Archives - Weekly Update

Well, the one thing I did not have to do this week was water the plants. Tom was traveling on business, and at one point I thought the pool was going to overflow; I think we got three inches of rain! I looked out the window Monday night, and it appeared that it was raining upwards. Then I realized that the sprinkler that sits on top of the deck was on. I quickly turned that off!

It’s been a gorgeous few days in the tri-state area --- the kind of weather where it’s lovely to sit outside and read in the evening. The hydrangeas are not as lush as last year; I am blaming the cold winter. Oh, the hibiscus-loving squirrel is back. I kid you not. Last weekend, our lone hibiscus plant was looking lush with some gorgeous yellow flowers popping out everywhere.(I had only bought one as I wanted to see if the squirrel would indulge.) We moved it to where it was last year, and bam!, the “flower eater” found it and chewed most of it. I have now hidden that planter in the middle of a bunch of other pots, just to see what happens.

Tom, Rebecca and I spent much of our Friday the 13th at ThrillerFest, which I think is very fitting! Among the many mystery/thriller authors we saw on panels today were Gregg Hurwitz, Joseph Finder, Robert Dugoni and Karin Slaughter. Lee Child interviewed Megan Abbott, which was such fun. Their chemistry was amazing!

But the highlight of the day was a wonderful, lively interview with George R.R. Martin, who is this year's ThrillerMaster (which is ThrillerFest's lifetime achievement honor). Amusingly, just as he was introduced by his editor, the entire room went dark, as the lights went out for no apparent reason. Someone in the audience said, "Winter is coming," and everyone started laughing. Tom and Rebecca were thrilled to have a picture taken with him, which you can see above, at a book signing that occurred right after the interview. Meanwhile, I had my annual tea date with Keith Raffel, where he shared a very interesting book idea with me. We will have much more on the panels we attended and the authors we heard speak in next week's newsletter.

My son, Greg, had the best line about what it’s like to have 4th of July in the middle of the week: it’s like having half a weekend in the middle of the week. I come bearing the good news that the 4th of July is not on a Wednesday again until 2029. So there will be a real 4th of July weekend for the next 10 years. I sure missed it, and I know MANY others did too. I actually spent part of the day working and then floated in the pool reading for a while until it started to drizzle, and then we barbecued some ribs. I watched Lincoln on Netflix since that seemed like it was a patriotic thing to do (and it was a movie my husband would watch with me), and I did not want to get stuck in traffic to see fireworks, though fireworks are one of my favorite things. It was not the kicked-back long weekend that I craved.