Well, dear readers, we had a push me/pull you day yesterday – parts of it were simply marvy, and parts of it were simply merdey. The marvy parts were marvy indeed – starting with the mixing of the Writer’s Block CD. Vinnie and I had a lot of fun doing it – it took about four hours all told and I’m very happy with it. I ended up not doing anything to the tracks themselves – it’s just piano (and occasionally a second piano track) and voice (with one wind chime) and it sounds just like demos of old did. The performers all sound excellently excellent and I’m glad I finally made the decision to do it. Another marvy part of the day was hearing that our first New York signing (in combination with a launch party) has been officially booked at Parners in Crime, a nifty bookshop in Greenwich Village. We’re hoping it will be quite an event, and I’ll be inviting a lot of the heavy-hitters that I’ve worked with over the years. So, I will be signing here in Los Angeles on December 4th at Bookfellows in Glendale, then I’ll fly to New York on the 5th, the party and signing will be on the 6th, and then I’ll fly home the morning of my birthday, the 8th. That will leave me Sunday night, Monday day, and Tuesday day and night for fun and frolic and Joe Allen. I do hope our East Coast contingent will all come to the signing and party, and also get-together for some dinner and fun conversation, either on Sunday night or Tuesday night. Who would like to coordinate the hainsies/kimlets get-together? Let me know. Another marvy part of the day was picking up the new version of What If, which I ran and am now mostly happy with (there’s nothing to do about the two or three things I’m not thrilled with – we just didn’t have the coverage on the night of our best of the three shows we taped). The editor, Lee, did a great job of being able to address all the changes I asked him for, and it really does look and sound better than it has any right to. I’ll be getting one final “check” disc to approve, then I shall have a few copies made up. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
The merdey part of the day all had to do with the printer who’s printing Writer’s Block. They had some issues doing the dust jacket (not just mine – all the dust jackets they were working on) and we lost a week, but that problem was solved. However, my order just sat there, not being processed. Because of it, I’d never gotten my hardcover test book – that was supposed to arrive today, and when it didn’t I went ballistic. I am telling you, dear readers, you have no idea what I am like when I go ballistic. My poor contact person at the publisher’s got about a half-hour of my being ballistic and I can tell you he could not believe it, since I am normally very unassuming and easy-going on the phone. In any case, the head of the company is now aware of everything, and I’m told that they’re still going to try to have my book order here by Monday, even if they have to eat Saturday shipping by Fed Ex. As to the test book, I may have the order before I have that, and that makes me furious. I’ll know more first thing in the morning and I shall pass on whatever they tell me. I’m also hoping our Writer’s Block website will be up and running right on schedule, no later than this coming Monday. At that point, you can place your orders immediately and books and CDs will ship within a day or two after that. So, get ready, you dear, dear people out there in the dark – orders start on Monday. I’d even recommend that people in New York order it through the website because a) you’ll have it sooner, and b) it will be cheaper than getting it at the store. You can still come to the party/signing, too, so it’s a no-lose proposition.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because today I must really buckle down Winsocki and try to get a goodly amount of pages done. I’m definitely in the deep home stretch and frankly, I can’t wait to write The End on this sucker.
You see what happens? I said everything I had to say in the first section and now I have nothing left to talk about. I should know I need to parcel out these here paragraphs so that I don’t have this problem. Now I have to vamp, vamp, vamp (that is three vamps). I can’t tell you about any DVDs I’ve watched because I haven’t watched any DVDs. I can’t even tell you about any DVDs I’ve purchased because I haven’t purchased and DVDs in the last few days. You see what I did there – I vamped. I’m vamping till ready, as they say in the musical theater, only I’m not going to be ready since I’ve already talked about everything I’d planned to talk about.
Yes, I’m vamping till ready, I’m vamping till the cows come home, I’m vamping like Theda Bara. I’m a vamp, a tramp, a scamp. Yes, not only am I vampy and trampy, I’m also scampi. Has anyone noticed that I’m vamping till ready? Has anyone noticed that I have absolutely nothing whatsoever to say?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must travel in my motor car and do some errands, I must make important phone calls, I must book my New York flight and my hotel reservation, and then I must find time to sup on various and sundried foodstuffs. Today’s topic of discussion: We haven’t done this for at least two years, and since we have so many newcomers, let’s do it again – what are the dream vacations you’d most like to take. Tell us where, why, and what you’d especially like to do when there. For me, it’s London (almost was going to go with the Pogue’s but the timing just didn’t work), France, Italy, and especially Japan. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? And if you can’t think of anything to post, just post anyway and vamp till ready.