A Strange Child in a Strange Land

THE QUEST FOR THE ROSE  takes place in an alternative  world Canada, based on the Victoria of the early 1970's. I grew up there, like a stranger in a strange land, and many of the incidents in the book, althought 'fantasised'  are based on real experiences and local legends.
This, below, is Fan Tan Alley in China Town. We used to believe it was haunted, and in the 70's it was very dark and derelict. Urban myth told tales of boys on bikes who rode in...and never were seen again.
  I took acting lessons in one of the buildings there in the later 1980's; even though the area had been 'cleaned up', I never lingered after dark.
The workroom below the studios where I did my acting  are the basis for the rooms where the 'Refugees' hide in my story, safe from the evil Sestren...until infiltrated by traitors...

please check back here for more  article on this book and its background, or check OLORIS