Elizabeth J. Duncan's Blog: Elizabeth J. Duncan's Blog, page 5

Bouchercon Day 3

One of the most enjoyable things about visiting a major city is seeing places that were in the news or that you remember from the movies or television. Thursday, Oct. 14 we had a three-hour tour of the city in a hybrid kind of vehicle that was a replica of a cable car, right down to the open sides and enclosed cabin in the middle, but it was actually a small bus. The tour was fantastic. Drove past Fisherman's Wharf, which I will re-visit on Saturday, OJ Simpson's high school, and then our tour guide pointed up a steep hill.

That hill, he said, was the one used in all the old television advertisements for Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat! Maybe you remember them with the old song. And because our timing was just right, a cable car was coming down the hill!

We stopped at Lincoln Park to admire the view across the strait to the Marin Headlands. It's a lovely site, featuring a moving Holocaust memorial. The park is also home to the California Legion of Honor, a fine arts museum. Outside the museum is a lovely reflecting pool. And someone had chosen the pool as a good place to leave a bottle of water. Why so people give themselves permission to do this, I ask myself, when bins are so close.

 

A water bottle pollutes a beautiful image

 

The tour continued and we wound our way through Haight and eventually came to the famous intersection of Ashbury. There's a Ben and Jerry's ice cream store on the corner, with a slogan that stands as a tribute to the summer of love.

 

Peace, love and ice cream

 

In the 1960s, this was the most famous intersection in the world as young people came from all over North America, in their beads, bell bottoms, floppy hats, sandals and tie-dyed clothes to smoke dope, drop acid, and enjoy the sounds of Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. There's a few remnants of those days left, along Haight,  pipe shops and  the distinctive graffiti of the hippie culture, but the days are long gone. The Woodstock generation's getting old. I know, because I am one of them.

In the evening I attended the opening ceremony of Bouchercon and was hugely impressed by a brilliant film montage depicting San Francisco in the movies. Then I went to the St. Martin's party at Pier 1 1/2 where I had a chat with Louise Penny, a fellow Minotaur author. Her success has been jaw-dropping but she remains so gracious and affectionate.

Bouchercon Day 2

Wednesday, Oct. 13

Met an old friend from the Ottawa Citizen days for lunch. We walked through the streets of San Francisco to his suggested restaurant for lunch: John's Grill. This restaurant is mentioned in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, as a place where Sam Spade had dinner.

John's Grill on Ellis Street

The interior is a little dark, but charming

Behind the bar is a photo of the author and a statuette of the falcon

I was a little nervous, to be honest, to see someone I hadn't seen in about 30 years, but it was an enjoyable experience. Of course, many of the people we knew back then have died so that's a bit dreary.

In the evening, the convention was starting to get going. Registration opened and I decided to see one of the movies. First up, The Maltese Falcon. It's always fun to see a movie in the same city where it's set. We had walked past Bush Street earlier in the day so it was fun to hear Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade mention it.

Favourite line from this San Francisco noir movie. Spade: "When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it!"

If you need a Maltese Falcon refresher, here it is. And no, they don't make movies like this anymore.

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Bouchercon 2010 – Day 1

Bouchercon may very well be the world's biggest convention dedicated exclusively to the written word mystery genre. Authors, readers, librarians, editors agents, publishers … people attend from all aspects of the business. It's a moveable feast — last year it was held in Indianapolis, next year in St. Louis. But this year, the convention is being held for the third time in San Francisco

Although the convention has been running for 41 years, since Bouchercon 1 in Santa Monica, this is my first year attending. And yes, the fact that the location is San Francisco certainly had something to do with deciding to come. I've never been to San Fran, and I'm really enjoying it.

Left Toronto early Tuesday morning, Oct. 12 via Virgin America and got in a little sight seeing that afternoon. Hopped on a world-famous little cable car for the ride down California Avenue, through Chinatown and Nob Hill. It's a noisy kind of ride as you rattle along, and the cars are surprisingly open .. you'd think in this day of safety and rules and regulations they would been long retired. But great fun.

 

Some of the seating is very open. Hang on!

 

The convention hotel is the Hyatt Regency, and I am disappointed in it. It's expensive and wi-fi is not included. Not in the rooms, not even in common areas. All hotels should realize that customers expect this, the same way we expect soap in the bathroom. And you should see the stains on the carpet! Do you really want to? All right. Take a look for yourself.

