Lanterns in the Night

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Rise_Festival_Preferred1-1024x680On October 18th Rachel Hartwig went to the Mojave Desert with her mother to participate in the RiSE Lantern Festival 2014.  She had been telling me about it, and I knew she was excited to go, and she told me she was going to release a lantern in my name, but I honestly had no idea how beautiful and meaningful it was until after she sent me this video (notice the words at the end.) photo-6-269x300

Rachel is a reader who has become a friend.  I first met her several years ago when she came to my reading at Warwick's in San Diego.  She and her husband Mike had driven all the way from Las Vegas.  I thought that was pretty incredible.  She made the same trip this year, only she brought a cheesecake for everyone who showed up at the bookstore, packed it in ice to keep it cold, and served it to the gathering.  The cake was delicious.

No writer expects anything from a reader; we only hope you'll enjoy our books.  But to think of Rachel going to the Mojave Desert to release a lantern in my name, with all the hopes and dreams and spiritual meaning it represents, is very humbling.  She also wrote this beautiful blog post.  I feel so honored and grateful.

 

 

 

Maisie and Tim: a Love Story

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I wouldn't exactly call Maisie a "problem cat" (there-are-no-bad-cats) but ever since she was a kitten, she has had a certain personality: contrary, cantankerous, particular in whom she allows to approach (no one.)  She was a rescue cat who had lived through the tragic circumstances of losing her mother too young and being left alone, sick, and flea-ridden until a kind vet in Old Lyme, Connecticut took her in.  I and the old girls--Maggie and Mae Mae--adopted her. Time passed.  We lived in New York, and for a while in Malibu.  The dynamic of those three cats was of love, but separation.  Each kept to herself.  There were occasional stealth attacks--Maisie, stalking the others like a wild cat, pouncing, letting out lion-sounding snarls.  Maggie would sit closest to me, on my desk while I wrote, and after she died, Mae Mae nuzzled her way in.  After Mae Mae died, I waited for Maisie to claim her spot on the desk, but she never did.  She was a loner cat, preferring to sit under chairs rather than on them, staring at me with her green eyes, coming out to be fed, but rarely petted.

Then along came Tim and Emelina.  Like Maisie, they'd been rescued from life on the streets, and we adopted them from West Chelsea Vets.

Tim and Emelina at West Chelsea Veterinary, the day we adopted them.

Tim and Emelina at West Chelsea Veterinary, the day we adopted them.

The twins moved in, and I was a little worried that Maisie, although now fifteen and less angry, would intimidate them--maybe even attack them.  They had such sweet personalities, loving to be held and petted, and often cuddling up with each other.  I watched Maisie carefully, ready to pull her away from the kittens if I saw too aggressive a swat.

Emelina took the hint and stayed away from her.  She made herself at home and kept her distance.

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But not Tim.  He loved Maisie from the beginning and was determined to make friends.  His initial approach, however, didn't go very well.

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But he's a brave and persistent cat, named for surfer Tim West, so he stayed close and watched.

And watched.

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And watched.  

And watched some more.  

Maisie noticed, and after a while she began to semi-tolerate his attention, sometimes throwing him a glance.

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After a while this happened:

Then this:

They made friends.

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Tim is also very sweet with Emelina, but this story is about him and Maisie.  Emelina does, occasionally, hang out with them.

But mostly, if Maisie lets anyone close, it's Tim.

He taught her about love.  She's almost a different cat.  Amazing that love can do that.

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Source: http://luannerice.net/wp-content/uploads/2...

Fall in Chelsea

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Chelsea, my neighborhood in New York City, is beautiful and charming at all times of year, but there is something about fall that suits it particularly well.  The side streets are lined with townhouses, and many gardens are decorated with pumpkins and chrysanthemums.  IMG_8330 IMG_2939 The restaurants, cafes, and markets are cozy on chilly days, and there are taste treats of warming deliciousness to try.  These photos were taken at Forager's, a favorite place to buy provisions.IMG_8337 IMG_8333

The gingko trees change color, and when the leaves fall, the sidewalks sparkle with gold.  IMG_2943

JFK Library/Boston Globe Panel on Immigration's Humanitarian Challenges

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BESTSELLING AUTHOR LUANNE RICE FEATURED IN GLOBE TALKS

ON IMMIGRATION’S HUMANITARIAN CHALLENGES

Luanne Rice, Paul Bridges, Jennifer Hochschild and Marcela García

Joined The Boston Globe & The Kennedy Library

to Offer Insight on the Human Face of Immigration Reform on October 7

 

(Oct.15, 2014) – New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice participated in an all-star panel at Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on October 7. Rice shared her thoughts on the humanitarian challenges that undocumented immigrants face, based on her own professional and personal experiences. Video of the panel is available here on the JFK Library website.

