🍁 Oakville to Wawa with my longtime friend Doug Ball, the award-winning photographer behind iconic images of Stanfield and Trudeau!

Spectacular Lake Superior scenery, with Thunder Bay ahead. 🇨🇦

And research for a future George Ryan thriller!

#BookSky #GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#AuthorsLife

I love Eire's west coast, but Kilkenny feels like home.
Summer meant my mum's old farmhouse, hurling, ruins with my grandpa & banshee stories from my gran, who said I'd return to Ireland to live one day.
I didn't.
But George Ryan did.
Maybe she was right.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

I studied archaeology, yet learned surprisingly little about the Indigenous trade/travel networks that existed here before Europeans arrived.
On Monday I'm heading to Thunder Bay to see the area for myself.
Research for my game &, perhaps, a future novel.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

🎙️ My 1st Podcast is live.

Episode 1: The Witch of Kilkenny and the River Goddess
Alice Kyteler, the 1324 Kilkenny witchcraft case, An Mórrígan, the River Nore and the older Irish beliefs behind the story.

🎧 Listen here: rb.gy/68oual

#BookSky #BehindTheAdventure
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Oisín returned from Tír na nÓg to discover centuries had passed and the Fianna were gone.
Legend, not archaeology.
Still versions were being recorded from storytellers in the 30s.
Archaeology asks what happened.
Folklore asks what people believed happened.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Before Northern Ontario had highways, it had water highways.
Lake Superior. The Kaministiquia. Lakes and portages travelled by Indigenous peoples long before fur traders arrived.
For my research trip, I need to stop following roads and follow the water.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

Thunder Bay was created in 1970.
Its story wasn't.
Anishinaabe history, ancient trade routes, the Kaministiquia, fur traders, railways, shipping and two rival cities all occupy the same landscape.
My Northern Ontario research list is growing quickly.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

A friend asked me to visit the Terry Fox Memorial in Thunder Bay.
That may have accidentally become a research trip.
I'm already building a game near Lake Superior and considering Northern Ontario for a future George Ryan novel.
Time to explore.

#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#Writing

Last stop on our Surf + Archaeology tour:Japan.
Pacific surf for George.
Jōmon settlements, ancient pottery, stone circles, kofun and maritime history for me.
This one's different.
We're actually planning to go.
Holiday or George Ryan research trip?
Both!
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

George Ryan in northern Spain?
Above ground: Bay of Biscay surf and a wild Atlantic coastline.
Below: Altamira and caves preserving art made tens of thousands of years ago.
Then imagine a storm exposing a new opening in the cliffs...
Yeah. This one works.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers

What if surfing IS the archaeology?
Huanchaco, Peru: Pacific waves and a 3,500-year tradition of fishermen riding reed caballitos de totora.
A few kilometres away? Chan Chan, capital of the Chimú.
This might be our best George Ryan location yet.
#BookSky
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#Writing

Morocco for a George Ryan adventure?

For George: Taghazout and Anchor Point.

For me: Amazigh history, ancient Atlantic trade, Phoenician connections, Roman purple dye and offshore islands.

Surf + archaeology strikes again.

#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#BookSky
#Writing
#AuthorsLife

Where should George Ryan go next?

Peniche, Portugal?

For George: Supertubos and world-class Atlantic surf.

For me: Neanderthals, Roman maritime archaeology, shipwrecks, pirates and a fortress.

Surf + archaeology.

Dangerous combination.

#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #BookSky
#Writing

Early 2025. Sitting aboard a 45' catamaran in Key West, I discovered the incredible history of Seymour Narrows and Ripple Rock, 4,500+ km away.

Eventually I asked the dangerous question:

What if?

And it found its way into The Tofino Deception.

#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#BookSky
#Writing

I came home from Orkney.
The research didn't.
The Orkney Archaeology Festival starts this week, with researchers discussing new work and new questions.
Meanwhile I'm writing The Orkney Reliquary.
Apparently "research finished" is fiction too.

#Orkney
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#BookSky

A man in Denmark started building a patio.
He accidentally found 18.5 kg of Viking silver.
The archaeologist in me asks: Who buried it, and why?
The novelist asks:
What if one object didn't belong?
That's usually where George Ryan gets into trouble.
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers
#BookSky

About 37 years ago in Australia, I learned to surf. I haven't surfed in more than 30 years.
George Ryan apparently didn't get the memo.
Funny how characters inherit pieces of your life, then go off and do considerably more with them.
#GeorgeRyanArchaeologicalThrillers #AuthorLife #Writing #Booksky