2 nominations, 2 blog posts, and a book cover!

It’s been busy here at casa de 2nd draft. (Yep. Working hard at the 2nd draft of the 2nd book in the Seeing the Light Series! So much fun… Sigh)

However…

Our latest anthology, The Puzzle Box, was nominated for the Aurora Awards! Actually, it was nominated four times — three for stories in the anthology, and one for the anthology itself. You have to buy a membership to vote — but here’s the thing. With the membership you get free copies of all the nominated works! What a deal, eh? So buy a membership, dive into some fantastic Canadian writing — and if you want, vote for my story (Angela and Her Three Wishes) and The Puzzle Box!

My thanks to Susan MacGregor for the great interview on collaboration (with Billie Milholland and Ryan McFadden), and to and Susan Toy  for recommending The Puzzle Box! Loving the Susans!

And… Here’s the cover for my upcoming novel. “Seeing the Light,” with Tyche Books. Yay!! Looks like the launch will be Hallowe’enish, 2014, in Edmonton. (That’s just to start. Gotta give a little love to the hometown, after all!) Watch for updates…

Writers on Writing -- Blog Hop

 Thanks to Mahrie Reid, author of Sheldon Harris Came Home Dead, for inviting me on this blog hop! I’ll be answering four not so easy questions about how I write -- and I’ve invited three other writers to tell us about their writing process next week.

But first, it’s all about me!

What am I working on right now?

I’m working on the second draft of the second book in my “Seeing the Light” series (written under the name E.C.Bell), as I wait for my publisher to send me her notes on the first book in the series. (Exciting, all the way around!) The first draft of this novel was written way back in 2010, and I’ve learned a ton, so the rewrite is going a little more slowly than I like, but the final product will be excellent! I can feel it!

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

First, my stories are almost always based in Edmonton, Alberta, and “Seeing the Light” is no different. In fact, I used the Arlington Apartment as the basis for the Palais Office Building, where most of the action happens in the first half of the book. (The Arlington was the first apartment building built in Edmonton.) I walked past that building every day for years, and loved the look of it. So -- I had to write it into a story!

Seeing the Light is a paranormal mystery (with hints o’ romance!). One big way that this story differs from others is, it is written from two different first person points of view. One is the main character, Marie Jenner, who is helping a spirit move on. The other is the spirit. In the first book, this second point of view character is the spirit of Farley Hewitt, a handy man who died in the basement of the office building. 

Why do I write what I do? 

Ghosts and other things that go bump in the night used to terrify me when I was growing up, to the point that I couldn’t watch scary movies, or read a scary book. Then I realized I was missing out on some terrific stories, so I slowly dipped my toe in, starting with the movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” I watched it on television, with the sound turned way down, and all the lights in the house turned on! This is how I learned to love the dark.

Family dynamics also intrigue me. (And sometimes terrify me.) Since everyone is involved with a family -- you understand how this can happen.

So -- I combine them, and see where the stories take me.  Here’s the thing, though. I don’t often write horror, or drama. I take the dark, and the drama, and distill it until it’s pretty darned funny. Believe it or not!

How does my writing process work?

Oh, this is a tough one. Generally, I get the germ of an idea and start a notebook for it. I always say I’m going to write out a full outline, plus character sketches, plus do all the research needed -- but this usually doesn’t happen! I start off with the best of intentions, but somewhere around page two of the notebook, I start writing a scene, and then the novel pours out of that... When that happens, I transfer to my computer, figure out the ending, and go for it! 

My characters usually develop in the manuscript, so there’s a fair bit of rewriting as I learn about them. However, I always know the end of the story -- so I always know where to aim.

I finish the first draft, and let it sit for a while. (For a novel, that can be up to a year. Sometimes longer.) Then I go back, and do draft two. This is where I clean up any big plot issues. I like to call it my “what was I thinking” edit. Then I go to the third draft -- cleaning up smaller stuff, and formatting. This is usually where I end up killing a lot of my darlings. (That would be sections that I LOVE, but that don’t belong in the manuscript.) After this, I send it out to a couple of people I trust for their feedback. THEN, I finish.

Finishing includes fixing rough spots my readers caught, cleaning out overused words and cliches, and fixing any typos or grammatical problems. Plus, of course, making absolutely certain that I’m using the correct spelling. (I’m Canadian, so there are many words that I need to change if I’m sending to an American publisher.) 