 

Rice shares her passion for humanitarian challenges facing undocumented immigrants in her most recent novel, THE LEMON ORCHARD. Her experiences with the thousands crossing the desert near her home in Southern California, her volunteer work with immigrants and research for her latest novel, give her deep insight to a cause and issue currently being debated in our nation’s capital.

 

Rice was incredibly honored to share the stage with pre-eminent immigration experts Paul Bridges, former mayor of Uvalda, Georgia and winner of the 2014 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award; Harvard Professor of Government Jennifer Hochschild; and writer and Boston Globe contributor Marcela García, who moderated the event.

 

While volunteering with the group Water Station in the Anzo Borrega desert, Rice saw firsthand the dangerousness of the treks through the perilously hot and barren desert. She discussed her character Roberto from THE LEMON ORCHARD, who was based on a real man she knew and who experienced that treacherous trek and the challenges of assimilating as an undocumented worker. Rice also shed light on what she learned about the extortion and sexual assaults by “coyotes”—human smugglers who bring immigrants over the border—and the post-traumatic stress disorder that often follows. She also talked about her own Irish descent, and looked at the similarities in immigration history that transcend culture, location and time.

 

Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. In her latest book, THE LEMON ORCHARD, she crafts the story of an undocumented immigrant who lost his daughter in the desert when crossing the border in search of a better life, a scenario that is both heart-wrenching and all too real.

 

Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges took place on October 7, 2014 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston and was co-sponsored by the The Boston Globe and the JFK Library.

 

About Luanne Rice:

LUANNE RICE is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. The author of The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat and Beach Girls, Rice’s books often center on love, family, nature and the sea. Rice is an avid naturalist and bird-watcher and is involved with domestic violence organizations such as the Georgetown University Law Center’s Domestic Violence Clinic. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City, shoreline Connecticut and Southern California. Visit Luanne Rice online at 

 

Startled by the Blue

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IMG_7692This marsh is part of Hubbard's Point.  Egrets roost in the trees, osprey build their nests on poles, fish and eels travel up creeks to spawn, and the banks are rich with blue crabs.  At this time of year migratory birds pass through, and the brush is full of warblers. One morning, walking along the banks at low tide, I found the most iridescent blue crab claw I have ever seen.  I stopped and took a picture.  I'm still startled by the blue.IMG_7694

Along the Way

This summer I spent many weeks on the road, on a book tour for The Lemon Orchard.  I experienced many wonders along the way, but none more lovely and generous than the moment when I entered Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle and was handed Sharon Salzberg's latest book, Real Happiness at Work, with the explanation that Sharon, on her own book tour, had seen that I would be there the following night, and had left me a signed copy. It was such an act of kindness, and so welcome.  I have long read Sharon's work, and have attended some of her workshops on meditation and metta.  Leaving me her book was a way of connecting, a way of putting lovingkindness for a fellow writer and traveler into serious on-the-road practice.

At the same stop, Denise came down from British Columbia to see me and brought a pound of Tim Horton's coffee--we do love our coffee--and I was touched by her thoughtfulness.

At Warwick's in San Diego, my friend and reader Rachel Hartwig not only traveled all the way from Las Vegas, but she brought an Aphrodite cheesecake from the Market Grill Cafe--along with plates and forks for everyone who attended the event.  If that's not love, I don't know what is.

I have more stories, too.  Countless tales, from every stop along the tour, of friends and readers who touched me deeply.

As you know, it's not about things--even wonderful things like books and coffee--it's about thoughts and heart.  All through the tour, readers graced me with their presence.  On summer nights when they could have been out in the fresh air, with their friends and families, by the water or in the back yard, they chose to come to bookstores and libraries to see me, and I am very grateful.

In Mercy of the Fallen Dar Williams sings about her compatriots on the road, their wisdom and big hearts.  If we are lucky, we will meet and look after each other along the way.

Cats in Connecticut

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This summer the cats and I spent several weeks at Point O'Woods.  Maisie was born in Old Lyme, so for her it was a homecoming.  Emelina and Tim, the kittens, had never been, so it was their first time there all together. Being NYC cats, they're used to the confines of a Chelsea apartment.  Going to the country was summer vacation for them.

