Nagging, with a side order of peas

partly cloudy, windy, smattering of rain, temps 5

So far no snow...but it sure felt like sleet while walking Trudy around the pond. She took off after a deer in the field, but I know all I need do is break a cookie in half and she's back. And she could never catch the deer - thank heaven.

Michael continues to improve. Every hour he puts a cold compress on his face. At first it was ice cubes, but then I switched that to a bag of frozen peas. Not sure it helps but it looks funny - so it helps me. Might give him a leg of lamb tomorrow. But honestly, he's doing brilliantly. He's very disciplined about the drops too...nothing cavalier, which is a relief. I don't have to keep nagging him.

Though, as I point out ad nauseum, at least he has a wife who loves him enough to care. Who wants him well. I read somewhere that the healthier men have wives who nag. Physically healthiest...not so sure about mentally.

Nag, of course, is an insult...and belittles women and their right to a voice. I use it to mock myself, but it's not a perception I actually buy in to. I figure his health effects both of us, so I have a right to a say. Just as he has a right to a voice in my health.

Except for that colonoscopy he's been nagging me to get.

Had a lovely message from a reader, Erin Casey, who wrote about yesterday's blog:

I was particularly pleased that you mentioned the donation of tissue in your blog. Canada is not a leader when it comes to donations of organs and tissue. The problem is education, as I am sure your husband, a physician, is intimately aware.

Somewhere out there is a family who may read your blog or hear of it.Though they may never know if it was their loved one who gave the gift, they will see the joy it has brought yourselves and know their loved one made that difference.

If you have any further thoughts on tissue or organ donation, I hope you shall share them with your readers. We live, we love, we share and we grow.

that's what Erin wrote.

Well, for what it's worth, I'm an organ donor - though between us I'm hoping they'll be all worn out by the time donation is an issue. And if any of you are offered my liver? Say no.

But clearly Michael and I have been given what Erin, in a later email, called a wonderous gift. Michael's sight has been saved because some poor one died, and a family in the midst of their grief allowed his or her organs to be donated.

The least we can do is pass ours on. And how wonderful to think we might live on, through someone else.

On another front - I finished the QuickReads novella today. I'd done the first draft a few weeks ago, then let it rest while I worked on something else. Then, this week, got to do the editing.

Have decided the story is actually quite good. Feels VERY different from the regular Gamache books. Shorter, of course, so less depth of character and fewer characters. And, because its target audience is adults in literacy programmes - emerging readers - the sentences and words are very simple. It's written at a 3.6 grade level.

But I'm hoping that, like poetry, there is great beauty and truth in simplicity. As I wrote and edited I thought a lot about Josephine Tey and Georges Simenon and Hemingway. And the wonderful Alice Munro. We'll see if I even come close, and clearly if I've failed it wasn't for lack of great writers as inspiration.

But, you know, I actually am very pleased with it. We'll see. Perhaps you'll see. The novella will be published in a year and will be available around the world. It's a fundraiser for literacy projects.

Tomorrow is the official launch of THE BRUTAL TELLING! Very exciting. There's a brunch at the Lakeview Inn in Knowlton at 11am. I'll be giving a short talk and reading. And signing. It's also a fundraiser for literacy.

Another bit of great news is that we made this week's USA Today bestseller list of top 150 books. THE BRUTAL TELLING is just clinging on at #146, and is preparing for the big tumble right off the list. Still, we've never been on it, and this is particularly great because their top 150 includes not just fiction, but non-fiction, hardcovers, paperbacks, childrens, science fiction, TV tie-ins and even vampires!

So, to say I'm thrilled is an understatement. I might go and put frozen peas on my face, just to calm down.

Be well. Thanks for keeping me company.