Wonderful night last night for 120+ of us who joined to toast books, writing them, and hearing the story of them. Lighthouse's first Writer's Buzz of the season, "The Story of A Book," brought Lighthouse members and instructors together to talk about their books that are coming out over the next several months. We were regaled with tales of being courted (slash "hit on" and then dismissed) by Greek grandfathers, co-opting the rhyme scheme of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry, marital nudity in bathrooms, accidents in life and publication, and maintaining a relationship while writing a guidebook that requires your partner follow you on a bicycle for hundreds of semi-oriented miles. There were other things, of course: Cara's advice that sometimes agents are just baggage, Jay's thoughts on eating seafood in aquariums (his take: it just seems wrong); Mike's exhortation to buy local when it comes to medicinal marijuana; Lynn's revelation of the big secret of living as a poet: DJ (code for day job); and finally, Nick's tales of receiving the (pre-release) copy of his next book from his UK publisher the same week his US editor sends notes that indicate 3 more months of rewriting.
Amazing time was had by all, and here are the lovely photos taken by member Lynn Gorham Clark.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynn-g/sets/72157623524031694/show/
(If you click on her slideshow, there will be 2-3 photos in which every single person in the shot is wearing spectacles, AKA glasses. I haven't actually checked the Wikipedia on this yet, but I think that means our audiences are kinda smart...?)
Also, just in case you thought that Lighthouse events couldn't hold up to the excitment of the Olympics, member Sheila Wright has awarded us an Olympic Gold Medal (tm) in her blog. Check her report on the event, which is much better than this one:
http://booksandboots2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/gold.html
Thanks, everyone! You make us happy to be here...
--aed
