Ladies and gentlemen, it's a... book!

Well, I have it in my hands, Cartography, this product of a 13 year gestation. Delighted I am, but U.A. Fanthorpe captures that sense of our poems never quite living up to the perfection we'd aspired to (which is why we keep trying?!): "As usual, when they're together, and bound, I feel ashamed of them. Individually, they had a right to exist. But when they gape out at me, cheek by jowl, I feel like a mother with a whole clutch of unsatisfactory children."

Anyway, it is here, and it is particularly lovely thanks to a cover image by the quite extraordinary Calgary artist Colleen Philippi, whose art has blessed the cover of three of my books now. The launch will be lovely too, and I hope anyone in the area will come and celebrate with me on May 3.

Supper tonight will be arroz con pollo which I haven't had for a very long time, and which I saw described as the Cuban cousin of paella. I can't help but admire a meat dish that incorporates both starch and vegetable, yet doesn't come across as a casserole. Or maybe I'm just falling for an exotic sounding name for good ol' chicken and rice.