BOOKS & GARDENS

If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. -- Cicero

How true that is, especially now when the hummingbirds are here, the zinnias are at their best and the delphiniums are about to bloom again. I'm reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I won't classify it as an easy read, but one I recommend, if you have an interest in the Dominican Republic, immigrant life in Patterson, NJ, or just appreciate tight, good prose and dialogue. If you understand a smattering of Spanish, that will help.

On the personal front: Jon's dad continues to languish under 24-hour nursing care in his home in Chicago. Jon's sister is there for the next week and Jon will return next week. Meanwhile, he's manfully trying to shrink his reading pile and deal with other agency business.

I've become acquainted with Michele Acker who invited me to be interviewed on her new blog, "The Write Brigade." Michele and other authors manage this interesting site and provide valuable support and information for writers. Drop in and see how you like it. My interview with Michele will appear on September 12 and I'll visit again on the 13th and 14th to answer questions.

And, if you are interested in attending a writers conference, consider the MCCC Writers Conference to be held in November on the campus of Montgomery County Community College in (Bluebell, PA) suburban Philadelphia. It will be held November 6-7 with Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, delivering the keynote address. I'll sit on an agent panel on the 7th and be available for author interviews that day. It would be wonderful to meet some of you!

Back to queries, back to partials, and, if I'm lucky, a manuscript!