I went out to dinner last week with the Dirty Girls Running Group Which Doesn’t Actually Run and received two lovely belated birthday gifts. Books, of course, since the DGs are the girls who know me best!

So I’ll be cracking the spines soon on The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which sounds exactly like the quirky sort of book I love…

… and Lean In, which is apparently going to make me a take-charge woman of power. (Not that I’m not already supremely powerful. In my own mind.)

I also received an amazing piece of orginal art from my friend Joanna, incorporating this quote:

You must write every single day of your life. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
— Ray Bradbury

Isn’t that a perfect slice of inspiration?

Incidentally, I asked these dear friends for their advice on preparing for my book launch. They suggested that I:

• wear a short skirt and no underwear
• buy a highly eccentric writerly hat
• speak in tongues

I’m thinking they’re better at gifts than advice, no?