Wednesday 16 June 2010

Deadly Diversions

overcast, mild, temps 18

Warmer than it seems. Cold wind through the windows last night. Had to get up to lower them a bit. Then in the middle of the night Trudy started shaking her head. Over and over. Her flapping ears woke me up, poor one. Very unusual for her. So I got up and sure enough, she had an ear infection. So, downstairs to the dog medication station. She gets so many ear infections she's used to it now. I just say, 'Trudy's ears" and she comes to me and sits down. Cleaned them out, put medicine in, gave her a 'medicine treat' - and went to bed.

Awoke to a great email from Linda Lyall, in Scotland. She designs and maintains my website. She'd been considering the blog design and realized she could now tailor it a bit...so she asked if I minded. I immediately replied to amend away. And this is the result.

Some of you've already sent comments - and I'm delighted!!! LOve it. We'll (she'll) put up a new photo of me - probably one of the great ones Gary took a few days ago with the new car.

Nice quiet day of writing and walking. Editing going slowly...bit of a slog - but I like what I'm doing so far. Getting closer, of course, to the end. Am at page 180 of 238. So, 60 more pages, more or less. But as we near the end I'll be adding more I think.

Michael and I are having breakfast tomorrow in Knowlton with Jana, who has the farm just down the road and looks after Markus. Then there's a 10am news conference to annouce details of the upcoming WordFest literary festival, in Knowlton in mid-July...I'm the honourary chairperson, so I'll be at the news conference. Then our friend Jim Napier and I are grabbing a coffee. Jim's the crime fiction reviewer for the Sherbrooke REcord. He and I are doing a workshop in writing crime fiction as part of WordFest.

I NEVER do workshops...but I was asked to do one for WordFest and because it's a local festival I said yes, but only if Jim could be a part...and they were thrilled. Jim taught crime fiction writing for many years. I'll tell you more about it on tomorrow's blog. For those of you looking for an excuse to come to Quebec's eastern townships, this is a pretty good reason. WordFest.

So - busy day tomorrow...and hoping, though, to get a few hours writing in tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, by the way, Jim has a new website up - with interviews and reviews of lots of the top crime/mystery fiction writers internationally. Here's the link: www.deadlydiversions.com

Hope you're enjoying your day. And thanks for all your supportive comments about the new blog design.

17 comments:

John said...

The new blog format looks great; nice job, Linda!!

John B.

Mason Canyon said...

Nice new format. Thanks for the link to Jim's website.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Cece said...

Very fresh and nice "reading" format. Can't wait to see photos of the Empress.

whalewatcher said...
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whalewatcher said...
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whalewatcher said...

Adding my two cents about the new blog:
It looks great and as Cece said is very fresh looking
and readable. Can't wait to see new pictures!
Kathy

bgpringle said...

Love Linda's new blog design - it is fresh and readable, and can't wait for the new pictures.
Bev

Darlene said...

Love your new blog. Very fresh and inviting.

Also love the link. Thanks!

Ann said...

www.deadlydiversions.com
How neat. Wish we could come.
Everything is so inspirational.
Sorry about the ear issues.
Saw surgeon today and he says
I can canoe in the future. Hurray.
Thanks for all the inspiration
AnnB

Bev Stephans said...

Your new blog site is quite eye catching. Much better than the old one. Hope to see the new picture soon.

Reen said...

Really nice. Thought I was on the wrong page at first.

Hope Trudy's ears are feeling better. Kendall just got over an ear infection. Seems that goldens are susceptible to them, what with their floppy ears and all.

Beth said...

Wow! The new design is so crisp--it looks great, clean and bright. I love that it is so easy to read, which seems quite appropriate for an author's blog. (Amazing how many blogs are difficult to read, as if the creator got caught up in colors and backgrounds and fancy fonts and forgot to take it for a "test read".) I might have wished for more photos, but the link to your website takes me to plenty of them. A lovely, refreshing update.

Diane said...

The blog site is wonderful, the water look very soothing. I'm fan of your blog and would have followed without the changes however I'm surprised how much the changes impact.

Hope Trudy soon feels better; our daughter has a Golden Retriever - Jack - and he suffers the same. They are such beautiful dogs, we love him to death, always greets us with a smile!

donna said...

Hi Louise: Blog looks great. Meant to tell you that the picture of you and Michael with the Agatha teapot is adorable. I new challenge for you might be to find out if there is a way for you to post pictures with the blog. So many times you have mentioned things that it would have been great to see. I remember when you mentioned a lovely pendant that Michael gave you and I have always wondered what it would look like. All the best,
Donna (from Connecticut)
P.S. It is amazing how many Donna's you know - all nice people I trust!

Marjorie said...

Poor Trudy! I am so glad that her human knows what to do for her when her ears are bothering her.

--Marjorie from Connecticut

Louise Penny Author said...

Hi all,

totally agree about the brilliant Linda! And we're having dinner tomorrow night with Cheryl and Gary and hoping gary (who's the photographer) will bring a CD.

It's really mostly laziness that prevents me from posting photos...I find I have just enough time to write the post...the added 5 minutes or so to put up a picture is just too much. One day, perhaps. In the meantime I depend upon Linda to do it - as she in with Lee Ann's post today (Thursday)

thank you, as always for letting us know it's worth the effort. Especially for all the Donna's out there!

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