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Dear Reader,
I'm on vacation and author Harriet Evans has graciously offered to fill-in for me today. When I return I'm looking forward to reading the Write a Dear Reader Contest entries. If you haven't entered this year's "Share a recipe and the story behind it" contest, be sure to enter today. Even if your entry isn't one of the Grand Prize winners, your recipe and story could be featured in my next book. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/writedr
Enjoy today's column by author Harriet Evans. She would love to hear from you and she answers her mail. You can reach her at: harrietevans@harpercollins.co.uk
From Harriet Evans...
Being a writer has many many perks, but one of the downsides is being at home too much. It gives you too much time to think, and I don't have a lot of time. Take this week, for instance. I'm trying to finish the rewrites on my new book. The plumbing in our kitchen has backed up, so we can't wash dishes or do laundry. It is really hot outside. I live in London. It's never hot! I should be making the most of it, lazing by the canal where I live, watching the swans go by. This will probably be the only sunny day we get.
Instead, I'm standing over a huge suitcase, wondering what to pack. You see, I'm going to New York, as my book is published there. And it's extremely hard to know what to take. It feels very far away, and it makes me think about how I see myself, and how others see me. (Like I said: writers think too much.) Do I take the strappy high, lemon yellow heels that make me walk with confidence through the Rockefeller Plaza, to see my publishers? But I'm 5 foot 11 already, I don't need any more height, I'll just look like a beanpole, and it's so hot there, and sweaty, and I'll get blisters and fall over...
Do I take the adorable city shorts that I bought last year and never wear? They're so stylish...
But I'm thirty-six! City shorts are for twenty-one year olds, just pack a pair of nice jeans!
Do I take East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which I took off my bookshelf in March, meaning to read, after yet another person told me how much they loved it? I really ought to, and it'd be great to read a great American novel while I'm out there.
But I do love People and US Weekly, and you can't get them in the UK so easily...
I'll have to take my laptop with me, to continue doing my rewrites when I'm there. But I want to do some New York stuff that's fun too. Should I take my notebook and just head off for an adventure, get on a subway and see where it takes me, or should I be a good girl and work every spare minute I get? I wish someone could tell me.
Back to the suitcase. Do I really need a sparkly top, covered with sequins? But it's New York, who knows what might happen and when I might need a sparkly top! I might end up going to the opera, or having cocktails at the Algonquin, or getting lost in Central Park and meeting a handsome prince...anything could happen.
But no, it won't. The suitcase needs to be filled with shampoo and manuscript, contact lenses and underwear. I should finish up, sit down and do some work now. I need to call a plumber, and remind my boyfriend to let them in while I'm away. (I'm not sure how he'd feel about the handsome prince, either!) Real life will continue, even when I'm in New York. It's just nice, sometimes, to escape the real world and imagine what might happen. Even if it gives you blisters. And magazines last for a week, and then they're out of date. I'm taking East of Eden. I'm looking forward to it.
Happy reading,
Harriet xx
Harriet Evans is the internationally bestselling author of I Remember You and three previous novels,Going Home, A Hopeless Romantic and The Love of Her Life. Prior to her writing career, Harriet worked at Penguin for seven years, progressing from secretary to editorial director, publishing mainly women's fiction. In 2003 she went on to another publisher, Headline. Harriet is now a full-time writer living in London. Visit www.harriet-evans.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov. To start reading and enter for your chance to win a Penguin totebag go to: http://tinyurl.com/July10Classics
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