Today at the Writers' Conference

This morning Melody and I drove up to Sewanee to hear a panel on publishing with editors Kathy Pories of Algonquin, Elizabeth Schmitz of Grove/Atlantic, and Gary Fisketjon of Knopf. They were all very gracious, but I was especially pleased to speak with Mr Fisketjon for a moment after the panel broke up. He has been McCarthy's editor since Albert Erskine retired from Random House, but I also learned that he fought for Suttree to be included in a little line of paperbacks he launched in the eighties called Vintage Contemporaries. He says that he treats a McCarthy manuscript just like all the others, estimating he reads approximately five pages an hour. What a job.

Also, I must say that my lady loves me. Today is her birthday. And what does she want to do? Go see people she has never heard of talk about books.

Afterwards, we went swimming at the reservoir just off campus. Then we came home for an amazing birthday cake Melody baked for herself yesterday because I was trying to finish a paper.