Hope Is The Thing With Tar And Feathers

What can I tell you. I spent the morning watching the latest Alberto Gonzales hearing.

Last night, however, was considerably more fun. I went to the Moffat Library in Washingtonville, NY (go to Chester and make a left) for their Life As We Knew It discussion and cookies (home baked, chocolate chip with almonds, seriously yummy).

It turns out having people sitting around listening to me go on and on and on about one of my books is great fun (at least for me). In addition to the cookies, there were several high points. In attendance was a boy named Carlos, which is the name of Alex's older brother in the dead & the gone and extremely coincidentally, that very morning I'd decided what had happened to Carlos if I get to write the third book (if I don't, I still know what happened to him).

Then there was the moment where using only those methods of persuasion Alberto Gonzales thinks aren't legally torture, I got a couple of the mothers to admit they cried while reading LAWKI. Fool that I am, I forgot to ask them when and how many tissues they'd gone through. Instead I cackled gleefully while releasing them from the rack.

Carol, the librarian (she has a last name, but I'm always loathe to identify people unless given permission and I forgot to put her on the rack to get it) led the discussion with great skill and tact, even if that did mean I didn't get to talk 100% of the time. She also provided us with fliers on emergency preparedness, and a grab bag of food mentioned in LAWKI. Much to my sorrow, someone else got the high class chocolate. I got the Lime Jello.

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for. How did I inscribe the books?

I ended up with Always Have Hope. I like it for a lot of reasons, including the fact that I make a really nice "y." Also when I sign copies of the dead & the gone, I'll inscribe them Never Lose Faith, although now that I think about it, my capital "F"s could use some work.

You think Emily Dickinson didn't worry about those things? You'll never see a copy of The Shortest And Therefore Bestest Poems Of Emily Dickinson inscribed "Fondly- Emily Dickinson" on ebay, because her capital "F"s weren't so hot either.

But if she e-mails me, I'll let her know what happened to Carlos. And offer her some Lime Jello.