I’m Canadian.

We’re a unique bunch of people, and our country is far from perfect, but we do have a few things we’re really proud of:

1. Universal health care. That means I just walk into a doctor’s office and get seen and treated without ever paying a cent, or wondering about insurance. EVER.
2. We’re multicultural. We have so much space that we’re more than happy to share! As long as the newbie is polite, they fit in just fine.
3. We’re polite. It’s our thing. We live by it, travel by it, and are humiliated country-wide when one of our athletes shows poor sportsmanship.

I had to get over my Canadian politeness in order to write romances. Because Canadians talk between the lines. We’re like the British that way. When we say, “Yeah, sorry, I can’t,” we really mean, “Nope, not a chance, don’t even ask again.”

We apologize for everything. You bump into me? I’ll say sorry. You scratch my car? I’ll probably apologize for interrupting you on your cell phone call before I point it out. But we all understand what’s between the lines.

I had to unlearn a lot of that in order to write romance. In romance, you have just say it, already! I can’t tell you how many times my editors used to point that out. I’d think I was clear as day when my heroine apologized for interrupting the hero and gave him a scathing look, and they had no idea what that meant! LOL!

Now there are a few times when a Canadian will lose their cool. And if that happens, you need to duck. They’ve been stuffing all that frustration down into the pit of their stomachs for decades, and if it finally blows, you’re in trouble.

The good news is, they’ll apologize profusely afterward. 😉