They enjoyed the view and sea breeze.IMG_6273 IMG_6745 IMG_6675 IMG_6458 IMG_6372

They found plenty of time for togetherness.IMG_6999 IMG_6555 IMG_7420

The kittens, especially Emelina, discovered their love of heights.  IMG_7272 IMG_7114 IMG_7112 IMG_7121 IMG_7266 IMG_7269

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Maisie returned to one of her favorite spots, a place she used to sit with the old girls, Maggie and Mae-Mae, on the back of the loveseat next to the fireplace, proving that--indeed--you can go home again.

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A chance to meet with writing students...

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PSU_WhiteMountains_5579-720x404Speaking to students is one of my favorite things to do.  There is something about meeting  young writers, full of hope and ideas, and letting them know I believe in them, I know they can do it if they really want to.  That seems to me to be the most important factor: desire.  The desire to write, to express what's inside, to complete a work of fiction or non-fiction, to want it so badly you won't give up on yourself or the work. IMG_7356When I was a child, my mother was getting her master's degree in education, and she practiced on my sisters and me.  She would have writing workshops each summer morning, and we'd sit at the oak table in our cottage at Hubbard's Point.  She'd tell us to write a story about crabbing at the end of the beach, or swimming out to the raft, or to compose a paragraph about the clouds in the sky, or something beautiful or ugly or enchanting or disturbing we'd seen that week.  In that way, she helped us realize the dailiness of writing, the way our ordinary lives could add up to an essay or a story.

Years later I began holding writing workshops--one day each summer, never planned in advance, just when the spirit moved me--and I'd invite children from Hubbard's Point to come to my house for a few hours of writing.  Frequently the cats would join in, sitting on my desk (including Tim and Emelina, shown here in their favorite basket), and providing inspiration.IMG_6940

It is important to be steady and write every day--you must actually write and not just read about writing, dream about writing, or look online for other people writing about writing.  You have to do it. And you have to train yourself to be good at it.

Thursday I had the privilege of speaking to Joe Monninger's English class at Plymouth State University.  I met his students, told them what it's been like for me, talked about research, heard their questions about ways of writing, possibilities of publishing.  Outside, the trees were turning red and gold, maybe the foliage was at its peak, and the sky over the White Mountains of New Hampshire was brilliant blue.

Joe Monninger

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We have known each other since 1980, or maybe 1981, we always seem to lose track, but we know it's a long time.  I first met Joe Monninger when we were living in Providence, Rhode Island.  We'd get together with our spouses for long cozy dinners at their apartment on Transit Street or ours on Fox Point, and we'd talk about books we'd read, books we were writing, fly-fishing, places we wanted to travel, sharks, dogs, our families.  I'd tell Mim stories--about my grandmother who'd grown up in Providence and who'd done tons of things that made for good tales. Years later they lived in Vienna and we lived in Paris, and we visited them, and once met for Thanksgiving roughly halfway in Strasbourg, where we nearly drove off a mountain in a blizzard while visiting Haut-Koenigsbourg.  Time went on, marriages ended, Mim died, Joe moved to New Hampshire, where he's an English professor at Plymouth State University, I stayed in New York, and we both kept writing.  Between us, we've written a shelf of novels, including one together, The Letters.

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He's a touchstone, that's for sure.  We love nature and tell each other what birds we've seen that week--he has cedar waxwings in the crabapple tree, I had a red-tail hawk in the park on Tenth Avenue.  A shark story doesn't occur on the planet without one of us alerting the other about it.  He loves his dog Laika, I love my cats Maisie, Emelina, and Tim.  We still talk about writing, and recommend books-- Carson McCullers, Cormac McCarthy, John D. MacDonald, Robert B. Parker are a few, and we both love non-fiction about nature, adventure, exploration, and he'll often slide a poem my way, and I'll do the same to him.  He's one of my first readers, and I've been honored to be his.  So many of his novels are favorites of mine, and I was so touched when he dedicated The World as We Know It to me.

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Visiting him this week has been a great treat.  What a New Hampshire idyll--a hike around Lake Tarleton, listening to owls in his back yard, watching the blood moon rise over the White Mountains, hanging out at Plymouth State, and spending time with his lovely dog Laika and kitty Foxy.  I feel lucky to have such a great friend, and to have stayed close all this time.

*the photo behind Joe on his office filing cabinet is of Cheyenne--a TV character we both loved as kids, and it's autographed by Clint Walker, the actor who played him, my Christmas gift to Joe a few years back.

** Joe is also a certified New Hampshire Guide, should you ever want someone to take you hiking or show you the secret fishing spots.

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Source: http://luannerice.net/wp-content/uploads/2...

