Research Trip to Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre

My husband and I spent the weekend in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre, a little town about 3-1/2 hours fromMontreal. The town is best known as home to one of the oldest shrines in Quebec. It's also where I am setting my latest novel -- and so, because I am about one third of the way through the first draft, I needed to go back and see the place again. (We've stopped there several times, and a few years ago, I stayed in the town by myself for a few days, poking around and taking notes.)

In this photo, which Mike took outside town at the Ste. Anne Canyon, I've got my red file full of notes. So you see, even when a writer goes for a hike with her husband on a sunny day, she takes notes!! One of the most important scenes in my book is set at the canyon, a place I'd heard about, but never visited. It's always better to write about a place you know -- unless of coure, you're a fantasy writer writing about life on another planet!

Anyway, I came back with 20 pages of notes, so I have lots of weaving to do over the next couple of weeks. I call it "weaving" because that is what this part of the process feels like to me -- I want to weave in some of the new material and observations from the weekend. It's slow work since the trick is not to force the material in, but it's satisfying, too. Okay, time to do some weaving. What are you up to today? And even more importantly, judging from the photo here, do you think I need an emergency haircut?!!