And Now it’s Tuesday

Me again. I know I just wrote yesterday and I don’t usually write two days in a row. But on this gorgeous, sunny, bright Tuesday morning I feel the need to write again. I might just be avoiding the task at hand which is to conduct a peer review of a book for TWUC or I might just feel the need to tell about my good news. I have lots of good news happening and some of it I can’t talk about in detail yet so here goes.Burton got up first this morning so I wasn’t woken up by my old dog Biscuit sneezing at my closed bedroom door. That is usually the way he alerts me to the fact that he has to go out to pee after his long night’s sleep curled up on Paige’s bed. He is a creature of habit as are we. As I contemplated getting up to face this beautiful sunny day I thought about how much I love mornings and the deeply established routine of my retirement , second career days. Mornings hold such promise, such potential and the gift of time that I dreamed of for so many years. Coffee, breakfast,journal writing, a bath in my new beautiful tub and getting to my office. I love it every single day it happens and feel grateful every single day. On the days I have to leave my house I miss the wonderful feeling being home brings. Yesterday I waited patiently for the news conference to take place in Halifax at 1:00 announcing the shortlists for the 2018 Atlantic Book Awards. I had been contacted almost two weeks ago regarding the shortlisting of The Memory Chair for the Ann Connor Brimer. I kept it quiet only telling my close family and one or two friends. The second I saw it online I shared the news. Six years ago I went through the lead up events , traveled to St. John’s NFLD and won the Ann Connor Brimer with my first book The Year Mrs. Montague Cried. That was an unforgettable thrill.This time I know what to expect but it does not lessen the joy I feel to be shortlisted. Congratulations Charis Cotter and Sheree Fitch my fellow nominees in the category and all the other authors and publishers in the Atlantic Book Awards lineup.As I sit in the solitude of my office I acknowledge that none of the accolades or awards would be possible without the day by day slugging away at this keyboard. This is the true gift. My mornings, my afternoon walks and my words, sentences, paragraphs and pages come one at a time . Sometimes we get acknowledged for the work and that feels wonderful but so does this . My home, my office, my days are the gift beyond measure.