Sunday 2 December 2007

Where did I put that...

Cold, but calm, -11 with 30-40 cm snow expected tonight.

Tutu and Puni are coming for lunch, with her son, Rafael, and her daughter Alice; one each. Louise was surprised when I called her in Toronto, but happy. You're lonely, she said (yesterday's blog), so you invite three unattached young women for lunch. I hope she's happy.

I've known them probably about forty years. They're daughters of my first wife, Sheilagh's best friend Alice. Haven't seen them for the last 15 to 25 years. Catching up time.

I'm under orders to talk more about myself in this blog (see comments, yesterday). Which isn't hard. Basically all I do all day. I didn't sleep well. The puppies let me sleep in an extra twenty minutes. Very understanding. Nothing to do with lunch. My guests are generously bringing it, all except dessert (a sugar pie) which I found at La Rumeur Affamee in town.

No. I thought I'd lost part of my manuscript. Three scenes to be exact. Yesterday, I lied just a bit. I'm not writing a mystery novel at all. I'm writing something called creative non-fiction, about a study of screening for neuroblastoma in children in Quebec which occurred twenty years ago. The facts will be accurate (I hope), the conversations made up. Anyway, after midnight when I'd finished a spell of writing, I realised the word count was lower than expected and when I checked some scenes were missing. I'd been working with an earlier version and saving it not just on my hard drive but also on the memory stick. Affected my dreams, since I really liked those scenes.

Good news! I found the other version this morning, updated everything and resaved the file with todays date. Whew!

Now, I'm off to feed the birds, lay the table and clean up my mess, before everyone arrives.

Bon appetit.

2 comments:

Louise Penny Author said...

Dearest Michael,

Beautiful blog - of course I spoke with you this morning, while you were piled high with puppies on the bed - and you told me about losing the scenes! Then finding them. A horror! I'm so relieved. And I know how much you're looking forward to lunch. What lucky guests you have, to spend time with you (and Trudy and Maggie).

Love and kisses and speak later,

Louise

MArgaret said...

The temperature here today is 42 degrees celsius in the shade so i came to the library where the air conditioning works well.
When it is hot like today i like to immerse myself in a page-turner set in a cold climate. Louise's books are wodnerful for this purpose. What a pity she has not written enough of them yet. I was SO disappointed a few weeks ago when after ordering one from another library I discovered that Fatal Grace and Cruellest Month are one and the same. Apart from the aspect that they help me reduce air conditioning costs (which is good for planet) , I had been eager to find out how Ruth Zerbo's remaining duck was progressing.