So yesterday I met Tink's brand new baby girl Clodagh (clo-duh), and witnessed Aoife holding her new sister for the first time. As you can see, it was QUITE RIDICULOUS. I held Clodagh for a while and Aoife cautioned me to be careful as "SHE IS VERY SMALL."

I have a bunch of things I've been meaning to write about, like for example the rest of Tink's book tour in DC, NYC and Boston, a gorgeous workshop my sister and I are taking with Ms Veronica Varlow in NYC, many ravishing plays and shows and movies, and a romantical sojourn or two including my recent summer solstice BIRTHDAY this past Monday which has shockingly left me less than one year away from becoming the NEW 30 and was spent with a wondrous French scientist at a haunted Victorian b&b in a town famous for its elk viewing and chainsaw art. Oh, and I'm not sure I mentioned that Godmother has been optioned for a second time, by a fancy old studio in France which is in no way related to said scientist. Oh! And I am leaving soon for ALASKA and will, among other things, visit with a Pulpwood Queens book club chapter in the Anchorage women's prison (a club that read and discussed Godmother last year!), after going to a glacier that morning and before spending the evening at dinner and a drag queen show with those Anchorage Pulpwood Queens not currently incarcerated.

But for NOW I would just like to share with you the recently unveiled COVER of this wondrous collection of retold ghost stories that yours truly is in and that is edited by Ms Ellen Datlow and Mr Nick Mamatas and available for your purchasing needs in early September.

Look how awesome it is:



And you can pre-order it here.

I know!

THE END.

Today was the launch of Ms Jeanine Cummins' new book THE OUTSIDE BOY, about which I sagely and reflectively once said:

"The Outside Boy will charm you, fascinate you, delight you, snake into your heart and bust it wide open. I’m hard pressed to think of a narrator more lovable than Christy Hurley, who describes his lost, beautiful world — that of the Irish travellers in the late 1950s — in prose that’s as profound as it is funny. What a graceful, perfect book."

And I totally didn't even get paid to say that, even though I used snake as a verb.

Look at this byoooteous cover:



Not to mention this byeeeeteous article that came out in the Huffington Post today.

I know.

And then tonight was a reading and party involving CHAMPAGNE and STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE at Mr. Dennehy's in the West Village. Beforehand, I met Ms. Elyssa East for red wine and vanilla cupcakes just to ensure I had an adequate sugar intake for the day, and then my sister came and lots and lots of people came and it was all Irish gypsies and merriment and lives being changed forever. I think alliances were formed and babies made tonight, too.

I mean look at that cake:



And because I am like the best friend ever in this world, and because Jeanine AKA Tink is like 50000 months pregnant, and because this book was a long time a comin and I was there watching said comin for said long time, and because I enjoy partaking of free booze, I am driving with her to DC tomorrow for two readings/parties there and then attending her Queens reading on Saturday and then driving with her up to Boston next week for yet another night of unbelievable glamour.

Here, let me be more specific so that you might alter all of your plans and attend all the following events with me:

JUNE 2

Germantown, MD @ 7pm

Borders at Milestone

Reading & Signing for The Outside Boy

JUNE 3

LAUNCH PARTY! Bethesda, MD @ 7 pm

Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle on Cordell Street

www.flanagansharpandfiddle.com

Reading, Signing, & Toasting The Outside Boy

JUNE 5

Glendale, NY @ 5 pm

Borders at Atlas Park

Reading & Signing for The Outside Boy

JUNE 8

Boston, MA @ 7 pm

Boston University Barnes & Noble

Reading & Signing for The Outside Boy

That is all for now, even though I did many exciting things this weekend, like for example I went FROG HUNTING. I have also magically switched to italics now and there is no way to stop them, and they have ruined everything.

In a last act of despair, I leave you with the following photos:

The end.