The Scene of the Crime

mainly sunny, mild, 13

Do you notice how our perception and definition of 'mild' is shifting? In a month 'mild' will be minus 5. Today, though, it's mild at 13. yesterday, when we arrived in QC, it was about 16 and a pastel day. An Impressionist day. Glorious. Soft light, soft, still air. Michael and I checked into the Chateau, into a room looking over the St. Lawrence river and even the statue of Champlain (seen in the BG of the photo a above - I mention this statue in Bury Your Dead) - then went for a walk.

We both commented on how different it is to walk through the old city when it is a gorgeous autumn day than when the wind is howling and nesting in our marrow and it's not at all 'mild' at minus 20. Brrrr.

But yesterday was picture perfect. We strolled and chatted and visited old haunts - like Chez Temporel...which I also mention in Bury Your Dead. Gamache and Emile go there for breakfast. We once again had the table with the three leaf clover scored into it, and a dimple where we rub the tip of our fingers. Hard not to. So inviting. Michael had a bowl of hot chocolate, I had a double strength bowl of cafe au lait. We both had a warm croissant aux amandes. Yummy.

the photo above is me looking slightly impatient (Michael knows this look...it's impatience tinged with the promise of croissant but feet away.) just outside Chez Temporel. It's well off the beaten path, down a small street off rue St-Jean.

From there we returned to the Chateau Frontenac....the other photo above is Michael at the foot of the park leading to the Chateau...and the bar St-Laurent. There we met My Assistant Lise and her husband Del for drinks before dinner. Then we all walked back down, through the old city, past the basillica and the tiny old streets, to rue St-Jean and the restaurant - Les Freres de la Cote. Very relaxed bistro.

Then home to bed...to be woken up at 6:50 by a construction crane right outside our room!!! Ugh. I called down and they agreed this might not be the best experience. So now they've moved our room. Not sure where - and don't really care....as long as it's quiet.

The only unfortunate thing is that they're doing major excavation work on the famed Dufferine Terrace that runs the length of the chateau on the river side. Wide and gracious, it's a magnificent place to walk and enjoy the views. But they found the original fortress hidden below the terrasse! Imagine that. So the archeologists are digging. Waited for the low season (and before the grip of winter) to dig...which means, now.

Still, it's fascinating to look down into it and see the stone walls emerging.

Busy day. Have a 10:30 interview with an academic who flew in from Halifax to speak with me for her research into Canadian literature. Then a 12:30 french interview. Then meeting Donna who is arriving from Toronto today, and Lise, at the Literary and Historical Society to go over plans for tonight. Then meeting Jacquie, the host of the CBC Radio show Breakaway....they'll be broadcasting live from the launch from 4 to 6. So we need to go over the scripts and interviews and music etc. Jacquie is doing all the work, but she's kind enough to include me in some of the planning.

Then I hope to have time to scoot back to the chateau to change - otherwise I'll be at the broadcast and launch in jeans and a turtleneck.

The broadcast is from 4 to 6, at the Morrin Centre - the lit and his building in Old Quebec. Everyone is welcome!!! Then the cocktail party to celebrate Bury Your Dead at the place the 'murder' happens. You're all invited to that too....either in person or 'virtually'. I'll blog about it tomorrow.

We're driving back to Montreal tomorrow. Have an interview on CJAD with the fantastic Sharman Yarnell tomorrow between noon and 1pm.

Then sleep for two days before the next event in North Conway, New Hampshire.

Hope to see you tonight - and if not, I'll tell you all about it later!

3 loads of laundry

mainly sunny, cool, temps 13

We're back in the Montreal apartment! Unpacked and immediately did a load of laundry. Then another. Then another. Our clothes practically have lives of their own at this point. You should see how we decide what to wear in the morning...but I will leave that up to your considerable imaginations.

What I think you won't have any difficulty imagining is our joy. To be not quite home, but at least in the apartment. With familiar things. Oh, what I wouldn't give to stay a week here...but we're off tomorrow morning to Quebec City. Not exactly a hardship! If any place could get me happily away at this point it's Quebec City.

We're off to do the Quebec launch at the actual Literary and Historical Society. Right in the library where Gamache found such peace and quiet. Shattered by the discovery of a body in the sub-basement. CBC Radio will be broadcasting the event live, and we'll be talking about all sorts of issues raised by the book, as well as speaking to the Chief Archeologist of Quebec about other Quebec mysteries.

