Five Things Week Two...

Ok. I am not going to think about this too much. Not going to write and delete and write some more and then over think some more. I am going to steam ahead and not look back. Here we go. Five things from a week:

1. Writing in Books.

I know I am not supposed to do it but I do. Always have.

I underline phrases I like, words I like. I also write down things I want to remember, phone numbers, dentist appointments, the time the Terminex man is coming to talk about humane traps for the mice in our garage because I want him to look me in the eye and promise they are going to go and live out there mousy lives somewhere else and he will not bump them off.

When I pull down a book from my shelf, I can see snapshots of the life I was living at the time.

Today I opened my copy of Pat Barker’s brilliant The Voyage Home and on the fly leaf I found notes on Frog’s eye drops (the ones that didn’t work), a list of words I was collecting to describe the heart muscle, the time of my mother’s CAT scan last summer, and a note to not to forget my god son’s birthday.

I could have put all that into a calendar, Google or ios but then I would not be able to open a book eight months later and find all the wreckage of a life I forgot I lived.

2. My Teenager Dog.

Herb wakes up early.

7a.m. and he is up and ready for breakfast. By 7:15 a.m. he is done with breakfast and wants to play with his brother. But Frog likes to sleep in. Until noon.

I can get up, leave the room, take Herb downstairs and nothing, Frog does not move. The rest of the day he is an absolute velcro dog but before noon? Nothing. And Herb, my patient 12 year old soul dog will just sit beside him until he wakes up. It is my favorite time of day.

9am (hopeful…):

10am (losing hope…):

11am (Herb has given up and they are now both snoring…):

.

3. Katharine Hepburn’s Clothes

My new novel is out next month and is called The Original and it is about Katharine Hepburn.

After researching and writing about this marvelous human for years I am having trouble letting her go.

The cadence of her walk. Her speech.

And she is seeping into my wardrobe.

I am liking high waisted trousers and jackets that hit just right.

4. Dogs are Family.

Officially.

And now legally.

At least in the state of New York. Dogs are now immediate family.

Of course they are.

5. Elevator Pitch.

They are hard.

A whole novel is tough to pin down in a few phrases. An elevator pitch should feel taut but until you nail it, it can feel wiggly, incomplete.

I wish I could report that after much effort, I had landed it but I haven’t.

Not yet.

It is still squishy and spilling out the sides like feathers or cream filling.

Maybe by next week.