I am back from visiting the awesome Risky Megan in Brooklyn. My son and I had a great time. We went to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway, and it was fun and funny and possibly the highlight of the trip, aside from seeing Megan.

I met with my Berkley and Grand Central editors and did a Q&A recording and also read two excerpts from the paranormals while at GCP. I often dressed in black. Megan and I discussed the possibility of a fashion difference between left and right coasts, in that I observered that boots are big on the right. Many women wear awesome boots and maybe I’ll have to get some. Here on my part part of the left coast, the only women in boots, by and large, just came into town from riding and are also wearing riding pants; sometimes jodhpurs and but often heavy leggings with a suede lining on the inner thighs.

. I forced the progeny  The progeny and I went to the Met to see, among other things the Jan Gosset exhibit. Gosset is a Renaissance painter and I am particularly interested in the period because I have a project that will be set in a Renaissance-like world and I wanted to find out more about clothing etc. When I have an extra $80 lying around I’ll buy the exhibit book.

My son pointed out several times after the exhibit that there was an old lady with cane who was going through the exhibit faster than I was.  I needed to really study those portraits, for one thing and for another the portraits were amazing. His religious paintings I found to be far less interesting and at times downright disturbing. The face of an adult on the body of the Christ child is just . . . creepy.

But the portraits. Oh my.

Portrait by Jan Gosset

They were just astonishingly good. Fantastic exhibit.

Some of you may recall my post about exploding pencils from September 2009. Well guess what?

Seriously. Guess.

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SPOILER

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OK, I’ll tell you.

I’m going to use a phosphorus pencil in The Next Historical, and I’m thinking maybe it will start a fire.

Watch out!