almost famous

quickie update for tri-state locals, and if you don’t know which tri-state area (as if there were others), then you’re not local.

BIG NEWS: I’m in a book, an anthology, What Are You Waiting For? edited by the extraordinary human who is Kathy Curto.

A couple years back, Kathy asked if I’d submit something for this idea she had. “It’s about waiting – do with that what you may,” she explained, in her kind, gentle, teacher, mom, writer voice that can only be hers.

I met her nearly 15 years ago, when we shared the stage at the NYC Listen To Your Mother debut. She blew me away then, and has continued to since.

“I got nothing,” I said, without hesitation, from the unheated AirBnB I was currently living in, having been forced to sell my home after watching my sister and marriage die. “And I have zero time to write anything new because …” my voice faded away. I just couldn’t. I didn’t burden her with details of my life perpetually circling the drain. It was bad enough on a repeat loop in my own brain.

“I’m sure you have something,” she didn’t let up. “Give it some thought.”

When Kathy asks you to do something, you do it. So I dug through old stuff, and quickly realized all I’ve been doing is waiting.

Waiting for diagnosis. Waiting for seeds to grow. Waiting for test results. Waiting for a text. Waiting for a paycheck. Waiting for a husband to return. Waiting for spring. Waiting for a pot to boil. Waiting for election results. Waiting for coffee to brew. Waiting for a pandemic to end. Waiting for treatment to work. Waiting for someone to die. Waiting for a storm to end. Waiting for the sun to rise.

I didn’t write anything new. I searched works in progress, google and word docs, drafts floating around aimlessly, prompt results. Stuff hard to write. Harder to read. Impossible to publish, at the time.

But waiting?

I found plenty to choose from and submitted a couple essays, and … she took them both.

So I’m in a book. About waiting.

Last week I read an excerpt to a welcoming audience in NYC, and this Tuesday, July 23, I’m reading where smart people congregate and educate, Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, NY. Click here for details.

It’s free. If you’re around Tuesday, July 28, and can’t wait to hear more.