6:00 Worked on my novel. Wrote a scene that makes better use of material barely touched on in a previous draft.

7:15 Ate breakfast - yogurt with bananas and almonds and cereal - and did a crossword puzzle.

7:45 Took Keisha for a walk up the line.

8:45 Had a shower and answered emails.

9:30 Drove to Toronto.

10:30 Delivered files to the Osborne Collection, where lots of archival material for my books (and lots of other authors) is housed.

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My sister has been running lots of ideas past me recently, as she works on redesigning my web site. Hard to believe, but it’s been almost 10 years since she designed my first web site for me.

It has been through a number of changes since then - quite apart from regular updates - but I’m so pleased with what Janet is doing that I’ve just got to give you a sneak preview!

Please keep in mind that this is just a picture of the new home page. The links will work, of course, when it’s actually up and running.

Watch for it in the new year!

As if I’m not already delighted enough to have a new picture book coming out next year (the first brand new one in sixteen years!) as well as a biography for adolescent readers (my first ever biography!) — I have just signed a contract for a totally new take on the theme I explored in Big or Little? 25 years ago!

Oh happy day!

Some months ago the subtitle on my biography manuscript had to be changed (and essentially, therefore, the whole title). Someone else had beat me to The Art of the Possible for their handbook about political activism. One of the working titles attached to my young adult novel-in-progress this year was Fault Lines. And didn’t Nancy Huston beat me to it with her new novel! (Can’t wait to read it. I’m a big fan of hers.)

The current working title of my ya novel is After Ivy – BUT I found out this week that there’s a documentary film coming on TVO this month called After Thomas! (Have to watch it. It’s about a dog changing the life of a boy with autism. I have a grandson with autism and boy does he ever love our dog Keisha!)

The novel is a long way from being finished and I’m sure I’ll come up with a good title for it before it’s done. What I came up for the biography is way better than my original title. But sheesh, a person could develop a complex!

Have I been upstaged or given a bit of pre-pub stirring up of interest in the subject of my new-next-year book?

The first time I met Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (in 2004) I was convinced she deserved to be better known, and soon I’ll be proofing galleys for my first ever biography - Love Every Leaf: the life of landscape architect cornelia hahn oberlander (to be published by Tundra next spring).

Want to know something about this woman who so quickly captured my imagination? Read “Queen of green” in the Sept/Oct2007 issue of Canadian Geographic magazine. It seems journalist Sarah Scott thought Cornelia deserved to be better known too!

Today’s the day I decide which books to take to the cottage. Despite having a growing stack that includes Scotch River by Linda Little and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Saffan Foer, I’ve taken a couple of books by Chris Bohjalian out of the library, having very much enjoyed his Midwives a few years ago. I’m looking forward to a month where hours of my days (instead of just minutes at bedtime) will be spent reading. (I’ve worked hard this year!) By the time I return home I will, of course, be itching to get back to my writing. But in the meantime. . .

Did you think I’d given up blogging after just two entries? No way! But it has been a busy six weeks, quite apart from all that’s happened in my garden.

The novel has now been submitted (and I can soon go to the cottage and forget I’m waiting for a response to it). I’ve also come up with new titles for two books scheduled for publication next year. (Sometimes I think it’s harder to come up with a title than it is to write a book.)

Maybe I’ll get brave one of these days and tell blog-readers what they are — if there is anyone out there reading my blog except my sister. This blogging business still seems to me a bit like throwing your diary open on the sidewalk, where it might get read or it might just get kicked in a ditch.

The result of a conversation with the expert I consulted to check my novel manuscript for any errors in legal procedure and language means a far more significant revision than I was anticipating before it will be ready to show a publisher. I could view it as a major setback, but I can’t help feeling excited about the new dramatic possibilities. Some awfully good writing (if I may say so) is going to have to go, but maybe I’ll be able to use it in some other story some day. Or maybe I’ll just have to post it on my blog!

You know you’ve made the big time when your name appears as a clue in the crossword of a national newspaper. (Okay, so it had to be The Post.) The clue to No. 7 Down on April 30 was “Canadian Children’s author Stinson” 5 letters. That’s me! So I decided it was time to start a blog. (I wonder if anyone will read it.)