A little taste of culture

After being totally focused on Olympic sport for a week, I decided I needed a little culture as well. So on Wednesday I went with a friend to the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy. This is an open exhibition in which the public as well as members of the Academy can submit works of art. And my first impression was--I can paint better than many of the works here! There were fabulous pictures, of course, but many that looked as though somebody's great Aunt Mabel had just taken a painting course. I'm going to enter next year!

On Thursday I went with friends around Shakespeare's Globe theater--very interesting, and then lunched at the Tate Modern. Art a little too modern for me, I'm afraid. I'm still drooling over those lovely Impressionist paintings in Paris.

And today I reached the height of culture, going on the Harry Potter movie tour. It is fabulous--all the sets still preserved--Hogwarts great hall, Harry's dorm room, Hagrid's hut etc etc and especially Diagon Alley. I didn't want to leave and wished the stores were open. Also saw the Knight bus and flying car. And saw how the special effects were done. It was fun to be among people who were all Potter fans and knew every little detail. I almost bought a robe, then decided that I'd look stupid.

Our time in London is drawing to a close and we've been so impressed with the way the transportation has worked, the friendliness of the Games volunteers and everything about the Olympics that has run smoothly.

If you want my complete summary of the Olympics, do check out my group blog www.jungleredwriters.com where I posted pictures on Thursday.

Downton Here I come!

I'm rushing around in crazy mode this week because next week we're off to England. Our primary purpose is to go to the Olympics. A friend in London has a house within walking distance of the stadium so it was too good to miss. The slight glitch was that we couldn't get any tickets to any event in the stadium. We put in for 5 days of track, 5 days of swimming and got ZILCH.

It's all done on a lottery system and tickets are..well, rather expensive. We decided the maximum we wanted to spend per event and decided we really couldn't bring ourselves to spend $500 to watch Michael Phelps swim up and down a couple of times. So we've ended up with a strange mixture of events--the only one at the Olympic venue is women's water polo (and of course we have a strong tie to that sport as our daughter Jane is an All American who used to play on the US team)

Then we have women's soccer semi final (should be good), a day of badminton (not my idea--John's. Could be boring) And two days of tennis. At Wimbledon. Yeah! Go Andy Murray. Maybe he'll redeem himself and beat Federer for the gold?

And when I'm not Olympic watching I've got some other fun things lined up: a tour of Buckingham Palace. I've been to the Queen's Gallery before but never through the actual state rooms.(although I did have tea with the queen, it wasn't at the palace).
Then a tour of the Harry Potter experience at Warner Brothers studios. The actual sets and costumes etc. Big Harry fan.
And last,but not least... a tour of the real Downton Abbey.

Is this going to be fun or what? And to crown it all, we're coming home on the Queen Mary 2. This in anticipation of sending my heroine Lady Georgie across the Atlantic in next year's book!

I am so glad I worked hard at my physical therapy so that I can walk well again, otherwise a lot of this would have been impossible. So expect reports from me during the coming weeks. I'll be Our Gal in London to give you the latest scoop!

A Wrinkle in Time

All I want next Christmas is a time machine.

I don't mean the H.G Wells type that takes you back into the past, although that would be useful to observe the world my characters live in. What I want is the sort of Time Turner that Hermione has in the Harry Potter series. A nice little hour glass so that I could do an hour's work and then flip it over to do another hours work in that same hour.

Because there are never enough hours in a day to get through everything. I'm sure this is a familiar lament for most of us but right now I'm really conscious of it. I'm trying to write my new Molly book, but slower than normal because I have to stop after about 3 pages because my wrist hurts too much.
And at the same time I'm conscious of all the things I should be doing to promote my books. I read other writers' blogs about what works for them in e-book promotion and Facebook and Twitter and I wonder--do these people ever sleep?

Facebook I really like because it connects me with people I consider my friends and readers. And it only takes a minute or so to read and post. Twitter I'm sure is wonderfully useful if one has a zillion followers. I don't have time to search out those zillion to follow and thus to follow me in return. And I haven't caught on to the use of hashmarks or whatever they are called.

