Susan, if it makes you feel any better, I was much less intimidated by Connie Willis once I saw her in person, because she is the literary embodiment of Julia Child [*], and who can be intimidated by Julia Child?

[* Gracious, aggressively intelligent, ready and willing to tell the only limerick she knew, which was about balls.]

erika, if it makes you feel any cooler, Peter Jennings was a two0finger typist to the end of his days, so he always had to look at the keyboard. Not to imply that looking at the keyboard is fatal; he is just the most famous two-finger keyboardist I know of, and is only dead by coincidence.

Well, it did not hold him back very much at all, so I guess I'm not gonna worry about it. Although the death connection has made me picture a detective gazing over my lifeless form, being all "Lost art, the hunt-and-peck."

erika, you need to write that! Maybe have Munch-n-Kay find a pretty blonde in a hotel like that. With a whiskey sour to the right and a .38 on the left, but it's not what killed her.

Heh. I think the crime is affecting me, because this afternoon I saw on Food Network some show with "Nourish" in the title and I read it as "noirish" and I thought...never noticed much *cuisine* in those.

never noticed much *cuisine* in those.

Yeah, I was real disappointed when I first watched the Naked Chef. Not what I was expecting at all. No guns, no hardboiled blondes, not even a dead naked chef! Just some goofy Brit, cooking. What a tease.

ION, it looks like I'm going to be having breakfast with Jo Beverley and Mary Jo Putney on Labor Day. Someone remind me that authors I was reading for years before I decided to write myself aren't inherently any scarier than the other kind, because I'm all "Eek! What am I going to SAY?" even though I more or less started this myself by sending JB an email when I saw on her website that she's going to be in town for a con.

Dude, you could sleep over Deborah Freakin' Grabien's house at the drop of an email. Breakfast ain't no big thing.

I just got to see the starred PW review for Matty Groves, on the agreement that the early look = me not posting or forwarding it until Monday.

But DAYUM!

Just thought I'd remind you that it's Monday. I actually hope you're still sleeping, but once you're not, we are waiting.

Review. Starred.

In Grabien's third tale of ghostly detection (after 2004's The Famous Flower of Serving Men ), her most chillingly effective performance to date, folk singer Ringan Laine and his group, Broomfield Hill, have been invited to perform at the prestigious Callowen Arts Festival at Callowen House in Hampshire, England. Accompanied by his longtime lover, actress Penelope Wintercraft-Hawkes, Ringan sets off in high spirits, but quickly strange things begin to happen. Jane Castle, vocalist and flautist for the group, has unsettling nightmares in her bedroom, while Penny and Ringan are deeply disturbed by some ghostly presence in theirs. Penny, Ringan and the others embark on a desperate race to uncover the truth about a vicious and malevolent ghost that haunts Callowen House. As in previous entries, a folk song, "Matty Groves," provides clues. Grabien ratchets up the suspense steadily and implacably, and the resolution is deeply satisfying. Fans of Barbara Michaels's classic ghostly suspense stories will enjoy this immensely. Agent, Jennifer Jackson at DMLA . (Oct.)

Wooohoooo!

Wheeee! Awesome review! And starred -- so very cool.

Woo Hoo!!! Go, deb!