A Quick Road Trip With Some Fabric Pit Stops

 Last Sunday and Monday we took a quick trip to Halifax so that I could do a little presentation about my upcoming novel The Town That Drowned at a bookseller conference.  (It went well.  Everyone was super friendly and great)  It is only a four hour drive so en route we made some fun stops. 

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First up was Sackville, NB, which is very near the Nova Scotia border.  The swan above is a resident of a pond at the Mount Allison University campus.

 Here he (or she) is posing.

 There are actually two swans in the pond and they are friendlier than my kids would have liked.  One got out of the pond and walked over to us.  Tess took off running. 

 The true reason for our stop in Sackville was to visit the Sackville Waterfowl park.  It is a great spot with boardwalks over the water so you can see the birds.  We saw these ducklings.  Tess (age 4) called them "duck fawns".  I love how her logic works -- you see, she didn't know the word "ducklings", but she knew that baby deer are called "fawns", so baby ducks must be "duck fawns." 

 Next stop was my turn.  We drove right by the Value Village on the way in to Halifax so I bought some vintage sheets.

 Here is the Giant I-Spy quilt on the bed in the hotel. It will be travelling with us this summer.

 On Monday, before we came home we stopped at Atlantic Fabrics in Dartmouth.

 Big surprise, I bought Halloween fabric.

 Then we stopped at Dayle's in Amherst.  It is a huge old department store with a little Dry Goods department!

 And guess what?  They had a bit of Halloween fabric out at 50% off.  I should also say that a friend and I are putting together a raffle basket for our guild's show in the fall and our theme is Halloween fabric.  I will be cutting a FQ off each of these pieces to put them in the basket.

And a little more, all just small pieces.

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Happy Weekend!

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

My Debut Novel

Since my sewing machine is in for repair and there will be no sewing at my house for a while, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to show another project I have been waiting to share -- something I am very proud of.  My debut novel The Town That Drowned will be released on October 7, 2011.  It's been a very busy and exciting time for me lately working with the publisher to start to put promo in place for the fall.  And now that the book can be preordered, it is as good a time as any to show it here.  Yay! 

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So, about the book (from the publisher) ...
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Living with a weird little brother in a small town can be tough enough. Having a spectacular fall through the ice at a skating party and nearly drowning are grounds for embarrassment. But having a vision and narrating it to the assembled crowd solidifies your status as an outcast.

What Ruby Carson saw during that fateful day was her entire town — buildings and people — floating underwater. Then an orange-tipped surveyor stake turns up in a farmer's field. Another is found in the cemetery. A man with surveying equipment is spotted eating lunch near Pokiok Falls. The residents of Haventon soon discover that a massive dam is being constructed and that most of their homes will be swallowed by the rising water. Suspicions mount, tempers flare, and secrets are revealed. As the town prepares for its own demise, 14-year-old Ruby Carson sees it all from a front-row seat.

Set in the 1960s, The Town That Drowned evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place to call home. Deftly written in a deceptively unassuming style, Nason's keen insights into human nature and the depth of human attachment to place make this novel ripple in an amber tension of light and shadow.

Riel Nason writes about antiques and collectibles for the daily Telegraph-Journal. Her short stories have appeared in The Malahat Review, The Antigonish Review, Grain, and The Dalhousie Review. The Town That Drowned is her sensational debut novel.

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It can be preordered at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Chapters Indigo, and Barnes & Noble.  It will be in independent bookstores on October 7.  I'll have to post a little more about it as the release date moves closer.  I'm going to be going on a book tour and to some literary festivals, so eventually I will need some suggestions of quilt stores to stop in along the way.

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Thanks for stopping by! 

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U