Archives - Weekly Update

Monday I flew to Minneapolis for the Public Library Association National Conference. I had been to Minneapolis many years ago when I worked at Mademoiselle magazine when I did a series of fashion shows/makeover events at some Dayton Hudson stores. That trip was a blur with something like six makeover events in six cities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin in six days. I should have known that this was just training for my whirlwind life today.

As a child I believed in Santa Claus, but gave little credence to the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. The concept of a giant rabbit hopping around the world with baskets of eggs and candy did not seem feasible. After all, Santa had the sleigh and reindeer to help HIM out! And the floaty Tooth Fairy beaming in while I slept did not seem very plausible either...though I always imagined her outfit was pretty cute and somehow I thought she had a wand too.

In last week's newsletter I did a little trip down my memory lane of skiing. I am continuing that theme this week since when I think of St. Patrick's Day I think of the Ravinos. They were a band of skiers who used to perform aerial jumps off a slope called First Step in Vail on St. Paddy's Day in the late '70s and early '80s. Now one must remember that this was before short skis, freestyle championships, snowboards or anything we connect with the wild side of skiing today. The Ravinos would perform inverted aerial jumps off a cliff on Vail Mountain on long skis. Those of us in the crowd watching these feats would plunk ourselves down on the snow below, have picnics and drink green beer. As green beer was drunk "non-Ravino," folks would climb up the cliff and try their hand at aerials. (For the record, I never jumped.)

Sleuthfest, the writer's conference that I attended last weekend, was wonderful. As I mentioned last week Lee Child was being honored. I admire Lee for his endless support of other authors. Whenever we are at conferences he is at the panels, introducing authors to others, talking about their work and hanging out. I mentioned this to him last week and he responded like this: "I'm a fan of the genre as much as an author." Nice to hear that, isn't it? While in Florida James O. Born was kind enough to take me to a shooting gallery and taught me how to fire a gun. You can read about this experience and how my life parallels that of Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper in Linda Fairstein's upcoming thriller KILLER HEAT by reading my blog called "Put Down the Knitting Needles; Pick Up the Gun."