Globe Talks: Immigration's Humanitarian Challenges

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AbouttheJFKLibrary2013-1 On Oct. 7 I will be joining a panel at the JFK Library in Boston to discuss undocumented immigrants & the humanitarian challenges they face.  This came about because of The Lemon Orchard, but it started even before, with the undocumented families that inspired my novel.  You can RSVP here: http://bit.ly/1sV5KWY

 

BESTSELLING AUTHOR LUANNE RICE JOINS GLOBE TALKS

ON IMMIGRATION’S HUMANITARIAN CHALLENGES

Luanne Rice, Paul Bridges, Jennifer Hochschild and Marcela García

Join The Boston Globe & The Kennedy Library

to Offer Insight on the Human Face of Immigration Reform on October 7

 

(Oct. 3, 2014) – New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice will join an all-star panel at Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on October 7. Rice will share her thoughts on the humanitarian challenges that undocumented immigrants face, based on her own professional and personal experiences.

 

Rice shares her passion for humanitarian challenges facing undocumented immigrants in her most recent novel, THE LEMON ORCHARD. Her experiences with the thousands crossing the desert near her home in Southern California, her volunteer work with immigrants and research for her latest novel, give her deep insight to a cause and issue currently being debated in our nation’s capital.

 

Rice is incredibly honored to share the stage with pre-eminent immigration experts Paul Bridges, former mayor of Uvalda, Georgia and winner of the 2014 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award; Harvard Professor of Government Jennifer Hochschild; and writer and Boston Globe contributor Marcela García, who will moderate the event.

 

While volunteering with the group Water Station in the Anzo Borrega desert, Rice saw firsthand the dangerousness of the treks through the perilously hot and barren desert. She will discuss her character Roberto from THE LEMON ORCHARD, who was based on a real man she knew and who experienced that treacherous trek and the challenges of assimilating as an undocumented worker. Rice will also shed light on what she learned about the extortion and sexual assaults by “coyotes”—human smugglers who bring immigrants over the border—and the post-traumatic stress disorder that often follows. She will talk about her own Irish decent, and look at the similarities in immigration history that transcend culture, location and time.

 

Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. In her latest book, THE LEMON ORCHARD, she crafts the story of an undocumented immigrant who lost his daughter in the desert when crossing the border in search of a better life, a scenario that is both heart-wrenching and all too real.

 

Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges, will take place on October 7, 2014 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. Immediately following the event, Luanne Rice will be available for book signings.

 

The forum is co-sponsored by the The Boston Globe and the JFK Library, and is free and open to the public. To register, visit the event’s website.

 

About Luanne Rice:

LUANNE RICE is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. The author of The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat and Beach Girls, Rice’s books often center on love, family, nature and the sea. Rice is an avid naturalist and bird-watcher and is involved with domestic violence organizations such as the Georgetown University Law Center’s Domestic Violence Clinic. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City, shoreline Connecticut and Southern California. Visit Luanne Rice online at www.luannerice.com

THE LEMON ORCHARD  Luanne Rice  Penguin Books

On-Sale: May 27, 2014  $16.00  978-0-14-312556-3  Also available as an e-book

Warwick's

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What a great night on The Lemon Orchard book tour!  I am very thankful to Warwick's Books in San Diego CA for welcoming me back again.  This wonderful independent bookstore is a haven for readers and writers. The evening started at dinner at La Valencia where I got together with dear friends (from left) Andrea Boyles, Mike McIntyre, and Phyllis Boyles.  They live here in San Diego, and I was really overjoyed to hang out with them and walk over to Warwick's together.  Mike is a writer, and I'm a huge fan.  IMG_5861

I was thrilled and honored to see my friends from Water Station.  They save lives by placing water in the desert, where migrants cross the border.  I volunteered with them, and my life was forever changed.  The work they do is very like that of Louella, in the novel.  Armando, on whom the character Roberto was based, once told me that while crossing the border he dreamed he died of thirst.  Then he dreamed of an angel who brought him water.  That very well could have been the people who work with Water Station.  From left: me, Paula Poole, John Hunter, Laura Hunter, and Brett Stalbaum.

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Rachel Hartwig is an incredible reader, and I am so lucky to know her.  She and her husband Mike drove all the way from Nevada to see me tonight.  Not only did they travel a long distance, they brought cheesecake for everyone at the bookstore!  What generosity.  Here are Rachel and I with what was left of the delicious Aphrodite cheesecake from the Market Grill Cafe.

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And here are Rachel and Mike: rachel mike

I loved meeting Deborah and Amy and their daughters Adilee and Madelyn.  As Deborah wrote in a note to me, "Amy and I have been best friends since we were sixteen, living in Vacaville, CA.  Over the years we have shared our love of books--mailing them to each other and sharing our favorite books and authors.  Three years ago we were able to become neighbors after twenty-four years of friendship.  Now our girls trade books too."  From left, Amy Josse, Deborah Walters, me, Adilee Walters, and Madelyn Josse.

