A New Years Time Crunch

Every New Year's Day I have a ritual I perform. No, I don't slaughter an animal or drop to my knees in prayer. But you're close if you're thinking that way. My ritual is symbolic in that it makes this addled ADD brain sit and contemplate what I accomplished, messed up or got distracted with my goals in the past year. Then I try to figure out some REALISTIC ways of bettering my program. Maybe I could have applied myself more with getting my anti-cancer message out to the world as intended, maybe I could have listened to my husband's council more often because when he says left, I go right. Not intentionally, but it's the way I'm wired.I should be more structured like he is, more rigid with my time.


I think for people like me, it's about routine and how I schedule my days. It needs to start with an alarm clock because on these dark mornings, I want to stay in bed until 9. A waste of 2 good hours to get before the computer screen and accomplish something.

I need to organize my time at my desk better because the social media aspect of the writing life seems to take over. That means consolidating the Twitter, FaceBook (3 pages!!)e-mail and Pinterest somehow. One message needs to go out to all the followers.I'll have to search for a program that can do that.

I need to make a schedule up and try to stick to it. Like 7-8:30 social media. 9-11 in town for swimming and errands.Lunch. 1-5 writing. Prep dinner. Hot tub with husband.7-10 editing. Or something like that. You can already see how life gets in the way. Hot tubs and town. Of course, none of that will work when we're at the ski cabin. It will go more like 8-9 prep for skiing (breakfast, washing, dressing, listening to weather reports and ski hill chatter about conditions we'll be facing) 9:30-4 ripping up the fresh powder or touring the mountain on special skis that enable us to walk uphill with furry "skins" on them before skiing back down again in the powder still untouched in the out-of-bounds areas. Light snacks from 4-5 before dinner 6-7 and then usually it's entertainment time to mosey to another cabin for laughs or to the lodge for ??? You can see there is a great need for me to set aside more time when I'm on the mountain! Some fun will have to go. The tobogganing? The Thrilling Thursdays with the free appies and prizes? The surprise drop-in guests?

This will be harder than I thought. It's funny that writer's can apply to be secluded for weeks or a month at a time in rustic settings (like log cabins on a  mountain) People pay big money so that they can get away from life buzzing continually around them and get to the task of typing out something the world will want to read. It takes concentration to flip into the story you are creating and an interruption flips you back to reality. You are momentarily puzzled at where you are at before you answer a question about where someone's cell phone is (in MY purse of course) or where his keys are (yes, check MY purse) or a yap with someone on the phone. Flipping back into the story takes less than a minute, but then you have to find where you are and get that stream flowing again. You have to remember what it is you are setting up because every word must work to moving a story forward. A well published author told me this year "You have to be prepared to defend every word," and I have already found that to be true.

So I have plenty of peaceful seclusion, but I still have the ability to let life (like searching for a brie cheese seafood pasta sauce recipe for 2 hours) sidetrack me.

So, I am going to try and let less distractions get in my way this year. Now that my two books are on shelves, it's up to me to see that the buzz around them increases and  keep the momentum going forward while editing my second Mystery to come out in 2014 and writing the book on ADD. What time slot should I pencil that in?

I'm thinking I should simply not go to sleep. That would give me 8 hours of quiet time to produce pages of gibberish I would have to fix in the morning. Sigh.

No, I'm thinking 2014 will be a year of compromise. Same amount of life, yet more writing. With two more children engaged this year, a hip operation for my father back east sending us across Canada, more cancer relays, fundraising for a portable MRI (more on that in a future blog) for the north (including Smithers!) and exercise, my time for writing is going to have to be "whenever possible."

So if you see me hunched over my lap top while in the lounge on the ski hill, or writing notes on a napkin at your home, popping out of the pool to say "aha! That's what that character should do!" please don't label me. It's a New Year's Resolution in action.

The problem is it sounds suspiciously like the exact game-plan I followed in 2013?

But hey, I published not one but two books, got them out to BC through two cross province book tours, two CBC radio interviews, CFTK TV, PG TV the Georgia Strait, countless newspapers and audiences I presented to on top of a trip to Kaui, hiking trips, a wedding in Revelstoke and sixty days of skiing, so maybe the old plan wasn't as bad as I thought?

 I'm thinking a few less days of skiing will be enough change to let me get my balance straightened out.

And now, by looking at the clock, I see I'm off to start the year on the right foot. Time to get dressed and continue my day!
Writing starts in exactly 34 minutes!

