A quick word. I’m off to Halifax first thing tomorrow, and I have a bit of a cold. Yes, another cold. But let’s hope it passes quickly with the excitement of travel, because I have a busy schedule ahead that I hope to share with you. I grew up in Halifax and just seeing the names of the streets takes me back many years. Many memories. It will be a powerful experience and I need all my strength.  

Robin will be holding the fort on the home front, and Sam too sometimes. Tiggy and the garden will be well cared for. I will miss them. 

But first, today’s excitement: the Word on the Street webinar about memoir. Last year, Helen Humphreys did it with me; this year, Laura Calder, who writes and speaks about food and France, so we have lots in common. Her book Kitchen Bliss is charming, a series of snapshots – postcards, she said – of times in her life connected to cooking and food, with recipes interspersed. It was again a great conversation, and I hope the nearly fifty people attending were inspired.

I look so serious because I was concentrating on how to take a screenshot in the middle of a conversation. But there it is. 

About Sunday night’s Succession – again, truly one of the most brilliant shows I’ve ever seen on TV. The writing! The acting! The sets! Quite amazing, but an added thrill was seeing Dame Harriet as the mother of three of the Roys at Logan’s funeral. She brought so much, such depth, to a character who should have much more screen time. Brilliant. She wrote to me it’s hard for her that so many dismiss Caroline as hard and cold, because for Harriet, inside her, bringing her to life, she’s not at all. 

For us, though, warm is not the word we’d use…

And finally, THE TITLE. Thanks to all who wrote with suggestions. But now we’re heading in a completely different direction. I am not, truth be told, a late bloomer. So right now, we’re going with this, on the understanding that it STILL NEEDS WORK: 

                                        MIDLIFE SOLO:

       Writing my way through raising kids, growing old, and finding my place in the world.

I think the subtitle needs umph and a serious indication of what the book is really about. This is getting there. What do you think? Not subtle, I know, but then is subtlety needed in a title? Particularly in a book of essays about a ton of different things? 

Stay tuned. The book is being copy-edited right now and may actually appear. I’ll believe it when I see it. 

A bientôt!