November 2007 Archives

Here's a photo of my beloved George, eating a steaming stack of his world-famous pancakes. (I've eaten them, and folks, they are the best.) George would never have lived long enough to make those impossibly fluffy whole-grain delights had it not been for research supported by this worthy organization.

Almost four years ago, George woke up with a tennis-ball sized lump near his right hipbone. The diagnosis: nonHodgkins lymphoma (aka cancer of the lymph system) -- in his case, an especially aggressive type that, untreated, can kill within months. He underwent half a year of chemotherapy which was resoundingly successful. George has been clean now for three-and-a-half years. (And now you know why I, MONA LISA was and THE BLOODIEST QUEEN is late.)

When you are giving during this holiday season, will you please consider The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society? It's a fantastic organization which offers patients education and support, including financial aid.

George and I thank you.

Send a media mogul a pencil!

It's the brainchild of the WGA strikers -- Hollywood writers trying to get a fair deal. They've put their pencils down in order to strike; as a little reminder, they're sending the Six Most Powerful Media Moguls boxes of pencils. Truckloads, in fact.

You can support a fair deal for the writers by contributing a few pencils of your own. Just go to the United Hollywood site.

Speaking of pencils, here's an interesting article by artist Matthew James Taylor on how to properly sharpen them.

In all honesty, I don't write with a pencil anymore. In my old age, I've grown accustomed to typing faster than I can think. However, I still write my first pages of the day by hand, using a disposable fountain pen. How else can I guzzle down my morning coffee at the same time?

Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, was interviewed recently by Newsweek about the upcoming Kindle, an e-book reader. I found it fascinating reading.

Bezos' wife is a novelist -- a fact that made me feel strangely better about spending thousands of dollars at Amazon.com every year.

Your intrepid author has the flu.

And is, of course, still abysmally late on THE BLOODIEST QUEEN -- which might wind up titled THE MEDICI QUEEN in the U.S. as well as elsewhere. We're looking at a January delivery and a Winter 2009 pub date.

Happily, I write in bed with a laptop. When I'm sick, I usually get more pages written because I stay put.

Please send comfort food.

Okay, here's a charmingly useless and silly site for those of you who enjoyed I, MONA LISA (aka PAINTING MONA LISA outside the U.S.)

My favorite one? The first one, Mona meets Frank.

On-strike writers from The Daily Show speak out today on the United Hollywood site, run by WGA strikers.

In the meantime, keep on keeping your eyes on this blog for updates on the strike...

And please do enjoy an article by Garrison Keillor, courtesy of Salon.com, titled "Author at Work." This is a guy who understands what it's like to write a book under a deadline (a subject uncomfortably close to my heart these days),. Funny -- I discovered the necessity of long walks, too.

MS Word went berserk today and ate two of my precious pages. I know why it happened -- a recent update caused it to lose my custom settings, and make repeated backup copies (the dreaded "Work Files") of my 1MB+ BLOODIEST QUEEN document. About 50 copies, as a matter of fact -- thus the memory snafu and the lost pages.

Add that to the carpet cleaner, two unwanted solicitors, a relative in crisis, and a car with a nail in its right front tire, and you'll understand why yours truly didn't quite make her page quota today. Being a resoundingly type-A individual who just happens to be really, really late on a book deadline, I can't stop my left eye from twitching...

I'm shutting the windows, locking the door (can you tell I live in a really small town?) and turning the phone off tomorrow...

Go. Go to the United Hollywood site and see why you MUST support the Writers Guild of America strike.

If you don't understand why it's so important, please watch their video "Why We Fight." Then scroll down and sign the petition. Please.

Those of you who are fans of particular television shows -- be sure to link your fan pages to the United Hollywood site.

Hint: Keep your eyes on the writers this coming week, folks. There's some interesting action to come. Be sure to check back here and there on Wednesday.

In keeping with our cute fuzzy theme...

I'd forgotten all about the effort required to raise a Labrador. I vaguely remembered that my late great chocolate Lab, Hershey, was hell on wheels at six months old, but I thought it was because I knew nothing about dog training back then.

Oh, how the proud are brought low.

You might remember mention of the newest Kalogridis family member, young Django. Django is now pushing six months old and weighs in at fifty pounds. He is the essence of perpetual motion.

Of course, Django and I have been working on his public persona and manners. I am used to taking my dogs with me when I go to the bank, pharmacy, and our quaint downtown shops, where dogs are welcomed by all the local merchants.

So Django and I set off for downtown with great hopes last Friday. I was of a mind to do a bit of clothes-shopping for fall, and so went into a little department store where my other dogs were well-known for their calm, courteous behavior and for lying calmly at my feet while I shopped and tried on clothes.

Of course, Django -- who had been completely emptied out after breakfast, and had gone hours without eating anything -- stepped inside the door of the store and promptly dropped a massive log.

This post has absolutely nothing to do with historical fiction, women, writing or reading. I don't even own cats, but...

Dem kittehs over at I Can Has Cheezburger iz sooooo cutes!