Last Saturday I spent a lovely evening at the East Hampton Authors Night event at Gardiner Farm. I had been to this event last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to seeing author friends and watching readers buying books and conversing with authors.
Also, my past life --- when I worked at Conde Nast --- collided with my life in books, as friends from my Mademoiselle days showed up to see Andrea Quinn Robinson, the author of TOSS THE GLOSS, which is a beauty bible for women over 50 (Andrea had been in the fashion department at Mademoiselle before she headed to the Vogue beauty department and then onto Revlon, Ralph Lauren Fragrances and the Tom Ford beauty business and Mary Emmerling, who used to be the decorating editor at the magazine and has gone on to many many amazing projects here and in the Southwest, who was there for THE AMERICAN FLAG: Art, Design and Fashion.
My second boss at Mademoiselle, Sandy Horvitz, was there with her husband, John, which was a lovely surprise. And she whisked me over to meet up with my first Mademoiselle boss’ son, Tom Moore, and his husband, Leon, which was another brilliant surprise. This brought back a flood of wonderful memories while I was meeting with other author friends.
John Searles shared news that he is working on a new book, as well as working on his 50-State Book Group Event where he wants to talk to a book group from every state. This is modeled after the 50 Bachelors from 50 States event that was a staple during his years at Cosmopolitan magazine. He had paperback copies of his book HELP FOR THE HAUNTED on hand and strolled over to meet up with Jessica Soffer, the author of TOMORROW THERE WILL BE APRICOTS, where I snapped a photo of both of them.
Slipped on by to meet Holly Peterson, who we featured on the site earlier this year with THE IDEA OF HIM (read this week she just signed a deal for a new one, TWENTY'S ONLY TEN, a Southampton Upstairs/Downstairs story in bikinis centered around a murder that implicates a wealthy mother and local surf camp director) and snapped up a photo with her and Chris Pavone (they were conveniently sitting next to each other), author of both THE ACCIDENT and THE EXPATS).
My old college pal, Thomas Maier, was there for a second year with his book, MASTERS OF SEX, on which the Showtime program is based. We chatted about the book, the show and the Emmys (back in college who would have thought I would be talking to a friend about the Emmys) and he shared he has a new book coming October 28th, WHEN LIONS ROAR: The Churchills and the Kennedys.
Right next to him was Victoria Lustbader whose APPROACHING THE SPEED OF LIGHT I selected as a Bookreporter.com Bets On book last year. Terrific book that just pubbed in paperback and is so worth reading. Always love catching up with her and I cannot wait to see what she writes next. She’s a writer who really pushes her craft with each book.
Beside her was Eric Van Lustbader (yes, they are married) who was there with his latest Bourne book, THE BOURNE ASCENDANCY. He’s writing up a storm and also has a six of his backlist titles (three from the Nicholas Linnear series and three from The Sunset Warrior Cycle are now available as eBooks.
Nelson DeMille was out of copies of THE QUEST by the time I got to his booth so I popped a photo of him with THE PANTHER. He’s working on a new novel that is pubbing next year. He was called off to do a radio interview so I did not have time to quiz him more about this.
Nelson was seated next to Giada De Laurentiis, who had the typical celebrity long line, so I snapped a few photos of her from afar. She beamed in every photo.
Also, Robert Caro was in the house, shown here talking to a reader. I still am in awe of his book THE POWER BROKER, which I read back in college, but I was way way too intimated to go and engage him in conversation about it. However, you have no idea how many times I think about that book! My son Greg is listening to it on audio now.
I recognize no celebrities ever, so it was amusing when I was speaking with Sandi and she pointed to someone standing next to me who I did not recognize was Alec Baldwin. I know, NO celebrity radar in me AT ALL. But I did get a photo.
It was a crowded event and I heard that $300,000 was raised between this event and the private dinners with authors that evening. Just wonderful!
Soooo with apologies for the terrible quality of most of these photos (camera phones are not the best), I hope you enjoyed this roundup of the night as much as I did spending the evening at this event. Picked up a couple of books and a snazzy baseball cap. And walked away smiling!
PHOTO GALLERY
(From top, L to R: Andrea Quinn Robinson; Mary Emmerling; Jessica Soffer and John Searles; Holly Peterson and Chris Pavone; Thomas Maier; Victoria Lustbader; Eric Van Lustbader; Nelson DeMille; Giada De Laurentiis; Robert Caro; and, of course, Alec Baldwin)
