Courtney · Sheinmel

1. I have to say something about Twitter:  I came late to it, but now I’m falling in love.  It makes me aware of so many things in the world – like when there’s a TV show debuting, or a new Libba Bray series being released.  It cracks me up when celebrities say hi to each other via tweets – this week, I was reading the tweeting dialogue between Kristen Chenoweth and Christina Applegate and feeling so thankful for Twitter because it’s basically just authorized stalking.  Then there are the opportunities that come up on Twitter.  I’ve been following Maria Shriver’s updates on the annual Women’s Conference – I watched parts online last fall, and really wished I could attend.  Now, thanks to Twitter, I’m finding out about contests to get tickets.  I’m planning to nominate one of my friends for a Minerva Award.  (I’m just assuming she’ll bring me with her if she wins.)  And, I know this is kind of pathetic, but I have to admit that my self-esteem is bolstered when I get new followers, or when people mention me in their tweets.  It seems to me that there’s an art-form to making posts in 140 characters or fewer.  I don’t think I’ve mastered it quite yet, but I make a valiant effort every day.

2. I watched last night’s episode of the Vampire Diaries by myself, which may not be the smartest thing to do.  As my sister says, the brilliance of the show is that each episode is set up like a horror movie.  Last night I had to press pause a couple of times and take a deep breath before I kept watching.  Then I had really weird dreams about some secret, stolen book – which changed from a cookbook into something else, I can’t remember what.  It was hidden in a restaurant that I patronize often.  But in the dream, the restaurant was not at all comfy and inviting; instead, it was this dark, horrible basement-like place – with no food at all.  And there were two people chasing me – who I know to be perfectly nice people in real life, but in the dream they quite possibly intended to kill me.  I am prone to vivid dreams, but this was the first one in awhile that I woke up in the middle of because I was so scared and my heart was pounding so much.

3. My two-year-old godson, Brody, has been calling me “Yutney” for several months.  But his speech has been progressing, and so my moniker has been morphing.  Now it sounds like “Shortney.”  When I reported this to my sister this morning, she was delighted:  When we were little, my nearly-perfectly-behaved sister only ever got in trouble for calling in “Shortney.”  (I was then – and remain – the shortest of all of my friends.)  But when Brody says it, it sounds awfully cute.

4. As promised, here is the trailer for Regan Hofmann’s beautiful memoir, I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.

Like the POSITIVELY trailer, it was created by Ms. K-M, an absolutely amazing school librarian – she works at a school Litchfield, CT, where Regan and I are speaking in April.  Ms. K-M says our two book trailers are the only book trailers she’s ever made – a fact that Regan and I find hard to believe since they are just so spectacular.  The background music she chose fits each of our books so perfectly.  I love the song on the POSITIVELY trailer so much (“Beautiful World” by the Mary Dream), I bought it off of iTunes – it’s now part of my music library that is overwhelmingly dominated by Sheryl Crow, Carly Simon and Madonna – so Ms. K-M really helped me branch out!  I am so touched that she loved the books and wanted the get the kids excited about them.  And I am so thankful that she uploaded them to youtube so I can post them here and send them around to everyone I know.

5. And here’s the POSITIVELY trailer again, in case you didn’t get a chance to see it.  Personally, I can’t stop watching it!

Some days are just so full and fun, it seems they last way more than the allotted 24 hours.  A couple days ago, I had one of those days.

It started early (well, early for a Saturday).  I woke up and read through the draft of my current WIP.  It’s hard for me to be objective about what I write – I alternate between thinking my work is fabulous and thinking it is a disaster.  But Saturday was one of those great read-throughs, when I was, simply, proud of myself.  I turned off the computer and headed out to meet my friend Jake.  It was the coldest freezing-est day of the year, and yet I was uncharacteristically okay about it.  I bundled up, feeling so full of possibility.  (Jake, in town from California, was not quite so amenable to the weather.)

