And Now it's Tuesday

Me again. I know I just wrote yesterday and I don't usually write two days in a row. But on this gorgeous, sunny, bright Tuesday morning I feel the need to write again. I might just be avoiding the task at hand which is to conduct a peer review of a book for TWUC or I might just feel the need to tell about my good news. I have lots of good news happening and some of it I can't talk about in detail yet so here goes.Burton got up first this morning so I wasn't woken up by my old dog Biscuit sneezing at my closed bedroom door. That is usually the way he alerts me to the fact that he has to go out to pee after his long night's sleep curled up on Paige's bed. He is a creature of habit as are we. As I contemplated getting up to face this beautiful sunny day I thought about how much I love mornings and the deeply established routine of my retirement , second career days. Mornings hold such promise, such potential and the gift of time that I dreamed of for so many years. Coffee, breakfast,journal writing, a bath in my new beautiful tub and getting to my office. I love it every single day it happens and feel grateful every single day. On the days I have to leave my house I miss the wonderful feeling being home brings. Yesterday I waited patiently for the news conference to take place in Halifax at 1:00 announcing the shortlists for the 2018 Atlantic Book Awards. I had been contacted almost two weeks ago regarding the shortlisting of The Memory Chair for the Ann Connor Brimer. I kept it quiet only telling my close family and one or two friends. The second I saw it online I shared the news. Six years ago I went through the lead up events , traveled to St. John's NFLD and won the Ann Connor Brimer with my first book The Year Mrs. Montague Cried. That was an unforgettable thrill.This time I know what to expect but it does not lessen the joy I feel to be shortlisted. Congratulations Charis Cotter and Sheree Fitch my fellow nominees in the category and all the other authors and publishers in the Atlantic Book Awards lineup.As I sit in the solitude of my office I acknowledge that none of the accolades or awards would be possible without the day by day slugging away at this keyboard. This is the true gift. My mornings, my afternoon walks and my words, sentences, paragraphs and pages come one at a time . Sometimes we get acknowledged for the work and that feels wonderful but so does this . My home, my office, my days are the gift beyond measure.

Mother /Daughter Book Club

It is a beautiful Monday morning and I awake with a grateful and eager heart. Spring is creeping in one small step at a time but it is arriving. I look forward to stepping out on my back deck and welcoming each day as the weather warms up. We are hoping to do some outside renovations and the chaos and eventual completion of that is exciting to me. This winter saw the collapse of my beloved arbor made for me by a dear friend the year of our 25th anniversary. I will miss its presence but will reclaim the space and decide later how to accommodate the huge kiwi vine that used to wrap around it. Change is the constant that is for sure.Yesterday I hosted a Mother /Daughter book club at the Saint John Central Library. I arrived about five minutes early, set up and waited.I wrote in my journal while waiting, remembering two previous library events , one attended by two girls and one where nobody but my cousin Jan and I showed up. I was hoping for at least something in between two and nobody. Then I heard a voice down stairs asking where the Mother / Daughter book club was meeting.So seconds later Tanya and her daughter Emma walked in the room and we had a book club. We sat for an hour together talking about and reading from The Sewing Basket.Emma , a keen reader was generous and kind. Tanya offered much to the discussion and observed that though a small book The Sewing Basket was packed with lots of relationships. In the re-reading and discussing passages I saw things I wasn't even aware that were there.I talked about the writing and how characters surfaced and changed and developed as I wrote. I love The Sewing Basket for many reasons,one being that my daughter loves it and it was wonderful to meet two others that love it too. A full room would have been great but the two that came after hearing my CBC interview were more than enough.I gave Emma a copy of The Sewing Basket because she is a reader who likes to keep books she loves close by . I am so happy that my third book has found another home.

