The end is nigh...or...The end is not nigh

mainly sunny, mild, temps 15

Did a lot of writing today - almost 4,000 words. I think my plan now is just to blast through to the end, and worry about whether these sections are any good on the second draft. I know, I know - I've said that before...but this time I think I mean it. I'm so close to the end...I can hear and see the next few scenes...and I know that when I get to this stage in the next draft it will be obvious what needs to be changed.

But we'll see. The only problem, as ever, is that the end seems to keep moving further away.

Michael is also VERY close to finishing his first draft...very exciting.

Lovely day here...the gardens, thanks to Lise and Donna, look spectacular. Trudy and I toured them a few times - and around the pond too. Sitting here in the TV room I can see the front porch and see a birds next there - with a bird coming and going. not sure it there are eggs or babies. That would be fun.

VERY happy that the Canada geese seem to have given our pond a miss this year. We love seeing them and their babies - but their droppings get old fast.

Nice quiet day. Bliss. Nothing to do except what we want. Which is pretty well drinking cafe au lait, eat Social Teas, write, and walk with Trudy.

Moving ahead by going back

mainly sunny, warm, lovely day. temps 15

Gorgeous day - Lise, Donna Del and two young men shoveled compost for most of the day - and the garden looks spectacular. There was a bat flying around, though. Freaked poor Donna out. I love bats - but don't really want to get too close. They're just so good for the environment...but they should not be flying around during the day.

not sure what's up with this property...normally noctural creatures are about in broad daylight. The skunk and now the bat.

Our theory is it's the bat that was asleep this winter by the fireplace, that I took out and put in the shed. The gardeners disturbed it today and it left the shed and just zoomed around. I hope so. Like to think the little bat survived.

We dropped by and saw Markus...rolling in the mud. Very happy horse! Also dropped by and saw Gary and Alan at the guest cottage and the new balcony they've built. Fabulous!

Went to breakfast with michael this morning - then drove to Richford, to mail the page proof corrections to NYC - and listen to music and think about the rest of the book. Actually, I just had another structural idea.

Wrote a few thousand words...but now i think I need to go back and re-do it. Oh well.

have been invited to the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN - for Oct 8,9th. And the Calgary Literary Festival. Not sure if I can make that one, though I'd LOVE to. My friend Anne Green runs it and it's her last year putting it together, so would love to go to celebrate her. But it's the same weekend as Bouchercon, in San Francisco. the big crime readers and writers convention.

Busy week...will set the alarm and get up early tomorrow to write a couple thousand words before noon - then off to Montreal for Michael's dentist stuff...then Thursday we have breakfast with a friend, and off to Blue Met. The ash cloud had stranded the Crime Writers of Canada organizer of the event in England - so Barbara, Tony and I need to get there early and figure things out. Happily we've all done this many times...but it means doing stuff we wouldn't normally. (do NOT let your imaginations go wild)

Then the event at 6:30 at the delta hotel. Thanks, Marjorie, for the link on the comments page!!!

Will try to blog tomorrow...

Gamache 'one-on-one'

overcast, mild, temps zero

Lovely day...feels and smells like spring. I noticed the spring bulbs are coming up in the cutting garden, right next to the house. I'm sure the shoots will be snowed under, but they always seem to survive.

Lise dropped by...we got some work done. There are so many details that go with being a writer. I think that's one of the big surprised...all the 'other' things. Mailing, emailing, events - questions, interviews, discussions with publishers and editors. With my agent.

The writing often seems the easiest.

I suddenly wrote 2,000 words today. My plan is to finish the second chapter quickly - just dump the words on the page - then go back and smooth...shape. Quite fun this way. Then I exercised and listened to the music...hearing conversations - again. I do think there is almost no noticable difference between being a writer and being insane.

A few of you wrote to ask about the process. I always know who did it, who gets killed. Why. and some of the main themes. But I don't know how Gamache will solve it. And while each scene has a purpose, I don't necessarily know how the points, clues, development will happen. Always a surprise.

Gamache has just arrived on the scene.

But, I also know, there's a pretty good chance this opening will not be the same as the one you read. The beginning often needs changing since by the end of the book I'm clearer about the themes and the beginning needs to be sharpened. We'll see. The big thing is to just get something down and worry about the editing later.

On another topic, I had a very fun email from Jennifer Forbus. She writes the great blog, www.jensbookthoughts.com

Here's an excerpt from her message -

This email is to inform you that you have at least one detective who received enough nominations to make the "World's Favorite Detective" tournament that I will be hosting for the "Detectives Around the World" theme week. I'm going to run the tournament like the NCAA basketball tournaments that will be occurring simultaneously, so there are 64 detectives that will go head-to-head culminating in the final two having their showdown during the theme week April 11th to the 17th.

I am announcing the 64 detectives that made the tournament tomorrow on my blog. Beginning Friday I'm going to take entries for a contest connected to the tournament. And the first week of voting will kick off on Monday, March 8th.

Seems Armand is going one-on-one with Jesse Stone by Robert Parker. Hmmm.


doesn't that sound like fun?

