Veggie Egg Wraps

So I promised you all I’d be making some changes to the blog and sharing more about my life and less about writing. Cooking is a huge part of my life, and I love to experiment in the kitchen. We are strict vegetarians and vegan wannabes (except eggs, which we...

Congratulations to Iain Lawrence

Please join me in congratulating my friend, the wonderful author Iain Lawrence. Not only does his brand new book The Winter Pony come out today, but last week, Iain was awarded the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature. Isn’t this one of the...

Cabin Update #5

Things were dormant here for the month of October, but… in between breaks for chocolat chaud and scones with raspberry jam and coconut cream, Patrick’s kicking butt now! Check it...

Hava a bouncy Halloween!

Rabbit rushed through the mist at the noise, and it suddenly turned into Tigger; a Friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large and Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he bounced at all, in just the beautiful way a Tigger ought to bounce. -A. A....

I love this idea

In the past, I haven’t been political on this blog at all. Now I’m making a few changes to it, and I don’t mind bringing up an occasional controversial item. I’m terribly interested in the Occupy movement, but I’m not a bandwagon sort of...

A Local Economy

I’m pretty interested in this #Occupy movement. I don’t agree with everything everyone’s doing because I think some people have their own agenda. I also think as a movement, we need to be careful about demanding exactly what the 1% wants –...

Change is Happening

For a while now, I’ve been planning to change the focus of this blog, but life has gotten in the way. When I started out, it was a book review site. When everyone and their cat started book review sites, and they were all willing to put a lot more effort into it...

No regrets….

I learned a lot about my best friend Kelly today from all her other best friends who came from far and near for her celebration of life. Also from her family. And while I lament the short time we had together, there is one thing I know for absolute certain, which...

The Nevil Shute conference

As you know, I went to Seattle to speak at the Nevil Shute International Conference. I’ve put my keynote speech up on youtube (in three parts). I don’t know if anyone is actually interested, but I thought it was really fun, so why not share it. For some...

While I am traveling…

While I am traveling, Patrick has been building! Look, it’s a Hobbit door! Okay, not really, he will cut that out so I can fit through it, but still, very exciting stuff going on while I’m away. Luckily, the husband is there to send me updates!   The...

Nevil Shute International Conference

If you’ve read my book Restoring Harmony, then you may have noticed the dedication. It is to two of my favourite authors because they are brilliant storytellers. One of them is Nevil Shute (1899-1960). You may be a fan too, or you might not have heard of him at...

Writing Cabin Update #3

Today was a big day here! As requested, there’s more kitty cat in this video. The dog did pass by while we were working, but not while I was shooting this...

Cabin Progress!

We have a floor! Or at least, a bit of a floor. And a place to put a floor! Yippeee! This “snapshot” was taken by one of the cats, NOT the professional photographer that I live with. I mean, that’s pretty obvious, right? Because a professional would...

Writing Cabin Progress – Update #2

First, I want to thank you all for your lovely comments, emails of compassion and support, and memories of Kelly that you’ve been sending me. I really appreciate them and want you to know they helped me during a very trying time. One of the reason Kelly and I...

My Shining Star

Kelly Berthelot July 1989 – August 2011 Beta Reader Sous Chef Best Friend When you lose your best friend suddenly, sometimes you have to think of games to get yourself through the day or night. The one I’ve been playing with myself is, “What great...

My Future Writing Cabin

Yeah…I got a video camera. They’re fun! I’ve been tweeting and talking to friends and family about my writing cabin that we’re having built here on our property for me by my friend Patrick. I mentioned to a few of you that I built a miniature...

We Have a Winner!

Thanks to everyone who left such great comments and entered the contest for Sarah Tradewell’s new CD. In a totally random drawing, done by my husband, the winner is Elise Allen! Congratulations to Elise. I’ll be sending you the signed CD along with a bit...

Contest Time! Win Sarah Tradewell’s new CD

Sarah Tradewell is one of Canada’s finest young fiddlers. She also looks exactly like the fiddle-playing character, Molly, in my book Restoring Harmony. But we met AFTER the book was written (before it sold). Sarah ended up being the fiddle expert for my book...

Too Many Words

My critique partner and I are both trying to finish drafts for 1 August. These are self-imposed deadlines, so I guess they’re more like goals than actual deadlines, but every day we check in with each other and give encouragement. We also have two other people...

Private Book Signing

Last week, I met some teens who were visiting Grandma here on the island. They ended up buying my book at the local book store (Yay, indie bookstores!) and then they emailed me to ask if I might sign it before they go home. Today, we met up at the yurt where my...

The David Suzuki newsletter

A while back I mentioned that Restoring Harmony was reviewed in the David Suzuki Foundation newsletter, Finding Solutions. Well, we finally got around to scanning it, so I thought I’d share it with you. As far as I know, it’s the only novel they’ve...

Happy Book Birthday to my pal, Nova!

I got mine, have you got yours? You know you want Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma. There’s not point trying to resist! Buy the book! Thanks to Maureen at Munro’s in Victoria for sticking one aside for me!