BIRTHDAY BLOG - AND BLOT

          In the midst of writing the third Sterkarm book, and learning how to put books on the kindle, and starting up Kindle Authors UK with my friend and kindle-buddy, Katherine Roberts, my birthday cropped up.

The cake

      I was ready to let it slide, but my little brother and sister weren’t having it.  I was expected, they let me know, at theirs.  Presents had to be collected. Cake had to be scoffed.

           Nor was I sorry to abandon the kindle for a while.  Look at this for a cake for a writer. All made in one afternoon between Patti and Adam. Patti made the cake – and a delicious, moist, sweet, lemony confection it was too.  (I recently ate – well, left after one bite - a professionally made chocolate sponge which was chokingly dry, not very chocolatey, and couldn’t hold a candle, birthday or otherwise, to Patti’s home–made madeira. If ever she calls a halt to her complicated MRI and CAT-scanning shenanigans, she could make a living with cakes.)  The decoration was in marzipan, (which I much prefer to icing) and my brother had done the writing.  I was so chuffed and impressed, I had no words.

           Pressies too.  Patti had remembered me being intrigued when one of my Royal Literary Fund students had told me about the little round canisters of spices used in Asian families – so she’d bought me one!  
And also a box of various spices to put in it, including mustard seeds, cumin, chilli-powder and turmeric.  It’s such a pretty thing, with the little bowls and the different colours and scents of the spices.

Blot, being inspirational

          I already felt stunned, and then my brother, Adam – who, of course, invented Blot, produced this little Blot, which he’d carved and painted, to replace my beloved but deceased old cat, and to be my permanent muse, watching over me as I write.

          Thank you Patti, little sis, and Adam, little bro – and thanks to Andrew and Davy for being there too.  It was a wonderful birthday!

See more Blott, reviews, links articles at my website.www.susanpriceauthor.com

 BLOTT - 'ICKLE PUSSY-CAT'