Doing things a little differently with the weekly letter

Hi everyone -- 

It's fall again. It's definitely started here in Chicago. The temperatures dropped the Tuesday after Labor Day -- as if the weather knew that this WAS the day, which seemed odd, too specific really. Isn't this fish gorgeous? We let him go. Catch & release that day.And then those temps dropped something like 30 degrees, like a point was being made. Chicago schools officially started on Tuesday. I imagine grandmothers across the USA are gazing a little longer at their white pants, white shoes and wondering if they can wear them a couple more weeks -- afterall, the kids are wearing white. Those kids never did listen to all that no wearing white after Labor Day.  

Weather great. That's Phil. And I'm making changes again. Last year I said the same thing. Read this post from last September. Well, it's been a year. I've written one entry every week for a year, and it's been fun. I learned I like to write about food. I shared a lot of movies and writing tips (some better than others). I got an idea of what makes a good blog entry (size, shape, & topic). So I've truly liked it. 

But here's the thing: I need to cut back. At least for the fall and spring.

Why? ONE CAME HOME. It's about to be published. And that means I need to gear up to tell you all about it. I'm planning to build a section on this website. I'm going to make my first ever book trailer. I've got to plan the promotion. Will I do a book tour? If I do, where will I go? What about book festivals? And what awards is this book up for? You get the idea.

In addition to all of that, I've got some stuff in mind for my book THAT GIRL LUCY MOON too -- a wonderful book that makes a great companion to ONE CAME HOME, despite the 100 year difference in their settings. 

So things to do, things to do. The list keeps growing. 

This guy needs a name. Anybody?What's the plan for the letter? I'm going to keep this section going. Yes, I've changed the name to "News! News! News!" but for those of you in the know it's the same thing.  But I'm not going to be quite so regular. I'll write when I have something to share: maybe a hint, maybe some photos (love taking photos), maybe some news about ONE CAME HOME. Maybe something for my mom, brother and cousins -- those I know who see this thing... But it won't be every Monday. It'll happen when I get the urge to TELL something. (And when that happens, there's no stopping me.)

Anyway, if you love this letter, I suggest you subscribe via a feedreader like Netnewswire. Or simply sign up to get them by email. Enter your email address in the spot provided in the upper right hand corner. That way you won't miss one due to it not being as regular.

News?  Spent Labor Day Weekend back at the Wisconsin Lake -- just a few days this time. And boy, was it lovely. See photos as proof. It was good to see family, go for a swim, and see all the creatures. Loons were calling all weekend. That's a treat!

What did you do this Labor Day?

More soon!

Amy 

P.S. Below is a video of Chris Thile & Michael Daves. Just went to a concert. A-MAZING. And so, I close with a little fun music. Enjoy "Rabbit in a Log!"

Walk Around Lake Geneva (You can do it!)

Hi everyone -- 

Summer is the time to get out there and do something a little unexpected, right? Phil and I decided to try our hand at walking around Geneva Lake in Wisconsin. He's playing the Friar in Romeo & Juliet at First Folio Shakespeare right now, so he doesn't have a ton of time to take off, but we decided as soon as the show opened, we'd take off for Geneva Lake in Wisconsin. 

The great thing about Geneva Lake is that all the property owners are required to give right of way to walkers on their Lake Shore Path. The path rings the lake, which means you walk on the front lawns of some of the most glorious mansions you've ever seen. Half the time you kind of can't believe where you're standing (and that it's lawful). The most beautiful houses date from the late 19c when railroad barons and barbed wire inventors, and all the movers and shakers from Chicago had mansions up on the Geneva Lake. And, I'd like to point out, there were hourly trains running from Chicago. Hourly! Sigh. 

It's kind of amazing that this sort of path exists here in the USA (reminds me of England), and I wish there where a whole lot more of it here. It's fun. And the neighbors use the path too -- it seems to work for visitors and locals alike. 

The walk around the lake is 24 miles, but you can break it up -- and Phil and I did by taking the tourist boat back from our finishing destination (one from Fontana, and the other from Williams Bay). In total we walked 18 miles in two days. We would have made it all the way -- yes really -- but there was a giant storm the first morning and we had to wait it out. I guess it means we'll have to go back. Darn. 

So -- below is a slideshow (so you'll get an idea of this kind of crazy walk). And here's what I recommend, should you want to do this one yourself. 

The main guide to the walk, is (and I kid you not this is the name), the Walk, Talk & Gawk guide. So get this, and you're pretty well set for any sort of short or long or all the way around (something I want to do in one day) walk.

I'd suggest staying in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. There's more going on in Lake Geneva than in Fontana or Williams Bay (though Williams Bay has a nice organic market -- which is frankly good to know about).

THEN if you want a shorter walk, I think the best walk would be to start in Williams Bay and walk back to your hotel in Lake Geneva (about 7ish miles). If you stay on the north side of the lake (and don't head toward Fontana) you'll see a lot of those 19c mansions. Phil and I loved this side of the lake!

So what I'd try to do is catch a tourist boat over to Williams Bay from Lake Geneva in the morning after a big breakfast. You'd have lunch on the trail and then be back in Lake Geneva by the early afternoon. If the tourists boats don't go that early, you could head to Williams Bay at noon and have dinner on the trail and still be back before it gets dark if it's in the summer.

And if that fails, you can walk from Lake Geneva to Williams Bay and catch one of the afternoon boats back to Lake Geneva, like Phil and I did.

