Criminal Minds

All this week, I'll be the guest blogger at Criminal Minds (http://7criminalminds.blogspot.com/). Yes, that's a whole week with seven postings. So between doing that and working on the edits for Negative Image and sending out notices about the release of Winter of Secrets, and getting the garden ready for winter, I'll be busy. Oh, and today is my day over at Type M. So about all I can do on this blog is post a link to Criminal Minds. See you there!

Fatal Foodies

One of my favourite blogs to visit is Fatal Foodies. That picture on the top of their page is really something. They were kind enough to invite me to guest blog this week, and I wrote about how easy it was to create mood and atmosphere in Winter of Secrets because the book is set over the Christmas holidays. The book begins on Christmas Eve and ends on New Year's Day. Take a peek!

Editing Negative Image

Back and home and back to work. I got the editor’s comments on the newest Molly Smith, Negative Image. She likes the book – yeah! That’s always a relief! – but (there’s always a but) she wants some changes. In particular she doesn’t like the motivation for the major plot point. Keep the plot as it is, she said, but the character’s motivation isn’t convincing. Fortunately she doesn’t just say, don’t like it change it, she has suggestions. And I like her suggestion for this one. So back to work I go.

ALso, Andy Smith takes very ill. In my version he has a heart attack, and the editor doesn’t like that either, she wants a different problem. I have been investigating various diseases, but might stick to my guns on this one. Everyone knows what a heart attack is, why go running off in search of something else?

In the meantime I have several guest blogging posts coming up and have pieces to write for them. Generally I like doing those: it’s a different sort of writing than pure fiction and stretches some of my less-used mental muscles.

And then there is my W-I-P (work in progress) that I am anxious to dive back into. My goal for that is just to have the prologue and first scene ready for my critique group at the end of the month.

And, of course, the garden to look after. While I was away the trees dropped all their leaves and the plants all died so there is a lot of cleaning up to do. At least I got the vegetable bed turned over and prepared for next year before I left. I am wanting to plant garlic and that has to be done pretty soon, so I might not get around to it.

P.S. last night’s stew was fabulous. I have enough left over for tonight’s dinner.

Beef Stew Tonight

Home, home, home. Thank Heavens. It’s cold and raining heavily and I am looking foward to a big pot of beef stew for dinner tonight. I’ve been eating in restaurants and grabbing meals on the road for two weeks - I’ve also been very tired and feeling sluggish, and I think the two things go together.

So tonight I’m going to do beef stew with mushrooms and carrots (the only time I can stand cooked carrots) and a couple of potatoes in the stew for thickness and a pile of mashed spuds on the side. When the stew has simmered for a couple of hours, I’ll stir in a big batch of Swiss chard and boil most of it down to add extra punch and nutrition to the dish.

Can’t wait.

On Monday I did an interview with Linda Faulkner at her Author Exchange Blog. You can read it at: http://lindamfaulknertips.blogspot.com/2009/11/author-interview-with-vicki-delany.html

And by the way - the car was fixed quickly and we were able to get back on our way. We lost the half day we had planned for going to Peggy's Cove to see the ocean, but didn't miss any book events

Stranded!

Every book tour has its up and downs and this one seems to have had a lot more downs than usual. There were a lot of problems with getting books into the bookstores, the sales were less than stellar although our library and university events were quite successful. Then - car trouble. We are sitting in the waiting room of the Chryster dealership in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia at the moment, while the mechanics check out Robin's car to see what that noise is. Let's hope we can be on our way shortly. On the plus side - we had a super stay with Patti Gouthro and her husband Brian over the weekend and met a lot of very nice people in Halifax.

Louise Penny Country

My record is still in tact – thank heavens. I have never had an event at which I sold 0 books. But yesterday it was getting pretty tight. Robin and I signed at Chapters in Fredericton at noon and for the first half hour not only did we have no sales, but no interest. I was thinking this would be a record breaker, when the tide turned and all the lunch-hour workers and students heading for Starbucks left and the ‘real’ shoppers came in. So we did reasonably well, for a weekday afternoon in a suburban area.

Then it was off to Westminster Books in Fredericton. A very nice bookstore, quite large for an independent, and with a good mystery section. Total attendees: 0. I was lamenting that I had broken my record and had no achieved 0 sales, when Robin reminded me that someone had come in earlier and had bought a book. Yeah! Saved.

The question all authors ask: is it worthwhile doing booksignings. I still think so. We had a nice visit with the owner at Westminster, she now knows us and knows our books. She told us that Barbara Fradkin and Mary Jane Maffini sell quite well at her store after their (also sparsely attended) appearance a few years ago.

This afternoon we are giving a talk at the library which is only a block away from the bookstore and I understand that attendees to their events regularly go down the street in pursuit of books.

We will see. On to Moncton this afternoon.

On another note, the attached picture was taken in North Hatley, Quebec. I know that a lot of you are Louise Penny fans, so thought you’d enjoy a pic of the town that supposedly is the inspiration for Three Pines.

Notes form the Road

Making a quick lunch stop in Lennoxville, Quebec, where Robin Harlick and I are appearing at Bishop’s University this afternoon.

Yesterday was the first stop on the book tour, at Brome Lake Books in Knowlton, Quebec. It is a wonderful independent bookstore owned by Danny and Lucy. We were put onto the store by Louise Penny who kindly introduced us, via e-mail. Brome Lake is her local bookstore, as she lives not far away. Louise and Michael came out to our event, and we had a great time.

Attendance was somewhat selective, shall we say.

Which raises the question: is it worth it? It is worth travelling for hours, paying to stay in a hotel or B&B, meals on the road, to sell and handful of books.
I’d suggest it depends on the store. A local independent bookstore can be the hub of a community. Few people may come to your event; Sunday night isn’t the best after all. But there was a nice display beforehand, and several books were sold before we even arrived, our names and pictures were in the local paper, and people who did come said they would tell their friends.

So was it worthwhile? Well, if we hadn’t gone, we wouldn’t have sold any books and no one would ever have heard of us.