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Julia Jones (left) and Suzy Cox were college roommates at the University of Texas.  They were wonderful to talk to; they wanted to hear the details of how I was inspired to write the love story between Julia and Roberto, and as sometimes happens at book signings, there was an incredible magic in line when I confided in them, and they in me, and we had a best friends moment.

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Evelyn Goodwin and Phyllis Hansen, shown separately in these two photos, drove together from a town east of San Diego.  They were so kind and supportive, and we had a chance to talk for a few minutes before the even began.  evelynphyllis

I was thrilled to see my friend and fellow author Machel Shull tonight.  It's her anniversary week and I know she made a very special effort to come see me.  Machel has interviewed me for her column in The Coast News, and I gave her a quote for her book.  She is a wonderful, kind, dear person; it was really great to reunite at Warwick's with her and Rachel--because this is where they first met, as my readers, now friends on Facebook and in life.   And congratulations to Machel on finishing her second book--I'm sure it will be as insightful and soulful as her first. 10509691_10204870184853522_410276047472674675_n

 

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Mitch Little came!  He was a great friend of my sisters and me when we were all young in Connecticut.  We knew him from Essex and Fenwick, where his family had a house, so it was really amazing to see him and his wife Stephenie a continent away in San Diego.  I spotted him in the crowd and would have known him anywhere.  IMG_5870

Group shot of old friends and new friends--the incredible people from Water Station and the UT roommates.  From left, Brett Stalbaum, Paula Poole, me, Laura Hunter, John Hunter, Julia Jones, and Suzy Cox.

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Here is Julie Slavinsky, Warwick's director of events.  She gave me this Warwick's special label bottle of wine, but even more, she gives writers and readers a chance to gather, to exchange ideas, to support each other.  She has such warmth and kindness--qualities that mean so much to writers on book tour.  I am incredibly grateful to Julie and everyone at this great independent bookstore.

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At the end of the event, we took an Ellen Selfie.  I thank everyone who showed up--on a gorgeous summer night, in the resort town of La Jolla, when they could have been doing anything else--looking at the moon, walking on the beach, dancing the night away--but instead came to the bookstore to hang out with me.  I had a great time, and it was because of you.

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2014 Connecticut Governor's Arts Award

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On Saturday June 14 I was very honored to receive the 2014 Connecticut Governor's Art Award for lifetime achievement in literature.  The ceremony was held at the Yale University Art Gallery.  My fellow honorees were Christopher Plummer and Tim Prentice, and Governor Dannel Malloy presented us with the award.  My family was there, along with close friends, and we had a wonderful day.  Mom and Dad, , I wish you could know about this!

Notes From Book Tour 2014

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Written in the sky, flying to Phoenix, May 30, 2014 It's been a busy first week for The Lemon Orchard book tour, with much excitement and joy along the way.  I haven't been out on tour in a couple of years, so visiting every bookstore, seeing every reader, being on every radio show means so much to me.

Here are some highlights so far, a sort of sideways diary--not linear or organized, just an impressionistic view of the journey so far.  I am taking many of these posts and photos from my Facebook page, which I update frequently.

10402399_740217212687730_1281853827395885436_n1512630_740217256021059_750748171521502970_nYesterday writer David Handler and I met at the NPR studios in midtown Manhattan and got patched in to the Colin McEnroe show in Hartford CT.  We had a great time discussing books, writing, setting novels in Old Lyme CT, missing Dominick Dunne, and quite a lot more.  Here is the link to our conversation.

10351147_692022397518329_5903739613805857177_nThe day before I'd gone on WVIT, NBC Connecticut Channel 30, for an interview with the lovely Kerri-Lee Mayland.  The segment felt good, we had a fine discussion about where I get my inspiration, how The Lemon Orchard starts in Old Lyme CT and moves out to Malibu CA.

10294309_689288611125041_4392891584922691053_nMore Connecticut TV--On Tuesday May 27 I appeared on WTNH's Connecticut Style with Teresa Dufour.  Newlywed (as of New Year's) Teresa asked a lot about the love story in The Lemon Orchard, and she wanted to know whether Roberto was inspired by a real life person.  That is always hard to discuss in public, but much easier to write in an essay.

 

10419617_10203354580098151_918283995_nRJ Julia Booksellers was great as always, welcoming me and all readers with open arms.  We had a slight but wonderful glitch--the store was fully reserved but without enough books.  So on the way out of NYC I swung down to my publisher on Hudson Street, loaded up the trunk of the car old-school, and delivered a few cartons of The Lemon Orchard in time for the event.

