THOMPSON
Well, the girl Clara returned a certified
scuba divemaster after two and a half months in Thailand, and three days
later she was on the plane to Tokyo, on her way to her scholarship year
(Year? Year!! 
) at Keio University. I felt as if she’d dropped down like Dorothy, been
turned round three times, then been sucked right back into the maelstrom by
the Wizard and his cronies.
MAELSTROM
The maelstrom included
excess baggage (I swooned at the cost), a missed flight to Narita airport,
and an encounter with a lech in a hotel near Heathrow (after missing her
flight through no fault of her own, C. was obliged to stay overnight in
London). We honestly couldn’t have got through those few days without the
help of our fabulous friend, beautiful, unflappable Madge MacLaverty, who
took
control and organized EVERYTHING. Madge has recently set up her own
travel agency, and I
urge anyone who has to take interconnecting flights anywhere in the world to
book through her. She saved us so much money/heartache/stress – it really makes such
a difference to talk to a person who genuinely cares about you and your problems
instead of having to deal with some anonymous internet penpusher.
Another big bonus is that Madge and her team will help you realise your
dream holiday, down to the smallest detail. Check out her website on
www.maclavertytravel.ie – and if you book through her, tell
her I sent you!
C. is settled now. We’ve been texting and skyping and MSNing, and she found
me a Moomin Snork Maiden trinket for my phone while
shopping in Jyugaoka, so everyone is happy as can be, under the
circumstances.
MUM'S THE WORD
This month saw the launch of Mum’s the Word – the Truth about Motherhood - a compilation of writing by Irish women authors. It’s published by the lovely team at New Island, and edited by Sarah Webb, and all the authors’ royalties will go to the National Children’s Hospital to help them raise money for research into cystic fibrosis. The book was launched in the St Stephen’s Green branch of Hughes & Hughes by supernova Cathy Kelly, and everybody did their damnedest to make sure that Mum's the Word got as much publicity as possible. I did a radio interview with Maria McCann for The Good Life on WLR FM, and the Irish Times published my contribution (click here to read) in a full-page spread. There’ll be another charity book launch next month – come back to the newsletter at www.kate-thompson.com to read all about it.
FAMILY STUFF
There’s been a lot of family stuff going
on recently that I don’t especially want to go into. It’s why my newsletters
have been shorter than usual
- life has contracted dramatically while we try and get things sorted out.
There have been no jolly junkets to write home about, and as I write this
Mal is playing soulful Cajun music in the sitting-room downstairs - which
seems pretty apposite as the melody du mois. We managed a trip out to the
mountains on the last really sunny day of the month to try and clear our
heads, and ended up at the Hellfire Club before repairing to Johnny Fox’s
for lunch (it’s the highest pub in Ireland, and their seafood is excellent).
Those of you who have read Love Lies Bleeding will know that the Hellfire
Club is one of the locations for the filming of Rory’s swashbuckling epic:
here’s a pic. It’s a truly spooky place when the sun ain’t shining– you
really would not want to go there after dark.
We also met some people for dinner one evening at a Posh Club That Shall Remain Nameless, but had to leave because – although I was wearing a beauteous People of the Labyrinths silk shirt and a rather splendid Lainey Keogh coat - I had made the heinous mistake of teaming them with jeans, which meant that we were not allowed into the dining room. I have to say that the Italian restaurant to which we repaired just down the road was jollier by far.
WHAT CAN GO WRONG........
As well as the general miasma of malaise that hung over the month of September, it also turned out to be one of those months when:
I bet you’ve had months like that, haven’t you? First the washer/drier lay down and died, then the telly went on the blink, then it was the turn of the DVD player, followed by the taps in the bathroom. But the worst thing was the MOUSE (a real one - not a computer one), who refused to oblige us by entering one of our humane traps. He must have decided that the coast was clear now that Batty, our beloved Burmese cat is no longer with us, and he persecuted us for weeks before we finally got him. I was too scared to go downstairs in case he ran up my pyjama legs while I was doing my yoga, so I took my laptop to bed every morning and worked from there instead. He was a most vociferous mouse: I swear – I sometimes heard him squeaking, going Eek eek eek, the way they do in cartoons. Anyway Mighty Mouse is now deceased courtesy of a pretty inhumane trap, I’m afraid to say (it was the only way to get rid of him), the washing machine was fixed by one of those wonderful repair men who is a font of wisdom and has a cracking sense of humour (and who managed to cheer me up on a day when I was feeling particularly crap), the new flat screen is looking good, the DVD player’s been replaced and the taps are fixed. What else could go wrong in my life?
(Ha! Watch this space… 
)
LEGS ON THE WALL
And yet, and yet… We’re off to Legs on the Wall who are performing at Dublin’s Docklands tonight – the last night of the month. No giddier or more uplifting way to take leave of September!
THANK YOU
Thank-you so much as ever for taking the time to read this, and a million thanks for your continued support. Just to let you know that I will no longer be sending out round robins to those of you who have subscribed to the site, to advise you as to when the monthly newsletter has been published. This is because the subscriber facility on the website has been hi-jacked by spammers, and it is, unfortunately, no longer possible to separate the wheat from the chaff. But please rest assured that the newsletter will continue to appear on the website as near to the first day of each month, as always.
♥♥♥
from
Kate
PS: ORDERING BOOKS
to buy
By the way, while Sex, Lies and Fairytales is available to buy or to order in all good bookshops in Ireland, the UK and the Commonwealth, its companion piece Hard to Choos is available to buy direct from booksellers only in Ireland at present. Should you wish to buy the book from Amazon, clicking here will take you straight to the sales point. You can also order Hard to Choos from Pixie's site. Lots of you are wondering where my backlist can be purchased. Amazon is good, of course, but my Transworld titles are also available - with free P&P in the UK - at Bookpost. (Just key in the title name in inverted commas - ie: "More Mischief")
to buy
© Kate Thompson, 2007
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