You know you're an obsessed writer when you happily spend twelve or more hours a day, including weekends, working. While you're soaking in a tub or reading in bed, you flag important passages in books with sticky notes. Over dinner, you enthrall (or bore) your family with all the fascinating bits of information you've discovered that day. And when you're cooking meals, doing laundry, or lying awake in the middle of the night, you're thinking about characters and plotlines. But, of course, it isn't work. It's an adventure!

I relish sitting down at the computer every day, wondering where my characters are going to take me. They are best friends, anxious to have their stories told, impatient when I don't have time for them. I start out with a vague idea of plot and relationships, but their strong personalities and the chemistry that happens between characters usually sideline my ideas, and they take over. In retrospect, their way always seems so natural and inevitable, so I'm delighted to give them free rein.

I'm obsessed with places as well. They inspire me. From the moment I first set foot in Muskoka, I became enchanted by the sparkling granite, fragrant pine forests, and intriguing history of these island-dotted lakes only 100 miles north of Toronto, Canada. Hewn out of the Precambrian Shield by glaciers eons ago, these pristine lakes became the playground of the wealthy and adventuresome over a century ago.

How easy it is to imagine the Age of Elegance in Muskoka, when people travelled from American as well as Canadian cities by train and then steamships to savour carefree summers at resorts and lakeside vacation homes known as "cottages". The tradition continues today, although most people no longer have entire summers free to frolic on the lakes, nor a houseful of servants to cater to them - well, unless you're Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, or some of the other celebrities who now own cottages in this civilized wilderness.

Just look at how glorious the lakes are! Like some of my characters, my soul hungers for them, my body longs for the silken caress of the warm(ish) water. OK, I'll stop there.

Now let me explain about DOCK SPIDERS! For the uninitiated, an adult dock spider can be about the size of a splayed hand! (No guff! Google "dock spider" and you'll see photos and videos online.) They are more correctly known as fishing spiders, since that's what they do - prey on small fish and tadpoles as well as insects. So mostly they live near water, and can submerge themselves for 10 to 15 minutes when frightened. They can even "swim"! You can guess how they acquired their popular name, since they often live under docks.

Some people have cottaged all their lives and have never or rarely seen one, since the spiders are skittish. But you sure know when they are spotted. The usual expletive is "Holy sh**!" even from people who are not normally bothered by spiders. Having already seen several of these tentacle-legged, menacing monsters while we were staying at this particular resort (not represented by this photo), I was understandably cautious. They like to sun themselves on the rocks too, and wow, can they move fast!

My reference to a dock spider in The Summer Before The Storm is definitely symbolic.

Evenings at the "dock spider" resort were spent like most others, with me doing research.

I'm fascinated (obsessed) by our rich social history, so reading the 170+ books that I used for my first two "Muskoka Novels" was no hardship, other than writer's cramp from the hundreds of pages of notes I made.

You should see my office when I'm heavily into research - scores of books, bristling with colourful sticky notes, piled and strewn across my desk, hogging the futon, and overflowing the bookcase. I have to confess an addiction to buying books, so many of these tomes are mine, but they are augmented by the dozen ever-changing ones from the university library.

It's important to me to get the facts right, since my mandate is to enlighten while I entertain.

But it's also immense fun to recreate an era as accurately as possible.

Lazy, fun days at the cottage.
Both are by Frank W. Micklethwaite, taken in Muskoka in 1905 and 1909 respectively.

For the CD accompanying The Summer Before The Storm, Bill completed an unfinished work begun in 1902 by famous ragtime composer Joseph F. Lamb. As serendipity would have it, the tune was entitled "Muskoka Falls: an Indian Idyll". Here are the Muskoka Falls.

During my research, I came across "Perfessor" Bill Edwards' website, and was impressed by his masterful renditions of the popular music of the World War I era. It helped me to immerse myself in the mindset of that time. Appropriate lyrics of popular songs are used for dramatic effect in my novels, and in character and relationship development. So I thought it would be fabulous to have companion soundtrack CDs of just the music I used in the novels.

I emailed Bill with the idea and he embraced the project wholeheartedly. In fact, for the latest novel, Elusive Dawn, I happened to mention to Bill that one of my characters wrote a hit Broadway musical. He asked me if I had any lyrics for the signature tune, so I sent a few lines that had been playing around in my head. He expanded those into a song in the style of the era, and has recorded it for the CD! I just love how fact and fiction intertwine!