I try to write every day -- even if it’s only a little -- because I find if I miss a day or two, it can magically turn into a week. Or a month!  I don’t want to go down that road, so I keep myself on track by doing something, every day.

Now you know everything about me and the way I write, so let me introduce you to the writers I found, who have agreed to tell us about their writing process... 

Marie Bilodeau 

Marie Bilodeau recently launched the third book in her award-winning space opera Destiny series (Destiny's Blood, Destiny's Fall and Destiny's War).  She is also the author of the Heirs of a Broken Land, a fantasy trilogy described as “fresh and exciting” by Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo award-winning author of WAKE. Her short stories have appeared in several magazines and anthologies and have also been nominated twice for the Aurora Awards. Marie is also a professional storyteller, telling adaptations of fairy tales and myths, as well as original stories of her own creation. She’s a passionate advocate for paper airplane contests, peach desserts and caffeine consumption.

Blog: www.mariebilodeau.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariebilodeau

Susan MacGregor

Susan MacGregor is an editor with On Spec Magazine and anthologies "Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales" (Edge Books) and "Divine Realms" (Ravenstone Press). She has had her short fiction published in a number of anthologies and magazines. She is re-releasing her non-fiction writer primer, 'The ABC's of How NOT to Write Speculative Fiction' on her blog. She recently signed with Five Rivers Publishing for her 'Tattooed Witch' trilogy. The first book, 'The Tattooed Witch' was released last July, 2013. The second book, 'The Tattooed Seer', sits with her editor at Five Rivers, awaiting her revision suggestions. She is currently writing 'The Tattooed Rose' the third book in the series. All three books are hybrid historical fantasies (with strong romantic elements) set in medieval Spain around 1550, during the height of the Inquisition and colonial expansion into the New World.

Blog: http://suzenyms.blogspot.ca/

Billie Milholland

First published in non-fiction, then short fiction, then novellas. Now working on e-book adventures, Steampunk stories & novels. Billie lives with her husband, daughter,  granddaughter, a large family of dust bunnies and 2 cats. Now and then they hold her feet to the fire and the rest of her close to the ground, where all good stories begin.

She is known as Weed Woman by participants of her Medicinal Plants & the Edible Wild workshops; Dendrite Diva by participants in her creativity courses and River Rat by  watershed stewards.

Like many writers she’s had more jobs than she’s owned shoes (she’s fond of shoes), but the single thread connecting all of her exploits is her irrepressible  sense of story.

Former Journalist – Harrowsmith magazine, Western Producer People magazine and weekly newspapers in Alberta and British Columbia

Blog - billiemilholland.com

Check Marie Bilodeau and Billie Millholland’s website next week. Susan McGregor will post at the end of April. 

Thanks for dropping by! Hope I see you again, real soon!

Oh yeah! I SOLD A BOOK!!!!

I mentioned it in the posting before.... But holy crap, this deserves its own posting!

I sold "Seeing the Light" to Tyche Books. It will come out in November, 2014. And I am thrilled!!!

Let the celebration begin!

Launches all over... for a while

The Apocalyptic Four's last anthology -- The Puzzle Box -- has been out for a few months now, and I think we've finished the launches. Maybe a few more book signings, and I'm headed down to Calgary in December for a cool little event Randy McCharles put together at the Owl's Nest Bookstore in Calgary. December 12. As the details come in, I'll post. However, I've had the chance to stop working on Puzzle Box related stuff, and begin working (again) on my own.

Going on my own....

I've been reading a fair bit on how to write a blog that people want to read. One of the first rules is "Use a title that will drive people to your site." I'm pretty sure 'Going on my own' isn't going to do it, but whatever. I like it, so it stays.

I restarted this blog a few weeks ago, when I thought my website was gone forever. It isn't. A friend of mine, the one who set the website up in the first place, answered my panicky plea and fixed it for me. I still have no idea where it went or how he fixed it. However, it's back, so I can use it for my writing related posts.

This leaves THIS blog. Restarted, again. So, what can I do with it?

What am I doing back here?

