I don't usually make everyone look at my book covers just because I'm selling the books, but I got a kick out of this new French edition of Soul Kitchen:


( Read more... )

Wireless service at our house is intermittent to nonexistent. Can occasionally access the Internet via iPhone, as now.

Thanks to the person who sent me Dan Simmons' Lovedeath from my Amazon wish list. Unfortunately, I can't thank you personally as I prefer to do, because Amazon (in a pretty major fail) doesn't let you know who sent you used/out-of- ( Read more... )

Yesterday I took marquisdd and his soon-to-be-husband Ben down to Shell Beach. I guess I hadn't adequately explained that Shell Beach has neither shells nor beaches, or I thought they'd memorized Soul Kitchen, or something, because they brought towels and sunscreen, and Ben had the quote of the day: "I wore my bathing suit to a construction site." It wasn't ( Read more... )

infrogmation, whom you should follow if you're looking for information on the Gulf oil disaster or local issues in general, took this picture last week in Hopedale. (I was going to post the actual picture with credit, but damned if I can get it to work. Technology is slipping through my fingers, Will try to edit later.) If you've read Soul Kitchen, you know a ( Read more... )

marquisdd's 8/29 entry makes me remember writing the last paragraphs of Soul Kitchen days before we evacuated: "How the hell did we ever end up with so much good luck? Rickey wondered. What if something bad happened to balance it out? Then he thought of everything that had happened over the last few months, and he began to laugh. If the balancing hadn't ( Read more... )

Bad high school English classes have given too many readers the idea that "theme" in literature is a ponderous concept, the sole province of Great Literature, something writers decide on before they write the first word of a novel. In truth, I think most stories, highbrow or otherwise, have a theme of some sort, and it's seldom a preconceived thing ( Read more... )

The Ambien seemed to help, my knee is deflating, and Chris thinks I can make it rain. (I don't know; sometimes in the summer I just really want it to rain, I get an actual physical craving for a good downpour, and when it finally comes, I can't help getting out and cutting loose in it ... even if I happen to be in front of the neighborhood hardware ( Read more... )

Late on the night of my fortieth birthday, Chris and I sat on the levee looking out over the beach and the dark Gulf waters, and we talked about the new life we're starting to build, and about what we hope our future might hold. One thing I'm not sure mine holds, at least for a while, is making a living as a writer ( Read more... )

Chris' op-ed piece (a slightly edited version of his Tuesday journal entry) is in the paper today. The "my family" in the first sentence makes it sound as if we have a passel of kids, but in truth, he phrased it that way because our friends Lorin and Remy were with us for part of St. Joseph's Day and he didn't want to leave them out. For the record ( Read more... )

The Internet is alive! I'm sure it won't last, so must spend what time I have looking up information about Lakefront Airport, which I forgot to do at the coffeeshop. For the moment, though, this tidbit --

From a local Internet dining board, describing a dish from a North Shore restaurant called Juniper:

POSTER A: Can someoone describe what this ( Read more... )