To Blog...

...or not to Blog, that is the question.

Another weekend is winding down, with a definite turn in the weather. Selfishly its much more to my liking, no humidity! The clouds in the sky today had a definite autumnal look about them, which seems to match the growing number of trees beginning to exchange their green for yellows and reds. How quickly this summer has passed.

School for many begins a week earlier this year and even though its been a good many years since Labour Day heralded the beginning of another school year for me, its still brings to mind new beginnings. Even more so than January 1 in some ways.

I managed to get a few more pages of "Body Perfect" revised yesterday, but motivation/inspiration seems in short supply right now. So befitting a new beginning as mentioned above, perhaps that will result in a fresh start to writing.

Pam is taking a week's vacation , although she has a lot of things she is dealing with, it will be nice for her to be away from the day to day stresses of the job. Hopefully she will find some down time for herself and get her own batteries re-charged.

I've now read two Linwood Barclay novels, and have to say I am quite hooked on his writing! Right now I'm reading a book I promised myself to settle into: "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Highly recommended by a fellow book lover at work, and a story I'm thoroughly enjoying; thanks Stephanie for the suggestion to read it.

Well I appear to have anwered my question at the outset haven't I?

Cheers!

Liz

Hot, Hazy and Humid!

Beautiful summer day if you like humidity. 28 degrees and 34 humidity. Yuk . I tend to wilt in this weather but it seems we are never happy.To celebrate our grandsons
14th birthday we took a sail on one of the tall ships leaving from Bronte Harbour. It was called the Empire Sandy and perfect weather for the trip. Slow to start as of course you need the wind to get up any speed.Never having sailed before it was a lovely experience.

This blog is being created on my new PC. I have not transfered my email over but I am cautiously reading and trying new features I did not have on the other. My files and writing are on the other so.... That's my excuse for not writing this week and as liz is on holiday, well, who would I get to proof my work.

There are lots of festivals coming up in the fall that I would like to attend but one I especially want to go to is the Eden Mills Writers Festival http://www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca/
My absolute favourite writers are going to be there so it will be worth the trip. It is only 12 kms from where Liz lives in Guelph so this is a must.
Peter Robinson, Giles Blunt and Louise Penny on the same panel. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, learning from those at the top of their field.

Well my deck chair in the shade is calling me and after I pop in some laundry I am off to finish a book by John Moss . Quite different for me reading about his headless corpes. I will review it when I am finished

Talk soon,
Slainte,

Pam

Liz whining!!

Wonderful day weather wise. Just the right temperature and lots of sun. Spent the morning pretending to be domestic as I was having problems with the computer. Trying to back up my favourites as I will pick up my new computer on Monday. Yea! Liz sent me explicit instructions but when I started to transfer onto my travel drive the screen sort of shorts and goes black. Hope I manage to get them all exported before it crashes. Seems to come back in the evening.

Spent an hour at my local Chapters bookstore pouring through the magazines and picked up a couple. "Poets and Writers" and one I have not read "The Strand Magazine". Some good interviews and article reviews from Michael Connelly and Ray Bradbury. I was going to buy the new Linwood Barclay novel but I could not justify it as I have a pile of books by my bed to get through first.

Liz has fwd to me the formatted first ten pages to be sent to and agent and now I have to finish the synopsis and get it sent off.
Liz was whining in her last blog about the lack of time.I agree with her, but we all have the same 24hours in the day. I guess its just a matter of prioritizing and deciding what's important to you. You will have to stay out of the casino's and bingo parlours Liz!!
My priority is having a computer that won't keep breaking down one me. I know , we should not blame the tools. I could write by hand!!!I do scribble in a notebook from time to time but cannot read my writing later.

I need to catch up on some emails from friends and relatives and then it's down to business again.
Tonight I just watched a movie called "The Shipping News". Excellent. I read the book years ago by Annie Proulx. Judy Dench, Jullianne Moore, Kate Blanchett and Kevin Spacey. Great cast.
Now who will we cast as Madelaine??

Talk soon,

Pam

Wanted – More Hours in a Day!

