Christmas in My World

Seasons Greetings, everyone. I still find this a magical time of year - families and friends getting together for a meal, excited children waiting for Santa, and homes decked out in lights in the mid-winter darkness.

I caught the virus going around a couple of weeks ago (generously sharing it with Ted) and so was sick last week and missed blogging. We're both on the mend, and my sympathies go out to you if you also have come down with this flu/cold. Lots of tea and rest will get you through!

This has been a bit like Christmas in my book world. My copies of A Model Life (4th Anna Sweet) arrived in the Monday mail. I've signed a contract to write book five in the series, but it is not due until 2016.

I also received an e-mail through Facebook a few days ago from a Dundurn author that a box of Butterfly Kills arrived on his doorstep, obviously delivered to the wrong author. So difficult to know my copies are out there but I won't receive them for another week or so with the holidays shutting down Dundurn's office and warehouse. However, the author told me that the book looks great!

I'm working with an American publicist for the American release of Butterfly Kills at the end of February. I have a bit of homework to do as she's received requests from five blogs for me to post entries. I've completed two but have three to go. They're rather fun as each is asking different questions about me and my book. We're also getting nibbles from American reviewers, so keep your fingers crossed for good coverage.

Dundurn sent the electronic invitation for my February 8th Ottawa book launch to me and I'm waiting for Christmas to be over to send it out to all and sundry. I'm excited to have you read Butterfly Kills and to get your feedback. I think the story makes for a cracking good read :-) If you are in Ottawa, on Sunday, February 8th, come to Whispers between 2:00 and 4:00 pm and raise a glass with me to celebrate.

Writing time fell away with the week and a half of being sick, but I spent yesterday at the keyboard and am getting organized for the next chunk of the current manuscript I'm tackling. I've reached the 20,000 word mark and the writing momentum is starting to build. I find that I start slowly as I line up the ducks and then I go great guns, working on the story every spare minute. I used to worry that I was wasting time not writing at this point in the manuscript, but I've come to realize that this is part of my process.

Well, in amongst all this writing and publicity work, Ted and I visited with family and friends and prepared some big holiday dinners. Here are a few photos of our frivolity - I hope you are also taking time to enjoy time with family and friends and wish each of you a wonderful 2015 - Happy New Year, all!

This week passed in a haze of cold medication, tea and bad television as I battled a virus that is 'going around' as they say. But I'm on the mend, back at work yesterday and ready for a day baking and preparing for a big family dinner tomorrow night. Christmas season is back on my radar.

I was thinking this morning about Christmases when I was a kid. I have an older sister Donna who used to organize me and my younger brother Steven into staging a  yearly production of a play for our parents and the town mill manager and his wife every Christmas Eve. The year I remember most vividly was when the three of us acted out 'A Christmas Carol', adapted, directed and produced by my sister. I recall that my brother and I would get the odd lecture from my mother about cooperating (we had weeks of practices leading up to the day and we were siblings after all) but in the end, we put on quite the show. We might have been Broadway bound if we weren't living in a small northern Ontario town in the middle of nowhere.

We also made gifts for each other. The teachers at school always had crafts that involved making presents, often involving glitter and sparkles. Handmade candles, clay angels...but Donna, Steven and I would make more gifts at home. One time, we made a giant candy cane out of cardboard and filled it with gum because my dad had just quit smoking. The gift-making took hours of working in secret for that moment of hopeful delight when the offering was unwrapped. My parents always insisted it was the perfect gift. We knew it was.

Which leads me back to what I was thinking about when I woke up. The magic of this season, to me, is the little, unexpected moments of offerings from the heart. The sweetness of these moments stays with me years later. My youngest Julia wanted me to have more gifts under the tree one year - she must have been about four years old - so she wrapped up several pieces of paper so that I'd have lots of presents to unwrap.  My daughter Lisa spends hours finding us the perfect gift and always succeeding. Ted spent a good part of the day yesterday putting up lights on our front verandah and driving me home up our street after work to surprise me.

Yesterday, I asked the fellow ringing through my produce at Herb and Spice how to tell if a pineapple was ripe. I'd picked one with no idea but wanted it for our family Christmas dinner. The young produce guy then felt every pineapple they had to get me the best one and explained the best way to cut it.  A simple, unexpected act of kindness.

So, not much writing in this week although I will make 20,000 words in this manuscript by the New Year - 1/4 or the way through. Grass Roots Press has posted A Model Death - you can read the first chapter to get the flavour of these books.

