WHITBY AUTHOR DOUG HALL IS 93 AND STILL WRITES EVERY DAY

Murder Unchained is Douglas Hall’s newest novel

Durham author Doug Hall and his wife Joyce have a rhythm that comes easily after 68 years of marriage.

Doug, 93, spends about half of the workday putting his ideas to paper, and Joyce 89 edits his pages – a relaxed but steady routine that has helped the author put out more than 25 books.

“Of course we miss the odd day,, he said, “We try to keep on schedule.”

Doug’s latest novel “Murder Unchained”, follows private investigator Paul West on acase that seems easy at first, but takeshim into one of the most complex cases in a long and illustrious career – to Ebony River, a small town on Vancouver Island, where he finds a two-year unsolved murder for which he goes undercover to help solve.

Doug dedicated the bookto Joyce, noting she encouraged him to choose the plot that he ran with because it had a strong woman in it.

“Her encouragement, love, and unstinting help made this a book that hopefully will hold the reader to the last page,” he wrote.

Joyce can also be thanked for giving her husband the push he needed to write fiction in the first place.

Doug was Senior Press Officer for IBM Canada Inc. for over seven years before moving on to broadcasting for a 33-year career as a television and radio personality. Doug was traveling for work when he told his wife he’d like to write a book one day.

She said, “Why don’t you do it now?”

“Sometimes that’s all you need is a push,” he said.

And he did, starting “The Brittle Thread” by punching out words on his electric typewriter when he was on the road in 1968.

More than 30 years later, Joyce, a retired registered nurse, encouraged her husband to make writing his full-time job.

“We can have a great life,” he said.

Both retired, they traveled to England and took two trips on The Orient Express.

The former Pickering residents moved to Whity, but their writing routine remains the same.

Doug doesn’t suffer from writer’s block and plots his books out well in advance.

“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and something will come to mind and, I’llget up and write it,” he said. “Normally I have it all laid out.”

The people he meets inspire his characters.

“Ever since I started in broadcasting and radio, I watch people and I take the good and the bad from them, he said.

Paul West is loosely based on the couple’s son-in-law.

Doug who writes books every nine months or so currently has several plotted and another mystery on the way “Murder In

Season.”

“Murder Unchained is available online at Indigo and on Amazon

By

Kristen Calis

Metroland Media

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