That's why I also use real people in my novels, like Nancy Astor, Lord Beaverbrook, Billy Bishop, and John McCrae. They add a greater sense of reality, but the challenge is to make them true to themselves, so even for a cameo appearance by a real person, I often get caught up reading an entire biography (or three). But it's all so interesting!

With the overwhelming wealth of information available, so much of it at my fingertips on the Internet, it becomes incredibly difficult to stop researching. I had to quit participating daily in the Great War Forum or my latest novel would never have been finished.

One of the perks of research is going on location so that I can truly experience and accurately describe the scenery. My husband agrees that having relevant areas to visit makes travel more interesting.

In the middle of dreary February last year, I was pondering what the areas of France where my characters work and play really looked like. I can only derive so much information from books, photos, and even Google Earth. So I mentioned to my family that I thought it absolutely essential that we visit France - in the springtime. No surprise, I expect, that they fell in with the plan.

I discovered that the north coast of France was much more beautiful and dramatic than I had envisioned, so my joy in being there was not only professional, but also personal.

Mind you, we also went to the Riviera, where one of my characters owns a villa. And I found the perfect cove for it, as you can see here.

The Cote D'Azur could easily become a new obsession!

Travel has its moments, of course.

This visit to Dud Corner Cemetery had a personal note as well - my husband's great-uncle is buried here. He died in the battle of Loos at age 21, and looks heartbreakingly young in the photo we have of him in his officer's uniform. The enormity of the sacrifice of this young and idealistic generation can only begin to be understood when you visit some of the hundreds of Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries that are scattered throughout northern France and Belgium. The largest, Tyne Cot at the site of the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium, contains nearly 12,000 graves with an additional 35,000 names inscribed on the Memorial to the Missing.

We eventually found Dud Corner, as you can see.

The obsessed writer and her daughter on location on the Riviera. Now that's what I call research!

But I think that even a GPS device wouldn't have helped. When we first arrived in Paris, our taxi driver couldn't locate our hotel, despite the instructions from the sultry voice of his GPS. We kept going around the same large block until my husband pulled out our map and suggested that, in order to access the narrow, one-way street where our hotel was located, the driver would do best to go a block further north than Miss Know-it-all directed. In that way we weary, jet-lagged travellers finally arrived at our destination.

Before that, however, we had a bizarre moment on our fifth or sixth go-round when six militaristic traffic (?) cops pulled over our taxi, stationed armed men fore and aft, questioned the quaking driver, examined his papers, and searched the trunk. There was not a smile from anyone to crack the tense atmosphere. How delightful then to be received so warmly by our hosts at the Albe Hotel, where we were offered a free (!) breakfast while our room was being prepared.

We didn't realize how special that was until we had to start paying for things. Like 7 Euros (almost $12) for a cup of (bad) decaff coffee, which I thought was included with the 12 Euro breakfast, as regular coffee was. (This was not at the Albe, but at a countryside inn.)

Ahhh, the joys and vagaries of travel! I can hardly wait for the next "business" trip.

Book 3 will be set in the 1920s - in Muskoka, of course. And probably Cap d'Antibes, Paris, London, New York… See where I'm going with this?

NEW! See a trailer for The Muskoka Novels on YouTube

I just discovered another manifestation of my obsession. During my four years of work on The Summer Before The Storm and Elusive Dawn, I did so much research on the Great War that I felt I just couldn't leave it all behind without sharing some of the more intriguing and surprising facts. So I created a new website - 4yearsofWW1

March 31, 2009:
And yet another obsession! I discovered a fabulous site for bibliophiles called Goodreads, where you can list all your books, rate them, review them, share them with friends, create book groups, find out what other people are reading, get recommendations for books, and so on. I've already spent days inputing some of my books (most are packed at the moment for a move), writing and reading reviews, creating a blog, making book friends, etc. Wow is this site addictive when you love books! If you are or become a member, will you be a "fan" or "friend"?

April 1, 2009:
OK so I've finally created a real Blog. Drop in!

August 18, 2009:
Not to be outdone, one of my characters has created a website "blog" of sorts which she calls "In My Life".

Thanks for visiting The Obsessed Writer, Gabriele Wills. You can find out more about my books at theMuskokaNovels.com . Well, I'm going back to work now - the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, and all that jazz… But you can always contact me at info@mindshadows.com

Muskoka chairs just waiting for us!

The video clips on YouTube are taken from the raw footage that my daughter, Melanie Wills, has filmed for her documentary, "Not Quite Famous". Visit doublehelixcreations.com for more info.