About two months ago, my friend Amy from downstairs was visiting with her daughter, Sasha, who is Violet’s great friend (they were born a year and a few days apart in the same hospital). We were sitting and chatting in Violet’s room while the girls played dress-up (both were fairy princesses – wings, sparkly, poofy dresses, tiaras, wands, and twinkly shoes). While we were grown-up talking about life, Sasha, carrying a silver star wand, walked over to Amy and said “Mom, what’s your wish?” Amy looked at me and back at Sasha and said, “I wish I would win the Pulitzer Prize.” I was happy to hear her say that because I was next and I wasn’t going to waste my wish on some general happy thought. I jumped in quick, “I wish my book would be a bestseller,” I said, neglecting to say specifically hardcover or paperback, NY Times bestseller or just the bestselling book in my Violet’s room.

A couple of weeks later, Paul and I were staying at the Beverly Hilton while on my book tour. He was reading the New York Times over breakfast and he said, “Oh my God, Amy won the Pulitzer Prize!” And I screamed and jumped up and down á la Price is Right. I am still that happy. Amy is just the sweetest, kindest person, but she also happens to be a kick-ass journalist.

So today’s the day that Amy Harmon, along with Bob Dylan and Junot Diaz and other smarties will collect their awards at a ceremony at Columbia University. Isn’t that amazing? Really, isn’t that so cool?

Patrick, my linking-friend over at Vroman’s Blog posted a very sharp summer reading list with his personal literary goals (including a certain book by a certain me). It got me feeling nostalgic of past books that I’ve read over a summer that defined that time for me, more so than a fall book or a spring book.

It was over summers that I devoured everything by Chaim Potok, and Sophie’s Choice, and the great baseball books of Lawrence Ritter (especially The Glory of Their Times….) James Agee’s A Death in the Family , the big fat hardback of Clockers that my brothers had autographed for me by Richard Price… and All The King’s Men, and on and on.

They are all on my shelves now…. not far away from the books that I failed at, that every so often shout, “Hey Stupid, you ever gonna finish me?”

On this beautiful Saturday we took Violet to the park to ride her bike and stopped at a playground. There were three older future-mean-girls all playing on the park’s two swings. Violet got on line and they kept going back and forth between each other and not giving her a turn (do you see where this is going?) One of them got off and Violet went to get on the swing and this tiny little bee-yatch pushed in front of her and squeaked “Excuse me, I’m next.” And well, you know, I calmly explained that no, in fact, she was not next, that she’d had far too many turns and it was, in fact, Violet’s turn and I gave her my scariest cool mother look. Paul said I should take Bea (our dog) home and he’d stay. The whole way home I’m thinking of various people who’ve said rude things about me on the internet and I come home and start pounding out responses to these people that would curl your hair. Like not just mean, OUCH! -mean. I didn’t send any because in the end I think it’s best to not let people think that they’ve gotten to you and give them the attention they’re desperately seeking. So the lesson for the day is rage never gets a day off.

No, it hasn’t been optioned, BUT a very cool book blogger asked me to do a ‘what if’ and here it is!

I think I was one of the last people on the planet to get a blog, which I was advised to do because I was having a website produced to go with the publication of my book. Little by little I’ve learned how to use stuff. Like inserting links (though for some reason, it doesn’t always work) and also how to see what’s happening behind my blog. Like the numbers of people coming, where they come from and if they do a Google search, what terms they searched to get there. There are some very strange ones, like the other day someone put in “Miss Spider Bounce” and got to my blog because I wrote about Violet being afraid of Bounce on Miss Spider. Someone put in “Tom Vanderbilt” “what am I reading”. Tom Vanderbilt is Jancee Dunn‘s husband who’s got a book coming out called Traffic and I’ve written about him. I called Jancee this morning and asked her if Tom forgot what he was reading and Googled it. She said maybe he didn’t feel like looking at his bedside table. (turned out to be this) I often the get the search combo “Dan Menaker” and “Titlepage” because everyone wants to know what makes Dan and his show tick. A lot of times I get “Matthew Klam” “Julie Klam” because I guess there are some people who want to know if we’re related (we are– he’s my stepson). Once someone put in “Julie Klam’s NY address” and that creeped me out. Today I got “Julie Klam age” So someone wants to know how old I am. Well, that is a tidbit you can find out on page 36 of my book which you can buy by clicking here …if that worked…. or else you can just got to a bookstore and look it up.

Matt said the review I got in the NY Times today could change a person’s whole identity; how they are seen, how they see themselves…. or something like that. I wasn’t really listening because something smelled stinky in my house and I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Matthew also said protocol states you may not thank a reviewer — you may not send them an entire moving truck full of gardenias or bake them your famous coconut chocolate chip cookies or even get them a Birkin bag on ebay. Nothing. You just quietly accept the review. (But just in case anyone talks to Ginia Bellafante, please tell her that I love her more than anyone in the whole world and if she ever needs a kidney, call me. I’ll bring the SnackWells.)

I know the fabulous New York Times Book Review blog, Paper Cuts does a thing where they ask writers what they’re listening to, so I thought I would post that on my own blog. Currently, I am listening to the soundtrack of two My Little Pony videos — Runaway Rainbow and The Princess Promenade.

A week ago Violet was watching Noggin after school and an image appeared during Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends (“Bounce got really big from eating a mushroom” is all that I could glean) that scared her so much that we’ve not been allowed to watch anything but these two pony movies over and over. It is Paul and my punishment for not changing the channel quick enough. So 24/7 the song going through my head is Make A New Friend Everyday. For obvious reasons, I will not be posting a link to the MP3.

Is Jancee’s birthday (she’s 23) and my book is being reviewed in The New York Times Book Review.

I don’t know if it’s bad form to say, but I don’t really read blogs. I don’t know why, but I think it has to do with how busy I am when I’m at my computer — going through Bluefly’s new additions and checking to see if anyone wrote anything mean about me on Amazon lately.  But, there is one blog I do read and to use the internet jargon, I LOL at the content.  The site is  Vromans Bookstore’s blog and I’ve linked to it before, but I was looking at it a couple of days ago and Patrick, the hilarious writer (who’s ‘about me’ simply states: I have a beard.) had posted about Barbara Walters doing a signing of her new book Audition at Vroman’s and he wrote: Apparently Barbara Walters has a new book out. Nobody told me.   Now — if you click on each word it will take you to another story on Barbara’s book. Isn’t that genius ? (and by the way VERY time consuming to implement). I’m his #1 fan a la Kathy Bates in Misery.

[Patrick neglected to mention that Barbara Walters book Audition is going to be featured for the entire month (May — a month with 31 days) on a television program called The View.  You can’t buy that kind of publicity!!]

When I was at the San Francisco stop of my book tour, my literary escort (the legendary David Golia) and I saw CHRIS DAUGHTRY on the street. I should’ve invited him to my reading. Then there would’ve been three people there.