This week been a whirlwind and a mad dash to the finish line. HEART OF GLASS came out this past Tuesday (March 15th, that’s right, the Ides of March) and that same day I found out it would be reviewed in People magazine, the very next day, Wednesday March 16th . So what started out as a quiet, almost no-news day, was transformed into a day to jump up and down with joy. I was so thrilled that I sent flowers to the reviewer! I’m happy the book is out in the world and I am curious to see what happens next. Now I can relax. A little bit.

With only one day to the publication of Heart of Glass, I’m excited to put up the playlist for the book. David Bowie is here of course, and up first. Blondie, Madness, Grace Jones and the Clash are in the mix as well as Nenah Cherry and the Psychedelic Furs. Iggy Pop, who has a cameo in Heart of Glass, is second to last, singing a gorgeous David Bowie song, Tonight. And finally, another artist we lost in 2013, Lou Reed performs a great song about New York back in the day. Enjoy!

That was how my friend Pete once described my cross-dressing David Bowie phase, living in New York in the early 80’s. I had two suits, shirts and ties, and an assortment of jackets like this one which was given to me by a guy who asked me out for coffee after we’d just watched The Man Who Fell To Earth at Cinema Village on East 12th Street. I no longer have the jacket, but amazingly the movie theater is still there. I tried on many looks in my twenties, this is just one. Sometimes, I miss this girl.

I’ll be at the fabulous Vroman’s Bookstore on East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on Wednesday, March 16th to read from HEART OF GLASS and to sign copies. Please come! The fun begins at 7pm and there will be champagne! I’m hoping to see you there.

Publishers Weekly Review of “Heart of Glass”

“Lively and engaging,” is one of the many nice things they said about the book (which drops on March 15th!). You can click on the link to read the review.

I also did a Q & A with them which will be published soon.

And if your book group is planning to read Heart of Glass, I am happy to set up a time to Skype or Facetime with you. Just email me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com.

David Bowie has only been gone for a month. Upon hearing of his death many people, including me, felt a sort of shock and deep sadness for what, for who, we had lost. He was such a part of my girlhood and adulthood that I feel as if a part of me has gone with him. I never met him, or saw him in concert – but he is in both of my memoirs. He sings “Rebel Rebel” as we blast the record at the wild teenage party in Chanel Bonfire. And in Heart of Glass, Iggy Pop tries to lure my friend Annie and me to party with him and David Bowie, who he claims is on his way to pick him up in a limo. Safe travels, Starman. Now you are in heaven.

Here I am as Cherubino in Beaumarchais’ play The Marriage of Figaro at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. It was 1982, and yet another example of my life imitating my art. I played a confused and heartsick kid, okay a boy, but still typecasting. Like Cherubino, I pined for true love and ran around trying on new identities – and costumes! I would eventually find it but not until many years and many mistakes later and in an unexpected way.

Dearly Departed

When I started working on HEART OF GLASS, I was struck by the number of people who appear in the book who are no longer on this earth. There was the old boyfriend who I discovered had died of the flu at the age of fifty-one, and two close friends who literally dropped dead of heart attacks in their forties. Last week my wonderful old pal Morris Lafon went the way of the angels much too soon. Mo was a true artist, who moved to New York to work in downtown experimental theater in the seventies. He was friends with Janis Joplin, threw Alan Ginsburg out of his house for hitting on his friends, and snuck a bottle of vodka to Nicholas Ray in the hospital when he was dying. I will never forget Mo’s marvelous laugh, hilarious stories, his zest for life – and the time we danced the Lambada at my thirtieth birthday party. I love you Mo and you will always be with me.

I wanted to share the cover of my sequel to Chanel Bonfire, titled Heart of Glass. My dear friend, Ann Marsden, took this picture of me at her loft space in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1983. I was one lost and confused girl, and Annie became my fast friend. She was one of the smartest, wildly talented and supremely stylish people I ever met. She never wore socks in the sub-zero Minnesota weather and wore her camel colored coat unbuttoned draped around her shoulders as she drove a vintage Mercedes around town with an Astrud Gilberto cassette stuck in the tape player. When we arrived at our destination, she’d pull out a popsicle stick and jimmy the meter. Sadly, she no longer here which is why I am so happy her photo is on my new cover and she gets a credit. Love you Annie. You’ll always be with me.