Happy Birthday Gladys

How quickly the weeks , months and years go by. I am so happy to be in the quietness of a morning in my office to reflect a bit. The snow has not begun but school has been cancelled which really doesn't affect me at all but seems like a reprieve never the less.Today is a writing day.My work in progress is rolling along and I see being able to finish it by the middle of May.Spring has arrived even though the weather seems to be fighting it. March is a scrappy month. April approaches again this year bringing nineteen years of missing Zac and learning how to be in the world without him. Mom and Dad will come back from their winter in Florida. Mom will see her ninetieth birthday and we will continue to find our way through her savage disease, no longer having the gift of carrying on a conversation with my funny, anxious, loving mother. Monday I attended Gladys 95th birthday party. She sat in the middle of the large room at the Dr. Snow home and welcomed her well wishers. She looked radiant. In spite of some physical decline her mind and spirit shine brightly and grace all who know her.I look ahead to another book launch , market season, Word Spring , award ceremonies , royalty cheques and lots more. Summer will come and we will welcome our girls. Changes and blessings are on the horizon. Yesterday on my walk I paused to give thanks for the past , the future and the very moment of the present. I stood looking up at a beautiful blue sky surrounded by a pristine, bright, white snow cover and breathed in the present moment. Our weeks , months and years are of course made up of those present moments. May we be truly mindful of each one and the blessing of those moments tied together giving us the life we've been gifted with.

Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming

When I was a kid some show (can't remember which one) ended every week with the line'Keep those cards and letters coming.'Maybe someone in my generation will recall and remind me what show it was. It doesn't matter really but the sentiment is clear. Yesterday I received a lovely e-mail from a reader who had just finished reading Maple Sugar Pie.She took the time to tell me about selecting it from a book store, reading it and experiencing it. She said so many of the things an author hopes to hear. She mentioned that she now considered Maple Sugar Pie as one of her favorite books and planned on re-reading it at some point. I told her I would certainly re-read her e-mail when I needed a boost of encouragement. Every week I write letters and mail them to my granddaughters in Alberta. They have come to expect them but I don't think that lessens their value. Every week I put a stamp on an envelope and send a few lines but what I'm really doing is connecting, embracing and encouraging. I am telling my granddaughters that I think about them,that I care about them,and that I take a few minutes to tell them they matter. Their dad decided early on to keep the letters in a special place, to not recycle them (which is huge for him as he is all about cleaning up and recycling) because the letters can be re-read, can be treasured , can be valued. Written words sent to encourage and support are so special for the sender and the receiver. Keep those cards and letters coming!

Sorry,What was the Question ?

I just finished a CBC radio interview about the upcoming book club with The Sewing Basket in March. I only asked "Sorry, what was the question?" once. For a rambler who when asked a question can take off in a long distance answer that is not too bad. I paused for the correct word a couple of times which again isn't too bad. In the nineties I did a TV interview while fighting the battle to get the Peninsula Little league to allow girls to play. I referred to the backstop as the backdrop and was mortified. Somewhere in the archives that misspeak still reverberates.I heard it in the blooper's loop of my brain for years. I will listen to this morning's interview later but I think I'm in the clear for a similar embarrassment.I forgot to watch the Oscars. I am happy to hear as I write that Francis McDormand won best actress. I loved her performance in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri.Now that would be a Mother /daughter book club with a dark and tragic theme filled with a mother's love, guilt, agony and determination.On Facebook this morning my friendship with my daughter Megan popped up . I thought how fitting to see her face and mine side by side seconds before my interview about The Sewing Basket which happens to be her favorite of my books. I am so thankful our friendship flourishes in real life. I am so thankful for her; her humor, her generosity, her scrutiny, her truthfulness. I mentioned in the interview the arch of the relationship between the mother and daughter . I am mindful of the arch in the relationship Meg and I have and see every up and down as a beautiful gift. And then there is the relationship arch with my own mother . Sorry, what was the question?

A Friday in the Office

I normally don't write on Fridays. I usually go across the river and spend the day with my best childhood friend , her sisters, her daughter in law and her grandchildren and some other friends, sometimes her nieces and their kids. We call it quilting and the day does result in quilts being made but is more about the lunch and the time together. Some Fridays I stay home for various reasons and today is one of them. I am quite enjoying the day. The March sun is shining and dripping and running water surround the house leaving a muddy mess that speaks of spring. I will probably walk up over the hill but am not anxious to leave my desk. I have been working for the last two days on a not forgotten but set aside manuscript. I did a complete re-write of it awhile ago and hadn't given it much thought recently. But after preparing two back burner manuscripts for submission I decided to devote some time to A Fear of Drowning. The rewrite is so much stronger than the previous draft. I have done some revisions and have some immediate plans to add to the story that is gripping me right now making me question whether I can tear myself away long enough for my wood road walk. And then in the middle of this I get a call about an interview for Monday morning about the Mother / Daughter book club in March featuring The Sewing Basket. I check my e-mail intermittently looking for the arrival of the interior of Headliner , my May release. My grateful heart swells with just all this, not to mention the blessings and gifts looming in the rest of my life. So back to work it is!