The Season is in Full Swing

Fa la la la la
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Ted came with me to the Capital Crime Writers annual Christmas dinner, held this year at a fine little Italian restaurant named Tavola. We'd booked the entire restaurant for the evening, which came complete with a snowstorm raging outside, another tradition for our yearly get together. After dinner, my good friend and fellow crime writer Mary Jane Maffini introduced me as the guest speaker...

Then she began the interview...

And lastly, a short reading from Cold Mourning...

It was a lovely evening - good food, good friends and a lot of laughter. Thank you to Capital Crime Writers for the kind invitation.

I received word yesterday from Grass Roots Press that my copies of A Model Death are in the post! With Buttertly Kills being released by Dundurn in another month, I'm feeling a little bit of excitement in my belly. Both series are doing well although the audience is slightly different. Pat Campbell, Grass Roots publisher, tells me that they are making great inroads in the U.S. market and will be attending a couple of major American literacy conferences in 2015. Apparently, librarians are loving the books.

So today, it's buy the Christmas tree, put it up and decorate, along with make a trip to buy the Christmas wine and other spirits. My daughter Lisa is curling in Yorkton, Saskatchewan today in quarter finals at six this evening so all aiming to settle in and watch curling on TV periodically this weekend as well. Also, hoping to also get in some writing Sunday between one last trip out for gift-buying and baking cookies for a holiday work luncheon. Tis the season to be very, very busy. I best get this day underway. Good week, everyone.

Count Down to Christmas

A quiet week on the writing front but a busy week otherwise. I sent out my Christmas cards and started lining up plans for dinners and baking, gift-buying and decorating. Less than three weeks to go - I'm hoping to get organized enough that I glide into the holidays stress-free.

Ted and I still buy a real tree. When our girls were young, we'd drive into the country to a tree farm and chop down a tree. Then stop at a cafe on the way home for hot chocolate. The tree farm had a hill where the girls would spend their time sliding while Ted and I debated our choice. Now, we drive a few blocks to the Parkdale Market and select one pre-cut. Sometimes I don't even go if we're running short of time. Traditions are a moving target.

This Wednesday is the Capital Crime Writers Christmas dinner and I'm being interviewed by Mary Jane Maffini for the after dinner entertainment. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone - at last count we have fifty people signed up. Should be a fun evening.

I've been followint the podcasts for a show out of the U.S. called Serial that you might find as fascinating as I am. A reporter Sarah Koenig is re-examining all of the evidence that put 17 year old Adnan Syed away for life for murdering his ex-girlfriend. He's now 33 years old. Each week, Koenig brings another twist into her investigation and she doesn't tip her hand as to the outcome. She's just revealed that there will be a season two and she'll be taking on another case. Anyhow, if you start listening with podcast one, you'll likely become as hooked as I am. You're welcome.

So, I have a busy day ahead and supper tonight with friends. Time to grab one last cup of coffee and get myself into gear. I hope you also are keeping your head above water at this hectic time of year. Remember to take time out to put your feet up with a cup of tea every now and then. Everything that needs to get done will get done eventually :-)

The Egg Nog Helps

Nothing big happening this week and happy to see the end of dreary November. On to the excitement of the Christmas season.

I ventured out yesterday, 'Black Friday', to experience the day, and found the shopping busy but not crazy. I walked to the Rideau Centre at lunchtime and wandered through some of the shops on Richmond Road in Westboro after work. I've been a supporter of shopping local for a long time and always spend most of my Christmas dollars in my neighbourhood - this year is no exception.

Westboro, Wellington West into Hintonburg have great shops with unique gifts and it was lovely walking from one shop to another with darkness settling in and the temperature hovering just below freezing. I indulged in an egg nog tea latte toward the end of my tour before picking up supper to bring home at the Piggy Market. So, Black Friday was a relaxing shopping day in my world, unlike the screaming tug of wars over flat screen televisions that I saw on the news in some American and British stores. I wonder if the brawlers will ever see the irony?

You know, Butterfly Kills official release date in Canada is just two months away with the U.S. release slated for February 24. I've booked my Ottawa launch for February 8 and made up an invitation yesterday on Facebook, just to get the date and details out there. If you are able to come, you are most welcome.