 

Some of the carpet stains at the $250/night Hyatt Regency

 

Anyway, back to my wanderings. So next I set off to see the Ferry Terminal. This structure was built to serve the port of San Francisco but in 2003 underwent massive renovations to become a beautiful, functional space that serves as a market and gathering place. There are delightful shops and restaurants. Stores sell tea, flavoured designer olive oils, baked goods, and much more. The sky was a cloudless blue, the temperature hovered around 80 … just a beautiful day.

 

The clock tower in the Ferry Terminal chimes like Big Ben

 

And then the jet lag caught up with me and I went to sleep very early. But I am starting to get a sense of San Francisco as a very livable city and am beginning to understand why everyone raves about it. Next time, I'll tell you about how I had lunch with an old boyfriend from about 30 years ago at John's Grill, the restaurant where Sam Spade ordered his chop done quickly.

Dolly doing great!

Thank you to those who wrote to me sending kind thoughts for Dolly. The great news is that she's doing well, better now than she was before her surgery. Her incision healed beautifully, with no infection, although most of the stitches fell out on their own a few days before she was scheduled to have them removed. We had a few problems keeping her bandages on, but devised ways of doing this that involved ACE bandages and old T-shirts.

Pretty in pink bandages

Just a week and two days after her surgery Dolly was well enough to attend Word on the Street in Kitchener, Ontario, with me, my son Lucas, friend Marlene and her little Maltese Angie.

One of us is facing the wrong way

At Word on the Street

I did my reading in the CTV Authors' Tent just before Louise Penny discussed her newest book, Bury Your Dead. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo with Louise but I've met her several times and she is always supportive and great fun. We finished off our visit to Kitchener with a stop at the Coldstone  Creamery and if you love ice cream, as I do, this is the place.

So Dolly's recovery is going well. She has more energy than she's had in about a year, so getting that lump removed was absolutely the right thing to do. She positively prances down the street on the way to the park when we begin our morning walk! She is on her medication regime and hopefully, it will prevent the tumour from returning.

Next week I am off to San Francisco for a few days to attend Bouchercon 2010. This will be my first time at that major North American mystery convention and since I've never been to San Francisco, either, I decided to combine the two.

I'll blog from Bouchercon.

Dolly

In terms of time and interests, my life is pretty much divided into three parts: my work life as a professor at Humber College, my writing life with the Penny Brannigan mystery series and my family.

My immediate family is tiny: my son Lucas and my dog Dolly. Lucas is grown up and takes care of himself, so that leaves Dolly, our Australian cattle dog mix. Her pretty, unusual marking that everyone admires is called blue merle.

Dolly girl

A week ago today, on Friday, Sept. 17, Dolly had an operation to remove a growth from her underside, a few inches behind her left front leg. She's recovering well from the surgery, and will get her stitches out a week today. We had some problems keeping the bandages that covered the incision in place — they kept slipping back towards her tail but for a few minutes she looked awfully smart in her bright pink wrapping. She's now wearing an old, clean T-shirt donated by Lucas to protect the site when she sits or lies down.

The vets weren't sure what the lump was … thought it might be a fatty mass called a lipoma. They still didn't know when it was removed so it was sent away for testing. This week we learned that it's called a spindle cell tumor. Dolly has cancer.

Dolly is 12, which probably seems like a good age for a dog and maybe it is. We've had her since she was four months old when my ex-husband saw a sign in the bank in Wiarton, Ontario, that read "Free to Good Home." She's been loved every day since, and we couldn't have asked for a nicer dog. She's easy going, keen to please, friendly and affectionate. Oh, I know everyone thinks his or her dog is the best. Dolly lived for her first five years with Steve in Wiarton, and then, when he took a job that required travel, there was no question where she would live. By then, she and I had bonded and so Dolly came to live me with seven years ago.

For the past four years, while Lucas was away at university, it's pretty much been just Dolly and me. I always work my routine around her needs, love taking her for her morning walk, make sure she eats well and stock up with all her favourite treats.

So far, Dolly is very healthy and shows few signs of illness or aging but I have to accept the reality that that is going to change. The tumour she had removed is good in one way, because according to the vet, it is not the type to spread. But the bad news is that it does return. There's a drug protocol that can help slow or reduce the risk of that, so Dolly will be taking the medication and we hope the results will be good. The vet mentioned four hundred and some days as the length of time we would hope to stave off the return of the tumour.

