cloudy, sleet, mild, temps 0
well, this was unexpected! I'd happily blogged in early Janurary that the NYT was going to do a review of A RULE AGAINST MURDER to run January 25th. But then when I was in Phoenix for the launch earlier that week I got a call from the publishers to say it wasn't going to happen.
We were all very disappointed since a review, good or bad, in the Times is significant.
Then, last this past week I started getting messages from people - some congratulating me on having a review in, some asking if it was happening. I patiently wrote back to thank them, but explain there was no review.
Then, woke up this morning to another flurry of messages - many attaching the actual review - which will run in tomorrow's Book Section. Here it is!!!!
Louise Penny applies her magic touch to A RULE AGAINST MURDER (Minotaur, $24.95), giving the village mystery an elegance and depth not often seen in this traditional genre. Although Penny is no slouch at constructing a whodunit puzzle, her great skill is her ability to create a charming mise-en-scène and inhabit it with complex characters.
There’s something otherworldly and altogether enchanting about the Manoir Bellechasse, the magnificent lodge in the Canadian wilderness where Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, has taken his wife for their 35th wedding anniversary. Not only does the auberge offer grand views and the order and calm of old-world service, but it also observes a no-kill policy, with the proprietors feeding wild animals in winter and forbidding guests to hunt or fish. Someone obviously failed to explain that rule to the cultured but quarrelsome family holding a reunion to unveil a statue of their late patriarch, who makes his feelings felt by toppling down on one of his own. As Gamache observes, “things were not as they seemed,” not even in a paradise like Bellechasse. And never in a Louise Penny mystery.
Wow! Thank you to all the people who saw this in advance copy and sent it on...and sincere aplogies to people kind enough to say something, whom I didn't believe!
But, having given up on the possibility of a review in the NYT this feels like a huge unexpected gift. Exactly what it is, in fact! Yipppee...and long live Marilyn Stasio - the crime reviewer.
Had, as you might expect, a terrific day. Spent it in bed, actually, which is why this blog is being posted late. Not ill - just relaxed and lazy. Read a good book, drank coffee, napped, responded to emails. Napped. Napped. Wonderful.
Am now up and dressed and Michael's having a nap. We're trying to figure out if we want to go out for dinner (steak frites on the corner) or stay in. I'm now keen to go out - celebrate. Especially since I'm the one dressed and vertical. But we'll see how the Big Guy is feeling in an hour. If he'd like dinner in bed it's the least I can do after he climbed the stairs for me a dozen times today.
Oh, by the way, if you feel you'd like to rent this home you can. the only catch is that Old Quebec City is fearful that it will stop being a place where people actually live and become a spot for visitors only - too many hotels and B&B's and places let by the week...it can change the character of a place. So the city has brought in a new rule stating that places can still be rented, but no longer by the week. The minimum is a month.
But, if you have a month to spare and want to explore Quebec City and the surrounding area (Isle D'Orleans, Montreal, Gaspe, Tadoussac and whale watching - in summer) then this is a great base.
If you're interested, or just want to see more pix of this home, you can go to http://sites.google.com/site/quebeccityhouse/
or vrbo (vacation rental by owner)...not sure what this home is listed under, though! But it's in the Quebec City listing.
Hope that helps. We're off to that big brunch at the Chateau Frontenac tomorrow to celebrate carnaval with all the dignitaries...and us. apparently it"s expected we'll wear a ceinture fleche...which is a traditional Quebecois braided belt. We actually have quite a rare, authentic one, but we left it at home - d'oh. So we'll need to buy a couple on our way up there. The finals of the cross river canoe race are on at the same time, so this is also a celebration of that.
Really looking forward to it.
Be well, and will report in tomorrow -
Showing posts with label brunch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brunch. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Caribou-boo
more fluffy snow flakes, temps minus 10
Actually the official forecast says minus 16 but we just came back from brunch (more eating? honestly! No self restraint) and it was fairly mild.
they've closed off a couple of blocks of rue Saint-Jean and are having a small hockey game, some music and these huge puppets - really quite macabre - wandering up and down. Look faintly Venetian. Half Venetian, half menacing.