I'm part of the fabulous Jungle Red Writers blog and have to comment daily even when it's not my turn. I try to post on my own blog at least once a week, which is not enough but it's all I can manage. Apparently I should be reading other people's blogs daily and making witty, intelligent comments on each of them, thus leading people to my blog.

Then there is Amazon. I'm supposed to comment on relevent online communities, to Tag books similar to mine, to keep up my Amazon page, even to post phoney reviews of my books under other names. (not going to do the last of these)

What I need is a full time secretary who knows me well enough to be able to comment as I would have done. Or maybe just a time turner.
I'm off to Tucson tomorrow to speak at a fabulour Brandeis fundraising luncheon. It will be a terrific event but it's taking time from my writing.
Anyone have a time turner they can lend me?

How Long is Too Long?

Yesterday I posted on Facebook that I had finished the first draft of my new Lady Georgie book and felt it was a little long, so the next step was to bring out the axe.

I was surprised this morning to see a whole lot of replies saying "please don't cut it. We want your books to be as long as possible." Some were kind enough to add, 'we don't want them to end." but others added, "We love long books."

So now I'm curious--do you love long books? Do you select books based on length? Are you turned off by big fat books or do you look forward to staying with them for a while? Is there a certain length that mysteries should be? (mine are usually around 300 pages. The Molly Murphy series goes a little longer, closer to 400 sometimes).

I'm actually re-reading the last Harry Potter book at the moment--as a sort of wind-down after all the frantic activity in my life this month and I have to say I am not finding the 700 pages to be a chore. it's nice to see, when I pick it up, that there are still a few hundred pages to go.

And of course with my new Kindle the question of the weight of a 700 page book is removed from the equation, isn't it? I can read War and Peace, holding it in one hand!! And speaking of weight--the thinness and lightness of Kindle was one of the factors in deciding to go with it over the iPad or even the Nook. But now I think I should get a case for it and you know what? The cases are heavy. Does that make sense? Can anyone suggest a light little sleeve that keeps out dust but doesn't turn my Kindle into a clunky object?

Best Laid Plans

Today was to be my first day in three weeks with nothing on the calendar. I planned to write, catch up with business stuff and then take a book to the pool. Instead I awoke with swollen glands and a headache. A trip to the doctor and I find out that I have either an infected salivary gland or infected sinus or both. So I'm home on antibiotics and feeling annoyed.

I suppose with all those flights and strange hotels and bookstores I was asking for something--actually it was mega-sales, not an infection. I may look like a hamster for my bookstore event tomorrow. And you can tell how bad I was feeling--I walked past Sephora and Ann Taylor Loft WITHOUT GOING IN.

So I think an afternoon of book therapy is needed. I may just re-read one of the Harry Potters. They have become my escape literature of choice. OR I may re-watch Mama Mia, although I get depressed when Colin Firth turns out to be gay. Do you have a comfort/escape entertainment of choice?

Mystery Writing and Superstition

The moment I started thinking about superstition, I began to see links to being superstitious and writing mysteries. Are mystery writers particularly superstitious people, I wonder?

I think we are attracted to mysteries both as writers and readers, because the mystery novel attempts to make sense of the universe. A crime is committed that disturbs the fabric of the universe and it is up to the detective to solve this crime and thus restore the universe to wholeness. (This is one of the reasons I don't like the noir novel. Wholeness is never restored even when the crime is solved).

So essentially the mystery novel can do what we can't do in real life. As mystery writers we can restore harmony, see that justice is served and good triumphs. We know this doesn't happen in real life. Maybe that's what we also are trying to do with our superstitions--we try to control our luck, our fate and our universe. If a black cat crosses my path, from right to left, I will do well at that job interview. Or as yesterday's commenter put it, if I wear my special earrings I'll ace the interview. And of course wearing those earrings we do well because we feel invincible.

I just re-watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, in which they brew a potion of Liquid Luck. Harry pretends to give it to Ron who then plays quiddich brilliantly, thinking he can't lose. So what we all need is a secret vial of that liquid luck, don't we? Just a drop on the tongue for those really important occasions,