We still haven’t nailed down a placeholder for the antagonist, although we agreed that she turns into Maleficent at the end before something goes wrong and she turns into something else. But we need a lethal, sexual older woman first. Eileen wants Lee Remick. I said, “Susan Sarandon?” because I’m a huge Sarandon fan and I’m a big believer in respecting your antagonist, but Eileen nixed her. I can’t remember who Krissie suggested because it was awhile ago, when we were in NYC, but here’s a picture of us brainstorming (well, it’s a picture of Eileen and Krissie brainstorming, I was taking the picture).

You’ll notice it’s a garden apartment, hence the basement wall, and we’re writers, hence the two laptops, and it’s the Village, hence the general all round air of coolness. And no, we still don’t have a placeholder. For a long while, mine was Jessica Walters for whom I have tremendous respect, but she’s just not the direction we ended up going, so I’m saving her for a later book. Now if I could just think of some dark-haired sultry bitch in her fifties that I have a great deal of respect for . . . You know, besides me.