Rachefest

rain, rain, more rain. Rain. Temps 14

there's actually a rain warning out for our area. fortunately we're on high ground, though as some of you have noted, we manage to have floods in the house anyway. Mostly from burst pipes. But, so far, so good.

Watching the terrible flooding along the Mississippi. Terrifying. To see something coming, for so long, and being almost unable to stop it. Then having to make the dreadful decision to open the levies.

closer to home, the flood waters doing so much damage in Sherbooke and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu are receding.

Heavy rains expected all week, though.

I took a photo of our cutting garden, outside the kitchen door. You can see our crop of tulips. Shortly after I took this I cut most of them and took a vase to our neighbours, Guy and Nicole. He was just named the Volunteer of the Year for this area. He is really extraordinary, as is Nicole. He was telling us he's planning to take the First Responders course next month. I'm sure most of you have this programme in your communities, but it's fairly new out here. Neighbours take emergency first aid courses and then are called to scenes of accidents or fires or sudden illness like heart attacks, and try to stabilize the person until professional help arrives. I always find it so moving when people do those things for others.

I also thought I'd show you our asperagus crop. That's the other photo...you can see one tall, slender asperagus (asperagi?) So far, that's it. Will have to get the combine out and harvest it soon. Thank God we're not pioneers.

The other funny thing about the cutting garden is that all the spring flowers come out on basically the same day. So we're madly running around sticking daffs and tulips in every container in the house. for a week we're tripping over fresh-cut flowers, littering the place.

Then nothing for another month or more.

Lise will then turn the cutting garden into the vegetable garden, with beans and peas and potatoes.

Yesterday was spectacularly beautiful here. Sunny and not just warm, but hot. Our new barbeque arrived, as did the new patio furniture. A line of outdoor furniture by La-z-boy. Who knew. Fortunately, no recliners. But the furniture looked so good in the showroom. Then it shows up and guess what? It needs assembling. Sofas and arm chairs and coffee table.

Honestly - if your product is called La-z-boy, shouldn't that give you a clue who your customers might be??

The delivery people did the sofa, then left me to put the coffee table together, with the assurance that it wouldn't be difficult.

Compared to what? After an hour and half, in the baking sun and black flies I was ready to plunge the little toy wrench it comes with into a vein. I was longing for the halcyon days of Ikea assembly. The fun-fest of putting together the Ikea wardrobe. That was nothing compared to the La-z-boy coffee table.

It was the most difficult thing I've done since attending my mother's funeral. Though, to be fair, that needed almost no assembly. But, finally, it was done.

I stood, admiring my work. Then the heavens opened and I haven't been near it since.

Am plunging ahead with the book....the fear all but gone. Still whispers of, 'You can't do this, you can't possibly write a book.' Or, if the fear admits, grudgingly, that maybe I can write a book, it finds another tact - "OK, but it won't be any good.'

Silly old voice in the head. always there - but sometimes it will actually tell me I'm beautiful, and kind, talented and loved.

So, we take the good with the bad.

Michael is feeling better - spent yesterday in bed...quite upsetting, deep cough...but fever gone. And he always had his apetite, so I knew it couldn't be that bad. Still, best to watch over him carefully. He's in his big chair now, by the fire, reading me snippets from some medical journal about procedures I can't pronounce by doctors I don't know. But it makes him happy. He also had three of our friend Susan's homemade Eccles cakes beside him and a vat of hot chocolate.

Now - about the title of today's post. If you are as baffled by it as I am, then you probably won't be able to help.

Rachefest is the German title for the fourth book in the Gamache series. In the UK and Canada it's called The Murder Stone and in the US it's A Rule Against Murder.

Rachefeste just came out in Germany - and I'm embarrassed to admit, I don't know what the title means! I honestly don't even know if it should be one word or two. Rachefest or Rache Fest?

But I do know I am thrilled book 4 is available in Germany!! The germans are HUGE readers - very literate and very supportive of the arts. If you happen to live in Germany, or have German friends or family, please let them know about the book. Oh, and can you also tell me what the title means???

And a happy rachefest to all of you!