Wishing you the ability to find a little more time to challenge yourself in 2014. Happy New Year everyone!

See-Through Scanner

It was a first for me. Setting off an American scanner alert because something foreign was in my breast. And where was the handy card the surgeon's office gave me to show I had a surgical implant in there? At home on my dresser of course.

The line-up behind us was the usual, everyone pressing from behind as you hopped around on one foot trying to take off your other shoe while ripping off your belt, pulling your laptop out of your back pack, the bag of gels and creams from your carry-on , hand the security guy your boarding pass, not making jokes or smiling because that might mean I was "nervous." Okay, I was always nervous at border crossings or security checks. You can thank our mother for that one. In the days before computers,after being stopped at the Maine/New Brunswick border EVERY September  before school started go for a weekend power shop. We always blew the allowable duty free budget with another appliance Mom would have to have.Never-mind we were wearing three pairs of new pants and shirts. We'd get busted for a toaster oven or a vacuum. The humiliation of being caught again was worst when Mom had to confess to our Dad that all the advantage of going to the States for back-to-school savings was wasted on a fine. Again.

To this day, I shake and tremble at every border crossing or when I pass through security of any kind. My palms sweat, fear trickles down beneath my armpits, rolls down my back. My eyes whirl around in my head, I accidentally look for exit signs and count how many guards are standing where. Why is that? Am I thinking I could make a run for it somewhere? I act as guilty as I still feel and once through, I run away from the area as fast as I can, still clutching my belt and shoes to put on around the corner. I fell for the "you've been chosen for an extra security check" only once. Grabbed because I had paused to put my shoes on. Never again.

But this was different. I walked into the new full scanner X-Ray machine with my hands touching my head. As I came out I was held up and words were exchanged between the male guard and a female guard who was standing further down. The woman looked up at the screen, saw where the bright red mark on the picture of a female frame's right breast was, looked into my eyes and saw my grin. What? I love my re-conned boob!

And she waved me through.
What a relief. It would have been one  more border story for Barry to tell and one more reason to fear the security people at the airport!

Homeward bound. Hopefully we arrive tonight at 7:30 pm. What a long day as we started yesterday night, after being up since 7 am. But it's always worth it. Every little bit of inconvenience and physical and mental exhaustion.I love nothing better besides getting on a plane and arriving some place else! Especially someplace warm when it's freezing at home.

FAQs on Houston Mirroring Halston

Thanks to everyone in the Bulkley Valley and beyond for the indelible support of the two books I released between May and September of this year. My final 2013 library reading, held last night in Houston, had a record 18 attendees. Wow.

All this media promotion and travelling across BC  has been exhausting both mentally and physically so I am being treated to a holiday for 3 weeks to unstress from the road trips we've raced through and to settle myself back into the writer's chair and get the second mystery "Double Dip" through it's final stages before printing. It's also my birthday while we're away, so this is my most incredible, thoughtful gift from my husband. (No, sales of the books weren't THAT good although we exceeded 1000 of the RFC before the summer ended!)

As a treat, I thought I'd take a minute and share some FAQs about the book Not Just One:

Q: What made you think of writing this book?
A: I have no idea. This is book #3 in my life. The first two books are still in drawers for one day when I have nothing left to work on. As if that will ever happen! Not with two more already-written mysteries and the start of book #5 Running From ADD expected in 2016.

Q: How long does it take you to write a book?
A: One year, from first horrible draft where you put your silly idea down on paper and then keep revising it and revising it until it begins to take shape. Add a time-line, fill in the blank spots, more fleshing out of the characters and then editing again and again and you have exactly 365 days. To promote it takes a life-time it's starting to look like!

Q: Why did you decide to self-publish?
A: I did a lot of research on book writing while waiting to hear back from publishers. The replies from the queries were ALWAYS super positive, hand-written notes that encouraged me to keep sending it around (RFC). It possibly didn't fit their current need, wasn't for them or they had their quotas for the year etc. Self-publishing gives me the control over the cover, the price,the release date and the percentage for selling it. Instead of making $2 a book thru a publisher, I can make a lot more to help pay for the up-front cost if I sell them out of my trunk. Selling through bookstores earns me more than through a conglomerate like Chapters, Amazon or Barnes and Noble. It's an expensive venture, but sales from my first book enabled the printing of my second. I'm hoping the sales from Not Just One will do the same for the third book.

