I was flipping channels the other evening and stopped on whatever network has Nightline, because it dangled a book-associated carrot under my nose. So I stayed put through the commercials, a news segment on something else I've already forgotten, and then another series of commercials, and then FINALLY they did the book story.

It turns out that in these economically tough times, there is a facet of the book industry that is doing better than ever. In fact, sales are up 32% this past year. We're talking romance novels, Harlequin Canada to be precise. The publisher puts out 1200 new books a year in a number of different imprints (ie -- types of romances) from mystery to the supernatural. Readers can have innocent romance or raucous sex. Since romance and/or sex are part of most everybody's actual lives or fantasies, I guess I can understand the draw.

The thing is that after reading one or three, that's enough. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the pattern, and any reader with half a brain knows how the story is going to turn out. It goes something like this. Girl meets boy. There is instant attraction, but a misunderstanding sets the would-be lovers at odds. The remainder of the novel pits the lovers' irresistable attraction for one another against their principles and their ever spiraling misunderstanding until they simply can't keep their hands off one another another second. Whilst tearing at each other's clothing and bruising their lips, they confess their worst thoughts and SURPRISE! discover they've been celebate all this time for nothing!

Be still my beating heart. Not because I'm somehow titilated or even entertained by the genre, but because it's a lucrative market and I'm not writing for it. Moreover, I can't even entertain the thought of writing for it. It just isn't right for me. It's not my idea of a good read. Sorry -- I know this sounds snotty -- but it's not up to my standard, and I would never be able to write at that level, even for the money. 

Too bad for me, and bravo to the writers who can. They're laughing all the way to the bank. 

The last year and a half has been very good to me in terms of my writing. Actually -- when you get right down to it -- it's been good to me on all fronts. I feel truly blessed. On the other hand, I am also tuckered out. I had no idea how exhausting success could be.

Other more consistently-busy people might better withstand the hectic pace, but I'm accustommed to a good deal of down time between activities, and I'm just not getting it. My usual routine is to write a book, send it it out, and while it makes the round of rejections, I write something else. Eventually the first book gets picked up, I start sending out the second one, and begin writing a third. Throw some reviews and award nominations into the mix, as well as the occasional speaking engagement, and I'm happy. It's not exactly a whirlwind life, but it's comfortable and regular, and it works for me.

Lately, though, somebody has turned up the speed of my treadmill, and I am constantly on the run. Not only are the books I've written getting snapped up by various publishers -- setting me spinning on the editorial merry-go-round, but I find myself with contracts for books that have yet to be written. It's simultaneously wonderful and terrifying -- and exhausting. Did I mention the exhausting bit?

In addition, I've had several speaking engagements to prepare for and deliver, a couple of book launches to plan, a Manitoba book tour to arrange, and numerous other major non-writing related obligations to attend to. I'm so busy I don't have time to write anything that isn't actually already in the works. The music keeps playing, so I keep dancing.

Most of me knows this is a very good thing -- not to mention good for me, but the more laid-back part of me yearns for a few days in which I have to do absolutely nothing. I think it's called laziness. You see, I'm not so naive as to think that success comes without hard work. And I'm not afraid of work. It's just that I'm used to setting the pace. (My head is so full of things I have to do that this morning when I woke up, it took me a good thirty seconds to remember what day it was.)

And now the stakes have been raised again. Today I learned that my application to tour for TD Canadian Children's Book Week has been successful. I am one of the lucky writers, illustrators and performers who will be visiting schools and libraries somewhere in Canada in November of 2009. I am thrilled! I toured once before -- about five years ago -- and I know what a fabulous opportunity this is. I also know it is exhausting. (There's that word again.)

This is the part where I say, "I'm not complaining." And believe me, I'm not. I just wish I was better at keeping up. They say if you want something done, give the job to a busy person. I understand the logic, and I concur. But as my grandson, Brock, said when he was two and trying to keep up with his amazingly busy mother, "I need faster running shoes!" 

I was just talking with my editor for Zach & Zoe Bully and the Beagle, and she informs me there has been a change of plan. Instead of releasing the novel as a spring book, the publisher has decided to make it a fall book. I can't tell you exactly when in the fall, but as soon as I find out, I shall post it in my blog.

