Showing posts with label Bath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bath. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 November 2008

bubble, bubble, tea and brownies...

Rainy, mild, temps 13

Am running a bubble bath so I can't write long. If I hear Michael screaming (generally the signal the bath is full) I'll have to sign off.

THE MURDER STONE is moving up the bestsellers list. It's now number 2 on the Gazette list!

Having a quiet day at home in front of the fire - editing. Intersting and fun part of the process, having been away from THE BRUTAL TELLING for almost a month. I can see places where it can just be smoothed a little, clarified a little, made more subtle. I'm at page 130 now and have stopped for the day. A little tired...we're going out tonight so I also want to relax in a bath. And I want to write a new scene...a fun scene I think/hope. Nothing long, but I do want it to be precise, so I want to approach it with a fresh mind.

Off tomorrow with Cheryl for lunch at the Auberge in Knowlton, to hear Bill Richardson talk. He's a writer from Vancouver, who is also a broadcaster on CBC Radio. I find given my exerpience on book tour I really love supporting other writers...I know how scary it can be. And this also seems like fun.

Off to bathe. Hope you're having a relaxing weekend. Talk tomorrow.

Monday, 2 June 2008

Taking the waters in Bath

rain, cool, temps 14

Most of today here in Bath was unexpectedly beautiful - mainly sunny and mild. But the rain moved in and now it's neither sunny nor mild.

Tons of people writing in about the newsletter give-away - which is a maple leaf pin I bought at in Ottawa at the Parliament Buildings - it's a collectors item because it's made from the copper roof that had been on the buildings from 1918 to 1996. Such fun to hear from so many people. Michael will do the draw in about a week.

Spent the day out in this gorgeous city. Met Teresa and Nancy (the copy editors for my books) for lunch at the Pump Room. Tasted some of the healing bath Roman waters. They're naturally warm - and naturally a little stinky. Someone had written to warn us - but we drank it anyway.

Not really all that bad!

The lunch itself was sublime. Love Teresa - and really, really liked Nancy. So grateful for the work she does on the manuscript to polish and make it better. And she's a wonderful, fun, nice, kind and smart person. So it was a real pleasure.

Then they took us all over Bath, into little shops and back alleys we'd never go into. Teresa wrote a book on Georgette Heyers Regency period in Bath - so she's a real expert. I'll tell you, she had us powering along - even holding up the umbrella with shouted instructions to keep up. Which we ignored.

Love the British papers. They're all agog here about Lord Snowdon and the affairs he had while married to Princess Margaret - one affair produced a daughter who has just been revealed. But an article we read yesterday was talking about Snowdon's background and said he came by this gallivanting honestly. His mother's name was Anne, and she was known as Tugboat Annie, because she went from Peer to Peer.

How can you not love a nation that does that?

Must run - dinner calls - and a hot bath.