Peter and the Starcatchers

Cape Cod Weather Today: Beautiful. Sunny, already 66 degrees, and the pool is turquoise blue and ready to swim in. If the water was warmer. Ha! I'll bet the kids are in it before too long...

I just read Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Started it yesterday while waiting for my son's band lesson to be over, and finished it this morning with my coffee. What a great story! I'd bought it for the boys years ago, but personally I couldn't get past the Dave Barry thing. I mean, he was always one of my favorite columnists, but I didn't see how that would translate into a book for younger readers. And yet... it works. Really well.

For those who may not have heard of this when it came out a few years ago (2004, Disney Hyperion Books), it's the story of how Peter Pan got his powers, how he met and made enemies with the infamous Captain Hook, and how the island of "Neverland" came to be. In the acknowledgments, the authors thank Pearson's daughter for asking "how a flying boy met a certain pirate." Leave it to a child to come up with the idea for a great kids' book.

I've always loved Peter Pan - I think we saw it the Disney version at the drive-in with my parents on a summer night long ago - long enough in my past that I'm pretty certain my sisters and I were all in our pajamas with our pillows in the back of the convertible to go to the drive-in theatre, for first the kids movie and then the feature presentation (where my parents expected the three of us to bed down in the backseat and fall asleep.) When my oldest son was four, my mother-in-law took him to see Peter Pan onstage in Chatham, and for the next year he was on the lookout for pirates and flying boys.

I don't want to give away any of the plot points, but if you like the Peter Pan story and ever wondered how he learned to fly.... read this book. It's quick, it's well-written, and it's fun.

This would make a great live-action adventure movie. I hope someone has optioned it. Also, I hope in making it they figure out how to make the mermaids believable, because that would help pave the way in people's minds for MY mermaid tale of adventure. (LOL - but not really kidding) I have seen the previews for the new animated Tinkerbelle movie, which gives a whole different background story for the fairies... so maybe they won't be filming this book.

But they should.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Cape Cod Weather Today: Cloudy and 50 degrees, with rain showers predicted on and off throughout the day. Which is okay because I should be sitting here writing, and not gardening.

Everything is blooming.

I need to get a picture of my wisteria this year because it's incredible. The azaleas (like the one above) are bursting with color - pinks and reds scattered around our yard and neighborhood - and the rhododendrons have just begun to bloom. The blueberries and raspberries are all budding with flowers (and potential berries) and the tomato plants all have little yellow blooms on them as well (yea!) The camellias are long past, but that's okay. (They're covered in aphid mold and need to be sprayed every week which kills the blooms anyway.)

There are hundreds of birds nesting in my yard - the rhodies are quite overgrown, eight or ten feet tall on the perimeter of the back yard - and I even saw a pair of birds building a nest behind the American eagle that sits over my front door.

Mother Nature puts a lot of energy into spring, making it showy.If I tried to use that many adjectives on a page, people would laugh and call it purple prose, like the contest over at the Query Tracker blog.

All that spring rain sure had a great purpose. SO next year? When I inevitably complain again about the lousy weather? Remind me why we have all those April showers, could you?

Because nothing beats the bloom of May on Cape Cod.

Ah, Spring...

Cape Cod Weather Today: Cloudy, drizzly and 50 degrees. But I'm not complaining (for a change) because we need some rain to wash away the abundant pollen...

My spring yard work is almost complete. The mulch is all spread, the bushes are mostly trimmed, the leaves hauled to the compost area at the dump... the dump compost hauled back here to plant my husband's (hopefully) luscious heirloom tomatoes... and some hostas and daylillies that I took out of a friend's yard as she was separating her garden (I still owe her a bottle of wine)...and the pool is open and a lovely shade of green. Well, I said the yard was ALMOST ready. Right?

Opening the pool this year was tricky, since my husband tore a tendon in his knee earlier this spring, but the boys stepped up and did a lot of the work. Now we just have to be patient as the chemicals do their work.

The BEST part of spring on Cape Cod is the FRESH FISH. We had freshly caught fish the last two nights in a row - - not to say finally, but FINALLY! I love fresh, fresh blue fish. I would never order it in a restaurant, and I think the smoked version my m-i-l serves is... for palettes other than mine. But Fresh Blue Fish is awesome. I could have that for dinner every day. The Striped Bass my husband and his brother catch rock, too, but I never thought I'd be a bluefish lover...and I am.

The yellow pollen, on the other hand, has to go. It's covering everything, indoors and out. My car looks like a giant blew his nose all over it. Splotchy yellowy green.

Happy Spring and Early Summer to all!

100 Days Until My Novel is Released

Cape Cod Weather Today: Same as yesterday. Beautiful.


One Hundred Days. When you say it like that, it sounds... pretty cool.

Does anyone know how I would install a countdown clock app on this page? Just to tease myself? And you?

Another thing to add to my list today.

Still not writing today - need to finish mulching the backyard and getting it ready to open the pool this weekend (it is almost June after all, it's gonna be warm sometime) Never did get to tearing down the wallpaper in the bathroom this week, as I'd promised my husband before he flew off to Nebraska on business. Busy with landscaping. But I told my son yesterday, I enjoy landscaping because when it's done I get a great feeling of satisfaction, surveying the yard and thinking "I did that."

I think the feeling when I see my book in print will be similar. Maybe a little more intense.

I'm looking forward to finding out.

One Hundred Days.