Get set, everyone. My third book of 2009 will be published very soon. In just a few more weeks, readers can catch up on the adventures of twins, Zach & Zoe Gallagher. This time, they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of simultaneously trying to be responsible dog-sitters for a vacationing neighbour and peace-keepers between the beagle they are looking after and their bully cousin who has come to visit for a week.

Page proofs are in the process of being finalized, and then it's off to the printer. After that, it's just a matter of time until the book reaches the stores.

Here's what the cover looks like. 

At the risk of generalizing -- because I know there has to be someone out there to whom this doesn't apply -- writers are masters of avoidance. What are they avoiding? Why, writing, of course -- which makes absolutely no sense, since I have yet to meet a writer who doesn't love writing.

It is a perplexing conundrum -- no two ways about it -- but nevertheless it's true. A writer will grasp at any excuse to avoid sitting down in front of that computer to write. Get a cup of coffee. Do a crossword puzzle. Clean the bathroom. Water the plants. Collect the mail. Mow the lawn. Read the cereal box. Play computer games. Check facebook, My Space, and Twitter for the thirty seventh time in two hours. Take a shower. Hunt down a piece of lint under the couch.

Take me for instance. I have to revamp and send away a book proposal. And it has to be done TODAY. The task has been weighing on my mind so much that it has plagued my sleep for the last three nights. (I actually do some of my best writing in my sleep.) Anyway it woke me up at 4 this morning, begging to be written. So I dragged myself out of bed and turned on the computer, ready to go. Almost. First I had to use the washroom and toddle out to the kitchen to see if the contents of the fridge had changed in four hours while I was sleeping. Then I had to download my morning spam and see what was happening on facebook. Apparently Anita Daher in Winnipeg wasn't sleeping either. Of course, I had to do the daily online jigsaw puzzle and see if my Mahjong skills were up to snuff in the middle of the night. But I told myself I would get writing as soon as I was victorious.

Damn! I won the very first game.

But if nothing else, I'm an honourable woman, so I shut off the game and got to work and reworked the whole first section of the writing sample. I'm not unhappy with it. It'll be fine. Now I just have the second bit to attack. But I need to think on it a bit first, and update my blog, and now I'm feeling a bit sleepy, and ...

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

You got that right, Mr. Dickens! Yesterday, while slogging my way through the copy edit from Hell, my blood pressure sky-rocketed. I am not exaggerating. Halfway through the edit, I had to leave for a doctor's appointment, and -- as doctors are known to do -- mine took my blood pressure. It was 160/90. The copy edit was clearly bad for my health. Wine and salt may also have been contributing factors, but I'm laying the blame on the copy edit.

But it's done now, and I'm hoping my blood pressure is returning to normal. Unless, of course, elation is capable of eliciting the same effects as anger and frustration, because at this moment I am ecstatic! My copies of Return to Bone Tree Hill were just delivered -- two weeks early!! Whoever heard of a book being published ahead of schedule? Well, this one was, and it looks terrific! I couldn't be happier. (Check out the trailer for the book. It's on the home page of my website.)

This is my second published book in as many weeks. At the end of February, Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers was released. I haven't even had a chance to soak that one in, and now I have another. Yahoo!

But I'm still working hard. I spoke with one of my publishers today about the proposal I had submitted for a new non-fiction book. Except for some tweaking here and there, it seems to be on target, so with a little luck I'll be up to my ears in research again very soon. Who doesn't love that? In addition, I'm busy trying to finish what I hope will be another book in the Currents Hi-Lo series from Orca Books.

I'm writing as fast as I can, people. So, if you just keep on reading, we should be good to go.

Well, maybe not quite, but I do have a video trailer for Return to Bone Tree Hill, the murder mystery scheduled for release at the end of March. The trailer is on the Bone Tree Hill Book Page and also the main page of my website, as well as Facebook and You Tube. Oh, yeah, people, it's out there, so give it a look-see and let me know what you think.

