CHRISTMAS EVE

It’s here!  Christmas is tomorrow!   All the hustle and bustle can, hopefully, come to a close this day.  It will be fun to see the excitement and laughter of the grandchildren as they delight in the innocence of it all.  Oh, to be a little one again and not get caught up in the commercial, competitive side of things.

Pam is enjoying a much needed week’s vacation and what a perfect time of year to not have to worry about work!  Although more than one manager has been heard to say this week, “I wish Pam were here; I need such and such”.

Like Pam I have been struggling to find time and motivation for serious writing; job hunting (unsuccessful to date); lack of sleep, and long days take their toll.  Early in the New Year, I should be no longer in the temporary management role I’ve had since January and I relish the thought of just having a daily routine of worrying only about me where work is concerned.  Even better would be the chance I can go back to a schedule of hours more suited to my early rising nature.

Still all complaints aside, there is much to be grateful for; a healthy family; wonderful trustworthy and loyal friends; a steady job and a roof over my head in the best country in the world.  These are the blessings which tend to be overshadowed at times by our negativity.  Not that I’m making a New Year’s Resolution, but it wouldn’t hurt to be more positive over the things I have, than the things I don’t.

So, lacking the proverbial crystal ball Pam mentioned, Jamie Tremain will continue to think positive and strive to make 2010 a year of success in one way or another.  I echo Pam’s thanks to those of you who are faithful followers – you are more appreciated than you will ever know!

And now its time to wish everyone the very best of Christmas joy and blessings. May you enjoy time spent with family and friends and never take the blessings in life for granted.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

Cheers!

Liz

First day of Winter

It is the first day of winter and four days away from Christmas. The snow that started this morning just drifted slowly and came to nothing. Just like my writing lately. I feel as if I am drifting along and then nothing. No rewrites, revisions or editing or anything new for that matter. My time with Liz at work has been limited to a fast coffee and the occasional lunch so plotting and having our editorial meetings have come to a standstill.

My other excuse for not writing is that I did not back up my work for the last three months and appear to have lost it into cyber space. Needless to say I am very frustrated with this turn of events and need Liz to come for a visit to try and sort me out. I have been trying to restore things tonight but no luck. Thankfully Liz always backs up everything and can send me what I need. I did get one query letter sent out last week but need to be more consistent and send them on a more regular basis.

I am on vacation this week until the 28th and I am decompressing from a busy couple of months at work. I feel as if I am doing everything in slow motion and if things are not done ,well, thats just too bad. I still have most of my shopping to do and will get started tomorrow. I know, the stores will be busy and the parking lots full but I am not in a hurry.

Christmas Eve is to be spent at friends for a wonderful dinner ( She is a fabulous cook) and Christmas day will just be my husband and son for dinner. Christmas day without a baby in the house will seem strange but we will all get together soon.

What does 2010 have in store for Jamie Tremain? I wish I had a crystal ball and could see an agent in the horizon. Staying positive and not giving up with our writing is the plan. I don't want to set a time to finish but our hopes are to get "Body Perfect" finished by the Spring. When we are up and running again in the New Year Liz will have our Web site going.

For those of you that follow our blog thanks for the support. Please feel free to make a comment any time.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and health and happiness for the New Year.
Talk soon,

Slainte,
Pam

December First

And of course there is snow on the car this morning; as I write the soft white stuff is gently blanketing the ground with its first winter coat.  Probably won’t last long, but still a foretaste of what is sure to become more abundant!

We received another (very kindly written) rejection note yesterday, but we remain undaunted.  We knew this could be a long process and are not in any way about to give up.  More queries will soon be hitting cyberspace and eventually we will find the right connection.

The Christmas season is upon us – many activities both at work and home are beginning to fill the calendar and so I fear writing, will once again, be taking a back seat.  I mentioned to Pam yesterday that I have taken a week off in February with the thoughts of mild hibernation and devoted writing time.

I enjoyed the company of two of my grandchildren over the weekend – Makenna who is four, and her brother who turned two in August.  It was a sleepover and I had fun with them. Makenna is quite dramatic and creative; her imagination is a wonderful thing to see in process.  During the night she awoke from a nightmare and made her way to my bed; later in the morning she complained, “I don’t like nightmares, Nana.  They are very scary and I’m just a little kid.” This said with arms crossed and bright blue eyes as wide as they could go. 

Max had awoken earlier, wanting mummy and daddy, and so I brought him in to sleep with me.  Why do little ones insist on sleeping sideways?  When Makenna joined us, I found myself sandwiched between the two, soon to be joined by my black fluffy cat, Nitro.  He decided it would be quite fine to sleep spread out over all three of us.  Maybe not so bad, until a hot flash came on with a vengeance!

It was good to be around little ones for a few hours and just observe them, and of course unrequested hugs and kisses were quite welcome too   J

Well, I see the clock ticking towards departure time for work, and I must make some allowance for sloppy road conditions this morning.

Christmas Shopping is on the agenda, again, for this evening.  Oh, and I am working on setting up a website for us; its still in progress, but next blog I will let you have its location and you can check it out.

