often maligned public service. I wanted to give the public an inside look so they could make up their on mind.

Secondly, over my 39 year career it became obvious that, similar to most public services, at the end of every shift, every day, in every institute or probation/parole office, one staff member will look at another and say "You can't make this stuff up!" To which the other staff member would inviably respond, "We gotta write a book!"

So I did.

That is a tricky question.

First I had to wait until I was retired. Next I had to obtain permission through a "Conflict of interest" notification. As a public servant, I swore an oath to maintain confidentiality. That oath stays in place till death. So I had to make sure that although the book is inspired by my life's work, I had to make it fictional. The site of the story is fictional. The characters are fictional.

Although many of the activities and action created for the storyline are fictitious, any factual activities must be available in the public domain. That is, I'm not divulging precise details and procedures of the daily life of correctional staff. That was a lot of work.

The actual writing of the story took me about six months. Evaluating the manuscript, editing, re-vamping, seeking advice, researching publication routes etc. etc. took about three years.

At this point we have shipped books to as far away as Canada's east and west coasts. No orders from our northern territories (YET!) We have also shipped to the USA and the UK.

Shipping is a somewhat complicated process for such a small business as ours. Using a reasonable and Canadian company is very important to us. We looked into and considered several different shipping services, before making our selection. As you can imagine, shipping some orders is more expensive than others. In order to simplify the process, we decided on using on a flat fee of $15.

We have also incorporated a few other methods of delivering orders. We deliver local orders ourselves, or a local purchaser can choose to drop by to pick up their book. We do travel throughout southern Ontario quite often and if we end up near your address, we may be able drop off your order. Additionally, we recently completed a southern Ontario 'book tour' and personally delivered approximately 60 books!

This took me a while to decide and it was a complicated journey.

Firstly, I discovered that there are only about 30 literary agencies in Canada. As I am a novice writer with no immediate or wide ranging notability, getting the attention of an agent could take a few years and a lot of work.

For similar reasons, if I managed to sign an agent, it would then take that agent a few years to find a publishing company interested in taking me on as a client. So, I guess my impatience won out, and I decided to self publish.

Self publishing itself can be a challenging route. There are many pop-up companies promising the world, so you need to be cautious, ask questions, and seek advice from reputable sources and people you trust.

In addition to all this, self publishing can be expensive and you are responsible for all costs involved. Therefore, you need to be in a viable financial position to be able to invest in yourself. You also need to be confident not just in your product, but in your ability to market your product. If you're not experienced in marketing, that part of the venture can involve a lot of self-doubt, trepidation and missteps. Fortunately the self-publishing company I chose (Friesen Press) was able to provide guidance in that area as well.

Finally, I am lucky enough to be married to an incredible accountant who keeps me in check, and we have a couple of amazing adult children. Both of who are able to provide me with the necessary support in their own area.

Our son is not only a magician with his creating and editing video skills, but he is also an actual magician! (Website https://www.facebook.com/MagicByWest/)

Out daughter, on the other hand, has this incredible positive personality and the ability to engage people to help build and manage my 'Social Media Brand!' (Frankly I'm not even sure what that is yet...)