Greetings, everyone!

First of all, our apologies for the totally dated-ness of the website. It desperately needs an update, and we will do it as soon as we have, oh, five minutes in a row where it can get done. It's been slightly busy around here. So, my apologies, and it will be updated soon.

I'm here in Chicago for the last day, hopping in my car for the 8-hr drive back to Minneapolis tonight--whereupon Jeff and I will have a mad scramble to get ready for Italy. We're leaving tomorrow, and curiously have almost nothing prepared. There is packing. There is the acquiring of an Italian phrasebook. There are tickets to get to the places we want to see. There are hotels whose names I've forgotten but have written down here somewhere, I hope. There is the matter of many trains. Jeff is in charge of trains; I sincerely hope he's figured something out train-wise, or we'll be stranded in the Milan airport with our not-overweight luggage (NOL) trying to sort out how to get where we want to go, perhaps by roller skate. As for the luggage--in a devastating move, the airline industry has decided they will no longer check my vastly overweight luggage without charging me an astronomical fee to do so. This means maybe not so many shoes, and no stacks of books taking up half the suitcase. This will be something of an advantage; it's possible that now I will be able to actually lift my suitcase, which I suspect will be handy when we arrive (hopefully by train) in Lago di Como and take a boat to a little town and take a cab to an even littler town, which I suspect may have cobblestone streets. Which will be beautiful. And not super-convenient for the lugging of V(astly)OL anywhere. Ever tryed to drag VOL over a cobblestone street? Sounds like a good way to fall over, if you ask me. And then I'd probably break a heel.

I've had a most delicious week of work on the new novel. Which persistently and exasperatingly does not have a title. If you have any titles floating around, please feel free to suggest. I imagine this would be harder to do if you didn't know what the book is about; well, the book is about, um, America, war, the 20th century, fathers and sons, and some other stuff. "Fathers and Sons" is already taken, the title of Turgenev's 1862 classic. So that won't work. And no one will let me use the truly awful and baffling name I use for it in my head, which is the superb "The Rise and Fall of Arnie's Great Nation." Nope, sez the agent, editor, and publicist (who I have come to call the Trinity). Has to be something even slightly less totally obscure and semi-random. It's very weird for me not to have a title this far into work on a book. So I'm waiting to stumble upon it as I go. But, like I said, taking suggestions.

Work this week also entailed the trashing of a great big section I was working on, which was very satisfying. When you've written yourself into a corner and are completely despairing of ever getting out, it's hard to remember that you can, if you want, pitch it. Which I did. I am very pleased with this, and now, when I get back from Italy, I have a fresh clean slate on which to scribble the stuff that will actually work. Have I mentioned fourteen zillion times how weird writing a novel actually is? Very weird, with the feeling your way toward the story, brushing it off as if you're digging for fossils, watching it get clearer as you go, then occasionally writing yourself into a corner, where the only option is to trash what you've got. Which, as I said--highly satisfying. Now, onward with the better work.

Also, upon return from Italy, there will be an article to write for Vogue. Will let you know when it will run.

And as for Italy--man, they don't do things halfway over there. There are actually only three days of tour; these three days consist of back-to-back interviews for 12 hrs each day, a debate, some dinners, a plane ride or two, and various other. The US tour was a relaxing vacation by comparison. Whoosh. But the rest of the time we're there, we are (gulp) actually relaxing. I for one have forgotten what that's like or how to do it, and I suspect Jeff has as well; it may take us a few days of leaping and lurching and jumping at sudden noises to get the hang of it. I almost feel guilty for taking the days off, but that is so TYPICAL I can't even stand it. At this point, living in a hotel and out of a suitcase feels more normal than being at home. But soonish, I'll be home for a spell, and I'll go back to the regular blog unless I'm traveling.

For you UK folks—I believe Madness comes out today. For my friends in Italy, I think it's next week. It will be fun to see which countries buy it after that. Translation is such an interesting thing, and of course I am totally ignorant and speak no languages other than English and have no idea if any of the translations of my work make any sense whatsoever. You will all have to tell me when the book comes to your country. I'll keep you posted on that. (For readers interested in marvelous essays, and on the matter of translation, don't miss Milan Kundera's "Testaments Betrayed." His native language is Czech, but, after his exile to France in 1975, he began writing his books in French because the translations of his Czech-written works were so horrible. The book is about books written in languages twice removed from his native tongue, and it is completely fascinating.)

My friends, that's all I've got for today. I'll be posting as soon as I have internet access in Italy, and I can't wait to tell you what I see...and if I have any wits about me, I'll manage to post some pictures as well.

Cheers,
Marya