Sue Hincenbergs’s debut novel The Retirement Plan tells the story of three couples in their early sixties who’ve been friends for a long time. Years before the story starts, the husbands – without consulting the wives - bet their combined savings on an investment, planning to retire and go south on the money the investment will make. Only, it’s the investment that goes south and they all lose their savings.

When the wives learn the husbands have taken out seven-figure life insurance policies, they decide to hire a hitman to murder their husbands, and retire on the life insurance payouts. Meanwhile, unknown to the wives, the husbands have a plan of their own to make back the money they lost. That is - if they can survive their planned murders.

My main character Marcie Blanchard had evolved from a woman who suffered from a crippling lack of self-confidence, to a self-assured hero willing to put her life on the line to protect her loved ones. All I had to do was wrap it up and send Marcie off into the sunset, so to speak. But the plot in the final chapters wouldn’t gel. I was missing something. I spent weeks (!) writing, rewriting, and deleting the last few thousand words of my book.

Nothing worked. Until, that is, we took a sailing trip on Labour Day weekend.

Sara Marsala is miserable. Her restaurant has gone under; she’s been forced to file for bankruptcy; her husband is divorcing her; and Sara has no idea how she’ll provide for their four-year-old daughter. To make matters worse, Sara’s great aunt Rosie – a woman who helped raise Sara - has just died. At the funeral, Sara is given a letter from Rosie – written before she passed – with Rosie’s last wish. Would Sara investigate a one-hundred year old murder: the murder of Rosie’s mother, and Sara’s great-grandmother?

Dogs in fiction often play a companion character role. Sometimes they are the protagonist’s chief protector. Sometimes, their role is to play a source of goodness in a dark world.

I think all these roles are valid. I’m going to add another one.

Yoodles is the name of the dog in my debut novel, How the Invisible Woman Learned to Fly. I’d call him a major character: he lives with my protagonist Marcie and her son Ip. Yoodles is a source of goodness, a companion for Marcie, and a protector.

But Yoodles plays another important role in the narrative as well. He refills Marcie’s tank.

Let me explain.