Personally, I'm thrilled with it. When I initially thought about doing a trailer, I had grandiose ideas about what it should be. We're talking major motion picture! But when the time actually arrived for it to be made, I realized there was no way my ideas could come alive without a hefty financial investment, which just wasn't going to happen. So I scaled back my dreams and came up with a pretty bare-bones script and a couple of images. Then I turned it over to my son and begged him to do something magical.

AND HE DID!!! He took my ideas and tweaked them so that they morphed into something fantastic. The trailer is a mere 33 seconds long, proving beyond a doubt that less is more. The trailer simultaneously arouses curiosity and trepidation. How can readers NOT want to read the book?

I am so pleased. 

So I'm busy working on the proposal for a new book on Secret Societies with Annick, and the doorbell rings. It's the mailman with a box of books. It's Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers -- hardcover and soft! How can I not stop what I'm doing to check them out? I spent the better part of 2008 researching and writing that book. New books are so exciting, especially when their arrival means they will be showing up in bookstores any day! Woo-hoo!!

Of course, I'm excited about the book proposal too. But what happens to me when I start on research is I discover way more stuff than I can possibly use -- much of which is not suitable for a book for kids. Too much information is a dangerous thing. It's also very difficult to pare down to a size I can actually use. 

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Well, it's official -- we finally have a title for the next Zach & Zoe book. It's Zach & Zoe -- the Bully and the Beagle. I just finished the final content edit this evening (I hope), which means we finally move on to the copy edit, and the art department gets busy creating the cover. According to my editor, the book is scheduled for a May 1st release, which is earlier than I anticipated, but that means I can promote it when I go to Winnipeg in May. It's all good.

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After being away from writing for six whole weeks, it's tough to get back into work mode. But I have so many projects started or about to be started, as well as launches and book talks coming up, that I can't afford to procrastinate. With so much swirling around in my head, I was beginning to run in circles, so I decided to make up a To Do list. At the moment there are 26 items on it. I attacked the list diligently yesterday and managed to cross nine items off it, but I also added two more to the bottom. I have a feeling it's going to continue like that, but as long as I keep slogging away at it, I think I can win.

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Golly -- it's hard to believe that it's been almost six weeks since my husband and I set out on our great Snowbird Adventure. But it has been, and tomorrow we start the hard drive for home.

We've had a fantastic time. We marvelled at the sand dunes and rocky cliffs of the Oregon and California coast and watched surfers in Carmel. We rode the trolley car up Rice-a-roni Hill in San Francisco and saw the sites from Fisherman's Wharf. We spent a day rediscovering the kids inside us and losing our stomachs on the rides at Disneyland.

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I love to write, and I often sit in front of the computer way too much of the day. But at some point a person needs to refuel the inspirational tanks, and this extended holiday is doing exactly that. As my husband and I have made our way south, we have literally stopped to smell the roses. We're not in a hurry to get anywhere. We only need to enjoy where we are and what we're doing at any moment. So during our trip I've been soaking up everything and taking hundreds of pictures (almost everyday) to remind me of this experience when my memory starts to fade.

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    The older I get, the faster the years slide by, and I'm willing to bet that 2008 went by faster than any year so far. Perhaps that old adage is true -- Time flies when you're having fun. All I know is that I certainly did have fun in 2008. If I could use that year as the template for every year, I would.

    Who knows -- maybe I am, because 2009 is already shaping up to be just as spectacular -- on a personal and professional level. But since ths blog is focused on writing, that's the topic I'll stick to. 

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    The older I get, the faster the years slide by, and I'm willing to bet that 2008 went by faster than any year so far. Perhaps that old adage is true -- Time flies when you're having fun. All I know is that I certainly did have fun in 2008. If I could use that year as the template for every year, I would.

    Who knows -- maybe I am, because 2009 is already shaping up to be just as spectacular -- on a personal and professional level. But since ths blog is focused on writing, that's the topic I'll stick to. 

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Life is way too busy right now.

