Somehow, I have to figure out how to blog both here and at Pursed Lips at least a couple of times a week. No more once every few weeks, damn it!

That said, what did I mean about France and book-buying? Well, a recent episode of CBS Sunday Morning included a story about book shopping in Paris, covering everything from your obsessive bibliophile to the odd-job, eccentric raconteur known as a book scout but ultimately portrayed Paris as center of the book-selling universe.

Honestly, this kind of story waxes completely romantic for me. It beckons me. Bibliophile that I am, I’ve added Paris to the Book Trips I Want to Make over the next decade. Why? Because I love hunting for books. I love the pursuit, scanning piles for elusive titles. I love the rush of joy I feel when I spot a find and take it into hand.

Don’t let my modern propensity for the e-book fool you. While I embrace New Tech, I still love the Old Form. So much so that I must see Paris before I die.

Which led her to Zazzle.com where she’s applied some of her patterns to Keds sneakers — isn’t that cool? Her newly-launched store is in its infancy and its two sneaker designs are also accompanied by a couple of t-shirt designs unrelated to her tile project. But you can see why I’m a proud mother.

I’m not sure how she struck on the green apples design, but I suspect the sheep design was inspired by a recent visit to a sheep and wool show, knitting fiend that she is. More designs will follow.

I know the economy sucks and these items aren’t cheap, but they would make unique gifts for the holiday season. And my daughter earns some pocket money with every sale. Here’s the link; pass it on!

Crunch also has a habit of laying claim to computer bags and backpacks, anything you might want to carry your goods in. I caught him yesterday sleeping on my computer sleep sleeve.

But what are you going to do? He’s lovable cat, full of purrs and kitty kisses.

Of course right now he’s playing the despot, waiting near the staircase with a glare in his eye that says “feed me.”

Typical cat!

However, the desktop that for the longest time served as our network center was the exception to our enjoyable familial rule. Having too much of a fondness what he saw as a tragic victim of conflicting program directives, my husband deemed him Hal 9000.

And he came to us in 2001. Given the timing, resistance was futile. (Yeah, yeah, I know, Borg is Borgm but I can extend the metaphors only so far.)

Hal more than adequately did his job for us for many years. Then, early this year, he began to lose his ability to generate clean graphics. He also refused to be a good liaison between our printer and Oshumi. The former was likely a matter of a busted graphics card, the latter a lack of babel-fish for Vista. (Hal was Win2000-based.)

We swapped him out for an older emachine we had laying around. It was XP-based and could liaison, but over time we came to realize that the machine was as slow as a snail. If ever a computer could be equated to watching paint dry, it was this one. It’s no Hal 9000. When we boot it up, we wait and wait and wait for it to come around.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband quipped about some modern drama trivia we had encountered recently. “Maybe we should change it’s name,” he jested. I had to agree, even though it broke our stellar tradition.

The computer’s new name? Godot.

I’m in the final editing pass of this same novel — the second half of which I’m really raking through the coals — and Crunchy still urges me on. Almost every afternoon, he curls up on the floor next to the tote bag where the manuscript rests, reminding me to work. (His napping somehow keeps me from being lazy. Talk about inverse proportions!)

Let’s give Crunch his day in the sun. (Roxie already had hers outside on the deck this morning — a perfect 69 degrees!) Vote — and vote often — for my loyal companion now through Sunday July 13th.* Tell your pet-loving friends and family, too.

*The winner goes into a final show-down next week with Thursday’s winner.

Speaking of words, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been somewhat absent here. We had a death in my husband’s extended family which required some travel. Then last Friday my daughter and I were part of the throng that gathered at Rockefeller Center to see Coldplay. Well, we sort of saw Coldplay. We had a good view of the drummer, occasionally one of the guitarists, and saw the lead singer for part of the last number. But it was fun. We spent the day in NYC, doing bookstores and museums and returned home very tired.

You may have noticed my Twitter disappeared from this site. After much patience, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort, waiting for Twitter to load. It just slowed down this website too much.

Maybe you’ve noticed the additional site links above. Why did I mess up a good,crisp design? Simple: very few people were visiting the inner content of this site. (Look at that Good Reads section for how far I’ll go in providing you with content. I want to give you a reason beyond this blog to stay connected with me — and content is what makes that happen.

Speaking of which, Inequities received a glowing review from colleague Ashley Lister at Erotica Revealed. I’m so pleased when a reader or reviewer looks outside his preferred parameters for a good read and develops an appreciative relationship with a selection. Now, I suspect that, as an erotic fiction reviewer, Ashley is a tad more explorative and adventurous than the average reader, but it’s heartwarming to see that he enjoyed Inequities‘ tale. It’s a risk to write, knowing that you could get panned for the effort. But it’s a bigger risk not to write when its your soul that would wither in the wake of creative denial.

There’s a touch of that urge in my latest Pursed Lips entry. But mostly it’s my take on whither goes erotica. Take a look at it, won’t you?

Put stickers on it, she told me disbelievingly. (Evidently, it’s the most obvious answer in the world.) So I did. The laptop — purchased at a bargain; a un-black lid was not an option — is still a work in progress, but I can share with you the decor I applied to the cover of my Sony Reader.

I love lucky cats so that’s a given whenever I apply a sticker solution to life’s problems, but what else could I enjoy? That’s when I discovered Newbury Comics’ rock posters and fell in love with the art. So that colorful print of trees? A Yo La Tengo poster. (Love the band. That cartoonish, tokidoki-ish art on their site is sticker-worthy.)

The rock posters also led me to Tara McPherson’s art. I had encountered bits and pieces of her art now and again, but it had been little more than spot motifs in the messy landscape of my visually busy world. So it was wonderful to more fully explore her work and, as a long-time SF fan of sorts, I fell in love with her outer space themes. And the eyeball balloons? Well, that seems to be a definitive McPherson mark.

Funny, isn’t it, where your love of books leads you? It’s always an adventure.

We’ve lived here for twenty-five years and have never seen anything like it. My neighbor used his leaf blower to clear his driveway. Our deck had a solid layer covering it and I was saved from sweeping only because we’ve had good, strong breezes almost every day. My husband claims trees that never before put out seeds did so, and that all the producers were triple-ladened this years.

I’m tempted to declare that the trees in our aging neighborhood had perhaps matured in peek numbers. When these homes were new, its middle class owners couldn’t afford the less messy male trees. But everyone wanted to landscape, to make their mark on these, their plots of land, their proof of having arrived, and so many female trees were bought and planted. But I’m not sure I can make the claim. The difference between this year’s and last year’s seed crop is just too extreme.

We had our final proof, however, when my husband tackled a gutter cleaning ahead of predicted storms over the weekend. What you see here is what came from our gutters. Maple seeds. Gallons of them.

So, maple trees, what gives?

But you know what really pleases me? My new page theme from Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli is my favorite animation studio. I love Miyazaki’s tales — his strong female protagonists, his love of fable and fairy tale alike, and his reverence for the earth, all amaze me.

And the theme banner simply delights me. When I call up my browser, I find one of Miyazaki’s characters staring back from mountain peaks. Today it was No Face from Spirted Away, then the cat bus from My Neighbor Totoro. Behind them, a serene valley spreads between mountain ranges, lush, fertile, and verdant.

Yeah, simple things please me.

For now, let me share with you a mildly NSFW video, the LOL Cat Rap. The MC who composed and performed it hangs with my daughter at college. Small world, ain’t it?

Cute cat picks do come with some coarse language so exercise your usual NSFW precautions.

P.S. Inequities is now at several ebook outlets and the POD edition is available at Amazon. Check the novels page for links.