My apologies for the slower pace of updates these past few weeks. I’ve been finding it difficult to post consistently to this blog, and gaps of up to two days are becoming more common. That offends the gods of blogging etiquette, apparently. Or, at least, it offends my own blogging sensibilities, but something has to take a back seat to my life here, and this blog has to take its turn.
I’m working hard trying to push The Night Girl to a completed draft. I had promised myself that I’d have a revised version of the story to my agent by the end of this month, and though the revision has passed 45,000 words, this doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. A lot of changes are coming up in the final chapters, and I’m excited about where the story is going, but there will still have to be a few days of hard thinking before I get there.
On Friday, Vivian went to her first ever friend’s birthday party. Carol, who attends Vivian’s pre-school, turned four and Vivian, along with all of Carol’s other classmates were invited to Carol’s house that afternoon. It went very well. Carol’s parents had lots of activities available for the kids; there were crafts, games, a swing set, as well as ice cream cake and the opening of the presents. I must say, listening to the kids debate which part of the cake they should get has all the hallmarks of a barbarian feeding frenzy. Carol’s cake had Arial, the little mermaid, on top, and the kids were all shouting for the Disney star’s dismemberment. “I want Arial’s head, please!” shouted one kid. On a silver platter, perhaps? “I want Arial’s eyes!”
This is the next phase, isn’t it? Vivian is less than six months away from her own fourth birthday party. The previous three events, wherein aunts and uncles and grandparents gathered for present-openings and cake, just isn’t going to cut it anymore, is it? We’re going to have a bevy of kids in our house, aren’t we? This is what “rite of passage” really means, isn’t it? Oh, dear.
In other news, I’m pleased to say that Dundurn has forwarded me some excellent reviews for my latest novel, The Young City. On April 25, reviewer Kevin Murphy wrote a lengthy review in the Books section of the London Free Press. Among his kind words, he says “As time stretches on and Peter and Rosemary see no way home, they start to worry their futures are lost forever. All of the doubt and mystery comes to a head in a dramatic and gripping conclusion that will have fans grasping for a fourth instalment.” Around the same time, Alison Edwards wrote a review for Resource Links, a trade magazine for teachers and librarians. There, she said, “The Young City is well paced and follows the story of Rosemary and Peter quite well, giving them authentic responses and believable reactions. The story of time-travel is made to seem quite possible in its fantastical nature, and through the eyes of both Rosemary and Peter teaches the reader about life in Canada in 1884, with the limitations that time period places on females, relationships, language, dress, social-economic status and what each of these mean for opportunities for the future.”
Earlier today, Cameron paid us a visit. We left the kids with the grandparents and went out to see Star Trek. I did not feel the need to rave about this movie as much as some have done, but it was hardly the worst thing ever. Indeed, after it was done, Cameron and Erin and I had to agree that it was an awesome film with awesome action that was just generally full of awesome-osity. It led us to pine for a movie project that featured Alan Rickman, Christopher Eccleston, Hugh Laurie fighting crime while being awesome and battling the awesome villain Viggo Mortenstein, possibly with Mary McDonnell and Judy Dench appearing in awesome supporting roles.
Long story. I’ll tell you later.
Anyway, in between all this, I’ve been updating the Transit Toronto web site, helping to fill in for a prolific contributor who has taken a well deserved six-week-long holiday. So, this and The Night Girl seem to be the focus of my life for the near future. Until then, expect more slow posting on this blog. Thank you for your patience.