Well, how did this happen? I've been back nearly two weeks and haven't posted once! That's pretty pathetic, actually. However, I have many excuses, most of them writing-related...

The minute I landed here I whipped out the Pony Express manuscript (now officially known as Jo's Triumph). For five straight days I wrote and rewrote and rewrote, working in all the new material I've gathered about Sarah Winnemucca, slashing a couple of chapters to make room for it all. Once I'd rewritten the story, I was about two thousand words over my 22,000 absolute outside word limit so I started trimming... Only managed to whittle it down by about 800 words and decided to let Maggie have a look at it. I was a bit worried that the manuscript would read as if two different stories had been patched together: that of Jo's with that of Winnemucca's. On Thursday of last week received the notes back on StableMates #7 from Sono Nis Press and on Friday, e-mailed the Jo's Triumph manuscript back to Orca Books.

Meanwhile, began another round of e-mails to try and sort out the dates for a short tour in March of 2002. At this point the schedule looks like this:
March 4: Courtney - 2 schools
Marrch 5, 6: Campell River - 4 schools
March 7 - North Vancouver - 1 school
March 8 - Nanaimo - 2 sessions with North Island Distance Education students

Also in the works, preliminary planning for a promotional horseback ride through Nevada next September to promote the US launch of Jo's Triumph. More on this as plans progress.

Began work on the StableMates #7 rewrite on Monday and attended the grand opening of the renovated and expanded Bolen Books here in Victoria.

Oh, rats... just clicked the wrong button and deleted about another page of notes instead of saving it! Argh. Now I have to try and remember all that stuff again!

Also on Monday, Dani (14) and I did a presentation to Grade 7 students at Glenlyon-Norfolk School. Last year Dani wrote her first novel (Love Always, Ophelia C.) and we talked about the differences and similiarities between our two writing processes. Dani was also one of the student readers at Thursday Night Live, a reading series hosted by the Glenlyon-Norfolk Senior School. Featured readers were Patricia and Terrence Young and their daughter.