Updates

Back home and digging out from 6 weeks of travels, but I have a meeting with my publisher on Wednesday and need to organize my notes. Luckily, Writers in the House is this weekend and after presenting at the Calgary Young Writers’ Conference (which was, as usual, AWESOME) I’m off to have some concentrated writing time to prepare. Nothing like a timely writers’ retreat. Thanks for organizing, Randy!

Really enjoying the trip–in some ways I hope will never end. But at the same time, I am so inspired, I can hardly wait to get home and roll up my sleeves. I have tons of notes that will need to be organized, but I have a really strong vision of where my story is going. Can’t wait to get back to it!

The tour has been not only informative (our guide is extremely knowledgeable and can answer all the questions that come up for me for the events of my novel) but inspiring: clearly, the climax has to take place during the invasion of Dieppe.

I have a deadline to get a novel in to my publisher in 2 months, and got a ton of work done on the train from Barcelona to Paris. Got all the re-working I want to do organized, but it is on paper. Still need to make it electronic (going back and forth between documents on the iPad is difficult; it was easier to have one doc open and work on paper, and now do the revisions to the second doc).

I am researching addictions for one of my novels, and found some very interesting information. A protein, deltaFosB, is overproduced in virtually every form of addition, whether drug or behavioural (gambling, shopping, sex, food). Although genetic factors weigh about 50% and environmental factors the other 50%, the physical addiction has a neurological basis. Not a surprise, I suppose, though I would have thought this might have made the news.