I'm heading off to a holiday in the Land of Pie and Sloth, aka Chatham-Kent, in Ontario, ancestral Canadian home of my clan. A couple of points to note about the area, besides the good farm produce, Lake Erie and home-made pies:
After recording the most votes via internet poll, Chatham-Kent will be occupying the Boardwalk square on the new Canadian version of Monopoly, beating out places like Toronto, Montreal and Banff. To which I say, whooo hooo!
It may be called Chatham-Kent, but to me, it looks more like Lincolnshire.
The man in charge of parcelling out the land, Colonel Thomas Talbot, had been an adjutent to Wellington, and was quite the character. He named an awful lot of roads, etc, after himself.
It has the most wind turbines in Ontario.
My mom's dad was known for having the best farm in the county and my dad's dad was the best commercial fisherman on Lake Erie.
I may have some internet access, but it's going to be dial-up, so I may blog or I may not, if it's too frustrating. Because really, I'm going there to eat pie, read, relax and maybe stain some furniture, if I can muster up the resolve after gorging on pie.
Whew, Nellie, we had an earthquake this afternoon. 5.5, apparently. There I was, eating my lunch, watching Law & Order, and my bookshelf starting to make odd noises. Also, move. I didn't hear any large trucks passing, so it finally occurred to me that we've had an earthquake. One poor cat was meowing away, the other is in hiding somewhere.
Something a little different in my day, that's for sure!
I've just posted an excerpt from my next book, HIGHLAND ROGUE, LONDON MISS on my website here.
This is one of those writerly tasks that sounds simple to do - just post an excerpt. You can cut and paste the text, right? Well, in theory, but...
I have to add all the html code for paragraphs. Then I have to put the link to that page on several other pages on my site, like the home page, the what's new page, the book's main page, the excerpts page, the page listing all my Harlequin Historicals®, the page for my Regency-set books, my quick list of all my books by publisher and series, and the one-age list of my books. That's a lot of revising.
Then I upload the pages and check that all the links work. Usually there are one or two that don't, and I have to figure out where the typo is.
So now you know how I spent my morning. In this case, though, it didn't help that I kept typing Highland Rouge...
So, now that I've finished a book, do I feel a sense of triumph? A thrill? A horrible sense of despair?
In my case, it's relief that it's finished, and a sense of...foreboding...is about the best way to put it - the fear that I've missed some huge plot hole that makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the plaster. I'm also always having to play catch-up with all the things that I let slide during the final rush to the finish, like laundry and gardening. This year, I had great plans and...
Nope. Didn't happen. However, my iris did look lovely.
The other thing I am is exhausted. I don't sleep that well when I have a lot going on, and this spring, I had a LOT going on.
So I'm going away for a few days, to sleep and eat strawberries and walk and read. If there's one good thing about being an empty nester, it would be this - the ability to just take off for a few days with no big preparations, like lining up a baby sitter and packing for the kids.
Ta ta for now, folks!
Whoo hooo! My book is done!
Now to play catch up on all the things that got shoved to the back burner, including walking and my website. So no major bloggery from me for a few more days.
It may be called Chatham-Kent, but to me, it looks more like Lincolnshire. 
