A short hiatus for the Easter weekend

For those of you who celebrate: Happy Easter.
For those of you don't: Happy Spring.

For those who are pretty sure going IN the water is contra-indicated: here's a picture of Donnaeve's little dog, who agrees with you.

Day three

still feeling more than a little off plumb.

Day Two of the crud

still hiding under the covers.

out ill

No content from me today.
I'm under the weather.

Not quite ready to get back to work!

We're still snoozing here.
Happy Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas!

Last week I received this lovely card  from blog reader Kitty.  When I opened it, I thought, "Wow, what a beautiful church. That looks a lot like Most Holy Trinity!'  And when I opened it, and saw the quote, I realized it IS Most Holy Trinity. It's Betty Smith's church!

It's a perfect card for all us book lovers, and for me specifically because this is my church too! And Kitty knew that from this blog.

I can't think of a better illustration of a lovely friendship. Thank you Kitty!



I thank God today  for my many many blessings.  The readership of this blog, yes that means all y'all, is very high on that list.

I hope your day will be filled with love, however and whatever you celebrate.

Vacation Day #11: Where?

This week's column by Joe Veix in the NewYorker cracked me up.


But does this very New York joke survive the five boroughs? In other words, is this funny if you don't live in NYC?

Judgmental Towers Apartment Complex, Application to Rent

Thank you for your interest in the Judgmental Towers apartment complex. Please fill out and submit this form, along with your application fee, a copy of a recent credit report, and a DNA sample.

What is your full name?

What is your current occupation?

Is that what you dreamed of doing as a child?

What went wrong?

What is your current address?

Why are you moving?

What are you running from?

How did you find out about this apartment?
 Was it from those newspaper articles, after that “incident”?

Are you (circle one):

∙ Single
∙ Married
∙ In Short-Term Relationship Outlasting Expectations Due to Convenience

Do you own a waterbed?

You do realize it’s not 1973, right?

Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

Have you ever walked out of a store with a pear, after forgetting to pay, and decided it was too much trouble to go back?

And a week later, did the store go out of business?

Does the guilt keep you up at night?

Are you troubled by the brownish, man-shaped stain on the apartment’s floor?

What is your gross yearly income?

How much of that do you blow on greasy takeout food and bottom-shelf alcohol?

Are you aware that if you’d saved five years of that you could own a house by now?

Why are you willing to spend thousands of dollars per month on what is essentially a coffin-sized ghost slum?

Do you think that the lingering aura of hipness from the artistic subculture that formerly resided in this neighborhood might somehow rub off on you?

Despite the fact that everything is just a Walgreens now?

Please list three references:

Are you only now realizing that you don’t have any real friends, just casual work acquaintances?

Are any of the people listed above a barista that you bribed to pretend to know you?

Do you worry that if you don’t get your life together soon, you will wind up like that lonely brown floor stain?

Applicant attests that the above statements are only slightly embellished, and waives all responsibility to management in the event of another “incident.”

Signature: _____________________ Date: _____________________

Vacation Day #10: How?

I pay attention to the crime novels that get a lot of pre-publication buzz. It's both an essential part of my job, and a perk.

Recently there was a lot of buzz about The Cartel by Don Winslow. I'd read an earlier book of his and loved it. I looked forward to reading this new one; there were comparisons to The Godfather by Mario Puzo (a seminal book in my crime reading eduction.)

I started it pretty near pub date, then set it down for something else.  During this vacation, I picked it back up again thinking I'd have a block of time to finish a 600+ page tome.

And set it down again at page 200. (I'd started over again cause I'd lost track of the plot in the intervening weeks.)

There wasn't a single character I cared about, there seemed to be no depth of character at all. No sense of these characters as real people.  And the violence, dear god, the violence.

I decided to put this on on the stack of "did not finish" rather than invest another 12+ hours in the remaining 400 pages.

How much time, how many pages do you give a book before saying "nope, not gonna finish."

Vacation Day #9: When?

I've sold quite a number of books that use time travel as part of the plot.

Sean Ferrell's MAN IN THE EMPTY SUIT

Patrick Lee's GHOST COUNTRY

And a number of books that imagine a very interesting future:

You won't be surprised to learn that one of the questions we toss around when all these gents gather at the bar is "if you could travel in time, both forward and back where would you go, if you could go (and return!) to just one day."


My answer is pretty easy (remember of course that I'm a practicing Catholic): I'd go back to the time of Jesus and hang out with him and the fellas just as closely and for as long as I could.


When would you go?

Vacation Day #8 What?

I'm on vacation today from a job I love. A job I'd do for free if I had no need of money evermore.

Sometimes though, I think "wow, now that would have been fun!"

Not many times, cause I really love my job, but almost always when I hear great music like Rosanne Cash.

It's not that I want to be Rosanne Cash (maybe Tina Turner, for just about five minutes!) it's that I'd love to sing with her.

Here's the lineup for one of the songs on her recent album The River and The Thread.

Can you imagine how fun it was to record that song that day?


And another album I love beyond measure is Trio (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstatd) I'd LOVE to have been a backup singer on this one.




The sound quality on this is dreadful, but if you go listen to it on iTunes, you'll see what I mean.


I don't think I could have tolerated the life of a musician, but oh man, I think of it sometimes.

What do you think of sometimes? If you weren't a writer? or what else you are?

Vacation Day #7: Who?

This is a sign on the route one of our devoted blog readers walks every day to take her daughters to school.

Translation: James Joyce (1882-1941)
British writer of Irish origin, received by Valery Larbaud, here completed his novel, Ulysses,  twentieth century literary masterpiece.



Our previous FPLM office on 35th Street had us walk by "Nero Wolfe's brownstone" on our way to BEA at the Javits Center 

Do you have famous folk in your daily life?
 

Vacation Day #6: Stan and Ollie

What's the most interesting kind of wildlife that's visited you?

Vacation Day #5

What's the best summer you've ever had?

Vacation Day #4: You didn't know?

A recent Facebook post by author Alafair Burke revealed she had not known that the Butter Cow at the Iowa State Fair was indeed made of butter. She felt like she was the last person in the world to know this.

What were you the last person in the world to know?

Vacation Day #3: Gossamer

Do you make time to think every day?
A time to just let your mind run wild or lie fallow or disconnect from the electronic din of daily life?

Do you let your imagination loose to play on gossamer wings?

Vacation Day #2! I'll Say!

This is my favorite motivational poster.
It's in my office.

Do you have a favorite saying posted where you write?

Vacation Day #1: My vacation reading!

These arrived on Monday and it was all I could do not to dive in that very second.

Yes, these books are old friends, but I'm re-reading in preparation for MAKE ME which is coming in September.


What are you reading, or re-reading, this last week of August?

Where?

While I am off praying for world peace, and awaiting the Resurrection, I hope all my very treasured blog readers will use these few days to post a link to their blog or website so you can all get to know each other.

The links are in the comments section of Thursday's blog post here.


Have a very happy start to April, and the new spring season!

When?

While I am off praying for world peace, and awaiting the Resurrection, I hope all my very treasured blog readers will use these few days to post a link to their blog or website so you can all get to know each other.

The links are in the comments section of Thursday's blog post here.


Have a very happy start to April, and the new spring season!

What?

While I am off praying for world peace, and awaiting the Resurrection, I hope all my very treasured blog readers will use these few days to post a link to their blog or website so you can all get to know each other.

The links are in the comments section of Thursday's blog post here.


Have a very happy start to April, and the new spring season!