Looking daggers at him

On Tuesday I was watching the Specsavers Crime and Thriller Awards - otherwise known as the Daggers - with great interest. Rather bizarrely at the same time as Harlan Coben was being interviewed and picking up his award on ITV3, he was also talking to me on Facebook.

My best beloved could not quite get his head around that idea. As the interview continued and he learned more about Harlan, his bemusement grew.

"So he's American?"
"Yes. From New York."
"So he's sitting there at (checks his watch) 5.15 in the afternoon in New York and talking to you on Facebook?"
"Yes."
"Why would he want to do that? I mean, he must know lots of people. Why is he talking to you?"
"I don't know - because he's met me, because he likes me, general 'fancare', because I'm watching him on the Daggers, who knows...?"
"But he must have better things to do than be talking to you."

All said without a trace of irony.

This conversation continued for quite a while. My husband does not see the point of social networking sites and the idea that people want to communicate appears to confuse him.

One thing is for sure - regardless of how successful my writing may become, even if I myself end up winning the bestseller dagger, I will never be allowed to grow a big head - not as long as I am married to someone who thinks that talking to me is pointless!

The person before the person

Before the resemblance hits my painting of the person I am trying to depict, there is usually another one that sneaks in there first. I don't know why.

At the start, Mark Billingham resembled Osama Bin Laden, Ian Rankin resembled Ian Ogilvy and now the close-up of my husband's face looks like Kenny Everett - all because I put his mouth a little bit too high.

In case you were wondering, I bought all sorts of canvasses yesterday and was finally able to find a pretty close match, so the previous day's work was not wasted.