IT'S SPRING! WELL, ALMOST....: My personal goal is to finish COUNTRY CLUB WIVES, or at least get very close to it before the ASJA Writer's Conference in New York City on April 11–13. Good luck with that, but I'm really gonna try....Lots of editors, agents, and more. For more information on this venerable gathering, go to http://www.asja.org/wc/2008
BOOKFAIRS AND TALKS, 2008: The talk starts at 7PM. For more information, call 614–887–7277, www.westervillelibrary.org.
*April 18–19, Southern Kentucky Book Fest in Bowling Green Kentucky. Road trip!!! I will be there with OHIO CURIOSITIES, WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWER CHILDREN GONE? and others. For more information, go to www.sokybookfest.org.
*Saturday May 10, from 4–6 p.m., Booksigning, Barnes & Noble Mansfield, Ohio, 832 N. Lexington Springmill, (419) 747–7748. The featured book will be Ohio Curiosities but I will be bringing other titles as well!
*Thursday, June 19, 6:30 PM. OHIO CURIOSITIES presentation, John McIntire Library, Zanesville, OH. For more information, call 740–453–0391, www.muskingumlibrary.org.
*Tuesday, July 22–Wednesday, July 23. Parma Branch. Cuyahoga County Library. Instant Parma (how many years have I been waiting to say that?)! I will be doing a '60s coffeehouse presentation on THE PIPE DREAMERS/FLOWER CHILDREN on Tuesday, and a talk on OHIO CURIOSITIES on Wednesday. For more information, call 440–885–5362, www.cuyahogalibrary.org .
Watch this space for additional bookings and other library and bookfair events!
COUNTRY CLUB WIVES: I'm happy to report that I've been working steadily and is about 3/4 done. For those wondering about this title, it's a riches–to–rags tale about women, money, and homeless animals and centers around Tish McLean, whose husband Brian leaves her for one of her best friends and fellow "drama queen" Susan Galloway. But rather than crumbling in defeat, Tish follows her dream of opening a shelter for homeless animals in the affluent suburb of New Wellington, where she lived while married to Brian. The stories of the other drama queens who met while playing tennis at New Wellington Country Club, Shelia Weintraub and CeCe LeBlanc McLean Al–Sharif, are interwoven in the plot as well, as is Tish's tumultuous relationship with Nick Fairchild, a married veterinarian.