One big pasttime at the Quebec Winter Carnival is to buy a hollow plastic walking stick and fill it with Caribou. Not the animal, nor even the meat - but this unholy alcohol. You can pick it up in lots of places, but particularly along Sainte-Therese street...or you can make it yourself out of some combination of Port/Brandy/Wine/vodka/Maple Syrup. I suspect this is what fuels Bonhomme. When I worked here years ago there was a fellow who was famous for making the best Caribou. I seem to remember he lived in the lower town, the basse ville and was named 'Ti Jean or something. 'Ti' is a Quebec diminutive for 'petit', so in effect it's a small diminutive. Never mind.
Perhaps someone reading this - Hum?? - knows the guy or the story.
The wonderful Linda Lyall, who designs and manages my website and newsletter, sent out the February newsletter today. We're giving away 2 souveniers from the Carnaval. Just tiny little gifts.
Such fun to hear back from people - and such beautiful messages. Supportive, enthusiastic, kind. And helping to celebrate the New York Times list. Honestly I don't think I will ever recover from the surprise and delight of that. And such fun to celebrate with you.
We rose late, had brunch out - bought some pastries for later (eclairs, Jesuites, escargots d'orange, and a pear and chocolate thing) and will read the papers, respond to the emails and later on watch the Super Bowl. We're rooting for Arizona because I was just there and I feel an affinity for them. And it was such fun to hear the amazement of everyone in Phoenix that they should be in the Super Bowl!
I've placed some calls and am hoping to have a few private tours of historic sites next week. I'm seeing more clearly what the crime will be, where, and how far back the crime (and the memory) reaches. Such fun. It means I have a more focussed search - though still trying to keep my options open in case something even more exciting and disturbing and rich presents itself.
I do know this - we're going to have great fun, you and me. Writing it, and reading it!
Actually the official forecast says minus 16 but we just came back from brunch (more eating? honestly! No self restraint) and it was fairly mild.
they've closed off a couple of blocks of rue Saint-Jean and are having a small hockey game, some music and these huge puppets - really quite macabre - wandering up and down. Look faintly Venetian. Half Venetian, half menacing.
One big pasttime at the Quebec Winter Carnival is to buy a hollow plastic walking stick and fill it with Caribou. Not the animal, nor even the meat - but this unholy alcohol. You can pick it up in lots of places, but particularly along Sainte-Therese street...or you can make it yourself out of some combination of Port/Brandy/Wine/vodka/Maple Syrup. I suspect this is what fuels Bonhomme. When I worked here years ago there was a fellow who was famous for making the best Caribou. I seem to remember he lived in the lower town, the basse ville and was named 'Ti Jean or something. 'Ti' is a Quebec diminutive for 'petit', so in effect it's a small diminutive. Never mind.
Perhaps someone reading this - Hum?? - knows the guy or the story.
The wonderful Linda Lyall, who designs and manages my website and newsletter, sent out the February newsletter today. We're giving away 2 souveniers from the Carnaval. Just tiny little gifts.
Such fun to hear back from people - and such beautiful messages. Supportive, enthusiastic, kind. And helping to celebrate the New York Times list. Honestly I don't think I will ever recover from the surprise and delight of that. And such fun to celebrate with you.
We rose late, had brunch out - bought some pastries for later (eclairs, Jesuites, escargots d'orange, and a pear and chocolate thing) and will read the papers, respond to the emails and later on watch the Super Bowl. We're rooting for Arizona because I was just there and I feel an affinity for them. And it was such fun to hear the amazement of everyone in Phoenix that they should be in the Super Bowl!
I've placed some calls and am hoping to have a few private tours of historic sites next week. I'm seeing more clearly what the crime will be, where, and how far back the crime (and the memory) reaches. Such fun. It means I have a more focussed search - though still trying to keep my options open in case something even more exciting and disturbing and rich presents itself.
I do know this - we're going to have great fun, you and me. Writing it, and reading it!
Sunday, 27 July 2008
So this is what 'stupid' looks like
sunny/stormy, temps 25
Slightly cooler today. Had a couple massive thunder storms last night and that broke the heat and humidity.
Spent yesterday with Michael and Pat in our bathing suits by the pool. Michael and Pat very sensibly put sun block on. But, since I'm invincible, I didn't. Today, they still look like human beings, and I look like a root vegetable. A cross between a carrot and a beet.
