Betsy was in Calgary over the weekend! Great to see her again. We go back a long way, to Queen’s days, when we met in residence and then shared an apartment. She moved to Alberta after we did and has lived here ever since. It was so good to catch up again in person. Here’s a picture she took of the two of us - a couple of grinning fools, but with no double chins showing in this photo. I believe her new-fangled camera has an anti-double chin setting.

Amazingly, we both look exactly as we did when we graduated from Queen’s. Well, almost exactly…

I hope so! I’ll find out on Monday afternoon when I have an appointment to see the doctor. It’s seemed like a very long six weeks, and having a broken ankle has restricted my movement somewhat during that time, has especially made things tricky starting this new job on the right foot, so to speak… But it could have been a lot worse and I thank my lucky stars that this was only a simple break that caused little to no pain. A good friend recently took a severe fall and is still in hospital while the doctors determine exactly what damage has been done to cause her to be in so much pain. My heart goes out to her! I hope you recover enough to get home very soon, and that the rehabilitaion after that does not take long at all.

During the next week there will continue to be many more changes for me. I’ll move into my niece’s apartment, temporarily, while she continues to search for a new house where we can both live comfortably together. So I’ll be getting to know my furry-great-niece-and-nephew, Piper and Jack, for the first time. Plus I will be contacting and introducing myself to all of the customers in my territory - by phone at first - and meeting an author, and others who I’ll be working with in the future. Lots to do, but it’s all good, and I’m totally optimistic that everything I have left to do will fall into place when it needs to.

And a good day it was… still getting organized, but I feel I’m on top of things. I had a great lunch with my good friends, and former Calgary publicists from days gone by, Marilyn and Donna. It was like old times with lots of laughter, reminiscing, and an exchange of information. (Not gossip; no, never that!) We had many years to catch up on.

Then I accompanied Niece Anne to join her knitting group at a coffee shop in Kensington - and I don’t even knit. Yes, Little Sister, eat your heart out! I crutched over there as it wasn’t too far and I’m getting around a lot better these days on this cast. Met some very nice knitting-women there, even one who has met and worked with many people I know in the book biz. So that was fun!

Tomorrow, another lunch, this time with a publisher. Yes, it certainly is rough being a working stiff once again…

It seems I’ll endure anything - cold, threat of snow, and crutching it more than three blocks - just to eat an East Indian dinner. Too bad the food didn’t live up to all the effort I expended in getting there.

But we did have a great evening visiting with Patty and Pat. And they offered us a ride after dinner was over so I wouldn’t freeze my toes off or kill myself on the ice and snow trying to crutch back to the hotel. Niece Anne was too busy taking pictures of me and laughing to be able to hang on to my coat, ensuring I didn’t do any further damage.

Since I left Bequia on Feb. 21st, Dennis has made some more progress with the pizza oven:

Hey! Is that an empty beer bottle I see in the back corner?? No wonder it’s taking so long to build this thing! Oh, no. It’s only a Bitter Lemon bottle…

The Bequia Community High School is still collecting books for its library and reading programme (see my original post, Books for Bequia for details as to what is most needed), but they are now much closer to filling those shelves with good books thanks to a very generous donation.

Over the Christmas holidays, Nancy and Tony Bertolotti held a party at their home on West Street in Bronte, ON, Canada, asking neighbours and friends to bring donations of books. Nancy was also able to collect more books from the Clarkson Branch of the Mississauga Library where she works. The result was over 500 books that will now be shipped to Bequia as soon as the shipping can be organized.

One couple of sailors attending the party had been to Bequia years before the airport was built, so contributing to this cause was special for them given the good memories they have of the island.

Thanks, to everyone, for their generous donations, but a special thanks goes to Nancy and Tony for organizing such a successful collection!

Just my newly improved ankle cast with reinforcing fibreglass - in blue! - and a nifty, and very fashionable, velcroed sandal that now gives me more stability, and makes it much easier to get around in Calgary.

I can live with this for another two weeks…

This week’s question at Booking On Thursday is:

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

For me, book design goes a long way to influencing my selection of a book from the shelf for personal reading, but it doesn’t actually have anything to do with my reading enjoyment once I’m into the book - that part of the experience is all about the writing. But I do know, firsthand, the importance of cover design, format selection, font and illustration choices, at the initial publishing level. When I was a sales rep - the first time - there were many occassions, during sales conferences, when editors and publishers held up a new book’s cover design and we reps would all either retch or cheer, depending on the impact the design had on us. We were sort of the front line of reaction, if you will. Sometimes those publishers actually listened to our opinions, too, redesigning covers if we didn’t like them. Other times they didn’t. The thing is that if sales reps really like a cover design, and the whole book as a result, they can sell way more copies into bookstores than if the book has a so-so cover. I can remember several instances where I latched onto a book precisely because of that initial positive reaction I had upon first seeing the cover - and I was able to translate that feeling into strong sales, in some cases, and over several seasons - not just during the season of first release.

So, definitely, a book’s cover design is extremely important, and publishers are very aware of the effect a bad design can have in attracting readers.

As the old Gordon Lightfoot song says… It’s good to be Alberta bound! I fly there from Toronto later today, just getting out of Ontario in time to miss the next predicted snowstorm - and, I certainly hope for everyone’s sake, the last of this long, brutal winter. I know from past experience that winter is never declared to be officially over in Calgary until the May 24th long weekend, but I’m optimistic this will be the Year of Early Spring. It only has to remain mild and snow-free for 4 more weeks. Then I’ll be heading to sales conference in Vancouver where Spring will definitely have taken over.

So it’s a new (old) job for me, in a new (old) city to call home. A bit of deja vu perhaps, or reliving of my past life and glories, but not boring. Never boring! And one thing I can be guaranteed is the welcome sight of those Rocky Mountains to the west as the plane begins its descent into the Calgary airport - a sight I never tire of seeing, and one I look forward to enjoying again, and again, and again.

As of today, this blog has had 10,800 views in the year it’s been up and running! I’m astounded, and grateful, that so many people have read what I’ve written here, have looked at the photos, made comments, and returned on a regular basis to check out whatever is going on in my world. I’ve received so much support from many, many friends, and people who have become friends as a result of my maintaining this blog, but I’d like to say a special thanks to Paige Mason who encouraged me to begin blogging in the first place, helped me set the site up, and has been my greatest sounding board, and biggest cheerleader, throughout the whole year. I couldn’t have done this without ya, Paige! Thanks!

And to everyone else, please keep reading. I don’t know where this is all heading, but I do expect it will be one interesting trip. You’re all most welcome to continue accompanying me on the ride…