Enjoy your day – Cheers!

Liz

Cobble Beach

Is this not a beautiful sight? The shores of Georgian Bay just outside of Owen Sound. It was called Cobble Beach and my girlfriends and I went there for some R & R and a little pampering. Good food, good company and a massage. Heaven.l could get used to that life. Planned on doing some writing but.... was too busy doing nothing. I did make some notes on my surroundings as they were spectacular. I am sure I can use my descriptions in a new story.

On the home front my house is under renovations.I have finally got my office back with lovely new floors. No excuse for not writing.

I am having problems with my laptop tonight as I have to keep rewriting. It is skipping. Will try again tomorrow.

Talk later,
Pam

Tram tracks and jumping curbs!

It has been a few weeks since I blogged. I have been recovering from my night to the big city to see some of my favourite authors at Harbour Front. I should say that my car is recovering...
Let me explain.

Driving from Oakville to the city has never been a problem for me and for years I have made the trip on business and pleasure without any mishaps. Well, I am not sure why I should suddenly feel so disoriented. I made the highway and took the appropriate cut-off for downtown. Weather was fine, traffic light but as I searched for a sign to lead me to the parking for Harbour Front I made my first mistake. I made a right turn instead of left and to my amazement this guy was waving his arms and trying to tell me something. This is the big city after all and there are lots of kooks around. It turns out that I was the kook and was now on the tram tracks . The beads of sweat and heart palpitations not withstanding, I did what every good driver would do.. I jumped the median and got into the right lane.

I know , I know, not a good idea especially for the car . There was a sickening scraping of metal and lots of bumps but I just kept going and went around the block.
That should have been the end of it as I finally went in the right direction, off to the left and I could now see the signs for the parking.
Now I have been driving for 42 years and have a clean record , except for a couple of parking tickets so what happened next was beyond my ken. yes , you guessed it. I was on the tram rails again!!! This time I panicked properly and went over the curb and beetled it to the nearest parking lot and sat and wondered about the damage to my car.

I decided to venture into the theatre where the readings were and said a few prayers that I did not puncture my exhaust or anything else for that matter. This episode rather took the wind out of my sails but I was determined to listen to Ian Rankin and Denise Mina and a few others.

The place was packed and I met a nice guy by the name of Fergus who must have been Ian Rankin's biggest fan. He was born in Canada but knew more about Edinburgh , Scotland my home town than I do. Ian Rankin's books are based in Edinburgh with his Inspector Rebus series. This young fellow knew every pub and street name and had visited the scenes of the crimes many times. A true fan.

I enjoyed Denise Mina as she is very funny. I think I blanked out any others reading as I kept worrying about my car. I did not stay to do any smoozing. Finding my car drivable was my goal and I did not hang around.
I made it home with no mishaps and the car seems neither the worse for wear. I can't say the same for me. I probably aged 10 years overnight.

Liz and I are still revising Body Perfect. Slow but sure. We have had some positive feedback from co-workers who have read the manuscript. That is always encouraging. Now we just need to find an agent that enjoys the story as much.

Check back in a few days and I will let you in on my journey to Bruce County to the beautiful Georgian Bay.

Talk later,
Slainte,
Pam

Smoozing at the Festival

I hope to hit the International Author's Festival tomorrow night but it will all depend if I can stay awake to hit the road about 6.30, find a parking spot and then walk to the venue. Once more my paid job is getting in the way of the rest of my life. It's a necessary evil so will pace myself tomorrow and see if I can make Harbour Front for 8pm. ( Usually in my jammies by then).

Denise Mina http://www.denisemina.co.uk/is a wonderful Scottish author from Glasgow. Her writing is quite dark but.... gives me shivers. Ian Rankinhttp://www.ianrankin.net/ is the moderator of the group I want to see. You may know him by his Inspector Rebus books. He is from the "Kingdom of Fife" but I believe he now lives in my home town of Edinburgh. Looking forward to that.

Not started into any poetry reading yet but it is on a todo list. Reading a book by Vicki Delaney www.vickidelany.com a Canadian writer that I am enjoying. It is called the "Burden of Memory".
I am still working on my character list for Body Perfect and both Liz and I are filling out the characters more to our liking. As we delve into their psyche they tell you what you want to know about them. Uncanny.

Fall colours are at their height and everything looks glorious. Saw some ads for snowblowers the other day. I hope they are jumping the gun.

Well I will do some smoozing tomorrow night and report back of my journey to the big city and my adventures with all these smashing writers. Maybe some of their success will rub off.

Talk later,
Slainte,
Pam

What's In a Week?

Seven days of vacation time, that’s what!   But as always, the time speeds by far too quickly and here it is once again…Sunday evening.

For the most part the weather was great, cold but sunny and mostly dry.  Although flurries were seen on Thursday – go AWAY! Drove up through the Peterborough area at the latter part of the week enjoying the colourful wardrobe the trees are proudly displaying. Definitely a favourite time of year.

I’m currently reading “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett and am about halfway through its 900+ pages…what a terrific tale! And I see that it is being filmed for an 8 hour mini series – so I must certainly finish the book before that comes out!  Reminiscent of Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd. My plan had been to finish it this week, but you know how that goes….. And I also have a tower of books waiting to be read – oh so many books, so little time.

