Boston by Car + Muse and the Marketplace pals!

A Jetta with a sunroof (not mine) whizzing around on a sunny day to five bookstores, plus going to another one on foot (Harvard Books) and another by T (Porter Square books.) Signed a pound o' books in a day.

Muse and the Marketplace? Y'all ROCK! A great crowd, excellent questions in my full workshop, and the vendor table sold OUT of Invisible Sisters by the first morning. (I signed more at the bookstore later.) Bostonians, go out and support Grub Street!

And the pink fuzzy drinks at the author's/agents/editor's party didn't hurt, either. Jolly Ranchers with a buzz.

Other greatest hits? A Yiddish typewriter* rumored to have been Isaac Bashevis Singer's, restored and on display at a fancy-schmantzy lofty party with people smarter than me. Celebratory and horrifyingly expensive blue shoes purchased by me and (a different than my usual) M. I know a lot of people with names starting with M. This particular M. is my friend from being fifteen. Now she lives on the Cape.

Remy the cat bringing me flowers at the home of super-agent S. (and another M.)

Sunday night at the Coop, a wonderful crowd of old friends, family, new friends, mishpocheh, and I do wonder now about the donor dog. Sort of.

*see photo.

Toss a rock in a pond...

I'm sitting here with my jaw at least metaphorically in my lap, amazed at the outreach I've received from people who have gotten in touch with me after reading Invisible Sisters and/or my "My Turn" essay in the current Newsweek. (Y'all know who you are. Pat yourselves on the back for doing a brave thing, and a cool thing.)

Meanwhile, I'm heading out to Muse & The Marketplace, and then the Coop, and then home. See you there? Or around here?

Go here for some good reading - creative nonfiction alert!

I'm all about promoting this guy. His writing's great. Take a look at Miami, virginity, and 1973. Cue the Sly & the Family Stone.

Jessica in Jezebel

I wrote a "My Turn" essay for next week's Newsweek, which runs in the digital edition this week, which got linked to Jezebel, which makes my head spin. It's about my choosing not have children.

Here's a link to the link.

And way cooler than THAT is the news that Liz Strout, who teaches at Queens University of Charlotte, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Olive Kitteridge!

Hooray for Jill!

A wonderful review of my friend Jilly's Dybka's "Trouble and Honey" in the Main Street Rag! One her "more impressive feats," it says, is a palindromic sestina.

Oh, she's good, alright.

Get some "Trouble and Honey" and visit Jill's blog.

Cambridge-bound

Hey, Bostonians! I'll be reading and discussing Invisible Sisters at the Harvard Coop, in Cambridge, on April 26, at 7pm.

See you there? As was true once before, I'll be the one with the Georgia accent.

Here's a link to review in the Jewish Daily Forward that just made my day. (I'm the sister with the Beatles haircut.)

Not what you think.

There's a rooster somewhere in our neighborhood who is alternately driving me nuts or making me fall over with laughter. Every few minutes, as soon as it's daylight and apparently until dusk (I keep odd hours at home) he crows. Exuberantly.

I don't think this is the same rooster who makes a vocal appearance in Invisible Sisters, but my guess is that he's progeny of same, since the sound comes from the same general direction as that earlier rooster. Sort of southeast of our backyard. Toward the Kroger. No, the other direction from the prison. Really, it's a gorgeous neighborhood. If you're cool with roosters, Federal Prisons, acres of greenery, and weird signs. My current fave? My across the street neighbor's house with "Klaatu Barata Nikto" over the front door in brass lettering. I love that! A presumed placating message from the 1950's movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

Ooh, a fun review

Wow! Go here! Read this man anyway - he's got a novel coming out soon, and what I've read is delish.

Thanks, insightful reader.

Today is the day

Today is the official "on sale" date for Invisible Sisters: A Memoir, and it's a pretty exciting thing. Yesterday, several friends and family emailed me and Facebooked (now there's a nominalization) telling me they'd ordered the book and it was on the way.

There's another interesting thing about books going on sale and how they're promoted. T. the astounding publicist, sent ARCs (advance readers' copies) to book bloggers. What I've seen so far makes me love them. Go, readers! Go, people who read and talk about reading and encourage others!

Meanwhile, the wind and rain hurl around my house, and the power goes on and off, off and on.

If I could show this to some gone people I would...

... so I share it with y'all instead. Yes, I made a little fun of the NYTimes for asking for photos from Dead shows, but now that I've seen some, I, too, am back in the zone.

If I knew the way, I would take you there.

Slide show from the New York Times.

What my college alumni e-newsletter says

Alumna's memoir wins readers' hearts

Jessica Handler's ('82) memoir Invisible Sisters was published this month by Public Affairs Books. Publishers Weekly said, "Based on a Pushcart Prize-nominated essay, this clear-eyed, candid work portrays the immense emotional toll that two daughters' illnesses take on a family living in Atlanta." Kirkus added, "With a sure grasp of revelatory detail, the author recalls homely verities from a vanished life. Her memory piece is an elegy for her dead sisters, who are not quite lost as long as they live in her thoughts. A heartfelt, painful family saga, skillfully told by a survivor." Ann Hood, author of Comfort and The Knitting Circle, said, "Invisible Sisters is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Even as Jessica Handler tells us of her family's losses, she reminds us to celebrate life. Handler shows us how to move forward without being afraid to look back."


Thanks, Emerson College!

The Cats are Eating my Manuscript

The first pages of a new effort are stacked on my floor, in a binder clip. I moved all the other stuff to a standing rack with folders labelled things like "Freewrites" and "Reading List." (If you've ever taken a workshop with me, you know I'm big on freewrites and related reading.)

Except Giant Ed the Twenty Pound tabby (he's not fat, he's just big boned) wants to make a point. Involving canned cat food, the four o'clock cat dinner hour, and my diverted attention.

Cat's eating my manuscript. Stop it! The other two are lurking, wondering if it's as tasty as, say, a can of Iams.

In other news, Atlanta INtown has linked me to their events page and Atlanta magazine's Off the Shelf column kindly put me as close to Joan Didion as I will ever be.

There may be a reading in Boston, too. Stay tuned for more info, and in the meantime, join me in a round of "Dirty Water" by the Standells.

I Just Have to Break Away From My Own Self for a Minute...

.. and say Hooray, Iowa!

As Iowa goes, (and Massachusetts and Connecticut) so goes the nation?

I hope so. As the t-shirt says, "Marriage is So Gay."

Post-Its and Hi-Lighters

So now the task is to take a copy of the book and WRITE in it!

OW! I write in books by other people (copies I own, not, like library copies, or your copies, or theirs) , so why not mine? Which section suits which audience best? How to jump around in the book and still make sense? This is what Post-It notes are for.

A Calendar

I figured out how to add an events calendar - over there on your left. Took a while, but the random one bothered me.