In a little over a month I will have a new book out. So these days I’m finding myself on the firing end of the obvious question “So, what is that thing about, anyway?”
I know enough marketing to know that I should be able to answer this question in 15 seconds or less, in a way that makes you want to use the one-click feature on Amazon.com. But it’s hard to say in less than half a minute what it took nearly a year and 50,000 words to express. And after four books, I’ve discovered something else: I don’t yet fully know all that Treasured is about. Even months after the last word was typed, I am still discovering more of what it was I’d hoped to say, and some of it I will no doubt learn from you.
We met for the first time at a small coffee shop near my house. A mutual friend had suggested we would be good for one another. He seemed kind and respectful as we spoke by phone to set up the meeting, and neither of us bothered to describe ourselves to the other the way you might if meeting a stranger for the first time – a thought that occurred to me only as I topped the steps that morning and reached for the door.
Because my desk faces a window that faces the street, not a day goes by that I don’t see some kind of mini-drama unfold. (If I had gotten up early enough, I might have been a witness to car theft when my across-the-street neighbors’ Suburban was stolen out of their driveway!) Most days, though, the scenes I see are of the less-than-felonious kind.
“Bababa-ba-ba-baaahhm, bababa ba ba baaahhm…”
The 45-rpm record (ask your mother, maybe she’ll explain) dropped to the spinning turntable, the arm swung over, and the needle found its groove. There were some scratches, sure – and not the kind artfully inserted by a gyrating DJ – but the music came through loud and clear. “ABC is [...]
He’s 25. She’s 21. I held her when she was just hours old, and loved her before I ever saw her face. She is my sister’s youngest daughter…and she’s engaged. She’s about to begin her senior year of college, and she’s planning a January wedding.
A little over a week ago they sat on my sofa and talked about [...]