Working on Deadline

I've hit 75,000 words this week, writing steadily last weekend and in the evenings. I'm starting to reveal what's really going on and to pull the various plotlines together. This has involved a lot of thinking as I work to make the puzzle pieces fit. I'm still aiming for the first of September deadline and need to allow enough time for a good read through and edit. Usually, I take a three-week vacation in July and write every day but not this year as I'll be taking the month of September for vacation. This working all summer while trying to get the manuscript done is a bit of a killer...

The CKCU interview ran this week and you can listen to the podcast. I have to confess that I wasn't aware the interview had started until partway through - it was a pre-recorded phone interview and the host Pearl Pirie began by saying, "This is how I plan to introduce you," and she had some of my bio wrong. I explained about my books, not realizing we were into the actual interview! I say all this because you might find my first responses ot altogether 'crisp' :-)  Elizabeth Hay and Barb Fradkin are also on the show, speaking about previous interviews on Literary Landscape with host Jane Crosier, who died several years ago. We all have very fond memories of Jane that we share.

I read Elizabeth's book Late Nights on Air some years back and highly recommend it. The book won the Giller in 2007. Barb Fradkin writes the Inspector Green mysteries, two of which won the Arthur Ellis award for Canadian crime fiction so another author to check out if you are looking for good summer reading ideas.

We've got a glorious hot, sunny summer day underway and Ted and I have had our morning coffee int he back garden. I'll be getting into my manuscript shortly and we plan to walk to Westboro Village this evening for supper and possibly a gelato to eat on the meander home. The Pan Am games started last night with a fabulous opening ceremony and I'll be watching as much of the games on tv as I can fit in. July is a great month even if not on vacation.

Here are a few pics I took last week when I biked to Maple Lawn, a walled garden that once belonged to one of the wealthier Westboro families. Volunteers keep the garden looking much like it did back in the days of servants and horse and buggies. A lovely spot to sit and contemplate life or struggle through plot ideas as the garden is free and open to the public.