change of plans

My WIP is proceeding in fits and starts. I had planned to drive to North Carolina in a few weeks to tune into the atmosphere where most of the story takes place. As I already hold a lot of that in my memory, I’ve changed my mind: That’s going to be my reward for a decent first draft. Instead, I’m heading to Thrillerfest in NYC next month.

It’s my birthday!

I was going to give myself the day off but the ‘another year older and what exactly have you done with your life?’ monkey jumped on my back. As I rehashed the early years, the bad years, the good ones . . . the recent bad ones, a quotation came to mind. I couldn’t quite remember the whole thing, but – thank God for google! – I found it.

. . . Years ago, when I was nearing the end of a painful divorce, I got away to Mexico for a week to stay with a friend of my mother. Unfortunately, our paths crossed at 30,000 feet as she had received news of the sudden death of her brother and was flying to New York while I was on my way to Oaxaca. She left another house guest to pick me up at the airport and show me around, a man about my age who had just become engaged to be married – for the first time. To make short and poignant story merely short, let’s say that we hit it off. The quotation comes from Michael Ventura, from a magazine article we read and then talked about until it was time for him to leave for the airport.

Here it is. Thank you, Randy, wherever you are.

We know now that our dreams are not going to come true. Are never going to come true. We have learned that our dreams are important not because they come true, but because they take you places you would never have otherwise gone, and teach you what you never guessed was there to learn.

love to see this

This would make a great cover for the dust jacket of The Black Desert - seashells in the Sahara.

ranting

I'm feeling a little angry today.

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." [Einstein] 

I'm with you, Al.

too cute!

Lili (10) and Nina (2) with me (noyb).

It reminds me a lot of this one, from our camping trip in Acadia National Park last summer. It was early morning, chilly; the girls were waiting for sausage and blueberry pancakes on the open fire.

Yay again!!!!!!

The quarter-finalist list was just published: I made it into the group of 250 -- out of 5,000 entrants. I'm psyched.

Paris is for lovers

We just watched Before Sunset for the zillionth time. I scrolled through some Paris scenes from our trip last year.

 from the tip of the Ile de la Cite.

 at the Jardin des Plantes

 my friends Juliana and Anne

 the Louvre pyramid during the Nuit Blanche celebration

 ah - Pere Lachaise - so lovely. got lots of Jim Morrison's grave, too, but they are so hokey that I won't share.