That will be this Thursday, the broadcast (CBC Radio's Breakaway with jacquie Czernin) will be between 4 and 6pm - then there'll be a cocktail and nibblies and a party celebrating. You're all invited to both events. It should be loads of fun! Michael will be there, as will My Assistant Lise - and Donna, from Hachette Canada, will be flying in for the day.

But more about that tomorrow or thursday.

Today we took the train from Toronto to Montreal. 5 hours. Funny how a 5 hour train trip feels SO much shorter than a 5 hour flight.

Yesterday Donna and I drove north of Toronto to the Orangeville area - to a lunch event organized by Nancy Frater, of Booklore. The photo above isn't great (nancy's on the right) but the event sure was. Sold out - packed. Great food...wonderfully attentive and enthusiastic crowd. Thoughtful questions...no spoilers.
They even temporarily renamed Ray's Bakery to 'Olivier and Gabri's Bistro'.

Then back to the hotel. Packed - up by 6:30 am to catch train. Listened to music, stared out the window. Emptied mind. Thought a lot about the past month and meeting so many wonderful people. Being in so many interesting places.

Also made notes on the next book, as ideas floated by.

It does feel wonderful to be home in the apartment - if only overnight.

International Cuisine

snowy, mild, temps about freezing

Well, we're home! We actually left Quebec City yesterday on the 5:30 train. It started to snow before we arrived in Montreal around 9pm...our plan was to see how we felt, but try to drive out to the country if we could, since a storm was coming in.

And that's what we did. Loaded up the car and skidaddled out of there.

Not the happiest drive, but we got here, so it wasn't too bad either!!

Lise had done the most amazing job of organizing Michael's study, and other parts of the home. I hate mess. well, some I can live with. the only thing that stresses me more than mess is everything too neat and tidy.

Our home is never too neat and tidy...but it sometimes slops over into chaotic.

So, while we were away the wonderful Lise had her way with the home. And what a happy home we came back to. Wow. And - to make absolutely certain she's in our wills, Lise left me a huge vat (as opposed to a small vat) of gummi bears, and Michael a big dark chocolate bar.

She is now our main beneficary. She inherits mounds of papers, magazines, books, gummis. A real wealth.

It's great to be home. I had a long, bubble bath. Michael opened the mail.

And Pat had made us a lovely dinner. So tonight I threw it in the over and heated it up. Too much. It came out very hot and very dry. It was like eating Arizona. Our meals are more often irish. Cool and wet.

Hard to say what Michael prefers. But I know something for sure...as fabulous as Quebec City was - his favorite meals are Sutton meals.

Another day at the office

partly cloudy, temps minus 5

Yesterday was a hoot. And a scream and a shriek. We started out late and decided instead of going to breakfast on rue Saint-Jean we'd wander and see what we could find. It was going to be, I suspected, a quiet day.

If I ever thought I had some psychic powers that suspicion was laid to rest.

First, we found Notre Dame Bascillica...quite hard to miss, really. Massive church in the centre of the old city. The prevailing idea is that Champlain is buried somewhere below it, though it wasn't there at the time of his death. But it was fun to sit there quietly for a few contemplative moments. And remember that just 2 months ago we were doing the same thing at Notre Dame in Paris.

Then we asked a single question. Not about whether God exisits, not about Grace or the afterlife, or even the body of Champlain.

We asked where we could get breakfast. Happily there was a very clear answer to that. The Cafe Buade, across the street. Great old institution. Banquettes, exposed stone wall...a little faded. We had cafe au laits - I had scrambled eggs and bacon and Michael had Pain D'ore (french toast) with bananas and strawberries and syrup.

After breakfast we needed to use the washroom and in searching for them Michael noticed signs to a multi-media show called Quebec Experience...a 3-D show about the history of Quebec City! Honestly, it just dropped into our laps. So off we went...there was no one else there so the owners started up the English show just for us and we sat in the dark theatre with our silly glasses watching this gallop through history. Love 3-D. I actually gasped a few times.

Then we decided to just wander. Off we went...took les escalier casse-cou down to rue Petit Champlain...which is below the cliff and is the very first place the explorers landed...being on the water. The escalier are stairs, long there and long famous for being very steep...casse-cou means 'break-neck'. We found Place Royale - the original settlement...very peaceful, old stone buildings and another church - Notre Dame de Victoires.

then up the famous Funicular to the Dufferin Terrace. The funicular is an external elevator that travels up and down the cliff - taking people from the lower town to the upper. It actually collapsed a few years ago killing some people inside - so that adds a bit of 'frisson' to the event. But fab views.

