Boston�It�s Mother�s Day weekend and I take a 7:30 am flight from Miami to Boston, grateful to have two days to spend with my daughter, Randy, and six year old grandson. Randy�s first book will be published next spring and we have a lot of booktalk to catch up on. It rains - it pours! �all weekend.
On Saturday afternoon I take my grandson to see �Lost in Space.� After half an hour I want to leave, thinking this is not an appropriate movie for a six year old. It�s scary. But E. will have none of it. �If you�re scared,� he says, �close your eyes and I�ll tell you when to open them.� He protects his popcorn, worried that I�ll eat more than my share.
That night he accepts my invitation to have a sleepover at my hotel. He tells me this isn�t a real slumber party because we have no flashlights and we don�t stay up all night whispering. I love having him to myself for a few hours. In the morning Randy joins us for Mother�s Day breakfast at the hotel.
Then we go shopping. I need a silver necklace for TV appearances. Randy needs a purse. E. is bored. So we hit bookstores instead. This is great fun! First we look for Summer Sisters. If they have a number of copies I introduce myself - ask if they�d like me to sign them. Everyone is pleased and friendly. These are the people who grew up reading my books. I do PR for Randy, letting them know about her upcoming book. She�s only a bit embarrassed.
I think a lot about my mother. May 10 would have been her 94th birthday. She died ten years ago.
Back to business: 5 AM wakeup call for quick interview on early morning TV news. The host says she read Smart Women, my last adult novel. So when she asks about the Vineyard, I say I wrote most of my new novel there. But I refer to it as Smart Women, not Summer Sisters!
Breakfast alone in the hotel diningroom. It�s luxurious to have time for a real meal without having to talk to anyone. I gorge myself.
Phone interview with Bergen Record, local North Jersey paper - about upcoming booksigning - which feels like years away. Between now and then I have to finish Boston and do Toronto.
6PM Book Signing at Rizzoli in downtown Boston. It�s raining harder than ever for the third day in a row. The wind is howling. But about 25 loyal fans who grew up on my books are waiting. I hadn�t expected anyone to come out on a night like this. My best friend�s daughter, Anne Weaver, who once managed this store, is also there. The book is dedicated to her mother, Mary. Later, Anne joins Vicki, our author-escort, and me for dinner.
10PM Live radio. The David Brudnoy Show. Am so tired by then I�m sure I won�t be able to manage a coherent sentence but David is a wonderful host and I love being on his show. Come away so up I have trouble falling asleep.