5/30/2005
It's still 1955 in Naperville, Illinois. We wandered down to the town parade to see Eric march in the high school band. We sat under the shady trees by the river, many ducks and geese already too stuffed on muffins and popcorn to beg. I thought: I have spent much of my American life waiting for things to happen--waiting for the parade, waiting for the fireworks, waiting for the concert, waiting for the ice cream truck.... I usually enjoy very pleasant thoughts while waiting for things.
WWII bombers and fighter planes circled over the crowd. Moms and kids and dogs and dads maneuvered their bellies through the throngs. I remembered the long days waiting for the 4th of July fireworks with my kid pals in San Diego, hanging at the South Clairemont rec and imagining I had somehow gotten into the Monkees and was playing onstage in my bitchin' red corduroy double-breasted Moneek shirt! Singing "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" to all the girls who didn't want to be my girlfriends. Which were all of them. Or once, in Boston, waiting for a KKK rally to end in Government Center. It had exploded into a mini-riot, with Klansmen and commies and mad cops charging around. A Black man and I got in between the CBS and NBC trucks as mounted police, first on horses, then on Harleys, zoomed through the bodies on the plaza. "I'm not stepping out of here," he said. "OH HELL NO!" I confided. A wonderful day.
Hope yours was good.
Speaking of wonderful--we have sent out well over a hundred Teresita cards this week. Nothing could make me happier. I hope she brings you joy when she arrives in your home. I have deeply appreciated all the emails from people with good things to say about the book. Remember--as long as you ask for them, I'll send them. It's fun. So if you want one, let me know.
Getting ready for book tour. Putting many songs on my iPod. I like trivia, and I bet you do too. So I'll give y'all a list of what's on the Urreapod a little later. Right now, I have to step back into 1955 and attend the Naperville Community Bandhsell concert!
Hasta luego, amigos,
Luis
She's coming back!
WWII bombers and fighter planes circled over the crowd. Moms and kids and dogs and dads maneuvered their bellies through the throngs. I remembered the long days waiting for the 4th of July fireworks with my kid pals in San Diego, hanging at the South Clairemont rec and imagining I had somehow gotten into the Monkees and was playing onstage in my bitchin' red corduroy double-breasted Moneek shirt! Singing "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" to all the girls who didn't want to be my girlfriends. Which were all of them. Or once, in Boston, waiting for a KKK rally to end in Government Center. It had exploded into a mini-riot, with Klansmen and commies and mad cops charging around. A Black man and I got in between the CBS and NBC trucks as mounted police, first on horses, then on Harleys, zoomed through the bodies on the plaza. "I'm not stepping out of here," he said. "OH HELL NO!" I confided. A wonderful day.
Hope yours was good.
Speaking of wonderful--we have sent out well over a hundred Teresita cards this week. Nothing could make me happier. I hope she brings you joy when she arrives in your home. I have deeply appreciated all the emails from people with good things to say about the book. Remember--as long as you ask for them, I'll send them. It's fun. So if you want one, let me know.
Getting ready for book tour. Putting many songs on my iPod. I like trivia, and I bet you do too. So I'll give y'all a list of what's on the Urreapod a little later. Right now, I have to step back into 1955 and attend the Naperville Community Bandhsell concert!
Hasta luego, amigos,
Luis
5/22/2005
I just signed 200 copies of The Hummingbird's Daughter. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see this book finally coming out. I have never gone through more torment, worry and pain over anything in my life. But I have to say it has probably brought me more joy than anything else.
The first reviews have been pretty amazing. I know Michelle is putting them up for you to read. Tomorrow, Monday May 23, I have an op-ed piece in the LA Times about some of my experiences in writing the book. You can look it up on their website.
One day when we were going through an obscure archive, Cindy and I found an autographed picture of Teresita. We have made a print of this photograph and have been sending it to friends and relatives. However, it occurs to me now that many of you who read the book feel close to her. So we have decided to make these cards available to you if you want one. Simply do the following: go to contact on the main menu and send me an email with your mailing address and we will send you a postcard. I'll even sign it!
Finally, I heard today that Rancho Teresita near Benson Arizona is going up for sale. This is the place where we actually met with "Manuelito" the Chiricahua medicine man you met in the novel. Any takers? I'll pass the word on for you.
Keep reading -- see you on book tour!
Luis
To All Teresita Fans:
The first reviews have been pretty amazing. I know Michelle is putting them up for you to read. Tomorrow, Monday May 23, I have an op-ed piece in the LA Times about some of my experiences in writing the book. You can look it up on their website.