We took the subway uptown to Columbia, where students were participating in the 10^th annual Dance Marathon to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the organization started by Jake’s mom.  (Being at the school made me feel kind of old; I graduated before the inaugural dance marathon.)  At noon, Jake introduced Nigel Barker, a celebrity spokesperson for the Foundation, who showed a clip of Generation Free, the documentary he made about the Foundation’s work in Tanzania.  (Incidentally, the Foundation has offices in 17 countries worldwide!)  Afterwards the music was turned up and the 28 hours of dancing commenced.  There was a line, winding around the room, of people waiting to get their picture taken with Nigel.  He was so awesome and friendly.  I spied a pile of Nigel Barker headshots, grabbed one for my niece Nicki (she’s a big America’s Next Top Model fan), and got on line.  He signed it, and also posed for a picture with Jake and me.



The room was pulsing with music and energy and excitement.  I especially loved the line dance, which I thought was set to a La Bouche song, but in retrospect I’m pretty sure I was wrong about that. 

A little while later, I headed back downtown, where preparations were underway for the next big event:  a few months ago, my friends’s son Jessarae, a fourteen year old singer/songwriter, had a contest – he would pick two winners, fly to their hometowns, and give a private concert.  My cousin, Jessica, was the first runner up, and I was SO disappointed that she came thisclose and didn’t win.  It would’ve been so perfect for her:  She loves Jessarae’s music, and she’s taking voice and guitar lessons.  Then, one of the winners had to cancel, and my cousin was in!  We made crazy last-minute arrangements for a concert at my parents’ apartment.  Jessica, her parents, and a bunch of her friends arranged to come into the city from Long Island. 

The apartment was transformed into a concert venue.  The sound system was outrageous (at least outrageous for a concert inside a New York City apartment) and I crossed my fingers that the neighbors wouldn’t complain about the noise.  My cousin walked in with the hugest grin.  Jessarae began his set – about ten songs – and Jessica mouthed all the words.  Of course I took a ton of pictures.  For the final song, Jessarae invited Jessica up to sing with him on her favorite song, Uh-Oh.  She was shy at first, but then she got more confident and they were belting it out.  We dubbed them “Jess Squared.”






I’m told video of the event will be posted on YouTube very soon.

It is thrilling to write this sentence:  Rebecca Stead’s WHEN YOU REACH ME won the Newbery Award!  (I’m sure most of you reading this blog already know all about it.  But for my family and friends who are not so immersed in the kid-lit world, let me just tell you that winning the Newbery is like winning the Oscar for Best Picture.  There is no higher honor.) 

Rebecca winning means a lot to me, and not just because I read and loved WHEN YOU REACH ME, but also because I know her.  She is kind and gracious and self-deprecating.  We had dinner a few months back, just a couple weeks after the book had been released.  It was receiving all kinds of acclaim, and we sat around the table – Rebecca, me, and our friend Wendy Mass – and talked about Miranda and Sal.  There was a moment when I felt shot out of my body, like I was looking at myself from above.  I thought, How it is possible that this is my real life?  That I get to sit at dinner and talk about a book I love with the woman who wrote it?!!

I’ve never known anyone who won the Newbery before, so maybe I’m just more tapped into it this time around, but it seemed like this year – more than any other year – the entire writing community had the same favorite book.  There was a clear front-runner, and we were all pulling for WHEN YOU REACH ME.  I actually had anxiety dreams about it, the night before it was announced.  When I woke up, I felt silly:  I was having dreams about someone else’s book.  I fumbled to start my computer and see the results, and then I got a text-message from another writer-friend.  She wrote, simply, “She won.”  And somehow it felt like a personal victory.

When I think about WHEN YOU REACH ME, I think about how that is the kind of writing I am striving for:  a great story, about kids who are utterly relatable.  Reading it, you almost forget there’s a fantasy element to it, because it’s just so real.  It is a book in which each sentence counts.  Each sentence is so perfectly written and heartfelt.  To me, that is the gift Rebecca gave to writers – not just to readers – when she wrote this book.

If you don't have a copy of WHEN YOU REACH ME, get it now.  Read it immediately.  You can thank me later.