So, I tried to go to my author's website, and to my horror, I couldn't get to it. There's something wrong. Some glitch that will have to be worked out. (At least, I hope it's a glitch that can be worked out!) And this is just when I was getting back into blogging. Hardly seemed fair, but then I remembered this blog. I started it ages ago, mostly used it as an online diary, and then, when my writing picked up, I abandoned it.

But here I am, back again.

Just so you know...

This is to let you know that I rarely, if ever, come to this blog anymore. I have another one on my website www.eileenbell.com and would love it if you came over and had a read at what I've been doing lately.

Thanks for the drop by, and I hope to chat with you over at www.eileenbell.com

And again

I KNOW! Thiis is supposed to be about my renovation -- which is becoming a dull memory, like that tooth ache two months after the tooth is finally gone, or childbirth, again, two months after the "big day." I don't remember much of it... because I've been doing some other really cool stuff lately.

We had that cool book launch -- and sold out in an hour and a half!! Yahoo! This success (plus selling the heck out of that little book everywhere we could, and keeping it on the publisher's "best sellers" list since the launch) gave us the opportunity for another project. This one is a book of four novellas, each one dealing with one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. What fun that has been!

It is now (almost) gone to the printers. We are hoping for an October 31st launch -- in San Jose, how much fun is that??? And then back to Edmonton for the local launch. Then onto Calgary, and either Winnipeg and/or London. (That's Ontario, not the U.K., more's the pity.)

I will be adding information here when I remember, and will keep track of launches, readings, and any other fun bits we can set up in the meantime.

So, I'm sorry about the renovation story -- maybe I'll get back to it one day. just not today. Today, I'm being a writer. And that's a heck of a lot more fun than the reno game, believe me!

Shrinking Violet Promotions: And From Up North: A Trip Through the Greenwood (Bookshoppe, that is!)

Shrinking Violet Promotions: And From Up North: A Trip Through the Greenwood (Bookshoppe, that is!)

Check it out. Nice write up, and an intriguing blog!

Oops!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was supposed to be telling you all about the year of hell -- last year. However, THIS year dove in and got interesting, and so I stopped writing here.

I did tell you about the computer meltdown. THAT was too much fun and way too exciting for me. But in the midst of all this, I actually sold a couple of stories for an anthology -- and we writers decided to do it up fine. So we organized a book launch. THAT is what has been taking all my time and focus. I feel like I'm getting ready for my first date or something.

Here's a copy of a poster one of the writers made. And you can see my name, at the top of the pile. Yay for "B" and alphabetizing!


One of the other writers managed to set up a TV spot for us, and it's been downloaded to You Tube

So, two more days, and I get to attend my own official launch. Yeah, it's for an anthology -- but that's just fine. My words are being published, and I've been having a laugh riot.

By the way, if you want to buy a book, but can't make it to the launch, go to the Absolute XPress website (it's under "Flash Fiction"), and buy it through Amazon. And I thank you!

Let me tell you what happened...

I was getting lazy. I knew it. I was doing nothing but posting pictures here, because, well, pictures/1000 words, you know the saying.

I would get back to writing about my adventures, I promised myself. Soon.

Then, my computer stopped computing. In fact, it stopped doing anything. All I got was white, with a picture of a file in the centre -- a file with a great big question mark in it.

I always thought that the blue screen of death (something I encountered with great regularity when I was dealing with PC's) was the worst screen to get. I was wrong. The white screen -- the one with the file and the question mark -- that's the worst.

I did what little I could to regain control, then packed my computer up and took it to my neighbourhood Mac store. "Fix it," I said.

"What was it doing?" asks the fresh faced young man behind the desk.

I described what I saw, and the mock look of concern deepened to something resembling -- well, real concern, I guess.

"Could be the hard drive," he mumbled, writing furiously. "Leave it with us, and we'll fix you up."

Then he looked up from his writing. "Do you want us to attempt to recover your files?"

"If it comes to that," I replied. I was still feeling all right. I had my machine in the hands of the experts and they had not let me down yet. "Sure. Why not?"

What a difference a few days make.

I was out of town when I got the bad news.

"Your computer is on the roof," my husband said.

"What?" (I didn't get this reference. Not at first.)

"Your hard drive is fried. They'll replace it. But they couldn't save anything."

