The year 2015 was beset with hardship and loss for me. On April 30, I was six days away from major surgery. And, as I would have no way of knowing, my father would pass away fewer than six weeks later.

That morning, I completed the manuscript for The King's Puzzle, Book 2, and sent it to my designer.

Then, for a couple of hours, I put aside the excruciating hip pain and supervised my sons in assembling a Muskoka chair for our deck.

There's no question that they were already abler than me at the actual work... the only purpose I served was as an advisor. And that's how it should be.

My philosophy of being a father of sons is that the torch of leadership should be passed on as soon as possible. Too many fathers vaunt their authority and status, when their sons are yearning to take leadership roles. Let the young men lead, I say, and the grey-haired oldsters step aside. So, that's why you see me here, in ridiculous Cookie Monster lounge pants, pointing out the odd thing here and there while the young fellows enjoy the pride of building something.

There are rewards for the old guys, you know. We may not get the glory of building the project when we surrender that role to younger, abler hands.

But we are rewarded the first chance to try out the new creation. In this case, a comfortable chair in which to pass away six weeks of painful recovery from hip surgery.