Friday, October 31, 2008

Friday Update

This week went by in about 3.2 seconds. Here are the highlights ...

* Tomorrow (Saturday), Saralee Rosenberg and I are doing a book signing at the Waldenbooks in the Walt Whitman Mall (Huntington Station, Long Island.) We'll be there around noon, and will probably stay for about two hours. If you're around, I hope you'll stop by and say hello. We'll be sitting at a table by the front.

* Reached page 178 on the work-in-progress, which puts me 28 pages ahead of schedule and finally past the halfway mark. This week I told my editor I was getting ready to show her what I've done, but just hours after I said that I got a huge idea for something I want to add to the book, and I'm excited about it. So I need a little time to get that done. Meanwhile, my parents and my husband are reading the pages.

* Last night the three darlings carved out their jack-o-lanterns. They worked so hard, so long, and so quietly--a rare moment I actually captured on film:

* And while we're on Halloween ... remember that flying squirrel costume I was complaining about last week? I actually finished it. Here's the front view:
And here you can see the tail, which I'm awfully proud of:


* The flying squirrel pictured above is running for president of her elementary school. She had to make three campaign posters, which she accomplished with ingenuity and hard work. When she came home the next day, I asked about the other two candidates' posters and was told that one of them included an audio chip that spoke. (Remind me again why I live in this town?) The following week she had to make a tri-fold poster board, and pleaded with me to let her do something "really big" with it. And so I ran her to the local party store where we bought a light-up necklace to string around the picture of her face. I honestly couldn't believe I had become one of "those" moms, but I felt compelled to level the playing field. The kid deserves a fair shot, after all. The next day she brought it to school, and I expected her to tell me what a hit it was. Instead, I learned that one of the other candidates had a video game embedded in her poster board. *sigh* In my next life, we live deep in the woods with the creatures of the forest.

* Every once in a while someone asks me what I think about GOLD COAST, the Nelson DeMille classic set on Long Island, and I have to sheepishly admit I haven't read it. Now that he's coming out with a sequel, I figured it was time I got around to reading it. So I went to the public library, but alas it's checked out. While I wait for it I'm reading Tom Perrotta's THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER. Such a bold and extraordinary writer ... and he makes it look so damn easy.

* Yesterday, my sister's toy poodle went into heat, and her other dog, a funny-looking little dachshund-mix, mounted her. According to my sister, this prompted a hysterical call from from father, who witnessed the coupling. "You gotta get home! The dogs are stuck together!! Get home right away! They're stuck! THEY'RE STUCK!" I assume that by now the dogs have become ... uh ... unstuck, but I haven't stopped laughing. This is SO going in a novel ...

2 comments:

Myfanwy Collins said...

You MADE that costume?!?!? It's amazing. Is there nothing you can't do???? xoxox

SusanD said...

That costume is awesome! Well done, Ellen. And good luck to the presidential candidate!