Mr Magoo

brilliant sunshine, normal high for this time of year - plus 3

Most of the snow from the mini-storm Sunday has gone. We're back home in sutton now - just arrived. Unpacking. Just received a fun email from agent, Teresa in UK to say book 3 - The Cruelest Month - got a fab review in Germany. In a publication called Focus, which is apparently huge in Germany. She sent me the link. Now, my German's a little rusty but I believe it says:

Louise Penny is the finest writer the world has ever seen and the only really criminal act is that she hasn't yet won the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize.

OK - that might not be an exact translation. And, by "exact" I mean "wild guess" and by "translation" I mean "fantasy". Though, as fantasy it is totally accurate. But according to the German publisher, the review is excellent and they're very happy. The book is called Der Grausame Monat in German, which, roughly translated means, 'Louise Penny is gorgeous'. And by "rough" I mean 'Not at all accurate" and we already know what "translated" means.

Picked up some baseball caps put out by the SPCA in Mtl, and sponsored by a cool Montreal boutique on Sherbrooke Street called Ben et Tournesol. We dropped by this morning. There we met Mr. Magoo. Mr. Magoo is a chihuahua rescued from a Quebec puppy mill. He's not only blind, but he has no eyes at all. He was rescued a few weeks ago by the SPCA and the owners of Ben and Tournesol, along with 80 other dogs. John, who runs the store, fosters rescued dogs (one at a time) in his store and when they're ready he helps find them a good home. The store is, as I say, a really fun boutique selling all sorts of fun, designer things...nothing to do with dogs or pets. Except the rescue puppy du jour...or du mois.

So it was Mr Magoo's (their name for him)turn.

John and the store had the SPCA caps made up at their own expense and all the money from sales goes to the SPCA to fight puppy mills. So we bought 4. And will be giving out 2 in the April newsletter. Am also going to contact John to see how we might do something similar for the SPCA Monteregie down in my area...they're also fighting puppy mills, and are also always in desperate need of support.

So, if you haven't signed up for the newsletter yet, now's a good time. The baseball cap is terrific quality, with an SPCA logo on the back and large circle in the front with Puppy Mill written in it and a slash through the words. Very simple and effective.

Take care...it sure is nice to be home.

Our Lady of the Banana

Sunny, brilliant day, high minus 9

We now have a nice layer of snow over the grass after last week's annual January thaw, so this is a picture-perfect Canadian winter day. Crystalline and fresh.

We drove in to Montreal for a check-up on Michael's eyes (everything great) then scooted out again as fast as we could. Had to stop to buy bananas, not for ourselves but for our Golden's Maggie and Trudy. If any of you read STILL LIFE you might remember the scene where Peter is feeding Jane's grieving Golden bananas.

'Everyday for Lucy's entire dog life Jane had sliced a banana
for breakfast and had miraculously dropped one of the perfect
disks onto the floor where it sat for an instant before being
gobbled up. Every morning Lucy's prayers were answered
confirming her belief that God was old and clumsy and smelt of
roses and lived in the kitchen.
But no more.
Lucy knew her God was dead. And she now knew the miracle
wasn't the banana, it was the hand that offered the banana.'

Our dogs, especially Bonnie who died two years ago, inspired that passage. They go NUTS for bananas. And when we run out there's a real crisis of faith in this home. We're suddenly gods with feet of clay and empty hands. We slice up cheese, which the dogs accept, but with some disillusionment.

So Michael's eyes and bananas became the priority today. Happily it all worked out. Felt like something out of The Three Stooges. Nyah, nyah, nyah.

Great news yesterday. Germany bought The Cruellest Month and book 4 and are launching the second book Dead Cold (A Fatal Grace) this spring. They've apparently done a pop-up version of Three Pines to go along with the books. Quite looking forward to seeing it.

And a California production company queried about film rights for The Cruelest Month. They sound like a terrific company, so it's fun, but I don't get as excited as I once did. I heard an author describe a film query this way: Optioning your book is to a finished film what a first date is to a wedding day. Clearly, one doesn't happen without the other, but the chances of a happy ending are thin.

We've recently turned down a TV series because we (Agent Teresa Chris and the people who handle the TV/Film rights in London) felt it was too soon, and the production company understandably wanted the rights to the characters, and I wasn't ready to hand those over.

It is exciting, but it also helps that I firmly believe if a film or TV series is meant to be made, the right offer and the right company will come along. Best to wait than accept something that isn't wonderful. Until then, well, Michael's eyes are perfect and the house is filled with bananas. Our life is already divine.

Be well, and we'll talk soon.