There's a fascinating article about Harper Lee up at The Independent right now. I've always loved To Kill a Mockingbird; it's sobering to read that she'd already completed half of her second novel by the time Mockingbird was published, but the enormity of her sudden success scared her straight into writer's block. And of course there were lots of other reasons, and a lot of it is guesswork, since she is an intensely private person; but regardless, it's an interesting piece, and definitely worth reading.

As Patrick mentioned, we've bought a car! It's a Ford Focus from 2003, it's a gorgeous shade of blue (not the reason we chose it, but what a lovely added bonus), and we're naming it Harriet, after Harriet Vane in the Dorothy Sayers mysteries, which I've been re-reading addictively lately. We'll pick it up tomorrow. Hurray!

And today I bought a new spiral-bound notebook to use for Congress of Shadows revisions, to try to make the whole process feel less intimidating and more fun. Time to pull out the stickers and colored pens, I think...