I'm almost purple.
It's been a long time since I was this tanned, or that stupid. Remarkable, really, to know that while misjudgement might lie dormant, it never actually goes away.
The plan today, and so far it has gone off without a flaw, is to rise late (check), make coffee (check), laze around (check), make brunch of blueberry pancakes, bacon, Montreal bagels, cream cheese, Lise's strawberry jam, cappucino and cherries. (check)
Will do a few emails - responding to a personal appearance request, a couple readers and a book club in Oregon - then....
Pat and I are heading to the spa! Will do a half day package. Facial for me - see if they can bring the purple down to a soothing pink - and a massage. Pat'll have a massage, a manicure and a pedicure.
Michael will have a quiet day - I think he's looking forward to it even more than we are.
Steak on the BBQ tonight. Nice to be away from the editing, though of course I think about it quite a bit. Good place, really, to pause since it was a bit of a problem area...but I think I've solved the problem.
Speak to you tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday.
Slightly cooler today. Had a couple massive thunder storms last night and that broke the heat and humidity.
Spent yesterday with Michael and Pat in our bathing suits by the pool. Michael and Pat very sensibly put sun block on. But, since I'm invincible, I didn't. Today, they still look like human beings, and I look like a root vegetable. A cross between a carrot and a beet.
I'm almost purple.
It's been a long time since I was this tanned, or that stupid. Remarkable, really, to know that while misjudgement might lie dormant, it never actually goes away.
The plan today, and so far it has gone off without a flaw, is to rise late (check), make coffee (check), laze around (check), make brunch of blueberry pancakes, bacon, Montreal bagels, cream cheese, Lise's strawberry jam, cappucino and cherries. (check)
Will do a few emails - responding to a personal appearance request, a couple readers and a book club in Oregon - then....
Pat and I are heading to the spa! Will do a half day package. Facial for me - see if they can bring the purple down to a soothing pink - and a massage. Pat'll have a massage, a manicure and a pedicure.
Michael will have a quiet day - I think he's looking forward to it even more than we are.
Steak on the BBQ tonight. Nice to be away from the editing, though of course I think about it quite a bit. Good place, really, to pause since it was a bit of a problem area...but I think I've solved the problem.
Speak to you tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday.
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Sunday brunch and the hammock's up - and I did neither.
mainly sunny, mild, temps 19
It's turned into a beautiful day after starting out quite mixed. Lovely and sunny when we wpoke up around 6am. We have no curtains on the bedroom windows so we wake up with the sun. Good thing we don't live in the Arctic. Then clouded over and looked threatening, and now it's gorgeous. Sat by the pool for half an hour while Michael did odd spring jobs like putting the pots for annuals (rather than the annual pot) around the pool - then, lovely man, he put up our hammock between two pine trees.
That's the sign of summer. It hangs between the pool area and the STILL LIFE orchard and catches just enough of a breeze to shoo away the black flies and mosquitos, and to be gently cooling on the hotest days of summer. And, of course, it's in the shade. Lovely to lie there with a cold drink and a good book.
Heaven.
But always a bit of a struggle to get up - mostly just trying to unwind it from itself. Like a Gordian knot. Thankfully we haven't had to slice it through yet.
Michael and I both wrote this morning, then headed over to the guest house where Susan had prepared brunch for Cotton and us. God, it was good. She made the egg dish you make the day before, with cheese and bread and eggs and mushrooms - and fresh asparagus. Yum. Then she found a recipe in one of our cookbooks - fresh tomatoes with goat cheese on top and proscuitto laid on top of that...stick it under the broiler for a minute or so and it comes out just divine. So much tastier (Michael reports) than the piece of paper I fed him the other day.
Now home. finally struggled out of the pool side chair, got the clippers, and while Michael wrestled the hammock I cut lilac. The first bush is in bloom. Did an arrangement of lilac, daffodils, white bleeding hearts and these arching Solomon's Seal. Now the whole home smells like lilac. Wonderful.
