Agatha, plus one

overcast, spitting rain, cool, temps 55

As you can see, I have now changed the way time (for me) will now be told. Everything will be measured from the moment BURY YOUR DEAD won the Agatha.

Am now in Pittsburgh. Two wonderful mystery writers gave me a lift from Malice Domestic in Washington - Heather Webber and Wendy Lyn Watson. Easy drive. Michael flew home from Washington this morning. I put him in a cab at the hotel and waved goodbye. Always sad. Like a true anal chick, I insist he emails when he gets to the airport. And certainly, when the plane lands. And then I got to the Air Canada site and check the flight status.

This I admit.

Had a fun panel at Malice this morning- then a signing. Then a few quiet hours, and the 4 hours drive to Pittsburgh. And what should greet me in the hotel room??? A clue would be the photo above.

How beautiful!!! flowers always cheer up a strange hotel room. And these are magnificent. Roses and lilies and the most fragrant night-scented stock...that smell like spice. And - as though that wasn't enough - there's an array of chocolates!!! Exactly what a gal needs after 4 hours on the road, and arriving on a gray, overcast day. Wow. Like sunlight in the room. And an embrace.

they're from - the publisher!!! Minotaur Books. The most wonderful publisher ever, as far as I'm concerned. To celebrate the Agatha.

I hope I know really how lucky I am. But I suspect I'll only really, truly grasp it when it goes away, as most things eventually do. Not in a bad or necessarily tragic way, but it's life. but for now, I really am trying to appreciate all my great good luck.

I called Michael as soon as I walked through the door. Wrote to Andy and Hope and Sarah at Minotaur, to thank them, then ordered ribs for delivering. Will crack a diet coke, eat ribs and watch something nasty on the TV - celebrity apprentice perhaps. Or the restaurant show. I like that.

Hope you're well. And thank you all SO much for your congratulations - for your happiness. It magnifies mine, and that's another reason to be extremely grateful. And aware.

Literacy Video

sunny, mild, temps 14

Again, another cold morning. Minus 2. But warmed up to 14. Beautiful day. Drove in to Montreal. Did a taped interview for All in a Weekend, with Dave Bronstetter, on CBC Radio One. Met a bunch of friends...Catherine, Anna, Shawn and Mike. It always feels a little odd being back - but a relief not to have to be on air doing a daily show. Had had enough of that. For everything there really is a season.

Got back in time to meet the man producing the literacy video. We set up a make-shift studio in our dining room and recorded. I hadn't had a chance to read the script, and it's quite hard to read something out loud, cold. A few stops and stops, but it went quite quickly. About an hour of script. Took about 1 1/2 hours. The hardest part, I found, was keeping up my energy level. You can really tell when a person isn't really 'there'.

Then responded to a bunch of emails. Poor UK publishers have been trying to send me flowers to celebrate the publication of THE MURDER STONE and the florists seem challenged. We actually stayed home - one of us - for two days, waiting. And now the florists have told the publishers they tried to call and deliver, but no one was here.

Quite maddening. There is actually a wonderful florist in Sutton who does spectacxular arrangements - just a little shop but a very gifted woman. Have suggested perhaps they could use her in the future. But it seemed heavy-handed to micro-manage the delivery of my own flowers.

But, this might be for the best, with Thanksgiving coming we'll have fresh flowers. If they can find us. I can't believe they've even tried. Between Michael waiting and the dogs who bark when a car even passes... but still.

Drive to Burlington Vermont airport tomorrow, (about 2 hours) then fly to Baltimore. Not far..about 1 1/2 hrs. Have a signing at the Mystery News desk at Bouchercon at 4pm tomorrow...and have given myself the evening off. Will order up room service, and read. Heaven.

Hope you enjoy our trip to Baltimore. Take your party frock.

frothing up

partly cloudy, cooler, temps 20

Cool, blustery day. Bit of a relief, really. Off to exercise class in a few minutes and thought I'd jump onto the computer and write while I can.

Been meaning to tell you about the garden. The Clematis are now out all over the bird house and up the trellis's. The foxglove are blooming and even some phlox. I adore phlox. Bad name, though. sounds like phlem. And the daylilies are out. The oriental lilies like Casablanca and Stargazer are just about to pop.

Ordered an espresso maker yesterday. We had one in our room at Hovey and every morning (except when it rained) we sat on the dock, drinking our espressos and looking down the lake. So tranquil. Had been thinking about getting one for a while. Normally, when we go into Sutton to the office we get our cappuccinos from the creperies next door. But they closed and we're moving from the office - giving it up - to work from home. So - we were missing our cappuccino's.

Spoiled. Well and truely and irreversibly spoiled.

The otehr thing we give up by writing exclusively at home is our highspeed internet. We're in the middle of nowhere - a sort of plateau surrounded by mountains and forest...no highspeed here. Very frustrating.

