For those of you who follow this blog on a regular basis (and I'm very grateful to both of you!) you'll remember that I do all of my writing these days in a rented basement office in the Burritt's Rapids Community Hall.
This little village is located on an island in the Rideau Canal system a kilometre upstream from Lock 17, south of Ottawa, our nation's capital. It's a remarkably quiet, friendly place, just perfect for me to spend the day focusing on what I love to do--write crime fiction.
Parks Canada is now in the process of repairing and restoring the swing bridge connecting the island to the south shore. The bridge has been there since 1897 and is still operated by hand. During the summer I often walk down from the community hall to the bridge on my lunch break to watch the boats pass by. It's remarkable in the 21st century to watch a Parks Canada employee (usually a summer student) cranking like crazy to swing the bridge out of the way of oncoming water traffic.
I took the above photo a couple of days ago as the work crew was preparing to remove the bridge and take it away to the place where it will be restored. As you can see on the far right, a temporary walkway has been built across the water. I took the photo from a parking area that will be maintained for the use of those who need to access the island from the south (e.g., residents!) and choose to park and walk. School buses also pick up and drop off kids here while the bridge is out of commission.
For more information about this fascinating project, check out this link.
This is the time of year when local communities around here hold plant sales to raise funds for local spring projects. It's a true sign that winter is finally behind us and a whole lot of great weather is on the horizon!
This past weekend I had a chance to attend the Great Burritt's Rapids Plant Sale. Since it was held at the Community Hall, where my office is now located, it was an easy event to make. I took this photo after most of the rush had died down (and I'd already grabbed my plants!).
This particular sale is held by the Village Greening Team. They used the funds raised to maintain the public gardens in Burritt's Rapids. Isn't this a great idea? Many of the perennials are donated from local historical gardens, and this year's sale featured Fire Star Dianthus and Jack Frost Brunnera.
I zeroed in on the day lilies and asked the very kind woman helping me out to choose two that she thought might do well at my place. Turns out she had donated the lilies herself and that they came from her garden at Burritt House. So now I have a piece of history growing in my own modest garden in Oxford Station.
Can't wait to see them bloom. Can't wait for summer!
As regular readers of The Overnight Bestseller know, I've moved my authoring operations to a basement office in the Burritt's Rapids Community Hall. The building was constructed as a general store in the middle of the nineteenth century by John French, and when I tip my head back to gaze heavenward for inspiration I can stare at the original heavy wooden beams and floor planks of this solid neo-classical structure.
It's a very quiet work environment, without distractions, and my productivity has thankfully improved since I moved in about a month ago. No more cats running across my keyboard for attention or yelling for food or searching endlessly for the door into summer. Just Mike, his computer, and........
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I've seen him twice now. A plump, healthy-looking brown mouse running along the baseboard under the chalk board. I think he's coming from a storage room just to the right of my workspace and heading for the furnace room down yonder at top speed. So ... I'm not alone after all.
Ever the responsible tenant, I informed my lessor of my uninvited guest and suggested I could bring in one of my cats (am I nuts??) to put the fear of Felix into him and encourage him to move elsewhere, or else get caught and suffer the consequences. (A word on gender: I refer to him in the masculine in the
fond hope that he's a lone bachelor and not a female looking to nest
and produce more Brownies.) She replied right away, letting me know that her daughters had seen the mouse before while taking art lessons from the previous tenant. Oh yes, by the way: his name's Brownie.
I'm toast. He has a name. What do I do now? I can't just up and kill Brownie, can I?
There's an old box of Warfarin on a shelf in the storage room, but unless he's suffering from blood clots I wouldn't do that to him. I've seen rodents killed by mousetraps before, and it's a horrible sight. So I'm back to the cats. We have mice in our house in winter, since we live in the country, and we've refined a system where they chase and trap a mouse in a corner, I put on gloves and grab it, then I take it off a ways from the house and toss it into a pile of leaves. I guess I'll give that a try, after all, because I have an obligation to my lessor to take care of it.
But here's the thing: he has a name. Brownie. I've started talking to him. I ask him how he's doing. Sometimes I get up to take a break, and I give him an update on how it's going. This chapter's looking good, Brownie. What should I do here, Brownie? How does this sound?
I'm toast. I have a new pal, and his name is Brownie.
Now that we've finally made it to 2016, there are going to be some changes made. As I mentioned last week, I've relocated my workplace to a basement office in the Burritt's Rapids Community Hall. As you can see on the left, I'm just getting settled in with my 1960s vintage rock posters, computers, pencils, and all the rest. Not shown in the picture are the whiteboard on wheels and great big chalkboard I'm already using extensively to work out the kinks as I make my way through the first draft of my current manuscript.
For those of you who enjoyed SORROW LAKE and are looking for the next novel in the Ellie March and Kevin Walker crime novel series, do not despair. The second installation, BURN COUNTRY, is well in hand. However, it is temporarily on hold as I complete the above-mentioned draft of a new manuscript featuring a new character, Tom Faust. This series will be set in central Ontario and, in a departure for me, will be told in the first person. More on Faust later.
Before I let you go on to much more important stuff, I promised last week I'd include another selfie in this week's post. A better one. Well, anything would be better than that sad-sack selfie from last week, so here you go. This was taken this morning, during a light snowfall, and is part of a new set of publicity photos I'm taking to promote SORROW LAKE. I hope you like it:
All the best for 2016, everyone.
I don't take a lot of selfies, and you'll probably agree after glancing at the one on the left that this is a good thing. Lynn doesn't like this photo because she thinks I look grouchy. Actually, it was taken a few mornings ago just outside Burritt's Rapids, and I'm just very tired.
I'll admit straight out, without sugar coating, that 2015 has not been a good year for us here in Oxford Station. Stuff happens, over and over it seems, and you deal with it and move on. That said, it's time to rise back up out of the static and re-assert myself. As a result, I'm bringing The Overnight Bestseller out of its cryogenic sleep and resuming its Monday posts, starting with this one.
I'm also re-inventing myself as a writer. Thanks to Lynn, as a concerned wife and smart business partner, I've closed down our living room office and opened a new one, offsite. I'm now the new tenant in the basement office of the Burritt's Rapids Community Hall. Located on Grenville Street in the village, this new office will help me restore the writing schedule I used to follow. It will also provide a pick-up point for folks wanting to buy any of our books in the North Grenville area. Just send me an e-mail and we can arrange a time!
Next week I'll show you the interior of my new domain, drop hints about my latest project, and - I promise - try to include a better selfie.
Thanks for checking back in with me here at The Overnight Bestseller. I hope you'll enjoy what follows.
