Month: April 2009

I went up on my roof to see if I could take a picture that captures the loveliness of today.  Is it this guy, who was cheap/squawking at me?  What kind of bird is that anyway?  Does anyone know?  I should ask my friend Margaret who knows these things.  I’m going to show you the uncropped version so you can see how big he is.

First, the cropped version (scroll down for uncropped and more photos).

Uncropped.  Christ.  He’s a monster bird, isn’t he?

But maybe this view looking down Perry towards the Hudson River (which you can see!) says Spring more. For me it evokes, “God I’m so lucky to live in this city.”  I mean look at it!  Our city is beautiful.

Could she have a more Plain Jane name without being named Jane?? Everyone is talking about her.

If you haven’t seen the video yet and don’t know why, watch it here now.  Do it.  You’ll thank me.

And then read an excellent analysis of why we love her here.

I cried when watching it, both for Susan, for all of us, and for this part of the lyrics in the song she sang:

“But there are dreams that cannot be

And there are storms we cannot weather …”

I never thought I would see the day when lyrics like that would resonate with me.  I guess if you’re lucky to live long enough it’s hard to escape.  It’s just that I always thought that no matter what happened to me in life, I would recover.  

I didn’t know that there are things that you never recover from.  Life goes on, and you can even be happy again, but it really surprises me to learn that there is such a thing as permanent damage and the effect on the rest of your life from the scarring is much more significant that I ever realized.  I wish I could go back and apologize to all the people I thought were such wusses.

I wanted to thank the bookstores who hosted readings for my book. They all treated me so well, and were so kind and supportive. Their efforts of my behalf really did my heart good.

It’s hard to get people into the store to attend these readings (unless the author is Steven King or David Sedaris) and each time I showed up I expected to see only one or two people, but each store managed to pull in a great crowd.

The picture is of R. J. Julia Booksellers, in Madison, CT.  I also read at Brookline Booksmith and Borders Books & Music in Bailey’s Crossroads, VA.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

If you live in these places, PLEASE patronize these stores!

Not that this is the best example of it, but he never takes a bad photo.  Who can resist that cute cat head?? NO ONE.

So many people I know have new books out now!

I just saw that author Lily Burana’s new book, I Love a Man In Uniform, is out.  Buy it here!!

Lily used to be on Echo so we used to regularly have the pleasure of her writing, and I can tell you she is amazing.  She also wrote this incredibly moving op-ed about being married to a man in the military a couple of years back.  I wonder if I can find it, because it will give you a taste of how great this book is going to be … found it!!  

You can read it here.

The part where she says “the uniform that covered him when he was away” put a lump in my throat the first time I read it.

The cover makes the book look light, and Lily does have a wicked sense of humor, but I also know that the book will have depth and poignancy.  She is seriously frank AND smart AND has insight and I just know this book will be completely original, nothing like you’ve ever read or imagined. Everyone always says that, right? “Completely original.”  But I swear it will be true!

Congratulations, Lily!!