M &M's, Gummy Bears and Liquorice all-sorts.

This w/e past was spent at a trailer in Paris Ontario. A friend of Liz had offered us the use of her trailer so that we could concentrate on the revisions away from family life that can interrupt the creative juices . The flow just does not happen.when you have many demands on your time. However, the revisions went much different than what we had prepared ourselves for.

The much anticipated critique of our work arrived on Friday from Louise Penny. We received a delightful letter and she was full of encouragement and suggestions on how we could polish and fine tune our Masterpiece. It could not have come at a more opportune time.

Now this is the real writing. Each and every word and sentence is examined and pulled apart and cut and added to and we still managed to keep the story the same. But it is slow going. We managed over the two days to do 27 pages but were very happy with the outcome.

Louise eats gummy bears while she is writing. Liz and I nearly made ourselves sick eating M & M's and liquorice all-sorts. Not to mention the meals that Rebecca prepared every couple of hours. All writers must have a weight problem as I was not aware of stuffing my face as much as I did.

We worked for four hours on Saturday and then managed a two hour nap. Must have been the M & M's. Sunday we started around 10am and put in another three before we packed up to head back to civilization.

It was great to actually work on the story with Liz as we usually work separately and then compare. Not sure how we will handle this from now on. Louise also suggested a book to read which may help and I already had it so.... a bit of studying tonight and then get back to the story line by line.

It rained constantly all week-end and lots of thunder and lighting. Hmmm, I don''t think we mention the weather much in the book!! Learning something new everyday and still having fun. Those of you that have been reading the chapters just hang on to your horses as when you are ready to buy "Madelaine" at the book store it will be new and improved and we hope you love it just as much.

Pam