Thank you, Bookstores


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!

Lily Burana’s New Book


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!!

Good Morning

I just want to be a slug today.  Can’t I be a slug today?  I think I need to be a slug today.

I took this the other day walking home.  I liked the shade of blue in the sign.  But in the photograph, visually, I like the small snippet of the American flag in the corner.

Parlor Entertainment

While I was up at the Morris-Jumel Mansion I met this fabulous couple who own a building diagonally across the street from the mansion.  He, Kurt Thometz, runs a bookstore in their building, Jumel Terrace Books, and she, Camilla Huey, is a costume designer who is also researching Eliza Jumel (best not-yet-really-told story out there). Among the many things they turned me onto that after was Parlor Entertainment.

Every Sunday afternoon at 4pm, 555 Edgecombe Avenue, Apt. 3F, you can hear jazz for free (donations accepted). I went and had the one of the best afternoons EVER. There’s a lot of videos of them on YouTube, most are better than my out of focus effort. But it’s mine. The music was just amazing and this is only a taste. That woman at the end of my video sang a song so hauntingly beautiful I didn’t film it because I didn’t want to be distracted for a single second.