"Our spelling 'system' can be just as bedeviling as our grammar. Linguists Otto Jespersen and Mario Pei have branded English orthography as a 'pseudohistorical and antieducational abomination' that is 'the world's most awesome mess.' The chasm that stretches beween how words are spelled and how they actually sound is best illustrated by the letter combination ough."

The wind was rough.
The cold was grough.
She kept her hands
Inside her mough.

And even through
She loved the snough,
The weather was
A heartless fough.

It chilled her through.
Her lips turned blough.
The frigid flakes
They blough and flough.

They shook each bough,
And she saw hough
The animals froze --
Each cough and sough.

While at their trough,
Just drinking brough,
Were frozen fast
Each slough and mough.

It made her hiccough --
Worse than a sticcough.
She drank hot cocoa
For an instant piccough.

(I'll delete this after you delete yours.)

As you know, she promised a series of six and she has done five. Book 5 ended with a bit of a cliffhanger.

At the conference, where she was a keynote speaker, she talked about her writing history and how one thing led her to another. As it happened, Adrienne Barbeau was in the audience, having herself been a speaker on the program. (Her autobiography, There Are Worse Things I Could Do, is actually quite an intelligent and entertaining piece of work.) During the Q&A session after Jean's talk, Adrienne stood up and asked Jean if she'd be interested in optioning the story of her life for possible Hollywood treatment. Jean said no, she has no interest in writing about herself. "I want to write about Ayla," she said, leaving the impression that she is still doing that.