Weathering the Not-So-Merry Month of January

The cold settled in. The snow fell in record amounts. The freezing rain moved in and out, just to keep things interesting. No wonder we Canadians are obsessed with the weather.

One good side effect of how lousy it's been outdoors is that I keep plugging away on my latest manuscript indoors. I figure I'm about two-thirds done the first draft. These novellas clock in at around 14,000 words so quite a bit shorter than the 90,000 word novels. For those of you who don't know the premise of this adult literacy series, my protagonist Anna Sweet is a PI working in an office in Hintonburg, an Ottawa neighbourhood very close to my own. She and her partner Jada Price are both ex-cops and work to solve murder cases around the city. Her sense of humour is similar to mine but she is much braver than I'll ever be. The beauty of fiction is that you can create characters who lead lives you would never realistically contemplate.

I spent part of the week working on an event at the Carlingwood Library - another save the date event. Fellow Kitchissippi mystery writer Barbara Fradkin and I are going to be interviewed by another local well-known person from the hood, although the name is yet to be confirmed. Stay tuned! The event will take place Thursday, April 25 between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. All are welcome and it's free with no need to register. An hour of chat about books, writing, crime fiction ... should be an interesting and fun evening.

I'm also going to be back on 1310 News' The Power Lunch with host Mark Sutcliffe on Wednesday, February 6th from noon to 12:30. There's so much going on in the news these days so there's bound to be lots to talk about.

Other things to do inside when the weather is frightful: read and watch Netflix.

I'm well into Michelle Obama's bio Becoming.  It's an engaging and insightful read. Michelle is candid about her thoughts and feelings, which takes courage at the best of times. I also learned some things about life inside the White House and the sacrifices an entire family makes when one of them is president of the U.S.

As for Netflix, we watched Roma, which is up for some Academy Awards and a movie that stays with you, and I'm also watching Hinterland, a police procedural set in Wales - rather dark and just that bit depressing, but I'll give it a few more episodes.

So, I hope you're managing to keep warm, dry and in good spirits through the bleak month of January. Good week ahead everyone.