Jane Haddam

How do you spell that, anyway–weekend?  week-end?  week end?  I have no idea. Anyway, it’s Saturday, and I’m taking the week-end, meaning doing nothing serious–not even thinking about anything serious–until Monday.  Every once in a while, I have to do that, or I go crazy.  Well, okay.  I will still think about my mother and…

I ask, because if you’re from McDonald’s, you pronounce it “frap-pay.” But I’m from New England, it’s pronounced “frap” and it’s basically a milkshake. I bring this up because I picked up a McD’s frappe on the way in to teach tonight.  Now I’m sitting here watching it get dark, not because it’s late but…

Well, of course, JD is right–I meant to say that sensible regulation can decrease the frequency of large market corrections by insisting on prudence in at least some areas.  And this morning, my mind is generally on the necessity of having somebody make decisions for you when you cannot.  I know it’s necessary, and since…

So–the book is finished, and went off, via e-mail, yesterday.  You have no idea how much I love the fact that I no longer have to send hard copies.  Printing a book out always seemed to me like a gigantic, counterproductive pain in the butt.  And doing revisions on a hard copy was worse. But…

So, here’s the thing. I’m almost finished with this book. My guess is two to three more days.  And I’m at that place where I’m getting panicked that I’m not going to be able to clean it all up in time–that I’ll leave out explanations that have to be made, and all the rest of…

Well, I’m in for a meeting, so I’m a little distracted.  But I do want to point out that I was talking about nonfiction essays and articles yesterday, not about fiction or “creative writing.” And I agree–the “process” is not entirely stupid, especially for kids who have no ear and never will.  It provides a…

Maybe the first thing I ought to do is to make a distinction.  There are different kinds of writing well.  Writing really well is of course a talent, and people either have it or they don’t.  You can train your voice forever and never reach the quality necessary to sing at the Met, even if…

So, the summer is winding down a little, and this book is finishing itself, and I thought that I would try, today, to answer a question from a friend of mine that I’ve been dancing around in my head now for several weeks. The question is this: what would be the best course to take…

So, let me see if I can write about something not so self absorbed this morning.  Not that it hasn’t been a long week-end and a long morning, because it has.  But. What I’ve been reading the last few days is a book by Bruce Thornton called Greek Ways:  How the Greeks Created Western Civilization.…

Well, it’s four o’clock in the morning on a Saturday–okay, closer to four thirty–and I’ve been up for hours.  I got my work done.  I’ve got a really huge cup of tea.  It’s business as usual, except that my mother is in the hospital again. Okay.  That’s business as usual, too, at least in one…