Some sun and some rain today. Right now the sun is slanting down through the berry patch that is three feet over my head in the garden. The berries and lucious and ripe. Summer is deep green and damp underfoot.
Today is my 67th birthday. I have heard from so many good friends that I feel wonderful, and the world of frustration and troubles seems so far away. Thank you all.
I got the best presents! A shirt that fits me from my sister Martha and Susi next door gave me a stuffed hippo and colored lights that go on my finger tips! Jan and Finn got me something I have wanted for some time: an old pay phone!
A bit of explanation here. On a small town in northern Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami there were many dead and missing. By happenstance a year before a man had built a phone booth with a phone in it.. The phone was not hooked up. Soon after the tragedy his neighbors started coming to use the phone booth to make calls to their missing and presumed dead relatives and friends. Hundreds of them came and lined up to use the phone the man named “The Wind Phone.” (more on this here: https://allthatsinteresting.com/phone-of-the-wind)
I was very moved by the story and decided to make one of my own. My friend Norm Campbell has agreed to help me build a little kiosk on my office porch next to a tree that grows through the porch and the roof.
I’m going to call this “The Rain Phone” after my friend Nels who kept a journal about the rain.
Friends will come by and be able to call anyone they want that is difficult to reach. I will keep you notified as to our progress.
I’m also writing to let you know that my new Cecil book is almost ready to send off to New York and when I do I will be back writing this blog five days a week. I have missed our interactions and hearing from you all. It is currently with my friend Nita Couchman who is an incredible line editor. She is very precise and careful, and will catch all the spelling and punctuation errors so as to make the manuscript easy on the eyes for my editor. I keep learning that no matter how good you think you are, this is necessary. New York editors read so much they have very little patience for mistakes and it puts them in a bad mood. No one can afford that, particularly when you want to push the envelope in other ways. Yikes.
My new hippo. As yet un-named.
It is lovely here and today I am happy. If you care to hear from me you will be able to read and listen to this blog soon. I’m thinking early next week for sure. I look forward to it.
A big young dog
rolling in the wet grass
happy all the time.
jhs
No recording this week but a reminder that I will be doing a book event with a terrific writer Ed Lin. It will be on July 29 Wednesday at two o’clock Alaska time. 6:00 eastern. Check Soho Press or check it out
here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/227947024941799/
or go to sohopress.com and look for this:
Ed Lin who writes about Taipai, Juliet Grimes, the head of Soho Crime and moi. Wed/7/29 at 2:00 Alaska. You have to check in before and they will notify you when it’s live.
Summer deck of office. Future home of the Rain Phone.