Before it began I stopped across the street at Cafe Allegre to meet my dear friends and fellow St. Thomas Aquinas High School alums Paula Gilberto, Janice Tordanato, and Linda Kozikowski Lohmeyer.  10413348_10203354966267805_3696031606886860195_nThey have come to Madison for my talks before, and I am incredibly touched that they do that.  It's always good to have mini-reunion before meeting my readers.

We had a good talk with gentle yet intriguing questions to follow, talking about the novel and how a Connecticut native wound up in Malibu CA writing about a family of undocumented Mexican immigrants.  The answer is very simple--if it comes from the heart the writing is never hard, the stories flow, and inspiration and compassion are everywhere.

10339954_10203233968303532_1816181026644900298_n10361234_10203354325291781_948011047_n10414354_10203354578738117_1911272560_o10415723_10204167794817347_2200980689021762718_nI felt a blast of energy coming from the loving crowd and gathered them around me at the podium and we attempted a series of Ellen-style selfies.  I thank Janice for being our photographer.  Many friends are in the shots, but some are Edyse Smith, Julia Vallati, Janice, Lisa from RJ Julia, and others.  Thank you all for making it so much fun.

 

10169447_10203240347062997_3689535102929305270_nAn hour or so before the bookstore I went to Hubbard's Point for a swim, then met my sister Maureen and brother-in-law Olivier.  We grabbed a bite at A.C Peterson Farms--formerly Hallmark--I always call it Paradise Ice Cream in my novels.  Here's a photo of Maureen and me at one of the picnic tables, the Connecticut River and Old Saybrook in the distance.10333392_10203243927392503_3092188129875445822_o

Right now I am heading to Phoenix AZ for tomorrow's signing--"Afternoon Tea with Luanne" at 2 pm Saturday 5/31 at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale.

Sunday 6/1 at 3 pm I'll be at Diesel: A Bookstore in Malibu California We'll have snacks and lemony drinks catered by the Godmother of Malibu.

Hope to see you along the road.  I'll report in along the way, but in case you want to join me, here is the Book Tour 2014 schedule.   If you can't make it and would like a book signed, please just contact any of the stores I'm visiting and I will personalize it for you and they will send  it to you.

The Night Before

From bestselling author Luanne Rice, a haunting and emotional short story, never-before released, and free to all readers. On the eve of a wedding by the edge of the sea, a once-in-a-lifetime storm sweeps through a family farm on the Connecticut Shoreline and sets in motion the events of The Night Before.

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Jodi Picoult quote for The Lemon Orchard

photo-2012-asideI feel incredibly honored to share this quote from Jodi Picoult: "THE LEMON ORCHARD is a small, lovely miracle:  a story that humanizes the plight of undocumented immigrants; that takes the political and makes it deeply and painfully personal. This is a love story - not just between two characters from different worlds, but about what we humans owe each other in debts of kindness and respect."  - Jodi Picoult, NYT bestselling author of THE STORYTELLER

Jodi writes brilliant novels.  She has such compassion and is always seeking deeper understanding of the world and everyone who lives here.  She's a humanitarian who never shies away from the questions that scare many of us, and she writes about issues that need closer examination, justice, and human kindness.  I can't wait to read her new novel, Leaving Time.  Her praise for The Lemon Orchard means so much to me.

Happy Mother's Day

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with mom at the old saybrook train stationI miss my mother.  I think of her every day.  There are so many things I want to talk to her about.  She had a unique sense of humor and I'll catch myself laughing at sights or phrases or stories that I know she'd so enjoy.  So much of what I love in life came from her: gardening, swimming in the ocean, cooking, poems, English literature, art.  I didn't inherit her talent for drawing and painting (although both my sisters did,) but I do have her love of art galleries and museums.  So often I'll see an exhibit and think of her, and wish she were there to see the artist's work with me. She loved the beach, and I'm sure that's one reason I'm happiest with bare feet, walking along the tide line.  We would spend summer days building sandcastles, finding shells and sea glass, swimming to the raft, crabbing at the end of the beach.  Often she would sketch while my sisters and I played and swam; frequently we'd all be reading, covered with sunscreen, lost in our books.

When I grew up and moved to New York City, I'd take Amtrak to Old Saybrook CT nearly every weekend.  My mother would meet the train, no matter what time it was; Sundays came too soon, and I'd never want to leave.  The photo above (taken in 1988 or so) shows us at the train station, waiting for the train back to NY.  I read her expression and know she wasn't ready for me to leave.  The picture brings back that moment and many emotions.