Q: The Not Just One book looks scary with that snake on it. Is it?
A: Not really and if there is a tense scene, it's over fast because the pace rarely slows down through the entire book. Nothing gross or gory other than the fact Billy had a brief sexual encounter with a minor and pays for it throughout the story.

Q: "Okay," I'm asked, "the town you live in is Houston and the town in your book sounds quite similar, so why change it to Halston?"
A: My latest book, a mystery called Not Just One, is fictional. Yes there are resemblances or token service personal that will always be heroes in my books, but it stops there. Halston may greatly resemble Houston, but I changed the name to keep liberal licensing. So if I want to plop down a giant shoe store in the middle of Halston, I could. And don't tempt me...

Q: I'm sure I know one of the characters whose name is changed. Is it your ex-husband?
A: Heaven's, NO! That would be liable for a law-suit I would imagine and risking my own neck, upsetting my family, his family and countless others, never-mind the man himself. What I did do was roll a few quirks from people I know and ground them down and spit them out as a character named Billy who looks nothing like my ex when envisioned in my head. Although Billy sometimes grab's the readers pity, he's generally not a nice guy. My ex is well liked by many people.

Q: Who is Mini?
A: Mini, like everyone else, is fiction although I did meet someone very much like what I see in my head when I write, after the book came out. Uncanny, right?

Q: Who is your favourite character?
A: They change from book to book. I think Warren stole the show in Not Just One but everyone feels it is Mini that wins for most popular side-kick. In the next book, Double Dip, that all changes as the characters develop a bit more.

Q: When will you be doing another reading?
A: Not until late spring or summer if I can help it. I need time to write again and can't spend as much time as we did this year on travelling for cancer relays and promotions. Of course, if I was paid to do inspirational talks or readings as many successful authors are, I'd be packing.

Q: Anything else to add?
A: Yes, I think Not Just One is a book everyone in Houston will enjoy, if only to laugh at the similarities of the two towns. It's funny, fast-paced and as many, many people have said, "It's just like talking to you, Deb." My reply is at least you can close the book and put it away for a spell, not so easy to do when I'm in the same room as you! I am what I am! Thanks everyone for your support. Life IS amazing. May it be so for you as well.

Winding up Beside Michael Slade

What an end to a month of touring with my Running From Cancer memoir. I'm finally winding it all up and packing my bags for the flight home tomorrow night.

The SIWC Surrey Writers Conference was spent rubbing elbows with the famous Diana Gabaldon of the best selling Outlander novels and Micheal Slade of numerous crime/horror/fiction novels amidst at least twenty other well established presenters as they ate with us, lectured classes and met us in hallways and elevators always happy to talk about our work or projects and there to help with questions. What a lot of learning we did. I'm looking forward to heading home tomorrow though. Sounds like Barry is more than ready for me to come home as well.

(Michael Slade (b. 1947, Lethbridge, Alberta) is the pen name of Canadian novelist Jay Clarke, a lawyer who has participated in more than 100 criminal cases and who specializes in criminal insanity. Before Clarke entered law school, his undergraduate studies focused on history.^[1]Clarke’s writing stems from his experience as a practicing lawyer and historian, as well as his extensive world travel. He works closely with police officers to ensure that his novels incorporate state-of-the-art police techniques.^[2] Writing as a team with a handful of other authors, Clarke has published a series of police procedurals about the fictional Special External Section (Special X) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His novels describe Special X protagonists as they track down fugitives, typically deranged murderers. Four other authors have contributed under the name Michael Slade: John Banks, Lee Clarke, Rebecca Clarke, and Richard Covell. Despite the collaborative nature of the books, Jay Clarke is the predominant voice in their writing^{[citation needed]}. Currently, Jay and his daughter Rebecca write under the Slade name.

Slade's novel Ghoul is on the Horror Writers Association's recommended reading list.^[3] His work is published by Penguin.

Fans of the series are referred^{[citation needed]} to as Sladists, a play on the word sadist.