"What??" (I didn't get this reference either. And you can now call me thick, if you want. I didn't WANT to get this reference. I knew, in my heart of hearts, what this referred to, and I didn't want to hear it. Not in the least.)

"I'm sorry." (And he was. He knew I had to come home eventually, and then he'd have to deal with me face to face.)

So, there it was. My computer died, taking everything with it. Luckily I had most of my writing saved elsewhere, but I lost all my pictures. Everything taken in the past two years. This included all the photos I'd taken of the renovation.

So, now I will have to go back to my words to finish this tale, because I don't have anything else. But that's all right. It's a bit like the man who took a city slicker out in a canoe to see whales. The whales were coming up right beside the small boat, blowing water up into the air in rainbows all around them, leaping from the water gracefully and generally having an overwhelmingly good time around the small boat.

"I wish I'd brought a camera," said the city slicker.

"Why?" asked the man. "Do you think you're going to forget this?"

I am not going to forget this reno -- not unless I do so consciously, just to save my sanity. So, I will go back to my words, and paint pictures that way.

Oh, and the "on the roof" reference? It's the punchline to a bad joke about a guy whose mother died.

"Mom's on the roof." Hilarious.

Off with the old, continued

You need to see a couple more photos, because these REALLY give you an idea what it was like inside the house. Truly. (And yes, some of these ARE from the inside of the house.)

These are my skylights. I had ten of them. Imagine all the light they let in. I don't have any, now. Imagine the light I don't have anymore.

We decided to wait until later to add some, if we needed them.

I miss the light. But not the heat, and the cold, both which streamed in through these things.






This is the loft, after both the outside and inside skin were removed. Those points of light you see is sunlight streaming in through the roof. (and I wasn't kidding about the bookshelves, and books. There they are, THAT close to the elements. Only hole filled plywood keeping it back...)

It was really quite pretty. My own private lightshow. Until it rained....







When it rained, those beautiful rainbows turned into tiny rivers running in my house. Everywhere.





Including on my TV, which is hanging in the kitchen. I think "The Outer Limits" was playing at the time, which only made sense. Yes, we used an umbrella, and it worked quite nicely, thank you very much.















We decided we couldn't have the rain pour in our house anymore, so we went and found the biggest tarp we could, and put it over the house. This is about half of it -- the rest is hanging over the front of the house.

When we stretched that tarp out in the back yard (before we put it over our house) it stretched the full length of the garagemahal. A little further than that, in fact. I was bumbling around ov er my raised bed garden while getting organized. Must have been another laugh riot for the neighbours, is all I can say.

When we finally got it draped (and nailed) over the house, went inside to see if it was doing any good. It was -- and the nailholes in the loft were now streaming blue light through the house. However, by that time, I was pretty tired of taking pictures of nailholes. I just wanted them covered. And not just by a tarp.

As you can tell by the final photo, H has started putting the metal on top of the house. (It is the spot at the top of the house that appears to be blending into the sky.) This in itself was a long, horrible process for H. He would cut the triangle, climbing the ladder to see if the piece fit, cursing to high heavens and clambering back down the ladder to trim the same piece of metal when it didn't fit (and it often didn't) then climbing back up to recheck. Then, and only then could he screw it down.

Oh, and I didn't mention that he landed a HUGE contract (plus a few small ones) that started about the time the renovation started, did I? Well, he did. So, he was gone. A lot. And when he was home, it rained. Or the wind blew. Or something that drove the work to a crawl.

Next time, I'll tell you what I did while he worked off site.

I'll call it "Next Year's Renos" because that's what it was.

Sigh.

By the way, the link in my title is to my website -- and one of my original pieces about the renovation. Just so you know.

Off and out with the old skin....

Sometimes, only a series of pictures will do.

This is the beginning of demolition to the outside skin of the house. See those nice fluffy clouds?
Watch them through the rest of the series of pictures, and you'll know how our summer went....




You can really see how round our place is, in this picture. Our slave is posing on the top of the house.











Both master and slave, ripping and tearing. My, those clouds are getting biggish, aren't they?















And more shingles go the way of all good things. Clouds beginning to threaten...














And now, even the master realizes it's time to get in out of the rain. (OK, so it's not raining. Not yet. But trust me, it was getting close.)










So, we moved inside.





We started at the highest point of the house, in the loft.

