Tell us about your book: What was your inspiration? Were there overarching themes you felt compelled to explore?

I was inspired to write about my tour in Afghanistan after I came home in 2006 and this resulted in the strict accounting of events and combat actions described in my first book, What the Thunder Said: Reflections of a Canadian Officer in Afghanistan (2009). This book is a war story of a logistics unit.  It is all about the “up and out” experiences of my battalion. 

Those familiar with Farley Mowat's writing know him as a defining and controversial force in the literature of Canada's wild spaces and wilderness. Fewer may know how he holds similar sway in historical writing on Canada's Second World War experience.

What happened in Kandahar province between 2006 and 2011? It turned out to be the longest campaign in Canadian military history but no official records will be available to the public for some time. The only way to understand what happened is to talk to the soldiers who were there.