I worked on a Q and A this week for a blog that will be posted in February in Omnimystery News. This took up some of my writing time although I still managed a few thousand words. I'm hoping to get more written this weekend. December is a tough month to buckle down. I'm at the point in the manuscript that I'm having to put a lot of mental energy into figuring out the plot and how it will unfold. I keep wishing for a few weeks to concentrate on the book alone, but my reality is that I only have snippets of time - usually after a full day of work.

Ah well. My grumbles are small stuff in comparison to the tough problems others have to deal with. I'm thankful for my full and happy days...and I got a good jump on my Christmas shopping so see some relaxing time ahead...with more egg nog and time with family and friends.

Keeping Ispired

Ted and I caught the morning train to Toronto last Saturday and arrived a few hours before I was to appear at Inspire International Book Fair at the Metro Centre, which happens to connect to Union Station and the hotel where we were staying by skywalks. My pal Dawn Rayner going back to Lakehead University days met us and trucked around with me to the book fair and then out for dinner afterwards. She also bought some copies of Cold Mourning for Christmas presents - Dawn remains one of my steadfast supporters and friends :-)

My panel ran from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. with a signing afterwards. We had a decent audience both sitting and standing listening as the hour unfolded. Steven Beatiie from Quill and Quire moderated the panel and kept it running smoothly. He'd obviously read all of our books and had insightful questions.

 R.J. Harlick, Barbara Fradkin and me signing books after the panel

 And the other panelists Nick Wiltshire and David Poulsen with their mysteries

A view of the main stage

 

We were four authors from Ottawa and David Poulsen was the only exception and hails from Calgary. Nick Wiltshire is a lawyer who also works for the Department of Justice as do I although we hadn't met before this. So new books to check out!

 

I have some house-keeping tasks to do this weekend - review and sign a contract for the fifth Anna Sweet, collect up receipts and do some finance recordings, work on a blog post ... I also have gotten a rhythm going on my latest manuscript and am making progress so will be trying to keep this going. Now at 13,000 words.

 

A Model Death (4th Anna Sweet) boomeranged back this week for a final look. The release date is January 2nd, in time for my visit to Moose Jaw in February where I have an appearance lined up with a literacy group. My next gig is December 10th in Ottawa at the Capital Crime Writers Christmas dinner - I'm guest speaker and will be interviewed by Mary Jane Maffini so should be a good time. Over forty people have registered for the dinner with a few spots left. After that, it's the launch party for Butterfly Kills at Whispers pub on Sunday, February 8th from 2-4 p.m. (mark your calendars!) I'll start advertising after Christmas.

 

And that wraps up the week that was and what's on the horizon. Between the train ride to Toronto and the ride home the next day, snow settled into the Ottawa Valley, bringing an early winter. However, we're warming up to 14 degrees early next week as our weather yo yo's from one extreme to the other. Canadian weather is not for sissies.



Leaving on a Via Train

Well today is the day I head to Toronto for Inspire International Book Fair! Going by train and staying overnight so a min-vacation in gloomy November - speaking of which, first stay-on-the-ground snowfall yesterday. Seeing other parts of the country with quite a bit of snow already, Ottawa has been lucky thus far. Time to dust off the winter boots.

Back to Inspire, I'm on a Dundurn panel on the Discovery Stage from 5-6 pm with Barbara Fradkin, R.J. Harlick, Nick Wilkshire and David Poulsen and our interviewer/moderator is Stephen Beattie from Quill & Quire. Then, we do a signing for half an hour. I see Margaret Atwood is on the main stage from 3-4 on Saturday. This is quite the event and the first year for it - getting a ton of press. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Got in some writing time and also went through A Model Death again, looking a few suggestions fromt he proof reader. After the editor finishes with it, a proof reader gives the manuscript a final read. This one will be out before the end of this year. I also received a contract for book five to be written in 2016. Anna Sweet will be on the case after a year rest :-)

I'm also working with an American publicist for the release of Buterfly Kills. I had to fill in a questionnaire and we worked on a news release. It would be beyond fabulous to make inroads in the U.S. market. On va voir.

Time to throw some clothes in a bag and get ready to catch the train. I don't know about you, but I love the train - sitting back and watching the landscape go by and listening to the clickity clack and mournful whistle. I once took the train from Kingston to Thunder Bay and remember sitting in the dome car to watch the sunset. You have to go a long way to beat that experience. Not sure the train goes to Thunder Bay anymore. (I'm beginning to sound like an old-timer.) The train does still go to Toronto though and I'm happy to be on it in a few hours.

Good weekend everyone.