Fete de Lobster

rain, rain - then - dear Lord, beautiful sunny day! temps 26

It was supposed to be wall to wall lovely today. Wayne showed up to do the lawns - aborted many times over the past ten days. Got on the mower, started 'er up. Took it out of the shed. And wham. A downpour.

Wayne backed the mower up. Shut 'er down. Got off the mower. And went home.

I spent the morning writing...then at 11 I realized I'd done more than 1,000 words. While I could have/would have happily continued, we had other things packing our agendas. Initially the idea was to write until 1pm then head into Montreal, but since I'd done 1,000 by 11 I asked Michael if he'd like to hop in the beetle and we could head in to the city in time for lunch.

He didn't need to be asked twice. So, through the rain, we drove the 1 1/2 hrs into Montreal. Arrived in time for lunch at Taverne on the Square...then dropped off a 16th birthday gift for Bethany - I hesitate to say she's the daughter of our friends Bal and Linda - makes it sound like Bethany isn't our friend too, and she is. We adore her. So we popped around and dropped off a gift. Then Michael had a 3pm doctor's appointment (longstanding, not about his cold, which is MUCH better - cough persists but that's all). At 4pm we left. By then it was brilliant sunshine.

The bridge out of Montreal to the townships was just about gridlocked. But once actually on the bridge, things got a little better. rush hour. Plus, we're heading into a long weekend here.

In the rest of Canada it's called Victoria Day - for Queen Victoria. here in Quebec it's called La Fete de Dollard. After Dollard des Ormeaux - a french leader who died in a battle with the Iroquois.

Two solitudes indeed.

Had a wonderful drive once we got off the highway. Stopped to put the top down on the beetle. Beautiful drive! Exquisite evening. All the more lovely after all the rain. Wow. In fact we're sitting on the screen porch. that's a photo from a few minutes ago. The lobster festival is just starting at the IGA in sutton. Michael loves lobster. I'm OK with them, but not a big treat. So we got him one. And I'm writing while he eats. This is something only people married 15 years might do. blog while the other eats dinner. (and you thought speaking on a cell phone was rude at the dinner tabIe!) But, in my very shaky defense, I only do this because it takes him about 6 hours to eat a lobster. If I didn't do something I'd end up simply watching him. Hour after hour. he's one of those who has to check every hair, in case... Such fun, though, to see him consumed with pleasure.

Yesterday, in the middle of a writing jag, I did something I have never done over the course of 7 and a half books.

I dropped pasta all over my notebook. At least I didn;t dump it into the laptop - but the notebook IS the book. Has all my notes. All my thoughts, all the details. The plot. From tiny little words to huge ideas. All there. And yesterday, while eating lunch and writing, my hand caught the bowl and... you know when everything starts going in slow motion? I could see what was about to happen but I couldn't stop it.

and - plop. Cheese-y pasta vegetable crap (not the brand name) all over my notebook. Gumming up the rings of the binding. soaking through. I tried to clean it up, and most of it is gone...most. But this morning it was as though I'd poured glue all over the book. it does give me pause, and make me wonder what that stuff is doing to my insides. But I continue to be way more concerned about what it's doing to my notebook.

Fortunately, I'm in the homestretch, more or less. Another two, maybe three weeks, and Book 8 will be finished.

Which brings me to your AMAZING responses to the ARC giveaway!!! As you can see, there are over 100 in the comments from yesterday, and we received hundreds through the 'contact' email. We're reading through them and will post the winners on Saturday - though how we'll even get it down to a shortlist is anybodies guess.

I'll thank you again on Saturday....but I do want you to know how much I love reading what you've written. How it fills my heart with gladness, that this is what I get to do - and I get to do it for and with you. You make this fun. And your messages on how you'd promote A TRICK OF THE LIGHT if you win the ARC have left me in tears of laughter, and tears of joy. And gratitude.

And, if you haven't yet entered the contest, you have until Friday night. It's for an advance copy of the next Gamache book. you can read the details in Monday's blog post.

thank you for reading the books, and promoting them, and joining Michael and me on the blog....and having the lobster dinner together. Oh, I must tell you, when we arrived back home it was to find Wayne had been again - and this time got the whole place mown. the smell of fresh cut grass...first of the season here...mixed with lobster. Life cannot possibly get better.