No Potter update today since the wife went out with the camera. Anyway, Hallam’s going gangbusters on the book and is loving every word of it. Book Two waits in the wings. Meanwhile, I am zipping through my book, tweaking and polishing, readying my baby for the trip overseas to visit my agent Bruce in London. The biggest change is …
Whether the Weather Be Hot. Or Not.
It’s been a nutty winter for weather, even by Missouri standards. The day my parents left the temperature was 20 degrees below zero, when the wind chill was taken into account – and yes, that’s Fahrenheit, if you were wondering. Exactly a week later it was 60 degrees and brilliant sunshine. With such unpredictable and extreme swings, it should …
Mother's Little Helper
If you’ve never sat in a car listening to a seven year-old happily sing along to an old Rolling Stones song about anti-depressants, utterly oblivious to the lyrics, then you should. Works far better than any little pill. Just back from a trip to San Francisco to visit my sister and her family. Parents in tow. Normal service (whatever that …
Mornings
My friend E (I like this blog etiquette of using initials; its Victorian coyness seems nicely at odds with the technology) is a reader of many blogs, and she tells me that regular updates are crucial if she is to keep returning for more. So I am clearly failing her miserably right now. I suspect that there are more posts …
Post Election Analysis
Conversation at the George breakfast table this morning: Hallam: Catherine, do you know who the new president is going to be? Catherine: You!
Lobster Pad Thai
This lunatic quest began some time ago as I was reading an amusing piece by a writer named Steve Almond about eating lobster pad thai in Maine. As I read, I licked my lips and pictured myself serving up a similarly ravishing masterpiece to a rapturous reception. The fact that I had cooked neither (a) pad thai nor (b) lobster …
Happiness
How to make a 3 year-old happy: 1. Melt some chocolate. 2. Dip ice cream cone in chocolate. 3. Give to 3 year-old.
What's It All About, Alfie?
So, yeah, anyway. This blog. I wanted to have a go at trying to give some sort of mission statement – more for my benefit than yours, really, just to keep me on the straight and narrow. Here’s what I do not want: within a couple hours of mentioning on facebook that I was contemplating starting a blog, I got …