WETA Interview

Here is my first video interview ever. Enjoy!

Tomorrow Night!

It's a strange thing promoting a book, a very different endeavor than the solitary task of actually writing it. The hats I wear are, to say the least, quite different. I picture the writer-hat as a sort of tweedy pageboy cap a la "Oliver Twist." The public reading-hat is more like one of those hats you see women wear at the Kentucky Derby -- all flowers and netting and maybe even a little birdy perched on top. I must admit I prefer the wool cap, but every now and then it's nice to get fussy.

On that note, for anyone who is in the DC area, I'll be reading at the Barnes and Noble in Bethesda at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. Stop by if you're around and say hi!

Recap?

I was thinking that I should try to recap the last few months since I posted, and the mere thought of it exhausted me. I think Facebook is sucking away all of my internet creativity. That and trying to get my novel finished by February 15th.



Here are the biggies: Two Rivers is out!!! I had my first reading in Flagstaff at Bookman's, which wound up being a wonderful reunion of sorts with a lot of friends from grad school. The novel is on the Indie Next list this month, which is also great news. There have been sightings in airports, Target, and last night my dad called me from Costco. "You've really made it," he exclaimed. "You're at Costco." :)


Here are the girls and I after my signing at Bookman's.

I had a terrific break, but now it's back to work. I get up every morning at 5:30 and write for two hours. Then I somehow manage to get the kids fed and dressed and off to school and then I go to school or prep for classes. I am only teaching 2 classes at GW, but I teach two back-to-back workshops on Saturdays. It seems like it's going to be okay...though I was pretty spent last Saturday.

I am traveling a little bit for the book...to Sarasota in February and then to Flagstaff for the Northern Arizona Book festival in April. I have my fingers crossed that the novel does well and I can lighten up my teaching load. When I finish this book I have one I'm itching to write. Just not enough hours in the day.

On the Mommy front...you may remember the check-up fiasco with Esmee (she sucker-punched me in the nose as she was getting her shots). Well, we tried it again today, and though she professed a new courage I was suspicious. And, indeed, I got kicked and scratched and screamed at. That girl has got some lungs!!

Oh...the Inauguration!!! How could I forget??!! The girls and I did not brave the crowds or the cold, but Patrick did. The air is still buzzing and humming with the thrill of it all here. Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street has an O-B-A-M-A ice sculpture out front...my favorite artifact from the past week. With the weather we've been having, it may just stay awhile.


Sorry if I missed anything. It's been a doozy of a year so far.

On being seven.

Kicky is turning seven next week, and I am overwhelmed. Because I remember seven.


(Me, at seven.)

I remember seven better than twenty-seven. I lived in Concord, Vermont. I had a cat named Boogie. I liked to play "Love Boat" and "Charlie's Angels" in the yard with my neighbors, Chris and Angie. I watched "Happy Days" on Tuesdays and "Donny and Marie" every Friday night. I loved Orange Posicles and thought I might grow up to be a gymnast. For fun, I threw my Barbies up on the roof and watched them roll off. I liked to put pennies on the railroad tracks and get the hot, flattened remains after the trains had passed. I believed that notes in bottles would reach the destinations I intended. I was in the second grade, and I wrote my first short story during recess. I got the wind knocked out of me when I fell off the monkey bars, and I had a crush on Sean Cassidy. We adopted my sister the fall that I was seven. I was a devil for Halloween. Anyway, the point is (besides totally dating myself), this is a year that she will remember. And that is wild.

My New Desk

The office is a work in progress, but I LOVE my new desk!

New and Improved

The website has finally been updated after two years of stasis...to get straight to the Two Rivers stuff, go here.

On another note, I woke up grumpy and have been grumpy most of the day. Do you ever feel like all you do is clean your house? I mean, the hours I spend cleaning the house only to have it look nice for five minutes before being destroyed again. Blah.

Fellow Artists!

Oh please, please, please one of you who can ditch your life and dedicate it to your work, please apply for this residency!!!!!

http://www.gershwinhotel.com/english/site1.html