And then the totally unexpected in a day already unexpected...we were on Dufferin Terrace in front of the Chateau Frontenac - when suddenly we decided to take the ice slide. I'd been on it once, as a child, and have never forgotten the experience. Michael had never been on it.

We got the toboggan (costs 2 dollars each) and climbed up to the top...the stairs are actually just toe-holds cut into the snow. Quite exhausting. Huffing and puffing we made it up. Another spectacular view - apparently. I only had eyes for the slide.



Dear Lord - what were we thinking??? and there was clearly no other way down!!!

So we leapt on the toboggan and the nice young attendent took a picture of us smiling maniacally. I adore this photo - there's Michael holding his brief case - like a businessman who has taken a disasterously wrong turn.

And then we dropped off the face of the earth.

aiiiieeeeee.

We actually should have known it was terrifying when on the way up two great big men in their 20's went down screaming and weeping.

On really cold days when the ice is especially hard people whizz down the slide at astonishing rates, flying off the end and stopping somewhere in the middle of Britain. This was not a bitterly cold day, but still it felt as though we were flying, or actually, falling.

We used toboggan 35. I would suggest not using that again, if you know what I mean.

But what an unbelieveable experience!!! We adored it...

Now have to run - am already late for breakfast with Jacquie Czernin - lovely host on CBC radio - then meeting Louisa Blair - a local historian. Who knows what today holds...certainly not me!

Quebec City - alors

light snow, windy, temps minus 15

We're in Quebec City! Arrived by train at 4pm...waited with a very long line of fellow travellers (so to speak) outside in the snow and blow for taxi's. None. Not a one. And then, when one did arrive and stopped to let someone out, someone at the back of the line tried to take it.

There was almost a riot.

Happened almost everytime a taxi didn't stop exactly where it should, someone at the back, or someone who couldn't be bothered to even join the line, tried to steal it. I cut in once and made someone take their luggage out of the cab and waved to the man at the front of the line to grab the taxi instead. When I finished and walked back to my place in line the others in the line applauded.

I'll tell you, it felt better than a good reivew (and those feel pretty good).

But eventually our time came, and within minutes we were at the home we've rented for a month.

It's better then I dreamed! We haven't been outside yet to explore the immediate neighborhood, but we have unpacked. That always feels good. That and going to the washroom for the first time in a new place. I think maybe I have more in common with Maggie than Michael.

You'll never guess...I howled with laughter. Up above our bed there are these stunning B&W photos of New York City...and the one right over my side of the bed is of the Flatiron building. Certainly iconic. But it also happens to be where my publishers offices are. St Martins Press has the Flatiron. Can you believe it? Not sure if it's a good omen or not. I choose to think it's a great omen for A Rule Against Murder...and for the book I'm researching here in Quebec City.

let me tell you about the home.

You walk in directly to the large living room with a fireplace, wood floors and three huge windows with shutters. The walls are 2 feet thick. Off the living room is the kitchen (small but totally modern with stainless steel appliances) and dining room combo. This is the real 'wow'. The entire wall is exposed old stone, with two more huge windows and a cathedral ceiling going up to the top of the house - 3 floors.

Up a narrow, uneven wooden stairway, worn down by centuries of feet - grasping the stunning, simple wood railing - up a floor to a loft office, a bathroom and a large guest bedroom.

Then to the top floor - up more narrow wooden stairs - to the open concept master bedroom, with cathedral ceiling, beams, dormers. It's immense. And a wooden railing looking down onto the dining room below.

In the basement there's another bedroom - with windows...and a kind of makeshift powder room - but there're wonderful LG washer and dryer. Heaven.

The only drawback is only one real bathroom, and it's on the floor below the master...and one of us often gets up in the night...hmmm. But Michael has test-driven the stairs and says they're perfectly safe. I suggested a bedpan, but he's strangely resistant.

We're off in a few minutes to find dinner and a general store (depanneur) for soft drinks, milk, chocolate bars. The essentials. Ate Lesa's gummi bears already. Yum.

I suspect this is the home Gamache will be staying in when he visits Quebec City. My plan is to have him come here on his annual visit to his mentor in the Surete - now retired. I mention him in Still Life. And I think this is that mentor's home. Though I think I'll add another bathroom.

This magic I do.