Is it just me, or is 24 hours not enough anymore to get everything done in a day! Ok, deduct 8 hours (if you’re lucky) for a good night sleep, that leaves you with 16 hours. Should be lots of time. Well, for me, deduct another 2 hours per work day for travelling, then another 8 for actually working and that leaves a grand total of 6 hours. Deduct one more hour for getting ready for the day; well there’s still five.

So on an ideal day when traffic doesn’t jam up; and there are no errands to run, there should be a good couple of hours left for writing – but wait. Another meal is needed, perhaps some laundry and minor day to day chores. And, oh selfish of thoughts, a little down time to just unwind? Well as you can see, that’s probably why week days are not productive writing days! No worries, I am not going to dissect the weekend in a similar fashion – doesn’t take a genius to see that the biggest block of time is spent at work, or sleeping (and the challenge is not to confuse the two), and so which one can be sacrificed? Apparently neither right now, so the juggling will continue.

I think both Pam and I feel the frustrations of demands that encroach upon our preferred vocation of writing, but we will persevere. In the meantime, another copy of “Madelaine” is in the hands of a friend. One who is about to go on a week’s vacation, and she is anxious to read our tale, so I will await Anne’s comments by month’s end.

As for the aforementioned “down” time, I am trying to spend more time reading and have recently finished Linwood Barclay’s “Lone Wolf” – great read, and a lot of fun - I love it when a book can make me laugh out loud - even in the midst of serious stuff like a gruesome murder. I truly believe Canadian humour is quite distinct and it comes through nicely in this book. Following up on the heels of “Lone Wolf” is ”The Delicate Storm” by Giles Blunt. Again, another very well written crime story, with enjoyable characters. Characters, who like most of us, are flawed, but yet still struggle to do the right thing.

And now that I’ve spent almost half an hour on this entry (multi-tasking while eating dinner I’ll have you know!), it’s time to turn my attention to the re-formatting of a sample of “Madelaine” we are preparing to send out for review.

So as the allotted hours in this particular day are fast fading, I’ll just close and say

Cheers!

Liz

The Birthday Boy

I could not resist his smiley face. Damian Nicola 4 years old August 1st

First Lieutenant Governor

We are into the third day of a long week end. John Graves Simcoe, Upper Canada's first Lieutenant Governor is celebrated.I wish I had a few more days but it's back to work tomorrow. I have not accomplished all I wanted to as I am in a procrastination frame of mind. Now that is not a good thing to be when you write. "Disciplined" is not my middle name. So perhaps I can start off the new week with a better plan. Write at least one hour a day, stop researching or at least research and get out of the site as it leads to many temptations.

I have been struggling with a new synopsis of Madelaine. We are finding that more and more agents are asking for submissions online. Each agent has a different criteria and this particular one has asked for a one or two page synopsis. Must be a secret to condensing a 300 page novel. Maybe I should research that!!! I will send what I have to the other half of Jamie Tremain and see what she can come up with.

Sending out queries online is certainly easier and cheaper than snail mail but if I have to receive a rejection I want a hard copy!!

On Saturday my family drove to Barrie for Grandson #4's birthday. On a normal day the journey would have taken 1-2 hours. 4&3/4 hours later we arrived stiff and hot as my husband is not in favour of air-conditioning!!My argument is that in the cold we would have the heat on. No? Nice lunch and present opening and then back to the car for the drive home. It only took 90 minutes. Go figure.

Saturday evening we visited friends where I picked the brain of our friend Walter. He is sourcing a new laptop for me and giving me a few pointers along the way.
Sat outside sipping wine until the bugs started eating my ankles. Our hostess Claudia had just finished saying that the bugs had not really bothered them this year. Hated to burst her bubble.

Yesterday was reading, napping, some revising and more napping. My kind of day.
Leftovers for dinner, and a good movie at night.

Today the weather is beautiful. Sunny , warm with slight breeze.
We are off to "Art in the Park". The local artists and artisans are showing their wares at the waterfront.

Not sure what JT is up to. Hope she has had a restful and maybe prolific w/e. Should hear from her this evening so look for her blog.

