say cheese!

Just in case you missed the issue of Publisher's Weekly that featured this photo as their "picture of the day"...here is me with my angel of an agent Charlotte Gusay (left, proudly holding my - "our" - book) and Noel, events coordinator at Skylight Books in LA.

This was the event which had such history in attendance as childhood and high school friends, one (Cindy) dating back to 1976, many others (Jenni, Kori, Debbie) to the bad-hair 80's; my mom's dear friend from high school who knew me in the womb; Debra Ginsberg, who performed such editing magic on my book; my old boss and one of my favorite people Scott Robertson (13 years of history there); my friend Rick, to whom the novel is dedicated, who I have known for more than half my life, and who makes me smile if not nearly wet my pants laughing nearly every day in some form or another, even if it's just me remembering or recounting something from years ago; Dana, who, speaking of wombs, brought her as-yet-unborn daughter to the event (and looked smashing!).

The party at Chez Werndorf afterwards was gorgeous, catered, perfect (tiki torches, 80 degrees at night, Kori baked some killer desserts, and Jenni has the most beautiful home you can imagine) and went on into the wee hours (well -- 10:00. We have kids now. 10:00 is the wee hours anymore). It was like a 20-year high-school reunion but a year early and not at the Airport Marina Hotel, and without having to put up with seeing (and trying to identify) people we never hung out with anyway. Speaking of kids, we all had a bunch (11 between 6 of us) and they all look just like little replicas of us.

That's the kind of stuff I wasn't imagining when I wrote this book. All the cool other stuff that would happen because of it. That one night, getting all those people together, seeing all the mini-me little-people, the laughter -- always the laughter -- the This-is-Your-Life-ness of it all...that was worth all the hours at the keyboard in itself.