Notice the plastic we'd put up to protect the rest of our house from dust, etc. We honestly thought it would help. Ah, we were babes in the woods, weren't we?










And more of the inside skin, disappearing. See the black bits of nastiness on the wood? That would be water damage... One of the big reasons why we decided to do what we were about to do.










And then we get down to the main floor. Yes, we were tearing out all the outside walls.














And here we replaced a couple of triangles of plywood. If I'd been quicker on the draw (in other words, taking pictures instead of working) I could have caught the outside streaming inside. Just sunshine at this point, but in the days that followed, rain would follow the sun.

And the wind. And hail, and thunder and lightning.

As you can see, some of my plants are still upstairs in the loft. What you CAN'T see is all my books, still in their bookshelves, all over the place up there. This was one of our "labour saving" ideas that still haunts me to this day. However, we had almost all of the inside skin gone, and were working diligently on the outside.

Now, the outside we were working on a little more carefully than the inside. We had decided that we would remove sections, and replace them with the metal bonded to insulation. H had everything set up in the Garagemahal, because, of course, every one of those metal sheets had to be cut into triangles, then transported to the top of the house, and attached. Because, you see, we had to make certain that no more rain made it into our house than absolutely necessary.

Yeah. Right.

April, 2008 -- how it started

Why did I change the name of my blog? And why did I decide to begin using it again? It's simple, really. I've decided that I'm tired of only my family getting good laughs about my year of reconstruction, and so, over the next few weeks, will be posting here, so that any of you who want to, can laugh along with them.

My husband (I will call him H, to protect his delicate constitution) and I decided that it was time to upgrade the old abode. We'd moved into our dream home 9 or so years before, and it was time to do something about walls that had an r value slightly less than the windows (which had no r value whatsoever), lots of unusable space (note r value situation for the reason why), and interior walls that were crumbling due to high humidity and cold. (Go back to r value explanation, one more time.)

We had already added a high efficiency furnace (a laugh riot all on its own, due in no small part to Alberta's boom, a change in the federal government, my husband's pickiness, and an inspector who nearly invited himself over for Christmas dinner. But I digress.) but decided that in order to REALLY make our carbon footprint smaller, we needed to deal with the insulation issue.

In a regular house this is no small feat. However, we do not live in a regular house. We live in a geodesic dome. Yes, you read that right. We live in a dome. All very cool, until you actually try to do anything reconstructive to it. Especially when you (and this is aimed directly at my dear sweet husband H) you aren't quite sure how the place stays up.

He's smart, my husband is, but he prefers 90 degree angles and squares and things. We don't have many of those in our house. Not many at all. Plus, the insulation that we were trying to replace is embedded in the triangles which compose the inside and outside walls of our house. A bit of a situation, all the way around.

However, he scratched his head, and set to work building computer models etc etc, until he felt he was finally on the right track. This is what he decided was the right track: He decided that in order to really do a good job, we needed to remove the shingles (on year 9 of a 25 year guarantee) and replace them with metal shingles. However, these metal shingles needed to be bonded to insulation, in order to actually make a difference, R wise. Also, these "shingles" had to be cut to fit lots and lots and lots of triangles. So, the usual "hiring of an expert to do the job" wasn't going to happen. (I've found that the "experts" like 90 degree angles and squares as much as my husband does.)

Finding and ordering and getting those chunks of metal from somewhere Alberta to our driveway is a story unto itself, but suffice to say we finally found them, we finally got them, and with them safely stored in our garagemahal, we felt we were ready to begin work.

Oh, did I mention that it had been decided that at the same time that we were tearing off the outside skin of our house, we would tear out the inside skin, because the drywall was cracked and separating -- and because we had done such a crappy job of "fixing" it when we moved in? (Oh, and did I mention that we bought a "fixer upper" and had been at renovations since the day we stepped into the house? No. I didn't think I'd mentioned that. Worth remembering, though.)

We hired our nephew, who was attending Grande Prairie College (majoring in Volleyball and minoring in interpretive dance, I think. I could be wrong.) to help, (because we had had enough contractors look at us as though we were slightly insane whenever we requested a quote for something we wanted changed, and so had decided to do the reno ourselves.) and set the beginning of May 2008 as our start date.

Look at the picture, and add a thousand words. Most of them swear words.