A few pages of Body Perfect have been revised – the challenge is to add some more description so that the story is “more show and less tell”.  As well as dialoguing out loud.  That’s become very important to round out the characters and help me feel at home in their skins. And the character of Dorothy Del Rio is one I am very much taken with – perhaps an alter ego?

I’m still enjoying my new wheels and took it for a car wash this morning; all nice and shiny once again. But like me, it will need to return to the regular Monday – Friday routine tomorrow morning.

Hope your week is a good one!

Cheers!

Liz

Poets and Poetry

Sunny but cool temps. Just a perfect fall day.Had a busy week at work as we are on the move again. Change is good but three times in a year!..

As Liz is on vacation this week and I am waiting on chapters to revise..Well that's my excuse for not working on the book and I am sticking to it. Truthfully, when I was not at work I was busy reading. I have just finished "The Brutal Telling" by Louise Penny. I have mentioned her books before and this is the absolute best. I was on the last chapter and still was in doubt as to who the murderer was. Wonderful story and of course Armand, as in Chief Inspector Armand Gamache,well, I have been in love with him since book one.
Are we sure that Three Pines is not a real place? I would move there tomorrow.

Louise and many others have inspired my writing and I will read The Brutal Telling again, but as a writer. There were some powerful parts of this book that I just loved and some new characters... Can't tell you any more.

The use of poetry throughout her novels is very well done. I am not a reader or a writer of poetry but will start to. My father, Alister William James was a much published poet and would write in the Doric. The term "Doric" was used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots as a jocular reference to the Doric dialect of the Ancient Greek language. I had to look that up. His poetry was about family and friends .Many of his poems were about his four years in India during WW11 and every day happenings. I could quote a few lines of Rabbie Burns and of course I learned of Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott at school but unfortunately did not pay much attention.
Don't expect me to start quoting poetry but I will educate myself on a medium that I have ignored.

Not sure if I will make the Festival of authors at Harbour Front this week. I would love to see Denise Mina again but its quite a drive in and I am too lazy to make the connections for the train. I really should be a lady who lunches and then I might have the energy to do all those things on my agenda.

Talk soon,

Slainte,
Pam

A time to be thankful!

The turkey and ham are all gone. No more Brussel sprouts until next year. Yea! and the pumkin pie...is just sitting there on my hips. This is the first time in 40 years I have not cooked Thanksgiving dinner. The kids were all otherwise engaged and my husband and I had dinner made by an incredible lady. 93 and counting and she made it and served it herself. We started with spinach salad and moved on to the turkey, ham, squash and BS and of course cranberry sauce. She apologized for not making it herself this year!. Butter tarts and pumpkin pie and chocolates with the coffee and tea. She would not let anyone help her even to clear away the dishes. When she was totally tired out she shooed us away home and went to bed.

Today has been a day for catching up as we are in the middle of a Spring/fall/summer and winter cleanup. We never seem to get on top of things. Hoarding is a specialty in my house and giving up things we no longer need causes real pain. I recently gave up my office that has seen many reincarnations and is now a much needed bedroom but my desk will not fit in the TV room so.. What to do? I think I will move myself into the closet. Have some shelves built and change the doors. Check back here for an update on my latest hairbrained scheme.

When I was not trying to reconfigure the placing of furniture I would sit down with a java and laptop. Two agents now have Madelaine after Liz made some formatting changes. Then we just wait and wait and wait. That seems to be the nature of the beast.

Liz is busy with chapter six of Body and I will work on the synopsis to have it ready to go when the revising is done. She is on vacation this week so we may not hear from her until next week.

Talk soon,

Slainte,

Pam

A new start!

What do you think of our new Blog page? Liz did a great job of brightening it up and changing the format. Please let us know what you think in the comment section and any suggestions you may have.

Let me explain the new picture. Last week we attended the annual Gala with our bank colleagues. No, we did not win a cruise or any door prizes for that matter. We were wearing those name tags that say “Hello, my name is……… and did not want it in the picture. I took mine off but Liz decided to just cover hers up. She is not pledging allegiance to anything!!

It takes me 30 minutes to drive to work and I never take the highway. Preferring the secondary roads to avoid traffic it also gives me an opportunity to observe the changes in the landscape with the seasons. Autumn is my favourite time of year and I love the colours. I find even the grayness of November with frosty fields first thing in the morning just as beautiful. I can’t say the same for the deep of winter as the driving can be very hazardous, but equally as picturesque. Sitting by the fire watching the snow is preferable to me.

Time being at a premium I will start to use my small tape recorder when I am driving to record all the random plotting I do while driving. Who said I can’t multi-task?

I am working on Chapter three of the third draft of ”Body Perfect” and not finding a great deal to change. Liz did a super job of Draft two. Enjoying the characters especially Dorothy who is the main protagonist. We can now see how to move this story forward into a series. Lots of ideas brewing with “ Del Rio Investigations “.

Talk soon,

Slainte,

Pam

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