According to a 2008 report^[4] on horror movie website Arrow in the Head, Headhunter was optioned for a movie by Brightlight Pictures, set to be written by Wil Zmak and directed by Patrick Lussier. The project appears to have died; as of August 2011, no further details have been released and no information is available from Brightlight's website.  (from Wikipedia)

Still Intact and Touring

So far so good. Although I ended up driving to Vancouver through the soupy fog all night, I made it down without losing a thing! Made the 7 am ferry and just kept going all day to Nanaimo to watch my beautiful daughter try on wedding dresses. A library reading was followed by a short boat ride to Protection Island to visit Doug and Marilyn- Karly's Auntie. A pampering of meals and great company by a fireplace ensued and I slept like the dead for a full uninterrupted 8 hours! Up to cruise the island by foot with another dear friend along-but scooping fresh oysters right off the rocks was a certain highlight. Ate them right there fresh from the shells!
Life is so good.Thanksgiving turkey dinner with Karly's fiancee Matt and his mother and bouncing out of bed at 6 to work out with my amazingly powerful and fit daughter ( you should SEE her whip those heavy ropes around!!) then meeting another dear friend for Starbucks breakfast.
Off now to visit another great friend- this one from my hometown in N.B.
Days off are SO fun. Back to Vancouver and the power cocktail evening tomorrow!
And I still have the phone Honey! Amazing!!!

The Sky Is Falling ... Again.

Looks just like I'd expected after a week of backing into someone else's vehicle, losing my keys inside a store (still missing) , my credit card for an hour and a nightmare about misplacing my son as a toddler (when I woke up I phoned my 28 year old to see if he was okay), and NOW there is a fog that has settled across the northwest cancelling flights in PG and I'm holding my breath about Smithers.

I'm getting worried about what's coming up...

Where am I off to?

To Nanaimo to visit my daughter and fiancee- to watch her try on wedding dresses for her August 2014 event. Then we head up island to Nanaimo for a library reading from 3:30-5 before hopping in a boat and travelling to a wee island to visit Karly's Aunt Marilyn for the night. Super excited to see old friends in Nanaimo as well as one in Victoria I am long over-due catching up with.

Then off to Vancouver for a debut at Diane's Lingerie shop. If you haven't seen it yet- take a look! http://www.dianeslingerie.com/ OMG! They've been publicizing about it all week. 25% discount off their bras this week with a % going to Breast Cancer research.

Then to Surrey for my writer's conference where I get to talk with Michael Slade and other celebrities to garner tips on how to be famous (kidding) and how I can get my material more mainstream.

It's going to be an eventful week while my husband is tramping the forest calling for moose. He figures he got the better end of the stick. I said I was jealous, but that is another fiction story I'm afraid.

Back to Houston and Smithers library readings in November! See you soon and thanks always for your support!! It keeps me writing.

That is, if I don't lose myself while in the big cities!


(update: flights were cancelled over that entire weekend. Luckily I had friends also trying to fly to Vancouver so we took their vehicle and drove all night. After that, things seemed to settle down and smooth out, I am happy to say. Except that my son thinks I'm a little more crazy than usual...)

A Summit of HOPE

I was honoured to have been asked to attend the Canadian Cancer Society's 75th year summit/conference with volunteers and reps across the north.

 It started for me last night with a fantastic spread of food at the former top chairperson Lorraine Grant's home in PG. With wine or cups of punch we overcame our shyness and began realizing who and what we each represented. I was surprised I knew so many of them from this summer's relays I had attended.

Today we began at 8:30 for powerful speeches about what exactly happens through the CCS. Where the $$ does go. And believe me, it is ALL well spent! Their big push this year is getting new fathers -to-be, to butt out.To be their child's hero, not someone giving them the potential to contract lung cancer. To stop young people from smoking. To get enough funding to build a prevention centre to reduce the 50% of people who get cancer from simply not living a healthy life-style. Those incidents that are PREVENTABLE. Are you listening yet?

We heard first hand how the cancer connection works, pairing people who have had similar experiences with the cancer journey to some one terrrified and facing the unknown. How a child with leukemia suffered through the bone marrow tests, chemo and surgeries to stand before us giggling and happy- her family supported financially and mentally through the years it took to get their child back home again. The new Kortebayn Lodge being a prime example of what they're doing- giving patients, family and people needing an inexpensive alternative when in PG. A "compassionate hotel" with a pool table, fireplace, library and cosy rooms and kitchen.

But the best part of the experience was the caring and compassion. The love for what they do- helping people to survive. It was so obvious. I have been so fortunate to have been scooped up by this organization. I hope I can help ensure their success in our common goal of making sure YOU are aware of what you can do to stand up to this disease Today, BEFORE YOU GET CANCER.

I'm thinking of going to Dawson Creek and Ft. St. John for the relays 2014.

Tomorrow is the Relay for Cancer...in the rain, of course! Nothing has been easy this year when it came to relays or runs. Sigh. It can only get better next year is the way I figure!