A year ago, I remarked to a friend that my life was in a good place. "I have a job I enjoy at Humber, I am fortunate to be a published author, my son is doing well at school and Dolly is great."  Everything was fine. But things will change, I said, quoting George Harrison. "All things must pass."

It looks as if the reality I've been dreading is starting to creep in.

So today we sat out back, Dolly and I. I marked a few papers and  she gazed at the lake, enjoying the light breeze that ruffled her fur.

I'll be attending Word on the Street at Kitchener on Sunday and Dolly is coming with me. Every day with her is precious.

Home again

I returned home from Wales on Friday, Sept. 3, with mixed feelings. While I was glad to be home, back amongst the familiar comforts, and to be reunited with the son and dog I love, I hated leaving all that glorious green beauty behind. But as my friend Eirlys said, the fall will whizz by and I will be back to Wales again in late December. There were things I wanted to do on this visit which I didn't and places I wanted to go which I didn't, so we will consider those pleasures deferred. I love Wales in December when the crowds of tourists have gone home and everything seems even more beautiful, if that's possible, in winter. So for now, it's back to school and back to the routine of everyday life.

I live right on the shore of Lake Ontario in the west end of Toronto. It's like being at the cottage in the city. Streetcars rumble past the front door and out back, there's a huge lake.  The lake by moonlight is spectacularly beautiful and I love it in all weathers, seasons and times of day. Swans and sailboats drift by  all summer and sunsets are rather nice, too!

So one of the first things I did when I got home was enjoy a few precious, peaceful minutes with Dolly in our backyard.

Dolly and me

There has been a change to the publishing schedule of my third book in the Penny Brannigan series. Because it is a seasonal book, set at Christmas, the plan now is to publish it in the fall of 2011. Sorry to those of you who aren't keen to wait another year for the next installment of the Llanelen saga! But the great news for me is that the deadline to submit the manuscript has been extended to January so that will give me time to (hopefully)  improve it and I can add in some extra touches after my December trip. I am also going to be changing the opening of the book to wrap up a little leftover mystery from A Brush with Death, that many people have asked about … the remains found in the duct work of the new spa.

Not sure yet how Penny will work that out, but she'll crack it, I'm sure!

A perfect day out

Met Eirlys in Llanrwst and we drove to Bodnant Garden, about seven miles away. It was a perfect day in late summer to visit these spectacular gardens — sunny and the perfect temperature. The garden was given by the McLaren (Aberconway) family to the National Trust in 1949. It is really a collection of smaller gardens, each one beautiful in its own way, within a larger garden. The terraced gardens near the house are formal and the ones further away are what Eirlys described as "managed wilderness". A full-time staff of 21 gardeners, plus many volunteers and others keep the garden in showcase condition.

This handsome fellow greeted us at the start of our tour

This peacock has only one display feather left. He'll grow more by next spring when mating season comes around. I especially liked the crest on his head. A fascinating bird.

Bodnant Hall commands spectacular views

Built in 1792, Bodnant Hall was acquired  by Henry Davis Pochin, who made a fortune in the 19th century as an industrial chemist. The Hall passed on to his daughter, Laura, the first Lady Aberconway, and has been in the family ever since.

The side of the house overlooks terraced gardens with a view to Snowdonia

The famous Laburnum Arch

In spring, the Laburnum arch is dripping with brilliant yellow flowers.

The head gardener posts a report

How do you suppose they trim this hedge so precisely?

Eirlys thinks we spotted head gardener Troy Smith himself pruning rose bushes at the pergola adjacent to the Canal Terrace

A bed of cosmos near the Canal Terrace. We think these used to be rose beds

Here's a good life lesson: if there's an easy way down and a hard way down, take the easy way down.

Traditional benches were everywhere. This one was outside the Old Mill

Hydrangeas reflected in the River Hiraethlyn look like a Monet painting.

And yes, there are two waterlily pools, the Lily Terrace and the Canal Terrace.

The mausoleum

The mausoleum was erected by Henry Pochin as the final resting place for himself and his family. No one knows why he called it The Poem, the name inscribed above this door.

With my friend, Eirlys, right

We had a lovely day in the Garden; everything was perfect from the weather to lunch in the cafe (award-winning sausages, fresh local produce, mashed potatoes with leeks. No wonder Bodnant Garden was voted Britain's favourite garden by readers of the Daily Telegraph.

And oh yes, did I mention we finished off our day with … coffee and cake!