Talk soon,

Slainte,
Pam

 
Andrew Pyper telling us a tall tale.

His latest thriller is called "The Killing Circle"

Louise Penny @ Lakefield College

Louise of course always looks very elegant. I thought I had stumbled into the office after I noticed the RBC banner. I was not aware that my employer was sponsoring this event. Not sure if I can add a picture here.

Festival of Authors

I am having a Friday evening meltdown. Drove home from work in torrential rain and had to sit in the driveway for ten minutes until it let up. They say you are quite safe with thunder and lightening in a car but I am not so sure. It's after ten and I am tired but can't sleep. I should be revising but will do a better job in the morning after I have made a little order in the house. Well that's enough domestic stuff.

Last w/e when I was visiting my children and g kids in Peterborough , Peter and I went off to the Lakefield Literary Festival. This was a three day event and some wonderful authors were there reading from their books and having panel discussions. The session we went to was at Lakefield College in a beautiful auditorium. It was very well attended-about 200 people were there to listen to Andrew Pyper,http://www.andrewpyper.com/ Pat Capponi and our favourite lady of the mystery genre Louise Penny. http://www.louisepenny.com/contact.htm. Pat Capponi is a Toronto activist for the homeless and mentally ill. She has recently written two mystery novels. Great question and answer period and learned some more about the publishing business and how to plot a novel. If I can manage it I will put some pictures on here.

Louise and I had a lovely chat but not for long as she was leaving to drive for five hours back to Quebec. I did have a few words with John Moss http://www.johnmoss.ca/and his lovely wife Bev who live in Peterborough. They were our dinner companions at the "Bloody Words" conference. Check his website for his books. Very interesting man.

The Canadian writer Margaret Lawrence lived in Lakefield at the time of her death in 1987. Her most famous book being "The Stone Angels". Another very interesting character.

The Festival was great fun and I am always learning something new. Realize that I need to spend more time just writing. I now have my computer back as you may have gathered but it is slowly fading away and is ready for the big computer graveyard. My nearest and dearest has said I had better price another as I need it for my work. What a nice man. I was going to tell you about how we got lost on our way back from the College but perhaps I had better not!!Especially as I was the navigator.

Liz continues to be swamped at work while I have been seeking out work and when it is quiet I want to get onto Word and start typing more story. For some reason the bank frowns on that!.
I believe my partner's plans for the weekend are to continue draft two of "Body". I have some revising to do about chapter eight and get some agent letters written.

It has been forcast to rain so it is perfect writing weather.
Talk soon.

Slainte,

Pam

This is Summer????

Well, by all accounts we should be suffering from our usual July humidity, but this year July has been exceptionally cool and wet. Yesterday I was at a family BBQ in Toronto (on-going garbage strike not really a factor) and we sat in the yard with our jackets on!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really complaining as the cooler temperatures are more what I enjoy, but it would be nice to have some sunshine to sit out in and enjoy.

This weather report has been brought to you by the creators of Body Perfect – yes that story has not been forgotten! Pam has been able to re-read what we have written from start to finish, making notes and suggestions. And now I’ve started…FINALLY…on Chapter One. I think the experience we gained in writing and revising Madelaine will be of great benefit now.

I’ve done about 8 pages of the first chapter and am looking forward to make some progress each evening – we’ll see how that goes! A dentist appointment and attending my grandson’s soccer game this week are on the agenda as well.

And of course demands of work have not lessened and continue to leave me feeling pretty depleted by day’s end. But Body is my favourite of the two stories we have so I hope that will be the inspiration I need to devote some time each evening to getting this first revision completed.

On a side note, I finished reading a novel by Denise Mina (whom we met at “Bloody Words”) – Garnethill. Excellent story – didn’t want to put it down. While the murder, and investigation, the story revolved around was grisly, the main protagonist – Maureen O’Donnell – garnered my affection by story’s end. Set in Glasgow, the scenes of the story portrayed some of the gritty side of psychiatry, dysfunctional family issues, and seamier characters of that city – although I’m sure they could be transported to most any major city with some changes.

