I'm thinking of expert advice because last night I had a great talk with my friend Mark B, who lives in George River. I may have told you this already, but Mark and a friend of his (they both work at the local school) read the first first draft of my book that is set in Nunavik, Quebec and found a lot of things for me to fix. The hardest scene for me was the one with the polar bear. So, becauseI was re-writing it this morning, I needed a polar bear pep talk from Mark last night. It was great -- and all the worried feelings I'd been carting around for the last couple of weeks WENT AWAY. POOF!! JUST LIKE THAT!! Which goes to show you... when you are worried about something, the best thing to do is just work through whatever it is. I didn't want to have to kill the d.p.b. (that stands for dear polar bear... I've gotten kind of attached to him over the last few months), and I was worried that if the bear was snarfling around my characters' tent, the bear would have to go (if you know what I mean). But Mark explained how sometimes polar bears are just CURIOUS, especially if they are well fed. And so my d.p.b. is now a c.d.p.b -- a curious dear polar bear... and thanks to Mark, the c.d.p.b. gets to live. Thanks a million, Mark!
I just finished going through the whole manuscript and now guess what I've got to do? Do it all over again, of course! But first, I'm going for a run. We had our first snowstorm of the season... and I have no plans to dig out my car. Not if I can manage on foot for a few days. So off I go. Hope things are good whatever you're up to. For my students reading this blog entry, good luck with exams, and enjoy having a little more free time than usual. Bye for today from me!!