Happy Winter, Happy Hanukah

blizzard, high winds, temps minus 10

Happy Winter Solstice. Happy shortest day of the year, Happy Hanukah!

We were expecting to be walloped by a terrible blizzard, and at about 10 this morning the snow started, the wind picked up and Michael ran outside to his car to go into the village to pick up salmon, so he could make his world famous gravlax. (we tried to get it last night but by the time the party was over the IGA was packing up - fish counter closed). So he hot-footed it out to Sutton.

I cleaned up the breakfast things, brought wood up from the basement, ran water in the tub in case we lost power...then lit the fire and started my days editing.

Michael blew in an hour later - laden with salmon, clever lad. So the gravlax is fermenting, or whatever it does...but have to say, it's yummy! Basically it's like smoked salmon, only actually sort of 'cooked' in salt and dill over three days. I think I just made that sound disgusting. But it's great.

Doing lamb for tonight.

the storm seems to have died down. Bit of a shame...not quite the howler we were hoping for.

Maggie's bouncing around...tomorrow's the big day. As it nears we're more and more confident in our decision. We think she'll sail right through. Kirk and Walter, bless them, invited us for Christmas Eve dinner, but Maggie will have just gotten back so we had to take a pass, though we might drop in for half an hour, with a plate of gravlax (and to see their new kitchen! - always a snoop)

THE MURDER STONE climbed back up the bestsellers list this week. Number 5. Always great for the week before Christmas.

Tomorrow, we start collecting names for the big draw! Thanks to St. Martin's Minotaur (US publishers) we're giving away 10 signed copies of A RULE AGAINST MURDER. This is to promote the launch of the book January 20th in the US.

Tell your friends, tell strangers. Order early since I know here in Canada there are no more hardcovers and I know they're selling fast in pre-orders in the States. If you want to enter the draw you need to go to the Home Page of my website and click on the icon. Good luck!

Thank you again for all your kind wishes, and wonderful stories about 3-legged pets. Honestly, I think I prefer them now. Trudy had better not stand still long.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. In the meantime ---

Happy Winter Solstice, Happy shortest day, Happy Hanukah!