Just back a few days ago from a wonderful trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras--caught mucho mucho throws (that's a N.O euphemism for beads, flashing lights things and stuffed velveteen crawfish, etc.) One Mardi Gras highlight was the Zulu Crewe's floats and I even managed to capture the elusive cocon...

I went to see He's just not that into you yesterday. What a dud. What a bore. The only audience this might appeal to is teenage girls. Based on a nonfiction book of the same name (if the film kept faithful to the book, then the authors are morons and it's not a surprise publishing's in crisis), the ...

It all happened so quietly, so unexpectedly. It began as flickering, something one dismisses as a quirk.The next quirk was that the photographs I use as my screen saver disappeared--utterly.When I next booted up, they'd returned. And then on Monday came the belligerence. The disk simply didn't want ...

Nothing worse than having car problems when you don't know too much about cars. I wish I'd watched my Dad more as a kid when he did things under the hood. Taking the car down to the local tire supplier--they've got great prices but they're die hard Republicans and seething about Obama's victory and ...

So I took the plunge and decided to open the covers of my first 'women's fiction' novel. It's My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I started reading it while on the elliptical at the 'Y'--the true acid test of a good book, because if it doesn't make the time fly, out it goes. Astonishingly, my first ...

We went up to see Wintuk at Madison Square Garden over the weekend. I'd never seen a Cirque du Soleil production before so I was quite excited. It's the story of a Nordic boy's quest to have snow in his village for Christmas. At first I was apprehensive when the performance began and three skate boa...

Lottery "My name is Perry L. Crandall and I am not retarded." So begins this debut novel I've just read that's best described as wonderfully quirky. It's called Lottery by Patricia Wood and it unfurls in a town by the sea in Washington State with a quick jaunt on vacation to Hawaii with his friend K...

So this week was a little trying. I'd been having some pain in the upper right side of my jaw every time I chewed and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. On Tuesday, it was so excruciating, I couldn't wait for Wednesday morning to come. Yeah, that bad. First thing I call my dentist. An a...

View of whinbush-pocked hills near my late grandparents old farm Had a wonderful time in Ireland catching up with nephews and nieces and brothers and sisters. My youngest brother Dermot and I and his kids Dierbhle (my Goddaughter), Jermaid (Irish For Dermot), Fergal and Callum (fraternal twins) and ...

I finished the first draft of the novel last week, took a few days off to celebrate and now have started the rewriting. This is the time when a lot of authors become uneasy, nervous or downright despondent. They read what they've written and say to themselves, 'This sucks' or words to that effect. W...