I am thinking of signing up for

... National Novel Writing Month again. arghghghghgghgh. OK, mostly I just wanted to put that in writing and see how it felt. But the thing is, I came up with a totally genius idea for a plot. Are you ready? here it is: STEAL SOMEONE ELSE'S. Brilliant, isn't it? I just started rereading Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey, which my mother rejected as "too plot-driven," by which she means "you can tell it was written by a guy," which I don't think is necessarily a reason for rejecting a book out of hand, especially when it's as gorgeously written and kooky as that one is. BUT here's the point: he basically just rewrote bits of someone else's book!! I could do that! My friend Sam has been working on a retelling of Chaucer for as long as I've known him, for instance; Alicia Silverstone became famous for Clueless, Leonard Bernstein and West Side Story... the list goes on. So all I have to do is pick my classic (Le Morte d'Arthur, perhaps - lots of juicy material in that) and then pick my gimmick (rewritten as a 1950's Soviet phone directory! or a rock opera libretto set in Gaugin's Fiji!). It can't fail.

While I dither about that, I also have to spend a minute gushing about Hilary Mantel, who is my new author BFF. I just finished reading Wolf Hall, and wowee zowee! girlfriend can tell a good story. I actually got a little obsessive and weird about this book, to the point of nearly not quite actually neglecting my child's basic needs in favour of reading it, especially towards the end when I was racking up 10 cents a day in library late fees, but I didn't care because it was worth 10 cents a day just to be reading it because it was so good. And totally heartbreaking that the book stops at what feels like a good ending point to Cromwell, but the reader knows that all kinds of shit is just about to hit the fan... now, there is a plot device. See, I am overusing italics because I am so excited about how much fun this book was to read. Please excuse me, I need to go get on the library website and request everything else Hilary Mantel has ever written.