Bu this afternoon a fellow from knowlton is coming to install a satellite disk so we can pick up highspeed (actually more 'medium' speed) through it. That'll be perfect.

Now we can download pictures of a dock, and sit in front of the computer with our cappuccinos.

My body still hurts from exercise class on Monday - God knows how it's feel after todays. But my mind sure is glad we're going.

Take care.

See how we suffer?

Overcast, drizzle, mild, temps 14

We need rain and we're getting a little today. Then it's expected to clear up and be sunny for this afternoon and tomorrow - which will be great for Susan, who's arriving for the Victoria Day long weekend. I wonder if Canada is the only country that still celebrates Victoria Day? It was traditionally the weekend cottagers opened up the summer place after the winter. Those lucky enough to have a summer place, that is. For most of us it was simply a very welcome long weekend. It's also the weekend when it's considered safe to plant the annuals (flowers). Before this weekend there's always the risk of a killing frost. Between you and me? There's always a risk in Canada - but it goes down dramatically.

As you see, we've put up another picture. This is of the spring flowers I talked about cutting the other day. They're the last of the flowers from the spring cutting garden - plus a rose I was given on Mother's Day. It's lovely to sit on the screen porch and have our meals. It was especially nice this morning - even walking the dogs - with the rain. Wayne cut the grass yesterday so there was this morning this wonderful, tender fragrance of spring rain and new grass.

We also now have green grass tracks through the house. Pat's going to kill me.

It looks like it's going to be a spectacular year for lilac. Our bushes are full of the flowers - not yet out. Another week, I think. Hope we don't miss them when we go off to England...but they'll come again next year if we do. Now, after Gary's construction - we have two new windows upstairs - one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom...both right above a lilac bush, ripe with buds. It's going to be amazing when they open! Imagine waking up to the scent of lilac?

Had a wonderful message from Robin who runs Aunt Agatha's bookstore in Ann Arbor (one of my favorite!). She wrote to say STILL LIFE is back on the bestsellers list! And The Cruelest Month has been given the coveted Black Diamond review by the website I Love A Mystery.

So far so good.

Wrote this morning - then got chilly and took a bath...and a few ideas floated to the fore. Very helpful, baths. Need to get a photo and bio out for the talk next week. And had to say 'No' with thanks to an organization called The Townshippers, who called this morning to ask if I'd be the honourary president of their Townshippers Day - which is being held in Sutton this year. We'll be in Toronto. I felt badly saying no, but I'm getting better at it.

Back to the miserable proof edits after lunch. Happily I no longer put off things I don't want to do. In fact, just the opposite. Now I do them as soon as I can - get them out of the way. Like JK Rowling and her wonderful 'Howlers', things I hate just seem to get larger if I ignore them.

Susan's coming for dinner tonight - BBQ'd duck legs, fiddleheads, fresh asparagus and probably a dash of mud.

Spring has arrived - inside

sunny, calm, lovely day

When I went to bed last night it was clear and mild, when I woke up it was clear and mild, and at sometime in between it managed to snow about 5 inches. Cars are covered in it. Fluffy light snow that would collapse down to nothing if challenged. Like white bread. used to love putting a slice in my fist, smushing it into a ball and eating that.

Can't figure out why my generation is living longer when you think of the things we put in our bodies. Tang. White bread. Anything in a can.

I belonged, until recently, to a group of women who'd get together once a month and one of us would do a presentation on some theme chosen at the beginning of the year. The theme that year was memory - so I chose to study smell and memory. Really very interesting the power of scents to trigger not just memory, but emotion. If there's such a thing as time travel it's fueled by scents.

But, as part of my research, I ran into an fascinating survey. It discovered that if you ask people over 70 what their favorite smells are for the most part they'll say things like roses, fresh baking, fresh mowed grass - that sort of thing. If you ask people under 50 chances are they'll say things like Vics Vapo Rub, gasoline - that sort of thing.

Not everyone fits into the catagory, but I thought it was telling. And now I've told you.

As you know, my books are filled with aromas - most of them natural - because they're so calming. Bacon, fresh coffee and wood smoke in the morning. A garden after a rain. Even mud.

Went into the local grocery store the other day and they had a massive display of tulips - so I bought about five bunches. Tuplips and snap dragons. Now we have bouquets in almost every room, including the bathroom, so that when I relax after the days writing I see spring. As long as I don't look out the window.

We're off to Montreal today - again! We were supposed to zip in and out tomorrow for physio for Michael but the forecast is for freezing rain and snow tomorrow morning. Not worth the risk. We're so fortunate to have kept a small apartment in the city, for times like these.

Pat will look after Maggie and Trudy - who pout when we return home. We call Pat's place the 'spa'. They adore it and her.

Pants very loose - and no that isn't a comment on my morals. It's a comment on our diet! It's working. And, miracle of miracles, it's actually easy! of course the book tour will be a dietary disaster - oh well.

I'll try to write tomorrow from Montreal. In the mean time, enjoy your Sunday and be well.