Well, dear readers, it is late and I am tired and I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon. And so, I will tell you that I got eight hours of sleep, got the somewhat annoying news that the piano will not be in working order until Tuesday, switched around an ALS rehearsal that was slated for Monday, and then went and got a bacon cheeseburger with no fries or onion rings – for lunch I was joined by the helper. Then I came right home and did many things that needed doing. I answered e-mails, arranged my three tables for Sandy’s Sunday night show, but mostly I spent the day finishing proofing. While the last third of the book had more fixes than the first two-thirds, this is still the least amount we’ve ever had – barely thirty little things to fix, which we’ll hopefully have time to do this very morning. It really will only take about twenty minutes. Speaking of the new book, I’m only using one blurb for this one, from mystery author Dick Lochte. Anyway, his blurb arrived just a few minutes ago and I absolutely love it. Here it is:
“This sixth and arguably most suspenseful entry in the Adriana Hofstetter series begins with the sweetly iconoclastic but dogged teenage sleuth drugged and shivering in a cold, dark basement, awaiting the arrival of a self-proclaimed psychopath who’s ‘committed two cold-blooded murders’ and plans to make her victim number three. If her perilous situation doesn’t compel you to spend the next several hours finding out how she wound up in such a mess . . . and, more important, how she plans to get out of it, your affection for splendidly crafted, witty whodunits is considerably less than mine. Adding to the entertainment, the series’ familiar supporting characters – Adriana’s loving “mommy” Margaret, her best friend Billy and the irascible Detective Ramirez – are prominently featured, the streets, stories and restaurants of Los Angeles are highlighted and author Kimmel has even included a few imaginative recipes from Margaret’s kitchen.”
Dick Lochte, author of the award-winning SLEEPING DOG
Isn’t that a lovelier than lovely blurb for a book? He suggested that I could conceivably shorten it and end it at “is considerably less than mine,” which I do think might make for a stronger ending, although I like very much what follows it, especially as we’re having only one this time around.
At some point I took a walk and did some banking, too. After all that, I finally got ready and then moseyed on over to the theater to see the first of our final three performances. We had an almost full house and a terrific audience. The ladies were great and there were lots of laughs and our two act two showstoppers really stopped the show cold. I knew lots of people – we had Jason Graae and Susanne Blakeslee, Kevin Bailey and his ever-lovin’ James Mellon, Alan Chapman and Karen Benjamin, Barbara Minkus, Linden Waddell, and others I’m too tired to remember. After, a few of us went to the Coral Café, where I had a chicken Caesar wrap that was most excellent. I came home to a ton of lovely comments about my song “Simply” being nominated for a 2015 Best Song of the Year award. Given my track record with awards, I’m not sure I’ll be booking a trip to New York this week (awards are on Friday, I think), but I’m honored to be nominated.
Today, I’ll be up early, I’ll probably go have a cheese omelet, and then I’m really hoping Grant will have the twenty minutes to do the fixes, because that will be all I need to do and he can just complete the cover design and all that other stuff, then we can get this in on Monday or Tuesday. After that, we have a three o’clock band rehearsal in North Hollywood – Sandy will be there but I’ve already told her she cannot do anything but mark the songs to keep her voice nice and strong. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll come home for an hour or so, then go to the theater for the second to last of our three weekend performances.
Tomorrow is the crazy day. At eleven I’ll be at the Glendale paperback show to sign or whatever – that lasts an hour, then I head directly to our theater for the final performance of Inside Out. Directly after that, I go to The Federal for sound check, then we dine, and then it’s Sandy’s show. Next week is a lot of ALS stuff, including rehearsals, hopefully my piano will be back together on Tuesday so I can write a couple of songs I need to write, and I must do the show order and write the patter for the Kritzerland show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully do the book fixes with Grant, eat, have a band rehearsal, hopefully pick up packages and then see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: When you were growing up, did you buy paperback books, and, if so, which do you most fondly remember – the covers, the look, the feel and the book itself. And do you still have any of your original paperbacks? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a Mac nomination for Best Song and to have gotten such a wonderful blurb for the new book.