I just got back from Boston, where I stayed, as always, with my friend Esther. A couple of days ago, we were sitting at the kitchen table, clicking away at our laptops, when she said, “Zut!”

“You’re the only French person I know who says that,” I told her.

“Zut?”

“Yeah, it’s very cute, for a swear word.” (“Zut” is the French equivalent of “darn it!”)

“What about Thomas? Doesn’t he say it?”

“Are you kidding? My husband swears like a French sailor.”

Then, last night, she said it again: “Zut alors!”

I laughed. “Esther, you remind me of the crazy French cook in The Little Mermaid.” She didn’t know what I meant, so I showed her:

I loved my trip to Boston. I did a reading at Harvard and got to see lots of friends and former students. The audience asked wicked smart questions! So did the people who came to a reading I did at the Boston University Barnes and Noble with the fabulous Donna Freitas, author of the many-starred YA romance The Possibilities of Sainthood.

And now, if you would like to learn about my favorite things and deep dark secrets, here is an interview I did with The Longstockings, a group of awesome, stripey-socked authors (for the interview, just scroll down their site a little).