Anyway, it's fun. The day after we did the above, we walked from Lake Geneva to Fontana (about 10 miles) on the other side of the lake. It was a great way to spend a couple of days without going to far away from Chicago.  

For a place to stay, we like the Mill Creek Hotel. It's clean and nice with a refrigerator (you can bring your own food!) Last time we stayed in Lake Geneva we stayed in a place that sounded fine online, and seemed to be nice over the phone, but turned out to be the sort of place crawling with 19c glass figurines, their little ballerina fingers reaching out to catch my bag, my coat, my big sweater. There's none of that in that place -- You can't break it.

For eating, there's Sprecher's Pub in Lake Geneva. It's the home of the famous root beer, and we liked that place too! 

What are you guys doing for fun this summer?

Amy

Okay, here's my slide show of the walk: 

running while bird-watching? & cool mag app

Hi everyone -- 

Thank you for your help with my resolution to make an "exercise habit for life."

John, the advice to go for intensity and not time is good, as well as doing it during a time when it seems fun (lunch break at work). 

And Brad, I love what I'm reading of the book Switch! Full title (for everybody else): Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. I read the sample chapter on my Kindle, and think I'm going to go through it. But by just reading the sample, I realized that one of the things I struggle with in my running is that I can't watch the birds or take photos. I know it sounds odd, but it's true.

See, I like to go on walks because I can take time to see things, but if I run it's all about exercise, and if you're exercising you're not supposed to stop. The pattern is that I run by something I'd really like to pause at -- a flotilla of ducks on Lake Michigan say -- and feel disappointed because (a) I feel I've got to keep going if I'm going to get the benefit of all this effort, and (b) KNOW that I don't have time to come back (which is what I want to do) and figure out what ducks those were on the lake. 

So though I have a good post-workout feel, I am disappointed. It's slight, but I'm wondering if this is partly responsible for not allowing me develop running as a habit.  

But what if I allowed myself to stop? And what if there was a way to bring a camera and a monacle (for bird-watching) along? I think it might be fun. Now instead of not wanting to run, I kind of want to do it. 

* * * 

I'm tired right now. I'm working on the book with intensity. The count down is on -- I'm hoping to finish by the end of the month and there's plenty to do. So far, I think I'm going to make it. Working on the ending now, finished the beginning last week, and then I've got to go through the whole book and smooth it out. I want Phil to read it and give feedback before I sent it out. (He's a very good reader.)

Otherwise, here are a couple of things I thought were interesting from the realm of new ideas in publishing, technology, and will publishing survive this new world (the fatalism seems overdone to me -- truth is, this is opening up a lot more possibilities, allows more access...). Both of these are fun (don't be frightened): 

I love this demo of McSweeney's iphone app: http://app.mcsweeneys.net/ Makes me almost want to get an iphone . . . And for those of you in the kids book world, imagine if there was a kids book magazine like this. Imagine if the Horn Book looked like this. Interestingly, they don't put everything they print in the magazine on this app. And I believe when you pay for the app you're paying for a subscription (I believe). What if you could access all Horn Book reviews from an app on the iphone? Or ipad? Or smart phone? And what if they linked up to places to get sample chapters? 

In general, McSweeney's is the one I'm watching -- they do things their own way and are not afraid to break rules. For instance, publishing their own books, involving the community, allowing their sense of humor to shine . . . 

And this quote from a book critic, writing in The New York Times, about how he sees literary criticism changing:

Why, then, do we read? There’s something Buddhist about literary reading, as I understand it — you drop yourself into a little pocket of silence and peace and allow magical things to happen to your consciousness. I read, on the most basic level, because it makes me happy. It calms my brain down. My wife and I sometimes refer to this as “textual healing”: if I’m in a wretched mood, feeling oppressed by the world, I can go off with a book for an hour and suddenly be myself again. This practice, if you’re receptive to it, can come to define your life — can come in fact to seem like the very definition of a rich life. (Pound: “Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.”) If our era needs to learn that lesson, or to relearn it, the book critic is in the best possible position to teach it.

Here's the whole article if you'd like to read it.

That's it for this week. Back to work! The photos are from northern Wisconsin. We visited Mom up at the lake and were surprised this year by hoarfrost! Lovely! (And yes, these are taken with the new camera, Powershot s95 -- so much better than my old powershot. As you can see I can get more contrast and more color even on a bright day with a lot of snow.)

Hope you're all well!

Amy

  

walkers right-of-way at lake geneva

More from Lake Geneva! I ended up going twice this year. First, with Phil in March and then with some folks from my church in April. Believe me, it was no hardship!

So here's what Lake Geneva, Wisconsin looked like in April.

One of the things I love about Lake Geneva is that there's a path that runs all the way around the lake. Residents are required by law to allow walkers to trod directly in front of their fancy, fancy homes and cabins. Usually they put down some bricks or pavers to let you know where to walk. But I kid you not, these people wake up, shuffle out to their kitchens, pick up their cups of coffee, turn to gaze out at the lake through big breakfast nook windows and see . . .ME. It's 6 a.m and I'm hiking across their front yard, orange bag full of a book and a journal, sleepily heading toward the coffee shop. I don't know how the home owners feel about that, but I got to tell you I loved being able to walk that close to the water. And I suppose the home owners get to walk in front of everyone else's house. That just might make up for it. 

I believe it's 20 plus miles if you walk all the way around -- and I definitely want to walk it at least once in my life. I wish there were more places in the U.S. that allowed walkers right-of-way. It's so lovely.