Setting - McGregor Point, Bruce County, spring maybe 2002… Jane and I are birdwatching from the Ducks Unlimited Viewing Tower. Kind of romantic. No one else around, right?

Shoot but doesn’t an obnoxious know-it-all birder show up. His goals - to correct us (‘it was a flycatcher not a phoebe,’ he notes with distain.) And to creep us out (‘are you nervous out here on your own?’)

When we finally shook loose from the meddler, Jane sidled close and whispered, ‘That guy’s a serial killer.’ I laughed. She laughed. Still, it made one consider - what did he have in store for us? Nothing obviously.

But many years on, the memory of Jane’s wisecrack sent me down the path to ‘Murder is One Option,’ my stage play. I think it’s pretty darned good and so I pitched my play to Blyth Theatre a couple days ago.

This Muskoka photo, taken by our daughter Beth, looks a little like our Tower marsh.