Ushering in December

I'm about to begin a book & speaking tour which starts in a few hours as of November 29th (check right column) but have alot of announcements to make. I will leave this post up for awhile with changing news reported on Today's Snowman.

I hope to see many friends I've made online through the book, many who helped me on the book. I want to thank David Giacalone and Laura Lee Linder in particular for making me feel welcome to return to Schenectady in a few days. (Laura was helpful in the actual research of my book, The History of the Snowman and is very involved with The Schenectady County Historical Society and First Reformed Church of Schenectady. She is finishing a DVD on historical Schenectady. Further info on David just posted a generous write-up of my upcoming event and has a very cool website which is a unusual combination of haiku, law stuff and snowman interests. Right, you have to see it to believe it. I was just enjoying a piece about a sexy lawyers calendar!)

One other blog I want to recommend is Snow*Vigate. It's a journal for poetry, flash fiction and many other forms of writing with alot of snow metaphors from the creator, Doug Martin, who is snowman obsessed. "We want to see genres coming together and huddling in a blizzard to keep warm. We want to see verbs slapping the hell out of lazy nouns. We want to see God's syntax in snow. The unconscious is sexy. So are the tails of barnbirds, I am told. The 'snaw-rad' leads here. The 'snaw-rad' loves you." Cool, right?

Finally, I want to recommend some holiday gift ideas, all books.


First up is a must buy for book lovers in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia Portrait of a City is a beautiful coffee table book by photographer Michael Gadomski;

"The photographs, many of which are double page spreads, takes the viewer on a tour of the city from the lofty heights of City Hall to the waterfront at Penn’s Landing. Several of the city’s important districts are visited including the unique historic district where America’s independence was born, the bohemian South Street, Antique Row, Avenue of the Arts, Society Hill, University Park, and the modern skyscrapers in Center City. The numerous gardens that are found in and around Philadelphia are also visited as well as some of the city’s annual events such as the Flower Show and the Chinese New Year celebration. The book also peeks inside some of the city's famous buildings like the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Independence Hall, The Shops at Two Liberty Place and The Bourse to name just a few."

The book is available through all the online booksellers such as Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble and others. You may also purchase personalized autographed copies of the book directly through his website.


The next recommendation is a children's book by Tim Young, an old classmate of mine who, ironically, was scary talented. He did the Penny claymation thing on Pee Wee's show and other stuff, all amazing. I really didn'y know him at Pratt Institute but I reconnected with him thru Facebook and was excited to see this new project a pop-up book called I'm Looking For a Monster. I'm getting it for my nephew for Christmas!


Last, but not least, I throw in this reminder again of my book and that I am doing everything humanly possible to get the word out (did you see the list on the right side?). At around $12 on Amazon, (what a value!) with FULL COLOR INSERTS and over 150 illustrations, many which cost me an arm and leg for permission rights...well, I'll just say – I need to sell about 500,000 copies to see a profit. Let it begin with you. There I said it. I'm groveling.