Teenagers in my basement

WELCOME! THIS BLOG ROLLS OVER 100,000 VISITS TODAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019! 

To celebrate, below is my first ever blog post in this space, from August 25, 2011. Today is the day this blog will hit 100,000 views, so it's taken 8 years to achieve that milestone. Thank you to everyone for visiting over the  years! 

Note: my first few posts didn't have images, or links. Wow.

When I reposted it on August 27, 2013, here's the introduction I wrote: I must be feeling nostalgic today. It's the end of summer, I always am at this time of year. So, I went looking through some old blog posts. I found this one, the first post I did, almost exactly two years ago to the day. The books mentioned are published or about to be, and WE have a dog now. But the rest rings truer than ever.

And below is what I wrote on August 25, 2011. My third book, The Gargoyle at the Gates (2012), was about to publish and I was signing the contract for my fourth, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden (2014). I am currently about to edit my 12th book, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet (2019). The "teenagers" are now 21 and 24. Time, she flies.

Enjoy Teenagers in my basement:

"It's been a long summer. I'm a writer, and I haven't written. I'm a mother, too, and I haven't mothered. At least, I haven't felt like I have mothered, not in the traditional sense of the word.

No, this summer has been about keeping track of the teenagers in my life, largely by counting how many pairs of gigantic shoes are at the front door. This isn't really mothering, is it? Counting shoes? Keeping track?

I suppose I HAVE mothered in the traditional sense, by buying large quantities of food. And by daily tidying of the teen-pit in the basement, after the bodies who own the shoes have risen, washed and left the building. This usually happens around 1:00 p.m. or so. Never before.

There is little talk in this strange summer of shoe-counting. There is some laundry. There is some food preparation. There are agreed-upon phone-calls and texting and sleeping arrangements. There is allotted money amounts changing hands.

There is a craving from me, to hug someone.

I have been watching other mothers of teens, furtively btw. Some are friends, many are parents I know from the neighbourhood, acquaintances. I'm not seeing a lot of hugging or chatting there either, to be honest. I AM seeing a new crop of puppies though, or the latest batch of rescue dogs (greyhounds are IN IN IN).

September will come. School and writing will resume! I've just signed a new contract with Dundurn Press for my third book, The Gargoyle at the Gates, which will require editing and marketing input from me. My fourth book, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden, is now with the Acquisitions Editor at the publisher, and that may require a new contract and so forth. With the new month, I'm going to start working on new writing projects I have planned.

But for today, August 25 2011, I'm in that pre-September lull. Still, the teenagers will awake soon, and there are five pairs of shoes at the door."

PD