A Perfecter Day!

sunny, very mild, temps 10

A stunningly beautiful stretch of days here in Quebec. Way milder than usual. Michael and I are at Hovey, and we spent the morning, after breakfast, sitting on the wide verandah with a coffee and the newspaper. Bundled up, but sitting in the sun and loving the fresh air and peace and quiet.

This morning for breakfast we had an omelet with melted brie, sauteed mushrooms, stewed apples and honey. With bacon and sausages on the side. I took a photo of it...oooops. Jeez, in the short time it took to describe it, it's gone! Michael?!

Speaking of Michael - there's a photo of him and Francine, at breakfast. the other shot is the salad I had for lunch yesterday. We took my beetle in to the dealership to get the winter tires on (though when it's this mild it's hard to believe winter will truly arrive - how soon we forget just a week or so ago!) then headed to Hovey yesterday morning in time for breakfast...then met Danie Beliveau of Tourisme Estrie (eastern townships) for lunch. She had a proposal she wanted to make.

She'd like to create a special Three Pines tour of the townships, based on places that have inspired the books. Very fun to think about...though as I said to Danie, the problem is that so much of the books really is fictional...my ideal. But quite a few places have been mentioned, and have inspired the feelings of the books. So we're considering it. The tour would be self-directing....letting people download it in English or French from the tourism site, and provide a map and some suggestions.

This has been a wonderful day or so at Hovey Manor...not just intrinsically beautiful - but we received some fabulous news!

Yesterday, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT was named one of the Top Ten Crime Fiction books of the year by Publishers Weekly.

Today, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT was named one of the Ten Best Mystery/Thrillers of the Year by Amazon.com.

Yipppeee!!!

And, yesterday afternoon, I finished the final editor notes on THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY - and sent it off to my New York and London editors. Phew!! How lovely to do it at Hovey.

So much to celebrate. Wow. And finishing the editor's notes brought it home to me yet again (though I have to say, I'm keenly away of this all the time) that this is a team effort. The writing, the editing, the cover design, the publicity, the tour, and the readers. you're the ones who bring the characters and the books to life. We share these honours.

Well, back to doing not much of anything here at the Manoir. Hope you're enjoying your day.