Kate McGarrigle

partly cloudy, mild, temps plus 2

Everything's melting, a little slushy, but quite nice actually.

Heard the news today that the wonderful Kate McGarrigle has died of cancer at the age of 63. She and her sister Anna formed The McGarrigle Sisters and were a huge part of the folk music scene internationally - a great accomplishment period, but even more so since they were born in a small Quebec village just north of Montreal.

What a loss. I never met them - which is quite an achievement in itself since it would be almost impossible for us to have missed each other. But, sadly for me, we have. I was a fan of theirs.

We've had a hectic day...one of those days where the messages never stopped...and everything seemed to need responding to. Events, books, information, requests. Feels a little overwhelming. This has been the big shock about being a published author - all the 'other' work. But this wouldn't happen if people didn't like the books - so it is the territory.

As is something else that happened today. What a funny life. yesterday I got the news about being nominated for the Dilys, and today, over breakfast, got the news I was not nominated for the Edgar. In past years I knew it was a faint hope and so while slightly disappointed it did not hurt much.

Today it hurt.

Not because I expected to be - but I genuinely thought both A RULE AGAINST MURDER and THE BRUTAL TELLING had a good shot at it. So this stings. Not anything I won't get over. And I feel better already. And I debated whether to even mention anything to you...but then I realized this is part of the process. part of playing in the big leagues is occasionally getting the stuffing knocked out of you. I could sit quietly on the sidelines and not run this risk.

When good stuff happens I feel it and celebrate, and tell you about it. When bad stuff happens I also need to tell you - so you'll know the ups and downs of this business. I feel the sting, but then let it go...after wishing horrible things on the judging committee, but not the nominees. Since I know how thrilled I'd be if I was nominated, I could not help but be very happy for them.

And speaking of which, one of my favorite writers, and people, was nominated in the Best First Novel category - Stefanie Pintoff for her wonderful book, IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM. Well done, Stefanie. I'm about to email you privately as well. So richly deserved.

Running around like mad here with last minute stuff...and then we take off. Counting the sleeps.