Ornament winner - and Paris

Mainly cloudy, cool, temps minmus 6

What a fun day, so far...

Heading off by train to Quebec City...on Via Rail. I'm always a little surprised by how dull the terrain is. Very flat, not especially pretty...we hardly see the St. Lawrence river...but as we get close to Quebec we cross it, and that's quite spectacular. It's a wonderful train trip...I'm very lucky that my publishers send me first class so I got a lovely large seat to myself, with meals. And a chance to just stare out the window and daydream. Heaven.

Once in Quebec City it was 4pm and dark. Sun sets so early these days. Took a cab up to the CBC-Radio Canada offices on St. Jean, which is just outside Les Portes St. Jean - the gates through the thick stone wall into Old Quebec. There are three gates, of which this is one.

Jacquie Czernin had me on her 4-6 show. What a lovely woman she is. We worked together briefly before I moved From Quebec City to Montreal back in 1990 (can barely stant it that it was 18 years!!!). We had a great time on her show - chatting to the whole province.

Then Guy Dubois, the owner of La Maison Anglaise bookstore picked me up. He's an old friend and he and his wife Christine have a 2 week old daughter - their first. Gabrielle. Michael and I got her the softed little bunny rabbit doll. I forget how tiny and pretty little ones are. And Gabrielle is adorable...I met her later in the evening. But Guy drove me across town to my hotel.

Now - if you need to go to Quebec City - or actually the neighboring suburb of Ste Foy - you must stay at the Hotel ALT. It's a fabulous boutique hotel, all re-done, with amazing bathrooms, and ?TV's and lighting, huge high loft ceilings, massive rooms, comfortable huge beds. Perfect. It was all I could do to leave it to walk to the talk and signing. One note about the Hotel ALT - do not stay there if your interntion is to visit Quebec City - it's too far out. Ste. Foy is like Brooklyn ()well, not really - but in terms of distance to the city centre. I imagine most of the people at the hotel were like me - there on business. Very few tourists would choose to stay in Ste. Foy. Too bad because it really is a great hotel.

The talk mand signing was such fun. I LOVE the people at La Maison Anglise. They're the QC equivilent of Brome Lake Books in Knowlton. Independent, smart, beautifully and sympathetically designed by people who just love books. It a read community hub.

Rana Bose, whopse book is The Fourth Canvas, was also there. He read from his work and I bought 2 books! It sounds great. Then I had a chance to read. Loads of people - feels like old home week. Very fun and comfortable, and successful.

Back at the hotel by 9pm, in bed by 10pm - alarm at 6am - and off to the train station for an 8am ride back to Montreal, and the Quebec Salon du Livres...which is the book fair. Except this one, unlike any I've been to anywhere else, is open to the public...and lasts a week (with one day dedicated to schools). It's a madhouse...all these grown men and women on the literary equivilent of a sugar high. Racing from booth to booth to get books signed by old favorites, and meeting new authors...it was just buzzing. My signing was 2-3. Kim McArthur (my Canadian publisher) was there in all her glory. As was Taryn Manias of McArthur, and Debra Schram, a book rep who helped organize that Hovey Manor launch.

One of the very few disappointments in my publishing career - and it's quite a large and mystifying one - is that while the series is translated into all sorts of languages (including Estonian for heavens sake) it has no French publisher. I'm genuinely baffled. Anyway, one day perhaps.

The book is #10 on the bedsellers list this week so you'd think a French publisher (hello, Quebec is French!!!) might be interested. But apparently not.

But we had a riot at the Salon, signed loads of books, met lots of people.

Then hopped a cab, came home, re-organized clothing and bags and we're off to the airport in 45 minutes for...now where again...oh yes...PARIS!!! Did I mention that before? Surely not.

We've decided not to take a computer - to make this a complete vacation. Will try to blog from Paris at least once, give you an update...but I hope you understand if it doesn't work.

Oh yes - the winner of the draw for the Three Pines Christmas ornament, designed and made by my fabulous assistant Lise is....London Kate! Distance notwithstanding.

Now, Kate - you need to give us your address. Please write it privately through the 'contact me' page on my website. Thank you and congratulations! It really is stunning.

Thanks to everyone who wrote emails and messages on the comments section of the blog. We'll have give-aways every now and then - and some through the newsletter as well and the website. Big one beginning on the website early in December, so you need to keep checking the home page.

Thanks so much - a bientot.

Christmas ornament draw!

