March Madness

I am staring at the blank page. I should get back to the editing but needed a break. When you start a blog I feel one must keep writing, but.....I’m clean out of topics.

I missed the Oscars, they’ve been and gone, Downton Abbey is covered by others on FB, I don’t watch Survivor and the phenomenon that is Stieg Larson's books; they're still on the best seller lists. I do recommend them and I’ve read that they’ll be issued as graphic novels later this year. Denis Mina is one of the authors of this collection. http://www.denisemina.co.uk/

Let’s see, do you need an other take on the weather? The fact that it was seventeen degrees two days ago and this morning I woke up to snow!!! But the sun’s shining.

On my reading list this week are two books from authors who are members of Crime Writer’s of Canada. www.crimewriterscanada.com/

R.J.Harlick “A Green Place for Dying,” RendezVous Crime rjharlick.ca/excerpt_greenplace.htm This is the fifth book for Robin in her Meg Harris series.

Peggy Blair 's “The Beggar’s Opera” Penguin Publishing, is a mystery/ thriller set in Cuba and a debut novel for the former lawyer, now real estate agent. peggyblair.com/


I’ve read great reviews of these books so I look forward to reading them as soon as Liz and I have our manuscript of Body Perfect in top shape. We’re halfway through the process so we’ll keep plugging away.

Weather newsflash: Blustery and snowy about 30mins ago but now brilliant sunshine. Temp 2 degrees. Go figure!

The March break starts today. Airports and highways will be jammed with vacationers. I offered to take two of my grandsons to the R.O.M. That’s the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto. I must be mad. The line ups, the noise and you need a mortgage for the price of admission. Oh, yes I’m a senior now! I can save $2.50. The exhibition is the MAYA: Secrets of an Ancient world. Maybe I will get ideas for writing there.

Ok, back to the editing. It’s quite exciting when you see on paper, after many attempts to have your words the way you meant to say them. It is quite a process as by now our words have mingled and we are not sure who said what.

Liz also has two of her grandchildren this weekend l so if we recover we'll talk soon.

Slainte,
Pam

Back to the First Five Pages!

I decided to skip the IFOA at Harbour Front ( International Festival of Authors)this year as Liz and I needed to concentrate on our own writing. I usually go religiously to see my favourites, i.e. Louise Penny, Giles Blunt and Peter Robinson to name but a few excellent mystery/crime writers, especially since this genre is getting more and more exposure. Maybe next year.

Instead I arrived in Guelph to spend the day with Liz. I was greeted by two enormous cats, one middle size and later by the new kitten. I am not particulary a cat lover so we said hullo and left it at that. Settling with a pot of tea we made good progress over the next six hours with just a stop for a lovely lunch.

It was like starting all over again as we were on page one and made quite a few revisions at the beginning. After a while it started to flow, taking some words out here and adding others. We managed three chapters and I left it in Liz's capable hands to do the revisions on Word. (She types faster than me). It was fun acting it out and putting yourself in the place of the characters. We will be watching for the domino effect. When we meet again in two weeks time we will accelerate the rest of the revisions and work on the ending chapter that may or may not need some changes. After that there will be a polishing read through and then we can start sending out queries.

We can't do a blog without mentioning the weather and I enjoyed the drive to Liz's home yesterday. After a frost and much rain recently all the trees are in their glory. I have a Linden tree outside my office window and it is all yellow and gold. Beautiful! I know... along with all this it is dark in the mornings and will soon be dark on the way home from work as well. Time for the fireplace and cosy undershirts.

Only nine weeks until Christmas!! Oops, sorry, we have Halloween first.

Okay, time for the fire and a read of Louise Penny's latest in the Armand Gamache series. "Bury your Dead" . http://louisepenny.blogspot.com/
I am in the home stretch and have to get back to it. Not going to tell you a thing about it but just to say it's her best yet. Go buy it!

Just read John Moss's blog, http://johnmossmysteryblog.blogspot about the Thousand Islands Writers Festival he just attended. Might check that out for next year. Read his Quinn & Morgan mystery series. R.J. Harlick was also there. I like her Meg Harris series. http://rjharlick.blogspot.com/

Talk soon,
Slainte,
Pam