Congratulations Erika from Austin, TX, Julio from Portland, CT, Jill from Downer’s Grove, IL, Alyson from Wheat Ridge, CO, and Tracy from Southfield, MI! Out of over 1,600 entries, you’ve won free copies of Chanel! You should receive them this week if you haven’t already. And if any of you choose the book for a book group, I’d be happy to Skype with you and answer any questions you all might have. I’ve done it with many groups all over the world and it’s always a terrific time!
Wendy
I’m always flattered when a teacher uses my book in a discussion on memoir or workshop on telling one’s own story. And I was thrilled to be back in the UCLA classroom of the great writer and brilliant teacher Alison Singh Gee. If you haven’t read her wonderful book, “Where The Peacocks Sing” you should. Just click on the Amazon link to the right and order it for your Kindle or have a copy delivered! And you can also check out her author page at MacMillan: Alison Singh Gee
Rest in peace, Geoffrey Holder. I worked as his wife Carmen De Lavallade’s dresser at the American Repertory Theater in 1980, where she was appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He arrived for the opening night party in a tuxedo, a black cape lined with red satin, and a silver-topped cane. We were all agog at his elegance and style. An actor, a painter, and a dancer — I heard that night that he designed many of Ms. De Lavallade’s clothes.
The end of the long hot American summer is in sight. The children are headed back to school and you should treat yourself to a few hours at the Chanel Bonfire! You have until September 10th to enter the Chanel Bonfire Goodreads Giveaway! Enter today!
And remember, if your Book Group is planning to read Chanel, I’d be happy to schedule a Skype Book Chat with you all. I’ve answered questions and talked Chanel and moms and crazy moms and surviving difficult childhoods with groups from Bermuda to Bangor and Boston to Barstow and countless places in between. You can contact me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com to set up a time.
Happy Fall!
Today’s the day, New Englanders and New England Vacationers! I’ll be reading from Chanel Bonfire, talking about crazy moms and surviving crazy moms and the saving grace of humor at the Hancock Town Library on Main Street in Hancock, NH 03449. Stop by, I’d love to meet you and be happy to sign a book. If you or a friend need a new copy, The Toadstool Bookshop of Peterborough will be on hand with fresh copies. And afterwards we may stroll down the street to the historic Hancock Inn for a drink! Hope to see you there!
Went to a wonderful reading and then out for drinks with my old friend Sara Eckel. An extradordinarily funny and observant writer of essays about us pitiful human beings and our struggles to live and love. It’s always a treat to see her.
Her new book “It’s Not You: 27 Wrong Reasons You’re Single” is a must read filled with hilarious and poignant stories of our struggles with being single, looking for Mr. and Ms. Right, and our attitudes toward those who are single and happy, unhappy, the whole gambit. Go buy it from your local bookstore today!
Okay, I don’t have any pictures, but we were there. One of the hottest nights in my memory, as if a garbage filled blow-dryer was pointed at your face. It was NYC, 1974, Robin and I in our long Laura Ashley dresses, getting drunk on champagne while Mother and Pop Bossa Nova’d and didn’t pay attention to anyone else. Listening to “Midnight at the Oasis”. Later, I passed out in the taxi. My first faint. Stay cool out there this summer.
Years later, in a strange, worlds collide, my husband and I were living in Hell’s Kitchen and we’d just had our first child, Harry. We lived in Manhattan Plaza, a building for people in the performing arts. An old lady named Mrs. Valentine who had been Toscanini’s secretary lived a few floors down from us and knitted booties for Harry. Her husband, Harry Valentine had been the Maitre ‘d at El Morocco until his retirement in the early 80s and probably poured us all into the taxi!
The Hancock Town Library, 25 Main Street, Hancock, NH 03449
New Englanders! or visitors to New England, I’ll be reading from Chanel Bonfire and talking to readers and answering questions about the book and about crazy moms and surviving crazy moms and life after crazy moms in New Hampshire this August.
Two hours from Boston and fifteen minutes from Peterborough, Hancock is a beautiful little New England town in New Hampshire’s spectacular Monadnock Region.
I’ll be reading at 7pm on August 11th. Peterborough’s Toadstool Bookshop will be there selling books and if you already have a copy, I’d be happy to sign it for you! Afterwards, we may all walk down the street to the historic Hancock Inn for a drink! I hope to see you there.
For more information on the library, inn and bookshop, click on the links below.
Thanks to the Sacramento Public Library for putting Chanel Bonfire on their great Summer Reading List! I heart librarians. For their complete list, click on the link below.
And remember if you and your book group read Chanel Bonfire this summer, I’d be happy to do a Skype Q & A with you! Just contact me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com! Happy Reading!