The first official day of reconstruction. Our work slave is trapped in Grand Pairie, due to the same snow storm. We are having fun now!

Here's a funny thing. I was reading this over, and realized that I had hidden the fact that we had decided to do this massive renovation ourselves in the middle of the second last paragraph. I'm still in denial that this was all our own fault.

But it was.

It's been a year

It has been a year since I've touched this blog. Sorry to anyone that is still out there. Like I said (nearly a year ago) I've been putting more effort into my website, and just never get back here.

I don't know if I'll use this again. I've linked (I think) to my website, so, if you care, you can go to it and find out what's been going on.

In short, I had a death and taxes kind of year last year. Throwing in a huge amount of renovations for good measure.

Too long away!

It's been a busy couple of months. I've been keeping up (a bit) with my website, but it seems I don't get back here to my blog as often as I should, anymore.

I have been on a roller coaster ride lately. (Feels like a lot more downs than ups lately, but whatever.) More rejections. More "thank you for rejecting my work in such a timely manner," from me. (Which feels a bit like thanking someone for hitting me, but whatever.) More thinking I just might make it this time -- but no brass ring. Or cigar. Or even a sniff of cigar smoke. Darn it all anyhow.

However, other parts of my life are moving along very nicely. My daughter moved into her nice new condo at the beginning of this month, and is now living her "Sex in the City" lifestyle. I'm one of the two people in the world who haven't actually watched that show, so I'm not quite sure what she means by that. However, I think she's having some fun, and she looks great! Way to go, Girl! Keep up the fantastic work.

She and I went to a black tie event -- 2nd anniversary of "Alternative Trends" this past weekend -- and had a good time. We both looked fabulous, if I do say so myself, though I believe she beat me in the glamour department. That's all right, though. Ran into a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while, into people I didn't know would be there (small world thing going on) and a huge number of "beautiful people." Didn't know there were that many of them in Edmonton. And you should have seen the shoes and purses! Purses are my weakness, and I saw a couple that blew my mind. I have to figure out where they were purchased! Could have asked I suppose, but the search is half the fun. Anyhow, enjoyed ourselves, and decided we would have to find outings like this, so we can dress up and schmooze. I personally love that idea. So, bring on the invitations!

Didn't win the 3 day. Didn't even make it on the top 25 or whatever. (See? Not even a whiff of cigar smoke!) A friend of mine said it best. What are they looking for???? Ah well. Am now getting to work on it, to get it down (or up) to a more publishable length. And then back out into the fray. Sigh.

OK, enough! I have writing to do! (And TV to watch. Started Season Four of "The Wire" last night. Yahoo for DVDs is all I can say. Will give an update on my website when I'm done. Suffice to say -- it's a good series, if a little testosterone laden. (Like the rest we've watched this season aren't! Have you checked out "Rescue Me" lately? Ever? How about "Deadwood?" If you haven't, do. Just be warned. Cover your ovaries. (Except some of the women in Deadwood are starting to show some real backbone, which is great.))) (OK, that was cool. I managed to end that little tirade with three -- count 'em three -- parentheses. Cool, if a little convoluted.) I'm almost glad for the cold weather, this year. These programs have been a lot of fun, and with the writer's strike stopping most of the decent programs being produced (and there was little enough of that, now wasn't there?), we needed these. Am always on the lookout for others, however, so if you know of any, please let me know.

OK, now back to it, really. I'll try to be back more often. I really will.

I miss you, brother

Watched some of the November 11th remembrance stuff on TV. Bit of a downer. So we pulled some Christmas stuff out to try to get the house looking a little more festive. Looks more like Christmas vomited on our house.

Will have to tidy it up, so we don't go crazy before the actual season.

Missing my brother always sneaks up on me -- like touching a scar I was sure was healed and having drip just a little more blood.

No, it's not quite that bad. Not anymore. But I still miss him.

Back from Saratoga Springs

Got back from the World Fantasy Convention on Tuesday morning, and it was a wild ride! Met authors and artists and editors, went to good and not so good panels, tried to keep up with the professionals re parties and such (I couldn't) and generally had a pretty good time. Didn't come home with the big prize (that would be that six figure multi book deal ha ha) but did see how it's done. And that was good.

