Not Only the Leaves are Changing

Not Only the Leaves are Changing

But my vehicle of transportation has changed as well. My faithful Sebring, which has seen me through 4 full winters, one ice-storm smash up and over 143 km which I have put on it, will now be semi-retired and passed on to my daughter. Once the mileage (a much easier word than kilometerage!) passed the 200 km mark, I knew it was time for a change. And so last week I made the move up to a newer vehicle, a very peppy 2008 Caliber, which so far I am quite pleased with.

The last hour has been spent cleaning out the trunk and all the nooks and crannies where odds and ends accumulate. I hope to get it vacuumed out before the hand off next weekend, but right now the weather is not cooperative. Only a material object, made of metal and rubber, but funny how we get emotionally attached to the darn things…it won’t be without some sadness that I pass over the keys to my daughter.

Autumn is well upon us now - trees are rapidly gaining glorious colours and we have had our typical rainy days, with much cooler temperatures. Oh how I wish the season would just switch from autumn to spring as I dread the thought of winter. In reality its only the driving I suppose, that causes me anxiety, but I can dream can’t I?

Nothing new to report on the publishing front with Madelaine, but we continue to persevere. And I am tickled to be back meddling in the lives of Paul and Dorothy and really want to focus on how the future may unfold for them.

And in the continuing theme of change, I’m also job hunting. The position I currently have is a mat leave coverage, which will end in a couple of months, with no guarantee that I can stay with the department that has been home for almost a year. So amidst revisions of Body Perfect, I cope with sending out resumes and scanning Workopolis!

Its true, the only constant in life is change, and we can’t avoid it.

Enjoy the weekend. Oh, and note that we’ve added 2 new links for favourite authors – John Moss and Vicki Delany

Cheers!
Liz

Words, music, food ,dogs ,children and lots of books.

My usual Sunday evening blog was delayed due to extreme fatigue and sore feet. Well that's an exaggeration but after walking around for hours in the hot sun at the book and magazine festival "Word on the Street" I was not up to any blogging or much of anything.

I have been going to this festival since it started in 1990 and only missed a few. This was the best year yet. I don't know how many thousands were there but the setting is great at Queen's park and very well organized. Tents were in abundance with workshops and readings. Booths of booksellers and magazines and signings. Lots of music and I saw oddles of different breeds of well behaved dogs.

A large area was taken over by the folks at Sony who were promoting ebooks. I know, I know, technology is with us but... and there is a place for them. But how do you take one of those things to bed and get comfy? Or when your friend wants to borrow the book you have been raving about... and what about the feel and smell of books. and what would I do with my lovely bookcases? I have a better affinity with Audio Books as they are perfect for a walk or run or in the car.

One of the busiest tents and booths were the children's readings and the selling of the phenomena of graphic novels. Not comics but whole novels with some of the most amazing drawings and the kids were loving them.
The jury is still out on those but as long as they are reading... My grandsons read them but also read regular books.

Did I mention food! I ended up with a Malaysian....... Not sure what it was. Watched it being made but had a problem eating it.

Met up with John Moss, a super mystery writer and his wife Beverley Haun.

http://johnmossmysteryblog.blogspot.com/ Check his latest "Grave Doubts" a Quinn and Morgan mystery.

and also Vicki Delaney a very prolific writer with her Constable Molly Smith books and her latest is "Winter of Secrets" out fall 2009.

http://www.vickidelany.com/?page_id=270

Of course my main objective was to hopefully meet an agent who could not wait to get their hands on our manuscript but alas.. I did attend a workshop with a very prominent agent from Toronto so I will be doing as she suggested and she will be hearing from us soon.

Talk later.

Slainte,

Pam

An afternoon in Eden

Eden Mills that is. The 21st Eden Mills Literary Festival was this weekend and I managed a trip there to listen to some smashing authors. Liz had another committment so could not be there. Eden Mills is on her home turf so I am sure she would have enjoyed it.

It could not have been a more glorious day. The readings took place at different venues but the authors I wanted to see were beside an old mill. The were placed on a small island with a moat seperating them from the audience. Most were sitting on blankets or lawn chairs and Glory be! I could hear everything. Before I settled down with my lawn chair I wandered down Publishers way and checked out all the books for sale. I am glad they only took cash and as I don't have any ... well just enough to buy one. I bought Louise Penny's latest book that has not even launched yet. Yipee!. It is called The Brutal Telling and I can't wait to get started on it. She of course signed it and put, To Pam, the third signed book in the whole world. She also read from the book so that was the start of the launch. http://www.louisepenny.com/

The other author I really enjoyed was John Ralston Saul. Very good speaker and funny.
http://www.johnralstonsaul.com/menu_en.html Check out his website.