1. Last night my friend Regan Hofmann and I participated in a book reading/discussion at Housing Works Bookstore & Café, an absolutely INCREDIBLE place at 126 Crosby St. in SoHo.  I’m posting the street address because if you live in the NYC area and you haven’t been there, you are missing out.  The bookstore is beautiful – it looks exactly the way a bookstore should look, so comfortable and inviting, with books piled high to the ceiling.  It is like the bookstore of my dreams, the kind of place you see in the movies.  Staffed almost entirely by volunteers, every dollar made goes to helping people with HIV/AIDS secure safe housing. 
   

2. When we arrived at Housing Works, the first person I met was Jack Mackenroth, a friend of Regan and former participant on PROJECT RUNWAY, who himself lives with HIV, and who had offered to be the MC of the event.  My mom commandeered my camera and snapped a bunch of pictures – I don’t really love the way I look in any of them, but at least you can tell we were happy.  Here I am with Regan and Jack, right before he got up to speak.  

3. Jack pointed out that the microphone was positioned too low for grown-up-sized people.  Then he turned to me and said, “So you’ll be fine.”  He introduced Regan, who read from her memoir, I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.  It was the first time she was reading from her book in public, and she did such a beautiful job.  She read a section that I think is particularly haunting:  a couple years ago, Regan was admitted to the hospital with a staph infection, and the medical professionals charged with her care seemed to be avoiding her, ostensibly because of the HIV.  At one point, Regan pressed and pressed the call button to ask for some toilet paper.  A nurse finally came to her door, stood in the hallway and threw the paper at Regan so she wouldn’t have to enter the room.  I’ve heard this story a number of times, but hearing it read aloud was still so shocking, so appalling.  Regan read so well, and she didn’t seem nervous at all.  I went next, and even though I’ve read from POSITIVELY probably about a dozen times, she was such a tough act to follow.
   

4. After I finished reading, Regan came back up to the podium and we answered questions.  She bent down when it was her turn to speak into the mike, and I stood on my toes.  Someone asked me about taking on the voice of an HIV-positive teen as someone who is herself negative, so I talked a little bit about my fears with that.  And then, in a moment of great generosity, Regan bent to the mike and said, “As someone who is HIV-positive, I have to say Courtney nailed it, and I’m grateful she wrote this book.”  It was such a proud moment for me, and I could’ve started to cry right then. 

5. I had been worried, as I always am at these things, that not enough people would show up.  But the place was packed – all the seats were filled, people pulled in seats from the café section of the store, and there were even more people standing at the back.  I couldn’t believe it:  my parents, my agent, my editor, people from Simon & Schuster.  So many of Regan’s friends and my friends turned out.  And then there were members of the YA community, including Gitty Daneshvari, David Levithan, Michael Northrop, Kieran Scott and Lynn Weingarten.  My friend Amanda told me that she thought it went really well.  She didn’t look at her watch once during the entire hour and a half, and people around her seemed to be enjoying it and paying attention.  She said my mom leaned over to her and said, “I sometimes forget Courtney is a real, individual person.  But there she is:  There’s my daughter.”  It’s lines like that that I live on. 

I rang in 2010 in Lancaster, with my mom, Faux Pa, and our extended faux family.  After a lazy New Year’s morning, Laura suggested she, our sister-in-law and I take a yoga class.  I was not at all into this idea – it’s not that I’m against yoga per se; but I’m hopelessly inflexible, and I didn’t want to be the laughingstock of the class.  Thankfully, the studio was closed.  Then Laura, who is in training to be a yoga instructor, said she would teach us herself.

“It's just, I’m going to be awful,” I protested.

“However you are right now is perfect,” Laura said.

“It’ll just be the three of us,” my sister-in-law added.  She went on to assure me that she was also inflexible, which I knew was a total lie:  I’d gone with her to her ballet class last spring.  Besides which, she is one of those people who is good at everything.

Somehow they managed to talk me into it.  We told everyone else to leave us alone for an hour and we headed upstairs.  Laura gave us each a yoga mat.  We went through the poses and she reminded us to keep breathing.  I was sort of falling all over myself, but it was OK because it was just the three of us, and it was kind of fun.  “It’s not like you’re being graded,” Laura said.

Famous last words, because then my eight-year-old nephew showed up, with my six-year-old and three-year-old nieces in tow.

