Well, where does one begin?
I guess first and foremost Happy Birthday... RiverRun.
And the beat goes on.
I finally achieved one of my fondest wishes, fulfilled a lifetime dream. I have opened a store in Echo Park, paid off the mortgage on the building which I bought in 2006 for my daughter and her husband, but when they decided to purchase his childhood home 2 blocks away, they realised they could not carry 2 mortgages, so here I am a shop owner.
I was going to call it The Little Shop of Horders, but that seemed to have a bit of a negative connotation, so the shop is now called Hecho en Echo.
The original premise of the shop was to make coil baskets out of recycled clothing, but when I began to pull clothes out of the closet, I was heard to exclaim, "Oh, that's too pretty to cut up", so now I also sell vintage clothing.
While searching for more vintage stuff, I came across things people had given to us for birthdays or Christmas, which we had never taken out of the box, so now I am "re-gifting". Did I mention Dumpster Diving?
I also have a "Book Nook" which consists of books I have either written, or published or the works of my favourite contemporary poets. I also have 101 first edition mystery books, thrillers, and novels I bought from a friend who owns a book store on the Sunset Strip, who needed to clear the shelves after LA Magazine ran an article about his shop and he suddenly found himself getting calls for books, instead of in the $25.00 to $50.00 range, in the $25,000.00 to $50,000.00 range. I'd like to hold one of those books in my hand for just a nano second.
A movie company has already discovered HeE and rented it for a feature film (The Ever After) for 2 days. They also rented some vintage clothing which was out of their price range for Melissa Leo who stars in the film.
The Women's National Book Association has invited me and my co-editor of Cradle Songs: An Anthology of Poems on Motherhood (Which won the International Book Award) to be a guest author to sign books in their booth at the West Hollywood Book Fair on September 29th.
i finally came up with an idea for the cover of my next book of poetry, The Song of Sparrows. My web mistress has converted my original idea and photo into the perfect artwork. I enjoy working with her. She is unflappable. We have worked together for 12 years now. We lovingly refer to her as "The Doodle Department", but she is so much more.
My novella is almost finished and ready to send out. I started it in Venice in September of 2010. It is a book of common thread short stories. It begins in 1873 with a story about my great grandmother and I just finished a story that takes place 100 years later in 1973 and moves from England to Paris, to Switzerland, to Sri Lanka. It involves a courtship and as I sat here tonight, I began to wonder about LOVE. Is love something you feel? Or is love something you do? Is it something you find, or something you make? Something you search for or something you create?
Hmmmmm... Food for thought.