You see, deep down, I'm a slug. (Okay, fine -- I'm a slug all the way through.) The point is I like life to move at an easy pace -- get up, make the bed, plan supper and spend the rest of the day doing whatever comes along. Some people like to cram as much as they can into a day, but that is so NOT me. Read a little, write a little, go to the gym every other day, watch some TV in the evening. That works for me. I am the sort of person who puts Eat Breakfast on my To Do list, and when there are more than two items to attend to on any given day, I get tense.

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    Well, here it is ... the cover for Return to Bone Tree Hill, the murder mystery coming out in March from Thistledown Press. I don't think my son is crazy about this corn image, but I love it. Of course, I know how it relates to the story, and he doesn't, so I have a slight advantage. Once he's read the book, we'll see if his opinion changes.

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For a small community, Campbell River has its fair share of authors, and from time to time those of us who write for children like to get together. Yesterday was one of those times, so Jocelyn Reekie, Heather Kellerhals-Stewart, and I packed up our potluck offerings and headed off to Dayle Gaetz's home for a wonderful lunch. Caroline Woodward was unable to join us, so we took the peaches she had canned and left with us  previously and turned them into a cobbler dessert. The peaches were yummy, Caroline. Thanks you.

Lunch was super, and Dayle was a wonderful hostess. We talked non-stop for three hours. We could have easily continued gabbing another three hours -- but we ran out of time. So we have no choice. We'll just have to get together again. 

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Two weeks ago Canada held a federal election that garnered the lowest voter turnout ever. Yesterday, our neighbours to the south held their federal election with the highest voter turnout ever -- which would have been even higher if Canadians had been allowed to vote. It's sad to think that Canadians care more about who leads the US government than we do about who runs our own.

On the other hand, how could we not be caught up in the hoopla? The whole world was! The outcome of the US election promised to be an historic moment, and Canadians had front row seats. 

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We writers are idea people. As we stumble through life we are continuously having revelations about the things we experience -- big things, little things, odd things, normal things, a sound, a sight, a smell -- there's no predicting what will strike a chord and set our imaginations in motion.

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I am wonderful. I don't mean I'm fabulous or fantastic. I mean I'm full of wonder. I wonder about stuff -- all the time. Around age two, children start asking why. I just never moved on. I'm still asking why, mostly to my husband, who -- if he's in a generous mood -- does his best to come up with answers for me. Other times he just tears at his hair and complains, "How the heck should I know?!"

I'm sure other people wonder about things too; they just don't say so. I mean how can you not wonder about stuff.

Such as?

All those emails people send that don't reach their intended destinations. Are they all floating around in cyberspace? And what would happen if someone found a way to gather them all up?

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With two of my books going out of print this year, I was pleased to learn that one of my older titles has been granted a new lease on life.

In its prime, The Gramma War did very well. It got good reviews, was shortlisted for a number of awards, and sold quite a few copies. It has been one of my most successful books so far. But it's been seven years since it was first published, and the bloom is off the rose, if you know what I mean. The book has had its day.

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I generally have a collection of books sitting around waiting to be read, or -- if I do make a trip to the library -- I am after a specific title. The times I actually wander the stacks with an open mind are few and far between. But my mother, who labels herself a voracious reader, goes through at least four books a week. So I asked her how she decides what to read.

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I've finished the revisions for Zach & Zoe in Double Trouble, and yesterday I emailed them to the publisher. Now it's time to vacuum, dust, clean the bathroom, and do some laundry. Yes, as preposterous as that sounds, we famous writer types still get to do housework and other mundane tasks. Ugh. But if I get right on it and don't procrastinate (ha!), I could be done in a couple of hours and then ...

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Goodness ... I can't believe it ... it's aleady the end of September. I have been writing practically non-stop since January 1st. Time flies when you're having fun. And I definitely am enjoying myself.

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Since I am a procrastinator by nature, I create little dares and competitions for myself, intended to prod me into action. The fact that I fall for these ploys makes me either very dim-witted or very clever -- I'm not sure which. All I know is that it reinforces my belief that there are two of me living inside this body, which would account for why I'm always fighting my weight.

This last week has been frustrating. I've been waiting for the arrival of the editorial comments for one of my manuscripts, so that I can begin work on the second draft. It still hasn't arrived. (It would seem someone else is also procrastinating.) So what am I doing while I wait?

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