Sadie Shapiro's Knitting Book/The Years of the Forest/The Taking of Pelham One Two Three/The Curse of the Kings/Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian [antikvár]

Somewhere on her desk there had to be a pencil.Marian Wall held two fingers in the margin of the black-bound manuscript while she searched through a litter of galley proofs, ashtrays, business cards, the remains of a liverwurst sandwich on rye toast, five envelopes containing bill payments she had meant to mail last week, and assorted scraps of paper scribbled over with ideas. There had to be a pencil. She opened the center drawer of her desk. Underneath a jumble of emery boards, tissues, paper clips, plastic spoons, and packets of sugar, a spot of yellow indicated a well-worn Mongol #2. Now for a scratch pad, bottom left-hand drawer. Now what was it she wanted to note?Sighing, Marian put the pencil between the pages to hold her place and closed the manuscript. I have been working on too many gothic novels, she thought. After a while they all tend to become one in your mind. The brave young heroines in danger, the old rotting mansions set in bleak landscapes, the mysterious (but handsome) young men who would either threaten or fall in love with the heroine, and sometimes do both.Turning in her swivel chair, Marian looked into the oval mirror that hung on the smudged cream-colored wall. Thirty-three years old, she thought, and I hate my hair. She peered at the strands of gray. Does she or doesn't she? She doesn't, and it shows. Next