I love learning new things, and this was a great weekend to do so.

First off, I watched a BBC documentary – Nelson’s Carribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Naval Graveyard Uncovered – and learned the following facts:

1) Faced with a choice of committing all their Royal Navy resources to fighting the Americans in The Revolutionary War or protecting their lucrative West Indies sugar-trade, the British government decided their priority was the latter rather than the former.  (They never taught us THAT at school!)  Had Britain chosen to concentrate on war with the US rather than sugar and rum, history could have turned out very differently. Hmmm.

2) There are no rivers in Antigua therefore all water comes from ‘the sky’ and must be collected in specially designed water-chambers.

3) Although many – many – sailors in the West Indies died from tropical diseases, the majority probably died from lead poisoning from the bottles containing the rum they drank.

But the most important thing I learned this weekend came from an Alberta Romance Writers’ Association workshop. It turns out there’s a whole new genre of fiction out there! Boomer-Lit. Who knew? But it makes absolute sense, doesn’t it?

There are millions of boomers out there and they want to read about themselves.

Check out this Goodreads site for more info – and happy writing!

(And reading!)