On November 20th, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, Faith Family Books and Gifts in Toronto hosted an event with more than 30 Canadian authors at their store in Toronto.

Here are two photos taken by author Deborah Gyapong, one of me and one of the reading areas. You can see many more photos on Deb's blog here and here.

The last four photos are courtesy of author Fay Rowe.

If you put your cursor on each picture, you'll see who's in them.

Christian bookstore in Toronto · Faith family Books and Gifts

So last night, I'm reading a book by Lois McMaster Bujold called Miles Errant, which is really two books and a novella in one, and after finishing the novella (which is very good, by the way) and after hitting myself upside the head for not seeing the ending coming, I happen to glance at the back cover. 

On it is an endorsement by Anne McCaffrey, which begins with the words, "Georgette Heyer has met her match for intrigue and style…."  

I sit up and begin to laugh. It's midnight, and even though my husband has just fallen asleep, I wake him up. This is too good not to share!

For those who don't know, Georgette Heyer lived from 1902 to 1974. She wrote over 40 sparkling, witty regency  romances and 12 delightfully tricky contemporary mysteries. She's second only to C. S. Lewis on my all-time favourite writer list. I own all her mysteries and most of her romances. And I intentionally patterned my Manziuk and Ryan mysteries after her Hannasyde and Hemmingway ones.

Okay, now the reason for my laughter. 

During the last week, I read 14 of her historical romances, most of them for at least the 10th time. Some perhaps the 20th. Because last week i was sick. Not so sick I couldn't read anything, but so sick I needed something I loved to read. And as has happened on many other occasions since I was a teenager, I went to the shelf with Georgette's books on it. And as usual, she held my attention, made me laugh, and helped me forget I was sick.

While I was reading, it occurred to me once or twice that my son Mark might enjoy her books. Although I don't believe he's ever read an historical romance. Or would consider doing so. Mark is a financial something or other with IBM and he primarily reads and writes science fiction and fantasy and speculative fiction. Although when he was younger, he did read Owls in the Family about 40 times one year, so he does do the old favourite thing too.

Now, back to the book I was reading at midnight last night. It's I guess what would be called science fiction, although it also has elements of fantasy. It has a lot of a certain kind of intelligent humour – wit, I guess. And very complicated, ingenuous plots. Hmm. A lot of similarity to Georgette Heyer – ergo, the endorsement which blew me away. I mean, let's face it, how often do you see an endorsement comparing two wildly different authors, writing in totally different genres? Especially the day after you read 14 of the other author's books?

Now for the rest of the story.

Who introduced me to Lois McMaster Bujold? Why, my son Mark, of course. She's one of his favourite authors. He loves her humour and her intriguing plots.

I guess like mother, like son. Now all I have to do is convince Mark to read one of my Georgette Heyer historical romances….

Anne McCaffrey · Georgette Heyer · intelligent books · Lois McMaster Bujold · reading for pleasure · witty

Realized November is already here. Sigh.

Time really does seem to go faster as you get older.

Okay, I’ve said that before. But it’s true.

Yes, I’m whining.

But I don’t care.

Another month has gone by and once again I feel as though I’ve got so many things undone that i had wanted to do. And I wonder if I’ll ever get to that magical land called "Caught Up". Sure be nice to see how it feels to get there.

And then I just glanced at my printed-out planning sheet that has a box for every month of the year and read what it said under October.

1. Make exercise a priority.

2. Make writing a habit.

And a warm, comforting feeling came over me as I realized I did both of those things.

I’m using Nintendo Wii’s My Fitness Coach, and I used it 6 days a week for every week this month, including this past week when I had a cold and wasn’t feeling all that great. Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 45 minutes; Tuesday and Saturday for 30 minutes, and Sunday for 15 minutes. Plus I did 15 to 30 minutes of Wii Fit Plus on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.It’s become a priority. I do it at the beginning of my day, and I look forward to doing it. Wow!…

As for making writing a habit, I still need to get to where I’m writing as many words a day as i want think I can, but I’m getting there. Part of it is time, and I’ve been managing 2 days a week, sometimes more. But more important is where my head is. And it’s starting to get into the writing zone. Starting this week, I’m planning to write Monday through Thursday. I’ll do business stuff Friday and then a mix of business and house things Saturday. Sunday is my day off and also the day we get to babysit grandkids. 

So, there I was thinking October had gone by without my making up any ground toward reaching "Caught Up," and I was wrong. I’ll get there. One step at a time.

how can I get writing · struggle to write · trying to write