Knowlton Wordfest

mixed day - some bright sunny periods, then heavy rain. Laundry on the line - of course. Still, our clothes have seen worse things than rainwater. Temps 25

Geo-thermal is finished and working brilliantly!!! In fact, it started working immediately - that was a week ago. Phil, from ClimaPur, pressed a button and within a minute we could feel cool air. for the first time ever, our old farmhouse had central air! Though clearly that wasn't the reason for putting in the geo. Actually, there were a few reasons. We wanted to be more responsible, and energy efficient. We had oil heat and that's just expensive and polluting, especially compared to hydro or certainly, geo-thermal. And we also wanted to not worry about what was happening in the world. To be so dependent on dictators and oligarchies. Multi-nationals.

But - get this - within a minute of the geo being turned on...there was a massive power failure! Caused, we were assured, not by us - it was county wide. And lasted 12 hours. So much for geo. or anything.

But when the electricity came back on, so did the air conditioning. Mostly, of course, we want it for the heating in the winter.

In doing research on geo I read an ad that said, 'We turn dirt into heat'. and that's what it does. Takes cool, or heat, from the earth and uses it in our home. For about the price of running a refrigerator.

Of course, the initial cost is huge. But we figure if we live another 93 years, we'll have it paid off. (actually, in our case, the geo will have paid for itself in 4 years.)

Del, Lise's wonderful husband, came by with his team on Saturday, and smoothed out the earth, put down good soil, and seeded. In a few months we don't even know it's happened.

That's the plan.

Editing going well. Up to page 125 - out of 290. Dropped almost 5,000 words so far. Want to drop another 5,000. But right now the goal is the best book, not the shortest.

The big event this week is the literary festival in the nearby Quebec village of Knowlton. it's regularly voted one of the prettiest in Canada. It's just lovely....and one of the inspirations for Three Pines - though Knowlton is much bigger. And exists.

This coming weekend is the second annual WordFest. And what a thrilling line-up!!! Shelagh Rogers is coming....she one of the most prominent Canadian journalists and radio hosts with CBC. She was just given the Order of Canada. Her programme is called The Next Chapter, and is about books. She'll be staying in the guest cottage, with susan. they're good friends. And shelagh will be doing a number of events at WordFest.

Some of the other guests are: kathleen Winter, who wrote the hugely successful book, Annabel, which was shortlisted for, among other things, the Governor General's Award for Literature.

Anne Fortier, who wrote Juliet.

Kim Thuy - who'se first book, Ru, won the Governor General's Award as well as the grand prize at the 2010 Salon du Livres in Montreal.

Sheree Fitch is a massively talented and successful writer of children's books. she's also a poet.

And there are all sorts of other great literary guests.

I'll be doing two events. on Saturday afternoon, between 4:30 and 5:30, I'll be interviewing the magnetic Kevin Tierney. He's a screen writer and film producer/director. He produced and co-wrote the highest grossing film in Canadian history, Bon Cop, Bad Cop - which is hilarious! His latest film is about to come out and is called French Immersion, co-written with one of the most prominent and successful Canadian screenwriters, who also happens to be a neighbor here, Jefferson Lewis.

Kevin and I will take the stage at the Old Masonic Hall, at 79 Lakeside, on Saturday. It's a ticketed event, as most are.

and on sunday night I'll be giving the keynote talk at the Peter Gzowski dinner for Literacy, to wrap-up WordFest. Shelagh will be the MC for the evening.

If you want more info, or tickets, you can call Danny and Lucy at Brome Lake Books in Knowlton - 450-242-2242 or email them, blb@b2b2c.ca

In fact, Michael, cotton and I are having dinner tonight with Danny and Lucy and the kids. Looking forward to it.

speak soon - hope you're thriving!