Anyway, back to messages etc.

Speak tomorrow.

Montreal

heavy snow, mild, temps minus 3

Wouldn't you know it? The day we're supposed to drive in to Montreal there's a mini-storm. However, it's possible it's only really snowing here, on our mountain top. We find that quite often. We'll be in the middle of a blizzard, get in the car and one mile away the bananas are on the trees. Sort of. But I bet by the time we're in Cowansville this will have disappeared.

Did lots of writing yesterday. Am in a difficult part of the book, making transitions...we'll see how it goes. for me it's important not to go back and edit, but to do some smoothing perhaps but mostly to keep moving forward and trust in the re-write stage, when the first draft is finished. So far that's worked. And I know that I can be a harsh and sometimes unfair critic. I think something's not working when in fact it is. And sometimes I need to finish the book to see how certain sections fit in.

But, it all means I'm not just in effect writing the same book over and over - but stretching. Want to give you the same feel, and many of the same characters and settings as previous books - but also need to 'change it up'. Hate to get 'cookie-cutter'.

Sad about Jade Goody. We followed her quite startling career...and now her death so young. But a great lesson, as she herself said, in the vital importance of getting Pap smears for cervical cancer.

We're off to the city - taking the car in for a tune up. Taking Michael in for a tune-up. Eyes and Urologist. Just routine. And to sign the lease on our new apartment. such fun. Busy day tomorrow, but good to do.

Be well.

Happy Birthday, Cheryl!!!

sunny, rainy, cool highs 9

I've frankly never seen weather like this. I'm freezing! How can a Canadian freeze to death in London in April? Baffles me, but I am. Need to put on my long underwear. I think it's the damp, the rain, the hail and the wind. But I might be wrong.

Ah, April. And I was so smug about being in spring while back home in Quebec it was still winter.

Though I have received a few emails from friends saying it's still snowing. That really must stop.

Speaking of home - it's our good friend Cheryl's Birthday today!!!! Happy birthday, Cheryl. She and Gary are married and have two great sons, Evan and Sam. And Joan, another wonderful friend, is Gary's mother and Cheryl's mother-in-law. And people wonder where I get all the inter-relations in Three Pines!

Am the Dear (not Dead) Reader fiction pick for this week. You might want to go over there - I think Googling DearReader will do it - and check it out...they publish 5 days worth of readings, so you get the first few chapter of a book (in my case The Cruelest Month) for free. Get to preview it.

Wrote for most of today. Eva, Erika's cleaning woman came. She speaks no English, only Polish. And I speak no polish, but found myself speaking French to her for some reason that confounded both of us. It obviously didn't help. All I really wanted to do was ask if she minded if we didn't leave, as we normally would. But stayed to write.

After an hour or so, when we didn't leave, she brought out the vacuum cleaner. That had a limited effect. It chased Michael out of the living room and into the dining room where I was working.

Working is a relative term, of course. I'd been very happy with yesterday's writing. Then we went out for a pub lunch on Walton Street, just around the corner, then bought the Sunday papers. When we got home I wrote for another couple of hours. But when I'd finished I wasn't feeling so good. Not physically, but just sort of uncomfortable.

I ignored it for a few hours, but eventually gave in to what I knew to be right. What I'd written was wrong. It wasn't necessarily bad, just wrong. The wrong way to convey the information. I wasn't sure what the right way was, but at least I've come to trust my instincts.

So this morning I re-wrote the whole thing. It was hard - had to back up a few times as well. There seem to be stages like that in my books. Sections where a few things need to be related - and not all verbally. Anway, after stuggling all morning, and trying to ignore the vacumm with the same determination Eva ignored my Frenc, I finally finished. And I like it.

But wow, is it ever hard to go back and erase thousands of words. And start again. Though I must admit, it's getting easier. Perhaps because it's getting easier to trust my feelings.

Busy afternoon. Heading off the London BookFair to meet kim McArthur at the Headline Publishing Booth. Kim's my Canadian publisher and affiliated with the UK Headline. We'll meet the Canadian ambassador there - James Wright and his wife Donna Thomson. then all go to the Canada booth for a party. Kim says I'm a guest of honour, but I'll believe that when I see it. Still, thought I should put on my party frock, and perhaps even remove the long underwear.

Then it's off to Michael's sister Carol's and her husband David, for dinner. A man named Eddie Botterell will be there. Michael and Carol knew him when they were kids. They sailed together and Eddie went on to compete in the olympics - sailing for Canada. He's in London because his grandfather is being honoured. eddie is in his late 70's, and his fgrandfather just died, can you believe it?

He was the last flying ace from the Great War. Died at the age of 106, a couple of years ago. The Brits are honouring him and Eddie Botterell is here to represent the family.

I'm really looking forward to meeting him!

Watched the Masters until 1am last night. How thrilling for Trevor Immelman - though when he put his drive into the water on the 16th I shuddered. Michael and I held hands as though at a horror flick until he was safe.

Must be off. Speak to you tomorrow. Be well.