She died way too young, after a long illness.  After her death I was filled with memories of nurses and hospitals and the great sadness of losing her slowly.  But time has passed, and you know what?  I rarely think of her illness anymore.  The gift of time has been that I remember my mother being young and healthy, painting nearly every day, writing every night.  I remember watching Julia Child on Saturday afternoons, then cooking dinner together--sitting around the table at Hubbard's Point, enjoying the meal with my sister and her family, laughing and talking and feeling that it would last forever, that our family would go on forever.

I wrote about her in an essay called "Midnight Typing."  It appears in the collection What My Mother Gave Me, edited by Elizabeth Benedict.

And now it is May

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And now it is May.

I grew up in Connecticut, and May was the month when everything turned green.  Small leaves appeared on the trees.  When "the leaves on the oak are the size of squirrels' ears" shad would start to run in the rivers.  The first flowering trees were shadblum, also signifiers of shad, a fish that we ate one a year, more to celebrate spring and to have with young asparagus and buttered red potatoes than because we liked the taste.

We had many seasonal foods and traditions in our family, but right now I'm thinking of spring.  My mother didn't like to cook, but she liked to watch Julia Child (she died before the Food Network came to be, but oh how she would have loved all the chefs and cooking shows.)  Mim, our grandmother who lived with us, baked but didn't cook, the difference--as I see it--being that one strictly involved the oven and precise measurements, and the other requires slow burners, drifts of imagination, no certain regimen other than what is fresh, in season, and delicious.

You can probably tell I like to cook more than bake.

From the time I was fifteen I often cooked for my family.  My school had "mini-week" every January, and we could choose from a slew of interesting classes not usually offered.  My sophomore year I took French cooking.  Sister Denise taught it in the convent next door.  We made jambon persillade, coq au vin, blanquette de veau, and asperges au beure blanc.  I'd learn how to prepare the meal at school, then go home and cook it for my family, with a stop at Sussman's market along the way.

Spring was a time to celebrate.  There is so much beauty in every season, but the changes in spring literally feel like rebirth, the earth coming back to life.  Many people speak of unbidden joy, a feeling of hope that wasn't there before.  I feel a shadow.  Maybe it's because my father died in April, or perhaps it's just that I am an Irish existentialist at heart, and I know not to get attached to the beauty because it will not be here forever.  That's the problem, isn't it?  Things won't be here forever.

But for now we have wisteria, tulips, new leaves, migrating warblers traveling the eastern flyway in great numbers, landing in our yards and parks to rest on their way north to the boreal forest.  Just yesterday Anders Peltomaa reported seventeen warbler species in Central Park including a Yellow warblers, a Yellow-throated warbler, Black-and-white warblers, a Palm warbler, a Chestnut warbler and a Canada warbler.  (Large numbers, the migration definitely in full swing, a "fall-out"--literally, many migrants dropping from the sky--because of the storms we have been having.)

In the woods we have elusive wildflowers such as bloodroot, trillium, Jack-in-the-pulpits.  In the streams we have shad.  They are swimming up the Connecticut River in their annual and mysterious migration.  They are plentiful, but hard to find in fish markets because they are the devil to bone.  Those who can properly filet a shad are few and far between; it's a lost art.  The taste of shad is not for everyone: it reminds me of bluefish.  Enough said?  It's an oily fish and, on the plus side, rich in Omega 3 fatty acids.

Some people, including Nero Wolfe, love shad roe.

So if you can find shad and if you like it, or if you dare, I share with you here my menu--cooked once a year, in May, when shad are running, when oak leaves are no bigger than squirrel's ears.  Mim loved it, so I've named it for her.  Happy May!

Mim's Baked Shad

1 shad filet per person

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs, freshly crumbed in a Cuisinart or your favorite food mill-type apparatus.

olive oil

fresh lemon juice and zest

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350.  Dry shad filets with paper towel and lay skin-side down in baking dish.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and a dash of fresh lemon juice.  Mix bread crumbs with olive oil, enough to moisten--do use whole wheat bread because it's more full bodied and will work better with the strong flavor of shad.  Add a little more salt and pepper, and a half teaspoon or so of lemon zest to the bread crumbs, then divide the mixture among the shad filets, spreading it on top, not too thin, you don't have to be artful, this is mainly seasoning.

Bake for 30 minutes or till cooked through and bread crumbs golden brown.  (Check while baking, and if the bread crumbs are getting too dark, you can cover loosely with a piece of tin foil.)

Asparagus

The asperges au beurre blanc recipe from Sister Denise involved hard-boiled eggs, which I don't like.  But if you do, you can just peel and rice a hard-boiled egg and put it on top for garnish.