More of a write up can be found at Denise’s web site.And I’m glad to know Maureen O’Donnell has survived to be the centre of at least two more novels!

Pam’s weekend plans were to take in a writer’s event in nearby Lakefield and hopefully she will be able to provide a recap of that within a day or two.

As for me, now its getting on towards the end of a Sunday evening and I must turn my thoughts to getting ready for work tomorrow. Regardless of the weather, work continues!

Cheers!
Liz

Five good books

What a strange world it is without my computer. The laptop was at the shop for a week with not much chance of being fixed. The frame of the screen has broken and although I can still use it....Oh well I will have to get Madelaine into a book very soon as I will need a new one. In the meantime I will just prop the lid open and leave it like that.

I was on vacation that week and had plans to do all sorts of writing but it was probably a blessing in disguise as I read five of the books I brought home from the conference in Ottawa.
I gave up ironing after the the second basket was finished and as it rained almost every day it was perfect weather for curling up with some of the best mystery writers around. Having met them at the conference and listened to them in panel discussions I had preconceived ideas about how they would write and what they would write .

Each book was entirely different. All mystery/thriller/crime/suspense and each with a dead body or two that the protagonist would eventually find out "whodunnit". This was a good exercise as Liz and I are still trying to put our finger on genre. Madelaine-Shadows and Light is of course a romance/suspense or a kiss-kiss/bang bang as it was suggested to me. I would agree with that but we are more inclined to our characters in Body Perfect. Private Investigators. I will list the books that I read at the end of this blog.


We have a list of readers that we gave the manuscript to and we want to thank them for their valuable feedback. Jane,June,Rose,Joanne,Heide,Kim, Peter,Bob,Christine, Wendy and Claudia. Your suggestions and advice were invaluable to help us polish the book before we start the round of agents again. Your feedback was similar to our critique from Ottawa so everyone was all on the same page. We did get the feel that you all enjoyed the story. Thanks again. You will definitely be amongst those that will receive a signed copy. I told you I was optimistic.

Liz and I are super busy at work, Liz even more so than I. She also has tennis elbow that is keeping her from the computer at night after a long day tapping away. Lets hope it heals soon. She has a few days off next week so she will be up and running again.

I had an email from an old friend tonight. In fact she was my manager when I worked in other industry. We lost touch and I look forward to being reaccquainted.It has given me an idea for an other story......

Here is the list I promised.

TO CLOSE TO HOME BY LiNWOOD BARCLAY---This is what they call a thriller and he is at the top of my list of favourites.

SIX SECONDS BY RICK MOFINA----Also a thriller- His blurb says .. filled with thrills and chills. It was hard to put down.

TO HOT TO HANDLE BY MARY JANE MAFFINI---- HER BLURB SAYS... Will Canada's most reluctant sleuth stop a killer before her own goose is cooked?
Absolutely hilarious. Loved it.

SCARE THE LIGHT AWAY BY VICKY DELANY--- HER BLURB READS..."An evocative account of the tenacious grip the past holds over us, and the pain and the joy of reclaiming it."
This was Vickie's first book and she has gone on to write another three. Well I loved this one so I will have to pick up the others now.

The fifth book I have not finished yet.
If you look back in the blog my picture was taken with the author Anthony Bidulka
at the conference,and what a personality he is! Goodlooking , charming and great taste in clothes.
Oh dear I am supposed to be talking about his book. OOPs.
I started with his latest book. Aloha, Candy Hearts...a Russell Quant Mystery. What a wonderful way of writing and so full of life. I can see why he was a winner of the Lambda Literary Award. So after I have finished this one I will look for his others in the series.

It is important now to read as a writer. When I find something I particularly like I will read it a few times and examine the structure of the words and try and figure out why they choose to use certain phrases etc. Learning the craft of writing and informing ourselves of the publishing business is now an ongoing proposition and we are having a great time learning.

Must go as it's past my bedtime. Promises to be a hot one tomorrow. Glad I am not in Toronto with the garbage men out on strike.

Hope to post more often now that I have my PC back. Must read Russell Quant for 15 minutes before lights out.

Slainte.

Pam