The Star

Our trip to The Star Cafe was a success and mostly because of eight-month-old Jacob. When I told Jeannie that Jacob and his father were meeting us, she said, "Neither of my sons would want to spend the evening with two old ladies," and I replied, "Christian is special." He is, and so is Jacob, who flirted with and charmed everyone in the restaurant--he has the art of tilting his head and grinning down pat, and no adult can help but be charmed. We had a wonderful evening. When I talked to Colin (well, mainly Morgan) on Skype tonight, I said, "Both my boys would go to dinner with two old ladies, wouldn't they?" and he said, "One of them would." I didn't know if that meant him or his brother, but I told him I thought they both would.
Tonight good friends Linda and Rodger who make me laugh a lot came in from Granbury and we went out to dinner. Linda was full of the Oscars and telling me all about the movies and recounting her interest in what picture wins best film and I listened in awe--it's so far from anything I'm interested in. She did admit that by the time they named "Best Picture" she'd be in her bed asleep. As they dropped me off, she said, "Do you want me to call you?" and I assured her much as I'd like to talk to her, I'd read it in the paper in the morning.
I've worked on "Early Texas Maps" so much this weekend that I'm blue in the face, but I did go to church and did start reading a new mystery--I'm not telling the title or author, because I was horrified to discover in the early pages that there was a skeleton and a reference to Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado"--just as in my novel, although handled very differently. Since I wrote mine before reading this, and since any of us are free to refer to Poe's story, I suppose there's no possibility of a plagiarism accusation (perhaps this blog will serve as evidence). I do find I'm reading much more analytically--this is an author I admire, and the novel certainly starts out with more bone-chilling terror than in mine. I think mine is what I would call an American cozy--the American version of the tried-and-true English genre. But I think the book I am now reading is slow in bringing the main character into view, and so far it seems like two separate plots, though I'm sure they'll intersect. Still I see places where I think, "I would have done this differently." I suspect that's good, though it could also just be cocky.
The work week looms.