There were many more and I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon in the sun, relaxing and listening to my favourite authors. Of course no afternoon in the sun is complete without an icecream but this time I had it in a cup!!.

I ended my day by getting lost on the way home. I must invest in either a compass or one of those GPS thingies. All the countryside looks the same to me but I was going in the right direction , I think ... but why do I keep seeing these beautiful horses in every field. Amid wonderful horse farms and winding roads with trees starting to turn golden and orange I finally came to a road that I recognized. I enjoyed the trip but it might have been different at night.

Liz has sent me two more revised chapters of Body so she has been busy tonight. Think I will have an early night with my new book.

Talk later,

Slainte,
Pam

Injuried by a Vanilla Caramel cone.

Only I could be injured by an ice cream cone! It was such a beautiful day, temp 25 and the lake beckoning. Just perfect for skipping stones and slurping on an ice cream. I took the two eldest g, kids and headed straight for the ice cream store as they were not want to linger in the 70%!!!off boutiques. They will change their minds when they have wife's of their own.

The three of us had the Vanilla/caramel. The boys in a cup but I enjoy a cone. One of those big waffle thingies. Yummy. We had only gone about 5mins towards the lake when the sharp edge of the cone pierced my bottom lip. Now you need to know that I have absolutely no pain tolerance and the boys thought I was over -reacting. Not much sympathy there. I managed to eat the rest of my ice cream amid my whimpering and after 20 mins of skipping stones and a cursory look at the yachts I had them back in the car and brought them home.

I now have a fat lip and an ache in my teeth,imagining that I have blood poisoning. We have had an invasion of wasps this year and my husband, who loves to give graphic details of things I would rather not know, suggested it was probably a wasp stinging me before he died!!! If that was the case, where did the wasp gooooooooo. Right now my tongue feels swollen too.

Before you start to send the sympathy cards let me tell you what I accomplished before my adventure today.

Trying to find the right agent is a job in itself. By the right agent I mean that the criteria that they insist on has to match your book. When researching different agents I would go off on a tangent on suggested sites and before you knew it three hours had past. Not time wasted as I organized my favourites to suit me better and my list is getting longer of the agents I want to zero in on.
Sent said list to Liz for approval and this week we will get a few more queries sent out.

Hope you have enjoyed the super weather and stayed away from the wasps, or ice cream cones.

Talk soon,

Slainte,

Pam

Labor or Labour....

Labor or Labour Day, depending on where you come from, has morphed into a holiday for most and a time to prepare the kids getting back to school the next day. A big thanks to those who went on strike to get us a 54 hour work week!!!! We are so grateful we are now at 37.5. In Canada it is usually the end of travelling to cottage country and vacations with a change to warmer clothing.

September and October are my favourite months. Within driving distance we have loads of fall festivals and fairs and I love fall clothing. I am not one for showing off my lily white skin to one and all and like nothing better than a cosy cardy and sitting by the fire with a book and tapping away on the laptop. The fall colours should be super this year with all the moisture we have had.

One of the festivals I am looking forward to is the Eden Mills Writer's Festival on September 20th. Eden Mills is about 15 mins from Guelph and is Liz's home turf. Lots of publishers so we can do a bit of smoozing and networking while taking in the readings of some favourite authors.
http://www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca/schedule.html

This summer both Liz and I have had many different commitments and the writing slowed down but we are both raring to go and I have finally got my groove back. It's back to revising "Body Perfect" and the exchanging of chapters. I am working on the ending while Liz is wading through the earlier chapters to beef up omissions and do an edit. It won't be long until we have a flow again.

This is "Homecoming Scotland 2009" and is a series of events put on for all those making the trip to the "Homeland" from distant parts. My sister Rosemary lives in Peterborough, England and my sister Caroline lives in Allmere in the Netherlands.
Both of our brothers Raymond and Alister live in Edinburgh. So the clan gathers without me.!! I know they are meeting with the "cousins" and nieces and nephews and hope they all have a wonderful time. I will be thinking about them.

I brought ten books back from the conference "Bloody Words" and I am now finishing the tenth. I am definately stuck on this genre...mystery, crime, police, thriller,PI and some romance. So we will write what we like to read as Liz and I enjoy the same authors.

Talk soon,

Slainte,

Pam

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