Overhead on Riverside Drive

Terri's camera jammed. I get a screwdriver and poke at the plastic until it yields (and she can get the battery back in rightway up).

Terri:  Well done!

Me:  Well. . . I'm good at solving problems by attacking them with little pointy bits of metal.

(Delia's been at ICFA, is flying home even now. I'm running out for groceries before I phone blackholly to plan some cool promo stuff for the Welcome to Bordertown paperback release April 10th!)

The Boys With Champagne

A lovely dinner last night at Paul Witcover's with Terri Windling & Christopher Schelling (our mutual agent) and assorted friends, for visiting author friend Liz Hand  . . . one of those dinners where the wit and wine flow free, and you wish it would never end (and that you could stop yawning after midnight!). The talk ranged from reading books to writing books to reviewing books (we are nothing if not consistent).  

Much champagne (well, sparkling white from various countries) was drunk to celebrate the publication of Liz's second Cass Neary novel, AVAILABLE DARK (which, if it is even half as good as the first one, is very, very good indeed!). Bottles kept popping open. I drank more than I normally do, but it was over the course of many hours, and accompanied by lots of terrific food. We stayed out later than we normally do, and came home late and happy on the subway.

As Terri & I said good night to each other at opposite ends of the hallway, we remembered the way we used to sit in the scruffy kitchen on 110th St. (yes, the very kitchen in the apt. in my last post), wondering at the fact that here we were, young 20-somethings already successful in publishing, living in New York, and yet . . . and yet . . . . 

Where are the boys with champagne?

we used to cry.  Because surely, once you'd been published, won awards, etc., your life would be an endless feast of beautiful young men pouring champagne - and you'd never have to do the laundry or the dishes or take out the trash or scrub the catbox again?!  And yet.

So; last night.  We were back in the midst of the Glamorous Publishing Thing together. It was just the way we'd always hoped it would be.  And we realized, that, now, finally - and I swear we both shouted this out at exactly the same moment:

We'd found the boys with champagne!