Yesterday Canada lost one of its greatest musician’s to cancer, Jeff Healey.  If you search his name on the net you’ll find out all about his wonderful life and accomplishments. He had cancer at age 1 which is the reason he lost his vision, picked up the guitar at age 3. Then went on to form a great rock band of 80s called the Jeff Healey Band. Their biggest single was “Angel Eyes”.  Was I fan of the band? I’m ashamed to say that I wasn’t a fan of the band at first. What changed my mind? I went to a Canada day event where they played and was blown away by them but mostly by Jeff Healey himself. I completely forgot he was blind when he played.  All I could see was the passion he had for his music and it came across to fans like myself loud and clear. In later years he played blues and jazz.  He had his own club where he gave a lot of new comers their break.  

Sadly he leaves behind a young family, a 12 year old daughter and 3 year old son. If you want to know more about him and what Canadian industry has to say go to CTV  or CNN

Merry Christmas fellow bloggers!  I hope you have a fun packed day whether it’s with family, friends.  I hope you get to spend this day with loved ones.  I have a full day planned, in a little bit I’m heading out to my parents where I’ll meet up with some of my sister’s family to exchange gifts. Then later this afternoon we head out to a cousin’s for our annual family dinner.  The only blemish in this day is that my great-Aunt, Tante Therese won’t be there. We lost her this past year. We spent Christmas morning with her for the past 21 years.  However we have new additions to the family, my sister’s boyfriend and his son who will be returning in a few days from Calgary.  

Enjoy this wonderful day!

Today is a good day.  I got home last night to the surprise of not one but two checks for me to deposit.  I went over to my bank during my morning break, deposited them and paid off my credit card. Yep you read that right, I paid it off. For the first time ever I have paid off my credit card during the Christmas season instead of months and months afterwards.  It’s a great feeling!

However the day just got better. How? Well when I got back to work I had an email waiting for me from the radio station I listen to 105.3 KISS FM Ottawa (best radio station in Ottawa) letting me know I won one of their draws.  What did I win?  A CD, The Greatest Hits from the Spice Girls. I’m a huge fan of theirs and haven’t had a chance to go and buy this CD. So it’s a bonus gift for me.

Here’s hoping your day is going as great!

Last night around 10 or 11 pm I found myself surfing the TV and fell upon a report/special from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) called FALLEN SOLDIERS.  This special was about the 29 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan in 2007.  What was interesting about this special is that they asked questions of loved ones about these soldiers.  So for us regular Canadians they became more than just a casualty of war or a name.  They became someone’s son, husband, brother, boyfriend and father. 

Last night was the first part, tonight they are to run the second part.  I’ll be watching, prepared with my box of Kleenex.  If any of you would like to see part of last night’s presentation go to http://www.cbc.ca/news/ on the right hand section you’ll see a man holding his son’s hand on a beach.  By the way the man is one of our fallen soldiers.

Who overpaid the latest J K Rowlings release, The Tales of Beedle the Bard?  Why did they pay so much?  What will they do with it?

Well the buyer is none other than Amazon.  For those interested in getting more information on this title you can also go and see editorial reviews of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.  I wasn’t able to find the link on Amazon but I’m sure it’ll be up any day soon.  Why did they purchase the book at such a high price?  Well according to publisher’s Lunch they want to thank the author.  They announced today that Amazon alone have sold over 12 million copies of her books.  This is every author’s dream, to sell that many copies of their book at one location.  

For my book my expectations would be a lot, a heck of a lot lower.  I’d be happy with a 3 digit number of sales through Amazon. However I wouldn’t refuse more though. LOL

How much would pay for a book?  I don’t include text books for school.  You can run in the hundreds for those.  No I mean fiction book, in any genre.  I have paid over $20 for a book a few times, but I refuse to pay more.  I’ll even wait out the year to get my favourite author’s new release in paperback instead of buying the hard cover.  I know there are quite a few out there who aren’t like me. Which is why publishers are still producing hard covers.

Now would you pay $1,000, $10,000, $100,000 or how about $4Million?  To me that sounds insane, but someone has purchased the only copy sold of The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J K Rowling.  I know she has tons of fans and has inspired thousands of children to put down their gameboys and TV remote and pick up a book, but that is a lot of money for one small book.  The good thing is that it’s going to charity.

I had a blast in Kingwood (near Houston) this weekend.  Tracy’s launch was a HUGE, Humongous success. She nearly sold out and when we returned the day afterwards they’d sold more copies after the event.  I wish I had pictures to share of the event but I don’t.  Greg, Tracy’s husband and I shared picture duty with their digital camera. I’m hoping she’ll send me a few pictures so I can share them with you guys.

Getting up at 3:30 am to make a 7 am flight wasn’t fun.  I had to be at the airport by 5 am so we had to leave their home by 4:30.  Next time I’ll try and get a later flight.  The good thing is that I slept for most of my first flight, but Tracy and Greg had to go to work so they were probably exhausted last night. The good thing with this trip is that I did a lot of reading. I’ll be reviewing both books later on this week.  I have to say I liked taking some R&R.  I might just make that one of my new years resolutions.

When will my trip be? Well I probably won’t be flying until this summer when I attend the RWA nationals in late July/early August 2008. However I plan to drive down to Natick, MA for the New England Conference and to Pittsburgh for the Romantic Times convention in April 2008.

2008 looks to be a fun year!

There is a reason why I haven’t been blogging.  I had to keep a secret from a friend of mine What secret you ask?  That I’d be coming down for a surprise visit.  My best friend, Tracy Goodwin, is launching her book DANCE WITH DECEPTION this weekend.  I decided a few days ago that I would leave the cold and the snow behind and head about to the warmth of
Houston TX. 

I arrived last night after a full day of flying.  It was perfect.  She was completely surprised. It was priceless. Yep one of those moments that MasterCard makes commercials about.

Today we did some shopping and tomorrow we are going to take it easy in the morning and then head out to her launch in Humble at their BN location.  If you are in the area please stop by. Tracy has a great draw for all who purchase a copy of the book.

I haven’t been in the mood to go to the movies and pay full price in a very long time. There simply wasn’t a release that captured my attention enough to want to make time and space in my budget to go and see it. Well that is until ATONEMENT.  Now that looks like an awesome movie.  I’ll have to make time for this one.

I like Kiera Knightly enough but it’s the leading man in this movie that I truly enjoy James McAvoy.  He was fabulous in BECOMING JANE.  I think he’ll be someone to keep an eye on.  I can see great things for him.

When do I want to go and see it?  Well this weekend of course.
 

You can tell its Christmas time by the usual things, the malls are decked out with Christmas decorations, Santa is making an appearance at your local mall, the stores are playing and selling Christmas CDs. For some of us it’s a good dumping of snow. Ottawa is getting hit with its first big storm of the year. It’s great!  Why is that? I didn’t have to drive in it that’s why.  

Well for me it also means I’m out helping my best friend Tammy sell her Christmas trees. There is nothing like freezing your toes to help a family pick just the right tree for their home to put you in the season.

Another event that reminds me it’s the Christmas season is the Christmas choir fest my parents’ choir takes part in. I attended it last year and it was simply wonderful.  The children might not have sung all in tune but they were so cute you forgot all about their singing in the end. My parents were the best of the bunch along with a catholic high school choir.

Last year these events didn’t put me in the holiday mood but a great book did.  IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS by Wendy Markham.  I just heard that my boss’s wife read it this year and LOVED it.  I’m happy to say the title has been re-released this season at a great price, only $4.99.  

What puts you in the Christmas spirit?