Ordinarily authors do not play much of a role at midwinter ALA conventions (as opposed to the huge summer convention where there are signing booths everywhere) but because this year's Midwinter is in Boston, I will be involved in a couple of things: at 2 PM on Saturday, an interview with Roger Sutton at the Horn Book booth (more details at Roger's blog)---he'll have a series of authors, one after another---and Sunday evening, a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt dinner at which a number of authors will be briefly presenting/describing their spring 2010 books. Should be fun.

I came back from Baja with a tooth problem, a temporary crown that had broken and needed to be replaced---somehow looking for a dentist in Tecate did not feel like a great idea!--so that was done yesterday. And also Alfie went yesterday for hs bath-and-grooming appointment and was REJECTED!  Turned away!  The humiliation!  They said he was too matted and would need to be shaved.  No way are we having him shaved when the temperature outside is down in single digits. Tomorrow he goes to a different groomer who -- we hope --  will be willing to spend the time to tend his thick fur and clean him up. His hair gets matted very easily, unfortunately. But he is very patient if he is in the hands of a patient groomer.

Here is a photo from a very creative gift-giver, who gave a copy of my book CROW CALL to a friend, arranged in a basket with related things: homemade cherry pie, and a stuffed crow.   What a nifty idea, which could be adapted to any number of gift books....

...though I wonder how one would deal with THE HUNGER GAMES!

I saw Jeff Bridges' new film "Crazy Heart" Sunday evening and cannot rave enough about his nuanced and heart-breaking performance.  I still had his email address from the days in which we were working together on something (alas, an aborted effort, eventually) so I was able to email him my high praise---not that he needed it!  He will certainly be an Oscar nominee. Next on my list is "A Single Man" for which Colin Firth is getting such fine reviews...I'm going to it Tuesday night.

And now, with my matted, bad-hair-day dog lying at my feet, I am going  back to work.