Writing with Eclairs

sunny, cloudy, sunny. temps 26

We're in Montreal. Ahh. Really more or less fled here. Felt too many hands grasping at us. Nothing hurtful - all great and understandable - but it added up to just too much stress. So we ran away to the big city. God, does it feel great. And how lucky we are to have this small bolt-hole in this great city. We met friends last night, then headed in, arriving about 9pm. Phew. You all know what it's like...when you break free of stress. Wow.

It's amazing when the least stressful thing in my life is writing the book. If I could just concentrate on that - and had no other distractions - I'd be fine. But, such is life. And most of the distractions come from a successful career. But I think I need to get better at boundaries. Saying no.

Honestly, thank God for Lise and Michael - and Marjorie, the Facebook elf! And even so, I stagger sometimes. Cn you imagine what my life would be like if I actually had to live it myself?

Michael and I had breakfast at Nick's, then back to the apartment to write. I'd hoped to finish this third draft of the book, but didn't quite manage it. Had 45 pages to do, and only managed 20 in seven hours. One scene needed to be severely edited and re-organized, and that took a great deal of time...and most of the rest of the 20 pages needed work. Not huge, but sometimes the little things take the longest...trying to find just the right connection...the turn of phrase. Taking out something that's clunky, but needing to find something subtle and suitable.

Of course, gobbling pastries did eat into some of that time. The literary life.

Now I'm hoping to finish tomorrow. It is bliss writing here...no interruptions! If I finish tomorrow that means I can concentrate on the upcoming spca tea. It's coming together really well - thanks to a whole lot of work by a whole lot of volunteers.