Heat, Sweat and Beers

And the summer heat is not letting up. We're hitting 40 degrees C again today with the humidex, which is way hot for this August long weekend in Canada. It's a challenge to stay hydrated, but we're giving it our best shot..

It has been a good writing week. I've set aside my manuscript for a few weeks for the sequel to Cold Mourning (1st in an adult mystery series coming out next year from Dundurn) to work on a new project for adult literacy. I'll tell you more as it unfolds, but it is quite an exciting opportunity.

We've stayed in the city this weekend. With the Olympics on, I like to be close to a television to take in the events. So much sacrifice and work on the part of each athlete from every country- they are inspiring. Their success after failure and struggle makes a few rejection letters from publishers seem inconsequential!

Rosie MacLennan just won Canada's first gold medal this morning on the trampoline and talked about her grandfather as her main inspiration. He told her to enjoy each step in the process and not to just focus on the outcome. I feel the same about writing - enjoyment should come from the writing itself - the rest will fall into place (hopefully!). The same can be said of most of life's endeavors.

Well, the posters for the Second Chances book launch arrived from Dundurn and I'll be dropping some off at Collected Works later today. I'm timing it to meet Cathy Astolfo, who is in town for a booksigning. She writes a mystery series and is also past president of Crime Writers of Canada. That's another great thing about writing - all the people you get to meet along the way.

A neighbour was asking about Ted's latest bedroom 'painting' project and where it stands now. As it so happens, Ted told me yesterday that he decided that he needed better track lighting before he could put another coat of varnish on the floor - it was just too difficult to get it right with the poor lighting. He ordered the track lighting in April  . . and it arrived this week. Yes, it really took over four months to ship from point A to point B - I'm beginning to think there's a conspiracy going on . . .