Also did some research this afternoon for the book. I find it helpful to do it as I go along, rather than read everything before I start, because by the time I hit the section on canning or the Galapagos or throwing pottery, I'll have forgotten. So I write until I hit that stage then do one of two things. Either make it up and keep writing then do the research at the editing stage and make changes then, or read what I need for half a day and get back to it next day. That's what I'm doing with this section, though there are sections I know I'll have to 'fact-check' on the first re-write - probably in June.
speaking of editing - I finished the proof edits last night around 11! Phew. Free at last.
Quiet night. Some friends - Don and Daphne - coming over before dinner. They're heading to Vancouver at the end of the month for his mother's 80th birthday and were kind enough to decide to give her my book as a gift - so they'd like me to sign it.
Have all of tomorrow to ourselves - except Gary whose coming over to finished work on our windows (which explains the scaffolding he'd put up - I'm relieved there's an explanation). We think of Gary as part of the family, though hope I don't discover he's there when I see him at the bathroom window! Having coffee with his mother, Joan, on Wednesday. And need to try to arrange a coffee with another Joan friend, Joan Rose and Michele Brault. As you see, when we finally do get home life gets busy. I'm so grateful to our friends for not dropping us since we're away so much! I know it's hard to maintain a friendship when one half is missing. So we try to make up for it when we do get home.
Speak to you tomorrow.
It's turned into a beautiful day after starting out quite mixed. Lovely and sunny when we wpoke up around 6am. We have no curtains on the bedroom windows so we wake up with the sun. Good thing we don't live in the Arctic. Then clouded over and looked threatening, and now it's gorgeous. Sat by the pool for half an hour while Michael did odd spring jobs like putting the pots for annuals (rather than the annual pot) around the pool - then, lovely man, he put up our hammock between two pine trees.
That's the sign of summer. It hangs between the pool area and the STILL LIFE orchard and catches just enough of a breeze to shoo away the black flies and mosquitos, and to be gently cooling on the hotest days of summer. And, of course, it's in the shade. Lovely to lie there with a cold drink and a good book.
Heaven.
But always a bit of a struggle to get up - mostly just trying to unwind it from itself. Like a Gordian knot. Thankfully we haven't had to slice it through yet.
Michael and I both wrote this morning, then headed over to the guest house where Susan had prepared brunch for Cotton and us. God, it was good. She made the egg dish you make the day before, with cheese and bread and eggs and mushrooms - and fresh asparagus. Yum. Then she found a recipe in one of our cookbooks - fresh tomatoes with goat cheese on top and proscuitto laid on top of that...stick it under the broiler for a minute or so and it comes out just divine. So much tastier (Michael reports) than the piece of paper I fed him the other day.
Now home. finally struggled out of the pool side chair, got the clippers, and while Michael wrestled the hammock I cut lilac. The first bush is in bloom. Did an arrangement of lilac, daffodils, white bleeding hearts and these arching Solomon's Seal. Now the whole home smells like lilac. Wonderful.
Also did some research this afternoon for the book. I find it helpful to do it as I go along, rather than read everything before I start, because by the time I hit the section on canning or the Galapagos or throwing pottery, I'll have forgotten. So I write until I hit that stage then do one of two things. Either make it up and keep writing then do the research at the editing stage and make changes then, or read what I need for half a day and get back to it next day. That's what I'm doing with this section, though there are sections I know I'll have to 'fact-check' on the first re-write - probably in June.
speaking of editing - I finished the proof edits last night around 11! Phew. Free at last.
Quiet night. Some friends - Don and Daphne - coming over before dinner. They're heading to Vancouver at the end of the month for his mother's 80th birthday and were kind enough to decide to give her my book as a gift - so they'd like me to sign it.
Have all of tomorrow to ourselves - except Gary whose coming over to finished work on our windows (which explains the scaffolding he'd put up - I'm relieved there's an explanation). We think of Gary as part of the family, though hope I don't discover he's there when I see him at the bathroom window! Having coffee with his mother, Joan, on Wednesday. And need to try to arrange a coffee with another Joan friend, Joan Rose and Michele Brault. As you see, when we finally do get home life gets busy. I'm so grateful to our friends for not dropping us since we're away so much! I know it's hard to maintain a friendship when one half is missing. So we try to make up for it when we do get home.
Speak to you tomorrow.
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