Mainly sunny, cold, temps minus 6

Wonderful day - Lise arrived at 9am to help us dig out from the office overload! All the stuff we'd moved from the loft-office in Sutton was still sitting in my study at home and Michael's office right next to mine. It looked like someone had turned the house upside down.

I reeeeally hate dis-order. I don't need everything all tidy - that would drive me crazy too. But after a point I find I get totally stressed in an environment that's cluttered. Our home can get like that. I love to throw things out and Michael, well, doesn't. So we've tried to compartmentalize things...his study can be as topsy-turvy as he likes, and mine is in whatever shape it's in. We try not to interfer in those areas. But often that 'mess' expands into the kitchen and dining room and living room - with mail and magazines and newspapers and books all piled up. I actually like a bit of that - feels comfortable and lived in and not too anal...but it reaches a stage with me where I just want to scoop it all up, put it in recycling and be shot of it.

We reached that stage at home about a month ago but our lives have been so hectic there wasn't anything we could do.

Until today. Glorious today...glorious Lise!

With barely a gasp she saw the disaster areas - the we rolled up our sleeves and unpacked boxes and bags - sorting into recycling, stuff to give to the senior's home for their sales, stuff to keep, and garbage. When in doubt I'd hol;d something up and Lise would ask, Are you ever gtoing to use it? No? Well, maybe someone else will.

Wise - very wise.

Lise also made a dozen Christmas decorations with Three Pines themes...each an original work of art, each designed to hang on the tree! I've signed a small card attached to each, and dates. So that each will become a collectors item.

Am taking two to Quebec City with me tomorrow. One to give away on t5he CBC radio show - Jacquie Czernine's 4-6 show tomorrow...and the other to give away at the event I'll be at tomorrow night in Quebec City at La Maison Anglaise bookstore, in Ste. Foy. I'll be there with another author - Rana Bose. REally looking forward to meeting her.

And I want to give one away to one of you right now...since you're so sup[portive and loyal, and have helped spread the word about my books.

If you leave a comment at the end of this blog saying you'd like the Christmas decoration I will ask Michael to choose a name at random - then ask Lise to mail it to the winner! If you can't - for whatever reason - leave a comment, then just go to the 'contact me' page on the website and leave a message there. I'll give it a few days.

We're in Montreal now...after Lise got us all sorted out, and Tony came to get Maggie and Trudy, Michael and I put the cases in the car and drove to the city. I signed a stack of books at the McGill bookstore where Kim (one of the managers) gave me her copy of a book she adored...AN EXPERT IN MURDER by Nicola Upson. Kim knows I adore Josephine Tey, and in this book Ms Upson has taken the bold move of making Josephine Tey the detective. Imagine that.

Will try to blog tomorrow before heading to Quebec City by train. Lovely journey. 3 1/2 hours...very relaxing. Take care, and don't forget to enter the draw for the handmade Three Pines - dated and signed Christmas ornament!

cuirass - perhaps not what it sounds like

Sun struggling through thin clouds, snow in forecast, high minus 8

The paperback for A FATAL GRACE has just come out in the States! This is incredibly exciting since the hardcover is important and leads the way, but the big market 'penetration' is with the paperback, since more people are likely to pick it up. Fans buy the hardcover (like you, I hope!) but non-fans might take a chance and buy the less expensive paperback, and find the series. So please, if you live in the US or know people there, perhaps you could mention the paperback for A FATAL GRACE, which is the second book, and is known as DEAD COLD in the Commonwealth.

Thank you! Really, a thrilling day.

Hilary, a reader, left a comment on yesterday's blog and I wanted to 'broadcast' it. She wrote to tell us about a site she'd found called freerice.com. It's a word game. I went to it before mentioning it here. You choose a definition for a word, from a multiple choice, and if you get it right 20 grains of rice will be donated to the UN World Food Programme. I think Hilary said she'd played yesterday and got up to 5,000 grains. I just played and got to about 500. Was stumped by the definition of 'cuirass'. I got it wrong. Never heard of the word. Never heard of lots of the words. It's very humbling. But also, as Hilary says, addictive. Great fun - and for a great cause. And seems to be legit.

Thanks Hilary.

Just back from a flying visit to Quebec City. Wonderful time. I really do forget how magical that city is! I almost embarrassed myself in the cab yesterday morning by weeping I was so overcome by its beauty. It was snowing slightly, large, gentle flakes, snow piled up on the roads from pervious falls. Narrow streets with old stone homes and restuarants and cafe's, tin roofs and garrets and tiny parks. Glorious. I lived in QC for two years, but still need reminding.

