Did you say you're a vegetarian, though?
Yes. Generally, I don't eat my friends and I have had so many animal friends of all kinds who thought I was their mother. You can't eat your children, so I don't generally eat chickens, ducks, sheep, cows or pigs. I occasionally have fish.
It's an unusual vegetarian who ever admits to eating meat.
I have given up getting upset about myself, I just have too many failures. Accepting the whole of oneself comes with age and understanding that generally a weakness is attached to a strength. I would say that I have an instinct to be judgmental, because that's a downside of discernment, and I have great discernment.
SLOTH
People can be quite judgmental about sloth. How do you view it?
In small doses, it is delicious. I am busier now than I'd like to be. I'm caring for my darling husband Terry, a beautiful man, and he's had three strokes in just over a year and needs care 24 hours a day, so I am doing that and attending to the house and garden and cooking and laundry and all the things one must do, and I would love a day of sloth. I would probably sit and dream and do nothing and eat and sleep and play music. It's not a big thing but, if I could choose, I would like one day off a week.
What else would you like more of?
Sin changes as you get older. A good example of this would be if I were 18 and had a dream about sex, I would have been embarrassed and confused. At 83 I am just so grateful for an erotic dream, and I would wish for more of them! So yes please, more sloth and a little more lust.
You've written more than 600 books, mostly for children, and you are still writing.
I'm still writing but in big kindergarten print because I have macular degeneration. The world looks lovely and soft and misty, but that doesn't quite work for the computer. I write slowly and make lots of mistakes and editing is a problem - I have to do it with a big magnifier I got from the Blind Foundation. I wish I had three hands so that I could hold the magnifier against the screen as I typed but it's okay. I am very strong, and there are worse things when you are in your 80s. - Eleanor Black
Joy Cowley's book Veil Over Light is a finalist in the Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Mind Body Spirit Book Awards. Winners are announced August 16.