My daughter went to London before I went to the States, and as I was flying into Toronto, she was getting ready to take the train to Paris. I couldn't help but keep thinking of her, off on her own, taking the first (I hope) of many trips like that. She loved Paris, even though she got lost (really lost. One of those scary lost situations which could easily have thrown me over the edge.) and had to rely on her rusty French to get her back on track. However, it all worked out, and she's got tons of pictures and neat little trinkets to remind her of her trip.

She's much better at the trinket buying than I am. I think about picking a few things up, but get involved in whatever the heck I'm doing, and don't remember to head back out until I'm at the airport. Took a lot of flack for picking up chocolate at the airport for my family units the last time out. Apparently the chocolate is made quite close to us. I didn't need to go to TO to get it. Sigh.

My husband is great at buying, too. When I got home, there was a new washing machine in my house. I didn't think I needed one, because the one we had was OK -- a few quirks, but nothing I couldn't handle -- but this new beauty is fantastic! Lots of bells and buzzers, and when it spins, it actually gets the water out! Apparently that was what my old machine was missing. Who knew? Apparently, my husband. (all of us are now mesmerized by the spin cycle. Dog cat, me -- I need sleep, I think. I don't know about the other two.)

I had planned on taking many many pictures down there, but it was not to be. I did all the right things -- charged my rechargeable batteries, remembered the darned camera, the whole works, but when I got to the hotel and turned it on, it turned on for about a minute, then shut itself off. Batteries, dead. So, I thought I'd pick up some batteries when I went out to buy trinkets. (You see where this is going, don't you?) No pictures.

My dog didn't give a good rat's ass whether I brought back trinkets or not, thank goodness. He was just happy to have me home. (Actually so were the rest of them, though I think they wouldn't have minded a treat or two) I should consider getting him on meds when I'm out of town. It's not so much fun, have a dog with depressive tendencies.

Now I'm trying to return to life, but it's hard. I was so geared up for this trip -- and then having one of the agents I contacted asking me for my full novel 10 days before we went -- well you can see why I'd start the "multi book contract, holy crap this is actually going to happen" thing. The fall was short but brutal. (I didn't hear back from her, and didn't even see her anywhere, and I looked.) So it's back to paper and electronic submissions, getting back into the groove again.

People that I talked to shook their heads and said she probably hadn't read the book yet. I'd like to believe that. In fact, I might just try to hang on to that, as I dive back into the morass that is getting my first book published.

Or it could have been the driving. Shudder. Not ready to talk about that yet. Might never be ready to talk about that. Check out the mileage for a Saratoga Springs, London, Toronto jaunt. That's what we did. Will tell you that story when, as I said, I feel up to it. But not now.

I have been remiss!

Turned my back and months had gone by! I've been editing and re-editing Seeing the Light, trying to figure out which version of Manhood Road to use, and have been trying to get myself together for the World Fantasy Convention at the beginning of November. Actually emailed agents etc., to set up meetings, and a couple of them are looking over some of my work. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Life has been hectic here. Daughter is gearing up for her trip to London (England), I just got back from my trip to London (Ontario) and am gearing up for New York, and my husband is getting testy. He swears both of us are already on our trips -- we both look at him blankly whenever he asks us a question about anything. I think he's right!

Renovating is still going on. Does it ever stop? Nope. We are getting new stairs and handrails downstairs -- the last holdover from the original house. They are going to look great -- whenever we get them done.

Am using our new and improved home theatre. It's gorgeous! H did a great job down there. We are now watching the first season of Dexter, whenever there isn't anything else on. Which can happen with great regularity, even with baseball still going on (go Cleveland) and hockey starting again (go Oilers) and the new TV season starting. (A whole lot of nothing. Too bad. I had high hopes.)

And sorry, this is going to be short. Am running off again very soon (getting my hair done, isn't that exciting?) but will try to remember to get here more often.

Remember:

Amber Haywood (The Healer) is in town for a reading of her new book "Darkness of the God." She's at Volume II, in Edmonton, on October 29th. Go down and support a local author! And see you there.

She's Here! Errr... She's There!

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling Canadian author, is at my website as we "speak!" Go to eileenbell.com, and see what she had to say to those who gave her questions about writing -- about her books -- about her movie deals -- about everything!

See you there.