Gemini Awards!!!!!

The television adaptation of Under the Dragon's Tail, today has received three Gemini nominations on August 28th (Canada's Emmy awards) in the category of Best Actor, Peter Outerbridge as Detective Murdoch, and two best actress nominations, Flora Montgomery who reprised the character of Ettie from Except the Dying, and Helene Joy who plays Maud Pedlow. We are thrilled. And it looks as though we will have a television deal for Does Your Mother Know. A company (soon to be annaounced) has come forward to option the book for a television series. Once it is finalized I will post it here.

When Blue turns to Grey

Well we are blue because we left our lovely farmhouse on the lake yesterday, but happy to be home and get into the next phase of the tv series and more. Maureen has a script meeting on Monday with the writers on the Murdoch Mysteries television series. And also tomorrow we are headed to the Forensic centre in Toronto to get a presentation from Detective Robert Murdock. Julia Lacey, Vice President of creative affairs, Shaftesbury Films, will be coming with us. She has let us know, with great enthusiasm, that she wants to meet and discuss Does Your Mother Know, the new book that will be published next month. Perhaps Christine Morris will also end up on TV. Let's wait and see what Julie wants to do. I will post photos and further developments as they unfold. In the meantime, enjoy my photographs, I am proud of them.

Visiting new friends in Brighton

We took a trip to Brighton yesterday to see Donald Adams and his wife Anne. Brighton is just 50 kilometers from where we are staying, and also on Lake Ontario. Donald Adams got in touch with Maureen through the internet, and his background as a police officer in both the UK and Canada, was something that both iinterested Maureen from a research point of view, as well as her interest in the beat Donald used to walk in the UK. Turns out he was a police constable in Birmingham, and Eastfield road was part of his beat. Eastfield road was where Maureen was born and grew up. Anyway, he gave Maureen a book on the history of the police on the Birmingham UK area and England, with an emphasis on policing in the 1930's. Maureen has decided to write a novel set in the UK, Birmingham, between the two great wars, and featuring Detective Constable Johh "Ginger" Harley. So our visit to the Adams' was not just to make their acquaintance, but for research as well. They are both lovely people, fantastic hosts, and we had a fantastic visit with them. Donald has sooooo many stories to tell of his past on both forces, Maureen encouraged him to write his memoirs someday. We go home in two days. The barn photo is another version of the same barn featured in some of the below posts. Enjoy!!

Views from Prince Edward County

A trip to the library today allows me to upload more photos. The dial up access does not cut it and that is all we have out on the lake. Maureen and I are going to see a piece of land with a Realtor today, we won't buy the property, but at least we can make a contact with an agent so that we can begin what will probably be a long process of finding the right property to build our house. I wager that we will be living here within two years. Just about and hour and twenty minutes from Ottawa, the nations capital will be our new local city. Maureen and I are excited about that. In the meantime there is the poster I created for the launch of Does Your Mother Know, which will happen on October 11, 6:30 - 8:00 @ Sleuth of Baker Street located in Toronto 1600 Bayview Ave. Hope to see you there.

Dogs just wanna have fun

To say that we are having a great time here is to understate the fact that Maureen and I have finally found a place we want to come to permanently. The lake is gorgeous, the air is amazing, and it reminds us of Matha's Vineyard. The dogs are happy, and I am sampling the local wines. Come to Prince Edward County, Picton area. It is one of Ontario's best kept secrets for vacationing. No power boats, it is quiet and just wonderful.

A Journeyman to Grief

I am happy to report, after reading the manuscript this past weekend, that this is a book like no other that Maureen has written. Because of the flashbacks to the 1850's and the story of Emeline and Fidelia, two slaves whose lives we trace throughout the story, this novel has a much larger canvas than any of the previous Murdoch novels. It is truly a sad story of epic proportions wrapped in a mystery novel. The two stories merge toward the end of the book as the reader deals with the present day 1896 Toronto and two suspicious murders, and also the plight of the two women and their subsequent escape from slavery, while many other ex slaves made their way to Toronto via the underground railroad. The black community is very small and very isolated in the Toronto of 1896. Maureen does an amazing job of re-creating the lives and plight of the black community and the lives of cabbies. I was literally in tears when I got to the end of this one. Journeyman is a book that stands above the rest of her work as a novel of literary fiction. It will be worth the wait, May 2007 pub date.

Journeyman Cover

I get to spend the long weekend reading the polished draft of Maureen's 7th novel which will be published May 2007