Quote de jour
"Easy reading is damned hard to write."

Well, that may be true, but there is so much drivel out there I'd rather sink my teeth into my wild raspberries, than another crappy vampire story. You'd have to be dead not to notice. The undead are everywhere. I'm curious where this vampire mania is going especially since I'm writing a vampire themed YA . So, bite me. I can't help it. The story came fully gestated from a dream.
Enough of that. My fingers look bloodstained, but it's wild raspberry juice from picking this morning from the garden for breakfast
The last few weeks of reading left me exhausted and not satisfied. The best of the recent lot was How to Sell  and is currently on the NY Times best seller list. When feeling discouraged, I turn to the thinnest of novels. Dear American Airlines, a debut novel by journalist Jonathan Miles fit the bill. It managed to restore my faith and lagging humor all in a bite-sized 180 pages. Thank-you Jonny!http://www.jonnymiles.com/



Vamped a vampire They say you're supposed read in the genres you're writing in. YA is new for me and it's doubly important to bone up.  I haven't  written about any YA , because frankly they left me cold. Then, I got my paws on this stunning Y A Vamped by Lucienne Diver, a hot new writer who moonlights as a literary agent ( or is it the other way around?) Isn't that a fab name for a writer? ( Do I dare query her?) Fab website. http://www.luciennediver.com/ She writes in a breezy, chick lit light voice perfect for her audience. If I were thirteen I'd love it, but I'd like more meat with my blood. Never mind, I smell big success with her series.
The current best seller, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud won a Pulitzer prize in 2009. It's thirteen linked stories about a gruff older teacher in Maine. Given my love of raspberries today, I'll spill the first sentence: For many years Henry Kitteridge was a pharmacist in the next town over, driving every morning on snowy roads, or rainy roads, or summertime roads when the wild raspberries shot their new growth in brambles along the last section of town before he turned off to where the wider road led to the pharmacy.

A bumper crop of magazines this week... Nice to see Johnny Depp without facial hair. Wouldn't he play a great vampire?





As a former interior designer, I still love design and loved the one day makeover article in House Beautiful. They included dozens of thumbnail photos to fully capture the experience. Stay cool and until next week... read something.