Bunch of asparagus

beurre blanc  (or olive oil)

 

Bring pot of water to boil.  Prepare asparagus by holding each stalk between two hands, bending till it breaks.  It will break in its natural spot, just throw away the tough inch-or-two from the bottom.  Add asparagus to boiling water.  (Salt the water if you like, I don't think the asparagus needs it.)  Cook until the asparagus is bright green, easily pierced with the tip of a knife--5-8 minutes.

Now, you can serve the asparagus straight out of the pot if you want.  Or you can drizzle it with a small amount of olive oil.  Or if you are fifteen and want to impress your family and by the way feed them very well, you can serve it with beurre blanc.  Don't forget to add the chopped hard boiled eggs IF and only if you like them.

Beurre blanc

1 shallot, chopped fine

4 ounces white wine

fresh juice of 1/2 lemon, strained

1 tablespoon heavy cream

12 ounces cold unsalted butter, 1/4 inch slices

salt and white pepper

Combine shallots, wine, and lemon juice in non-reactive saucepan and cook over high heat until simmered down to 2 tablespoons.   Add the cream and cook until the sauce  bubbles.  Add butter, 1 slice at a time, whisking over low heat.  Whisk continuously until all butter is added and sauce is emulsified.  Pour over asparagus.  This is where you garnish with hard boiled eggs if desired.

Red Potatoes á la Hubbard's Point

This is my favorite part, a vehicle for the rest of the meal.  It's a very casual and most delicious dish, and requires guests to participate, in that they'll have to peel their own garlic at the end, when served.

A pound or two of the tiniest, reddest new potatoes you can find

olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

cloves of garlic--don't bother peeling them

sprigs of fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 400.  You want it hot.

Do not wash or peel potatoes.  If necessary clean them with a dry cloth or paper towel.  Cut in half or quarters, depending on how large.  You want them to be about the size of a walnut.  Spread olive oil on cookie sheet--don't stint.  You'll use a lot, but it won't be absorbed, so you won't be consuming that much--it's for flavor and browning.

Place cut potatoes on cookie sheet, rolling in olive oil until well-covered.  Add unpeeled cloves of garlic.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Add a couple of springs of rosemary--in one piece, not broken up.

Insert sheet into oven.  As soon as you hear the oil starting to sizzle, after 10 minutes or so, remove pan and with a spatula turn the potatoes so they don't stick to the pan and so they brown on all sides.  Do this a few times over about 30 minutes--cooking time depends on size of potatoes.  You want to cook them until they are crispy.

Serve with cloves of garlic straight from the pan, still in their jackets, and tell your guests to peel them themselves.  It will be fun for them, easier for you, and the garlic will taste delicious with the potatoes and shad, or even spread on slices of baguette.

Small Things

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photo-7I used to write here nearly every day, didn't I?  A few things have pulled me away, and I've been living more inside than usual.  But I've always loved my relationship with my readers, and the online world has been a way for us to connect.  It's immediate and intense.  Write, hit post, and there I am in your inbox.   I want to ask you: what have you been doing during this time?  What have you been reading?  What are the big and small things in your life?  The small things sometimes get overlooked.  We're so focused on the major events and hurdles, we can forget that the smallest, seemingly--at the time--insignificant--moments or choices can add up to major changes, dramatic life directions.  I'm serious: the littlest things.  Just as, on a hike, if you find a tiny stream and follow it far enough, you'll find the ocean.

Have you found the ocean since we last visited?

But see?  Even with that question I'm asking about the big thing, not the tiny stream, and I'm of a mind that it's the small, the overlooked, the near, the easily dismissed that keeps us in the present, where all good things happen.

Today I plan to pet my kitties and look into their eyes.  I plan to take a walk in the Ramble in Central Park to see birds passing through on spring migration.  I plan to pause and look at tree branches, at the buds that will soon, but not yet, be leaves.  I plan to stop into the book store and choose something I want to read.

But for now, this minute, I am here with you.  So hi, you.  I've missed you, old friend.

Love, Luanne

photo: 192 Books, wreathed in pear blossoms.

Source: http://luannerice.net/wp-content/uploads/2...

Springtime in Chelsea

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Chelsea's Callery pear trees bloomed overnight--literally, between dusk and dawn.  Every year I look forward to their flowers with such anticipation; the trees fill the parks and streets of New York City and symbolize true springtime to me.  Yesterday they looked like this: photo-19

 

 

 

 

and today they look like this:

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the townhouse gardens are full of daffodils and forsythia:

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and on West 22nd Street there is a window box full of purple pansies:

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