Mornings around here

luffy (who was a rescue cat times 10 -- she had so many things wrong with her when she came to live on our porch as a stray kitten 5 years ago) (and if you should ever run into my ex, Mike, anywhere and ask him about Fluffy, he can tell you the exact amount of the several hundreds of dollars it cost us to "save that mangy alley cat"), anyway, Fluffy lost all 4 of her teeth this past winter. She's doing totally fine as a toothless cat, but now she has a lot of trouble grooming herself. Her long hair gets matted into these awful knots underneath her. I try, little by little, to help her out there, using a pair of small scissors and a brush, but she destroys my hands. Claws she's got! And they are incredibly sharp. She thinks we're playing, but when she finally really hooks me with one of her needle-sharp claws and won't let go, she gives me the oddest little look, like: "Why on earth are you screaming like that; is it part of the game???" To her, it's a real puzzler.

Well, that's how my lovely Sunday morning got underway today, gang. And I didn't sleep well last night. Full Moon stuff keeping my thoughts chasing their tails. What is it about "darkness" and "laying down in bed" that makes thoughts chase themselves? As soon as you get up and do something, even in the dark, it's much easier to get the noise to stop. But then I have 2 other cats who get really excited when they see me getting out of bed at any hour b/c then they assume it's time to be fed. So when my thoughts had calmed down a little and I went back to bed and fell asleep again, Buster started batting things off the dresser in an effort to get me out of bed again to go feed him. And the minute I so much as stirred, Bunny's lovely face was directly in my face, practically wondering aloud: "Are you up???"

So I gave up, got out of bed and fed everyone, including myself.

Some quick career updates. My reading & book signing in Paris is most likely going to take place on Thursday evening, Oct. 6th. One of my appearances in England will take place in London on Thursday evening, Oct. 13th.

In Paris, I'll be reading in French, from the French-language re-issue of my book Neptune & Surf. I will probably be reading from the novella titled Gianni's Girl. (Upon publication in 1999, Gianni's Girl was compared very enthusiastically to Scorsese's Good Fellas and Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In America -- so this gives you an idea that Gianni's Girl is perhaps Mob-related and violent; I'm sure it will sound less so in French, however!)

In London, I will be reading from my new novel Twilight of the Immortal as well as giving a talk about the great and intensely "out" lesbian Silent Film star, Alla Nazimova. She is a main character in the novel and I totally love her:

hings on the screenwriting front are still going quite well, and work on the new crime novel, The Violin Girl, is still going quite well. So I won't complain.

On the old-movie-watching front: Last night, for the first time since it was actually out in theaters (1988), I re-watched I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka. That movie is so fucking funny. Just too silly. Even after the movie was over and I turned out the lights and snuggled down into my terrifically snuggly pillows, I was still laughing. I mean, laughing -- all by myself there; tears were coming out of my eyes. For some stupid reason, I love that scene where they go into that bar and the singer on stage is singing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and she's just, like, totally going to town on it like it's the most meaningful song ever in the known history of the world. And she's wearing the most ridiculous dress...

Okay, I'm gonna git started around here, gang. The sun is out, at least for now, so I want to go take my walk!! Yay. Hope things are going good wherever you are. If not, well, hang in there, folks. One thing we know for certain around here: Time Changes Everything.