At first they just wanted to join in, which was fine with me.  I even offered to give up my mat.  I figured if I didn’t have a mat, then Laura couldn’t expect me to participate.  Instead, she told the kids that she was teaching us, and they could watch if they wanted.

“I’ll keep score!” Zach, the eight-year-old, said.

I muttered a word that I shouldn’t have said in front of them and I’m not going to repeat here.

Zach rooted around for a piece of paper.  He perched on the side of his mom’s bed.  The girls crowded around him.  “Courtney, you’re really not getting a lot of points,” Zach reported.  "I don't know why.  I've done yoga before and it's so easy."

“You don’t even need to keep score," I told him.  "I promise you I’m going to lose.”

“However you are right now is perfect,” Laura insisted.

“Whatever,” I said.  I tried to twist my body the way she was.  Then I fell down on my mat.

“You lose another point!” Zach said with glee.  He held out the scorecard to show me just how badly I was losing.  (In case you can’t tell, my tally is on the left.)



By then, Laura knew she’d lost me, so she let the kids join us.  Here they are, much more skilled than I will ever be.

I am a technological disaster.  Or at least, I belong in the remedial technology class.  It took me over an hour to figure out how to splice these two book covers together so I could make them the background picture on the Evite I was designing.  Here they are:

 

They are my book, POSITIVELY, and my friend Regan Hofmann’s memoir, I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.  I think our covers look related.  Regan’s hair is nearly the same shade as the model’s on the POSITIVELY cover.  It’s like Emerson is her younger sister.  And I am disproportionately proud at having succeeded in merging them into one file.

In case I don’t have your email address and you didn’t receive the Evite – Regan and I will be at Housing Works Bookstore & Café, 126 Crosby St., NYC, this Thursday, Jan 14^th from 7-8:30 PM.  We’ll be reading/discussing books/signing copies.  AND, Regan’s friend Jack Mackenroth, a former participant on Project Runway, will be joining us.  (My teenaged niece loves Project Runway, but can’t make it in from PA since it’s a school night.  I will definitely be hitting Jack up for an autograph for her!)

I have to say I’m honored to be a part of this event and to have my book associated with Regan’s.  There were times, when I was writing POSITIVELY, when I felt I didn’t have the right to tell the story.  After all, I’m not HIV-positive; I was just making it up as I went along.  When it got to be too much, I could close my computer and go back to my real life.  Since the book came out, I’ve gotten a number of emails from teen readers saying they didn’t really think about HIV before they read POSITIVELY, and now they wouldn’t be afraid to be friends with someone who has HIV.  When that happens I think, All right, I’m glad that I wrote this.  But still, I am humbled by what people with HIV/AIDS have to face every day.

One of the things Regan and I want to talk about on Thursday is stigma.  It is something Regan herself knows too well:  afraid of losing her friends, her job and  everything she held dear, Regan kept her own HIV-status secret for nearly a decade, until she became editor-in-chief of POZ Magazine (a magazine dedicated to those infected with and affected by HIV).  It is the experience she chronicles in I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.

Housing Works is, itself, an amazing place, which helps people with HIV/AIDS secure safe housing.  All proceeds go to the cause.  If you are in the area, please join us.  And if you can’t make it, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Regan’s memoir as soon as possible . . . and if you want to pick up a copy of POSITIVELY while you’re at it, that’s okay, too!

A couple nights ago, I went to David Levithan’s famed Teen Author Reading Night, where five incredible authors read from their books.  Every time I attend one of the reading nights, I start wishing I’d known about such events when I was a teen – I don’t think they existed.  I would have LOVED to sit so close to a panel of authors as they read from their latest books.  In fact, I love being able to do it now.

