First of all, I want to congratulate a brilliant young man on his graduation which took place while we were away … Nicholas, I am very proud of you and look forward to celebrating with you on our return to Toronto! So what has my Swedish vacation been like? As expected, lots of barefoot boys … but also, the practical realities of life in the countryside: splinter removal operations and body-searches for ticks! I had one on my arm, and I keep feeling the spot where it was and imagining I have another. Yikes!

We’ve been busy with barbecues, afternoon naps, campfires and backyard paddling pools, swimming in oceans and lakes,  checking out sheep, cows and horses, and leisurely meals in cottage gardens. Best of all, we’ve been spending time with my wonderful Swedish in-laws and friends and celebrated my youngest sister-in-law’s wedding this past weekend (Swedish wedding guests are very talented — there were many songs, films, radio programs, and other tributes to the lovely couple). I’ve also been re-reading A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving for the fourth time — what a fantastic book! We haven’t done much tourist stuff — other than castles & science and train museums for my young sons. Tomorrow, we’re going to a children’s book reading in the garden of Sofiero castle in Helsingborg, which is ranked as one of  Europe’s 10 most beautiful gardens!

We try to conduct our lives entirely in Swedish when we are here … which is kind of rough at first. My Swedish seems to have improved since last year though the time I used to spend reading my Swedish-English dictionary, watching Swedish movies and doing distance courses with Folks Universitetet has given way to my writing. Luckily, my older son is a fan of Swedish literature (Pettson and Findus, and Bamse are his favourites) and I get a fair bit of practise reading to him, which I think has been enough to expand my vocabulary.

My conversion to a country-side dweller is now complete. It took exactly four weeks in a cabin with no phone line/internet connection to kick my addiction to the computer. The first couple of weeks, I kept coming to my in-law’s house to use their computer but now, like it or not, my blog is temporarily the last thing on my mind!

What is foremost on my mind? Berries. I’ve been picking litres of gooseberries, wild blueberries & raspberries (both wild and homegrown). I’ve been trying to make pies and jam. This is just as satisfying as writing but quite a bit more challenging for me … let’s just say, cooking is not a natural talent.

My revisions to The 29th Day continue, but I’ve also been enjoying the slower pace of life. Watching calves suckling as the wind rustles over grasses in the Swedish countryside is probably the closest to meditation I’ll ever get and I am savouring every hour of it (yes, there has been a lot of mooing at cows and swatting flies). I am glad to have found balance again as I was starting to wonder if I had lost my ability to take it easy!

My parents-in-law watched my two guys a couple of weeks ago we could go to a movie: Eclipse. I found it very satisfying — both as an enjoyable film but also as an example of the techniques I am working through in Jessica Morrell Page’s book on how to craft a masterful story: an active opening that raises questions that draw you into the story, foreshadowing of big scenes, flashbacks to develop characters using back-story, various subplots, images that add resonance to the theme (brilliant example: the quilt representing a mother’s love that pales in comparison to the love Bella has for Edward) and truly marvelous pacing. Though there were some cheesy parts, they seemed to be rather tongue-in-cheek (pun intended … that kiss, really?).

My revisions to The 29th Day are going phenomenally well. I am so thankful that I got an answer, and guidance from the Slopen Agency, just before I left for vacation. And, of course I rely on advice and encouragement from Terry Fallis, Anna and others who have read my manuscript. Away from my job, I’ve had time to think through the options and to find the right path to completion of my manuscript. Though I had hoped to have finished re-writing my book by now, I have the joy of discovering the best way to tell my story, and I am refining my style.

Initially, my goal was to write a novel and I wrote the early drafts as if The 29th Day would be the novel of a lifetime, a sort of stand-alone item. I didn’t particularly care whether anyone read it, writing it was enough. But then I started writing my second novel and realized that this is what I like to do for fun, and that I want my books to be read and not just by my friends. Now, in revising, The 29th Day , I am finding techniques/ways of expression that transcend the particular themes or characters in a book. So far, these are characteristics that might define my novels:

• a central plot line dealing with human relationships and a social issue (climate change, homelessless, racism, sexism etc.)
• multiple subplots that reinforce the theme and premise of the book
• written (for better or worse) in the first person present — I just like the immediacy of stories written this way, including The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis (which inspired me to write The 29th Day)
• lots of dialogue (my first version of The 29th Day did not have as much as Novel #2, so I am going back and adding this in)
• strong shifts in mood created through word choice and scenes: funny, foreboding, poignant etc.
• all the tricks I can think of: suspense, foreshadowing, cliffhangers (I enjoy these as a consumer of stories, and find them just as much fun to write knowing the impact they will — if executed well enough — have on the reader).

I came across some advice in Jessica Page Morrell’s book that I wish I’d known about when I wrote my first draft of The 29th Day. I normally write my books scene by scene based on a theme & premise and then piece them together (ie. still no success outlining). My fear was that this approach would make my book too patchy, so I spent a fair bit of time working in transitional pieces, some of which I was not particularly interested in other than as a vehicle for getting characters from point A to point B. It turns out that this was unnecessary. I have learnt that when scenes are put one after another without much transition between them, this builds suspense (which helps keep the reader hooked) — Jessica Page Morrell refers to this as a “scene cut” or a “jump cut.”  In my final analysis, the added transitional scenes are what caused the problem in pacing in The 29th Day -- they made the beginning drag out without adding much of value. So, I’ve been eliminating transitional scenes, or including them as short flashbacks if there is information in them that advances the theme or premise of the book.

I’ve also been able to add more of my current writing style into The 29th Day, so the two books will be more unified. People who read and liked The 29th Day, might better be able to predict also liking my second novel (which I have not worked on since May … I’ve had to put that aside while I am revising The 29th Day).

One of my wonderful friends read the revised beginning of The 29th Day from my laptop a week ago and was curious to read more — though she had already read an earlier draft and we were in the middle of a barbecue, she was hooked! So, things are right on track. Unfortunately, I won’t complete the revision while on vacation. Though I have had a lot of time,  I prefer not to spend time during the day writing unless it fits easily into our plans (ie. nothing else is happening or someone has to stay with a sleeping child) — I don’t like the idea of missing out on a fun activity just to stay home and write. My best writing time is the late evening, but we are often doing social stuff  then… and the time with our friends and family here is so limited and precious, so that seems to make sense as well.  I’ll do as much as I can on vacation and then will complete the rest at home when I am back into my regular routine. Luckily, work on the end of the book will be less taxing on the brain than what I have already done — mainly, I’ll need to change the text to the present tense and add more dialogue. Plus, I was happy that I was able to write 60,000 words of Novel #2 in the 6 months after I returned to work from maternity leave, so I know that I can combine writing my novels with the writing I do at work.

Anyway, I hope your summer is going well, and promise that I will blog more regularly in September!