An EXCELLENT book! I'm reading Carolyn Morrow Long's Mada...

An EXCELLENT book! I'm reading Carolyn Morrow Long's Madame Lalaurie: Mistress of the Haunted House, the book I WOULD have used for research for Fever Season if it had been written back then. Excellent research - into notorial records, Cathedral registers, personal letters - and very well written, a fascinating read. (And thank you, Carolyn, for the nice mention of Fever Season in the intro!). Covers WAY more than Mme L. I remember when I was researching Fever Season, a lot of the research was still involved with, "Did she or didn't she?" I went with, "Yes, she did," because the oldest accounts didn't seem to have any doubt about it, and Long thoroughly shakes out every account and Yeah, she certainly did. An excellent book!

It's definitely spring. At the Venice Farmer's Market this morning the Strawberry Guys were back - Harry's Berry's, they raise Gaviota variety strawberries, which are a bit too fragile to be commercially shipped in bulk and half-raw to supermarkets. They are jaw-droppingly divine.

And, outside a 7-11 I saw a male pigeon, all fluffed up and with his tail spread, doing his little mating-dance in front of a totally not-interested female. She kept wandering away in search of fragments of popcorn on the sidewalk, and Mr. Hopeful had to run around in front of her and start his dance again, cooing all the while "Hey, Baby, what's your sign? You know, I can tell things about you that you probably don't know yourself..."

A LONG day of work today.