The next book, after the one I'm currently writing (11,500 words!) will be partly set in Quebec City during Winter Carnival - which is on now. Michael and I will rent an apartment in the old walled city for 3 weeks at this time next year and research and write. Can hardly wait.

I was there to do a segment on the CBC National Radio show, Sounds Like Canada. It went out live yesterday morning from the magnificent Chateau Frontenac, hosted by Shelagh Rogers, who is as brilliant as she is warm and lovely. Made each and every person feel welcome and relaxed - and it was a fabulous show. Mostly organized and researched by our great friend Susan McKenzie - so we're really proud of her!

Susan, Michael and I went out for dinner in the old city Thursday night. Susan came by our hotel room, which she'd arranged for, and was staggered to see we were given a HUGE corner suite! Ha. The rest of the dinner we teased her about the tiny, dark, back room she'd been allocated by the CBC. Actually, she had a suite too, though not quite as magnificent as ours. Susan explained it was given to us by the hotel, not the CBC, and only because we were so old. Everyone else in the hotel were kids, there for Carnivale.

She also gave us the most amazing gift. A Li Bien ball Christmas decoration she'd found at Pier 1 in Montreal. If you've read A FATAL GRACE/DEAD COLD you'll know how amazing it is to find one of these. It's become a new treasure for us. Susan is an old treasure. Very, very old.

But WOW, was it cold Thursday. Bitter, bitter wind. It has been a while since I was outside and it felt like someone was taking a potato peeler to my face. The wind was right in our faces. Then, coming home, it was in our faces again! A kind of reverse miracle. Whichever way we turned, there was the wind, full blast. Literally takes your breath away.

Must run. I always plan to write a short blog then end up blabbing on. We're in Montreal, heading home this morning. Be well and we'll talk soon.

Lazy, yes, but Lousie too?

Mostly sunny, high 7 degrees celcius

Michael, my husband, has pointed out it's too bad I didn't think to start the blog before our world book tour, which took us to Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, the US midwest, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto over the past seven weeks. But we're back, and all we're really doing now is mountains of laundry and paying bills - and discussing whether we should go to Weight Watchers, between mouthfuls of mini-O'Henry bars we tell people we bought by the truckload for trick-0r-treaters who've never, ever come to our home, since we're in the middle of nowhere.

Now there's a long sentence. It reminds me of one of my favorite Groucho Marx quotes: I'm descended from a long line my mother once fell for.

I drove to Quebec City yesterday and it never fails to take my breath away. The city is sublime. It's an old walled city, celebrating it's 400th birthday next year. Inside the walls are narrow cobblestone lanes and fieldstone homes right on the sidewalk. There's an ancient tree with a cannonball still stuck in it and the long wooden Dufferin Terrasse which winds it's graceful way along the cliff, looking out over the St. Lawrence river. It's gentle and genteel, quiet and secure, but with a great joie de vivre.

The drive was uneventful. No speeding tickets. But it's hunting season and every few kilometres there'd be a pickup truck parked on the side of the road. I felt like honking the whole way to scare the deer. We have friends who are hunters and we've stopped talking about that since it just leads to grief. But I can't even begin to understand how someone can look through the sites of a rifle and shoot a deer, or moose or even a partridge. I understand that it's a tradition passed often from father to son, and there's a rich and very beautiful bond developed from one generation to another as they do this shared experience. It gives them something to talk about, to discuss and remember. It's fresh air. The kids are taught about tracking and nature. Not all hunters of drunken louts.

But finally, why does a father need to teach a son to kill? And enjoy it? Make a sport of it? Can't they take pictures? I know that sounds lame to hunters, but if the 'great white hutners' of Africa could learn to stop killing and start doing safari's with cameras, surely our hunters can too? I must be missing something. I honestly don't understand. It sickens me.

The Quebec City event at La Maison Anglaise was great. Lots of people (thank God - I've done events where no one shows up and it's very hard to stand there like a lump trying to pretend it doesn't matter - and wishing a hunter would come along and put me out of my misery.)

The funniest thing was an article in the local paper, the Chronicale-Telegraph - which is North America's oldest newspaper! It's been going since 1764. I tell you, Quebec City is a treasure. Anyway they very kindly did a story in advance of my arrival - the banner headline?

LOUSIE PENNY DOES IT AGAIN

Be well, and I'll see you tomorrow.