Bring on Book # 3

After my last launch when I expressed how happy I was to be getting the chance to write , something I have always done but never had the time to devote to actually getting it done, my son Caleb said"How many books do you want to write,Mom.?"He asked the question with an element of surprise as if it hadn't dawned on him that I would continue writing. I know for my family the first book was huge in so many ways and the intensity of the whole thing has been monumental.I feel it was the book that I needed to write first and has allowed me the opportunity to keep writing. My answer to him was, Well it depends how many years I have left, a book a year,let's say - 20. Twenty sounds good , twenty five even better.Well it is getting closer to the time when I will hold book #3. Yesterday I finished the line edits after a couple of rounds of rewrites under the editing direction of Sherie Hodds. She was wonderful. I worked with Caitlin Drake on my first two books and was disappointed when she was not able to work on this one. But there was no disappointment once I started working with Sherie. She has been so supportive and encouraging throughout the process.Next I look forward to exploring cover options.So today after shovelling snow from yesterday's storm and amidst my occasional worried thoughts, as Caleb and Ashlie travel back from Chester today, I will work on book # 4. It is coming to a very pivotal point and I think I know what direction it is taking.Funny how much writing books is like living life. "I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned ,the hard way,that some poems don't rhyme,and some stories don't have a clear beginning,middle,and end. Life is about not knowing,having to change,taking the moment and making the best of it,without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity" Gilda Radner

OK Riel I'm Tweeting

Last week I purchased a PD package from the Writers Union of Canada. The content dealt mainly with how to use social media to help promote your book.I bought it in hopes of discovering some deep secret that would send my sales numbers sky rocketing.I am overall very pleased with the sales both The Year Mrs. Montague Cried and Ten Thousand Truths have had since their releases,however one can't help but get caught up a bit in the game.My book signings in November had me seated at a table right beside the rack of Fifty Shades of Grey and I must admit when the shoppers came eagerly (not a play on words)toward that display,part of me was so hopeful their excitement was to purchase my books.I am not a stranger to social media. I am on Facebook , I have a blog and I get the attraction and the benefits. I am also aware of how time consuming it can be and I am also cautious about exposing too much .Much of what the PD presentation was telling me I was already doing. It did present several other social media tools that I wasn't using though and one of those tools was Twitter. My friend Riel Nason has been talking up the positive points of tweeting and I decided to explore it. Before I knew it I had a username ,a password, had tweeted, was following and was being followed.See you on Twitter Riel!

Ten Thousand Truths Gets Honourable Mention

At the OLA Conference last week Ten Thousand Truths made the list of Best Bets of 2012 as an Honourable Mention. What an honour indeed to be considered and selected for such an impressive list. Congratulations to all the other authors and the work that also made the list.Check out the link listed on the right hand side of this page. I remember in my teaching days using the Book Centre brochures and having the dream of someday having a book listed there.This is huge for me and I am thrilled!!!

Beginning Another February

This morning I reflect on the start of another February. After reading my journal entries from February 2012 and my blog entry from last February it seems clear to me that the year went by very quickly.It also seems to me that it is a gift to be given another year and a gift to have the time to reflect the year's passing. As we live out our days they can often seem challenging or difficult at the time but when you look back at them they are rich with lessons we have learned and blessings we've received. Burton and I often joke about our wood supply which is supplied entirely from his time , energy and hard work.( he loves splitting wood by hand) This year the ongoing joke was that he almost had January's wood in as each rank was given a month and March and February kept being sacrificed for January. Every weekend he would add more to the January rank from a rich supply of dead maple so thoughtfully provided by a family of beavers a few years ago,that flooded an area killing all the maple trees standing in their path. Well we did it Hon!

We got through January as we have for the last 25 years in this house always facing the challenge of heating it's rooms with hard work and a positive attitude. I tear up thinking how that same outlook has carried us through so many challenges that have been much more daunting than keeping the furnace stocked.This February brings the revisions of The Sewing Basket which will be released in the spring. Last February I went through the same process with Ten Thousand Truths and the February before with The Year Mrs. Montague Cried.What more could a retired teacher who always dreamed of being a published author ask for?So here we go February. Today after the heavy winds and rain the last day of January brought, the ground is bare but I am sure many more cold and snowy days are ahead . I will take the time I am given to write and revise while at the same time take comfort in the ranks of wood now assigned to February and March and comfort in the fact that just as in the February's past, lessons and blessings await.