One day when we were going through an obscure archive, Cindy and I found an autographed picture of Teresita. We have made a print of this photograph and have been sending it to friends and relatives. However, it occurs to me now that many of you who read the book feel close to her. So we have decided to make these cards available to you if you want one. Simply do the following: go to contact on the main menu and send me an email with your mailing address and we will send you a postcard. I'll even sign it!
Finally, I heard today that Rancho Teresita near Benson Arizona is going up for sale. This is the place where we actually met with "Manuelito" the Chiricahua medicine man you met in the novel. Any takers? I'll pass the word on for you.
Keep reading -- see you on book tour!
Luis
5/05/2005
The Hummingbird's Daughter is now available at amazon.com!!!
For all of you who pre-ordered it, watch your mailboxes. It will be coming soon!
We were just at the Los Angeles Times Festival of the Book at UCLA. It was fun spying on celebrities like Eric Idle and T.C. Boyle. I was surprised that my panel drew a substantial audience, if only because we were competing in our time slot with some big names (Maria Shriver, etc.) Perhaps the best thing about the weekend for me was that Michael Pietsch, the big kahuna at Little, Brown, not only attended but managed to have a couple of boxes of The Hummingbird's Daughter available. I hadn't even seen it. When we heard it was there, Cindy and I hightailed it over to the Cultura Latina booktent. There, my loyal homies had set a pile of the book at the front of their display so that the C-Span camera set up across the plaza would show it every time they'd pan the festival. As we were admiring the book, a vato in big shorts said, "Hey ese, is that you?" I said it was and he bought the book out of my hands. He had me sign it to "La ChaCha." I considered this a good sign.
Not such a good sign was one of my "famous writer" cohorts who turned his back on me when I tried to shake his hand when we were introduced. Ah, I thought, it's a diva war. Sadly for him, after our panel, my signing line was quite long and not a single person spoke to him. He stormed off in disgust while I happily chatted with all the folks who had picked up all the available copies of the book. All in all, a good day.
We did all kinds of really great cheesy Hollywood things. Like driving to Ozzy Osbourne's house to see if it looks like it does on MTV. It does. I also had the thrill of spying on Michael Chiklis (Vic Mackie!!) having a serious chat with a woman. We ate at Barney's Beanery and we bought CDs at Tower Records and Cindy accidently became friends with Jacqueline Mitchard at the gym in the hotel while I was sleeping.
We're gearing up for book tour. Check the schedule since it will keep on developing until we head out in June. Hope to see you. Drop me a line and tell me if you liked the book.
For all of you who pre-ordered it, watch your mailboxes. It will be coming soon!
We were just at the Los Angeles Times Festival of the Book at UCLA. It was fun spying on celebrities like Eric Idle and T.C. Boyle. I was surprised that my panel drew a substantial audience, if only because we were competing in our time slot with some big names (Maria Shriver, etc.) Perhaps the best thing about the weekend for me was that Michael Pietsch, the big kahuna at Little, Brown, not only attended but managed to have a couple of boxes of The Hummingbird's Daughter available. I hadn't even seen it. When we heard it was there, Cindy and I hightailed it over to the Cultura Latina booktent. There, my loyal homies had set a pile of the book at the front of their display so that the C-Span camera set up across the plaza would show it every time they'd pan the festival. As we were admiring the book, a vato in big shorts said, "Hey ese, is that you?" I said it was and he bought the book out of my hands. He had me sign it to "La ChaCha." I considered this a good sign.
Not such a good sign was one of my "famous writer" cohorts who turned his back on me when I tried to shake his hand when we were introduced. Ah, I thought, it's a diva war. Sadly for him, after our panel, my signing line was quite long and not a single person spoke to him. He stormed off in disgust while I happily chatted with all the folks who had picked up all the available copies of the book. All in all, a good day.
We did all kinds of really great cheesy Hollywood things. Like driving to Ozzy Osbourne's house to see if it looks like it does on MTV. It does. I also had the thrill of spying on Michael Chiklis (Vic Mackie!!) having a serious chat with a woman. We ate at Barney's Beanery and we bought CDs at Tower Records and Cindy accidently became friends with Jacqueline Mitchard at the gym in the hotel while I was sleeping.
We're gearing up for book tour. Check the schedule since it will keep on developing until we head out in June. Hope to see you. Drop me a line and tell me if you liked the book.
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