Busy Times

Good Saturday morning. It's been a busy week - I curled nine games over the last ten days, including four games in a bonspiel last week. A little achy today but still on my feet :-)

I also visited the Reader Mortis book club last Sunday afternoon and spent a delightful couple of hours talking crime fiction, drinking mulled wine and tea, and eating from an array of finger food. The lemon cloud dessert was simply fabulous. Thank you to Susan Spenard and the entire club for sharing your love of mysteries and for making me feel so welcome. Susan shared a crime fiction site that you might also find interesting: Stop You're Killing Me has a list of crime writers and awards. It lists books by geographical location and diversity among other indexes. A good resource to put in your favourites.

This coming week, I'll be travelling to Toronto to the OLA Super Conference on Thursday to sign copies of Shallow End at the Dundurn booth at 11:30 a.m. The Ontario Library Association Super Conference is a four-day event that brings librarians together from across the province and this will be my first time attending. I hope to chat with some librarians about the Stonechild series and the Anna Sweet mysteries as well as some Dundurn authors whom I've yet to meet.

Then on Friday, I'll be visiting a mystery book club that meets at a bookshop in Cobourg called Let's Talk Books.I'm really looking forward to talking about Tumbled Graves and the Stonechild books with another group of crime fiction lovers!

So, I've taken a bit of a writing break having finished Anna Sweet book six and Stonechild and Rouleau book five ahead of deadlines. I've been working on a plot for the next Stonechild book, sparked by some recent media stories. Soon time to get chapter one underway.

When not curling, we've been watching the excellent series on Netflix called The Killing. If you start watching, make sure you have lots of time because you'll be glued to the screen. I'm finding that there are so many good crime series on Netflix that I've been lining them up on my to-watch list. I also watched and recommend Shetland and Walander and recommend reading the books that they're based on. You should also check out the six-part Cardinal series on CTV, based on the excellent series by Giles Blunt, and to read the books beginning with Forty Words for Sorrow. So good.

A busy week behind and a busy week ahead. I hope you are also keeping happy and busy this last week of January. Not long now before spring is on our doorstep.

Catching Up

A productive writing week - I managed to complete the first draft for Anna Sweet book six and I've been through it twice since with the red pen. It comes in at fourteen thousand words, which is the target count. I should submit it to Grass Roots Press by the end of this weekend.

Then, a break. time to take care of ...

Taxes. My messy office. Our messy house.

And curling.

I joined a third curling team this round, which means a lot of time at the club throwing rocks for the next three months ... and watching my daughters curl.

I'll also have time to travel to some book events with two book club visits coming up and a trip to Toronto and the Ontario Library Association conference. For librarians attending the event, I'll be signing at the Dundurn booth at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 2nd.

In addition to the Ottawa launch of Shallow End on Friday, April 7 from 7-9 p.m. at the Heart and Crown on Preston Street (save the date :-) On Saturday, April 15, I'll be signing at Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto with Stephen Burrows, author of the birder mysteries. The time is yet to be confirmed but should be mid-afternoon.  This will actually be the first time I sign in Toronto so I'm looking forward to meeting Stephen, the Sleuth staff, and Toronto readers.

Lots going on.

But for now, one final edit of my manuscript and then a walk with my afternoon writing buddy Trooper, who's come for a visit.

Enjoy your week, everyone!

Staying Warm and Dry in Front of the Computer

A crisp January morning. Actually, an odd week weather-wise - freezing rain, rain, and now minus 15 C. The freezing rain and wind ripped a few big branches from our pine and power outages went on around the city as other branches fell on power lines. This has been a good week to stay inside and write ... which I did!

I'm working on the sixth Anna Sweet novella and am at about 9500 words. Not too shabby since I started this manuscript late December. The word count for these books is 13,000 to 15,000 so I should have the draft done this week. Good news from my Grass Roots publisher as they are investigating making the Anna Sweet series into audio books. I think the books are prime candidates for this format if I say so myself.

I've booked a location and date for the Shallow End Ottawa launch so mark your calendars! Friday, April 7 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Heart and Crown on Preston Street. I've reserved the entire front of the pub so we have lots of space to mingle, eat and hang out. Books on Beechwood will be on hand with books for purchase and I'm hoping for a big crowd to come help celebrate. I checked out the food yesterday, going for lunch with Alex Brett, and it was very good.

So curling fans will appreciate this photo of the past Canadian and world champion Marilyn Bodough with Team Homan's Lisa Weagle (full disclosure, also my daughter). The photo arrived out of the blue and made me smile. Marilyn read Cold Mourning a few months ago while on vacation in the South and sent a note to me saying she'd never read a murder mystery before but was now a convert. How sweet is that?!