Odd book titles, finishing touches on Big Cat Pepper

My blog today should be "read, write, laugh."

One of the things I don't do well is come up with titles. I admire people who do short snappy titles -- Laurie Halse Anderson is incredible at this with titles like Speak and Chains. I seem to prefer ten words or more....

So here's a contest for oddest book title of the year, started at the international Bologna Book Fair. Read to the end (it's a short article) for a good laugh.

We're getting down to the details on Big Cat Pepper. Melanie Cecka at Bloomsbury just sent me flap copy to check over, and asked for my dedication. Lauren Castillo's artwork is all done and is absolutely gorgeous.

Overheard conversations: a one-off, or a whole novel

I've got an overheard quote in Leah Garchik's funny column today on love. Funny as in laugh-out-loud, not funny as in odd, weird.

I'm one of those faithful readers who starts my day by opening the Datebook section of the Chronicle and reading Garchik's Public Eavesdropping of the day. And I always check to see if I know the person who sent it in. Just for fun.

And of course, I'm always listening for overheard bits of conversation. They can be much more fun than the whole, complicated story.

Or heart-wrenching. Walking to the library on UC campus recently I overheard a young, attractive blond woman saying to another: "I'm her birth mother. I just want to have a relationship with her."

That's the start of a whole novel, right there.