1. First up was my friend Gitty Daneshvari, author of SCHOOL OF FEAR, a novel about four kids who are sent to a special school to help them overcome their phobias.  I have written about Gitty before – a few months back she was on a panel at Books of Wonder, and she was so hilarious that I knew I had to be her friend.  Her book is incredible, too . . . and she’s currently working on the sequel.
2. Next was Dream Jordan, author of HOT GIRL, the story of Kate, a disenchanted girl in foster care whose life is changed when she is befriended by Naleejah, the hot girl who is willing to give Kate a makeover.  The excerpt Dream read was funny and vivid and incredibly real – she explained that her hope is for her writing to inspire kids and teens to stay on the right track and realize their full potential. 
3. And then we had Diana Peterfreund, author of RAMPANT, who read pages from her new novel that, sadly, I can’t remember the name of – but her reading was incredibly memorable . . . and a bit gory.  Diana writes about unicorn killers – which until recently, I didn’t know existed.  We were all on the edges of our seats as she read about trying to kill a unicorn zombie.
4. Robin Palmer, author of LITTLE MISS RED, a retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” read about her heroine Sophie Greene, who dreams of being more like the stars of her favorite romance novels written by her best friend’s mother.  My favorite line of the night:  “I felt worse that Devon in Deceived by Deceit!”  Robin’s book was hysterical – and it’s the third “fairy-tale retelling” she’s written, so there’s more where that came from.
5. Finally, Alexandra Bullen read from her debut novel, WISH, about a girl named Olivia mourning the loss of her twin sister, Violet.  Then, suddenly, a beautiful gown arrives that happens to be magical and has the power to grant Olivia her one wish:  to get her sister back.  Alexandra’s prose was so beautiful, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the book!
   

As per tradition, David started the question and answer period.  Of course I was thinking about how he had just been on the Today Show – my favorite show, which I’ve watched nearly every morning for the past 15 years.  In case you missed his appearance, you can watch it here!

New books! Author readings! Appearances on the Today Show! WHAT A WEEK!!!

I love the Year In Review montages on the Today Show every December, and so I decided to make my own blog version.  (I admit this will only really be interesting to me, and maybe to my mom; and my mom doesn’t even read this blog.)

January 2009 – celebrated New Year’s TWICE:  one, the real one, with my friend Lindsay and her family; and then a night later with my friend Amy and her family.  Per our tradition, I killed the lobsters.  Cried, with hope and awe, as Barack Obama became president.

February 2009 – spent 10 days at my dad’s in California.  Watched my writing mentor lecture at Stanford, the college of my unrequited dreams.  Read AMERICAN WIFE, which ended up being one of my favorite books I read all year.

March 2009 – read and wrote a lot.  Sold my next book, YOU CAN’T EVEN MEASURE IT, to Simon & Schuster, for publication in 2011.    

April 2009 – went to Lancaster for the Barnstomers Opening Day, where I took a few hundred pictures.  (One day, I am certain, my niece and nephews will stop rolling their eyes when they see me coming with the camera, and be grateful to have a pictorial record of their lives.)

May 2009 – my beloved godson, Brody, turned two – days after an unexpected trip to the emergency room, where he, thankfully, got a clean bill of health.  Visited family in London.  Danced on stage with Laura at HAIR on Broadway.

June 2009 – “best friends trip” to Los Angeles with Arielle, where we attended the 20^th annual A Time for Heroes to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.  Brought friends to Lancaster, where Amy’s 5-year-old son, Madden, threw out the first pitch at the Barnstormers game.  Cheered Laura on as she began the tradition of doing cartwheels in restaurants.  Celebrated my 32^nd birthday. 

July 2009 – began teaching at Writopia.  Drove to Rhode Island all by myself without getting lost or crying (for those of you who know me:  you know this is a major milestone).  Read and loved OLIVE KITTERIDGE.

August 2009 – fretted constantly over POSITIVELY, which would be released the next month.  Edited YOU CAN’T EVEN MEASURE IT, taught at Writopia, discovered the cookie dough flavored cupcakes at Crumbs.

September 2009 – read the spectacular novel THE CURE FOR GRIEF.  Started a new novel.  Celebrated the publication of POSITIVELY at Books of Wonder, a day I barely remember but I have the pictures to prove that it happened.

October 2009 – attended book events for POSITIVELY and made new author friends, who wrote books I read and loved, including Regan Hofmann (I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU), Gitty Daneshvari (SCHOOL OF FEAR), Gayle Forman (IF I STAY) and Heidi Kling (SEA).

November 2009 – traveled to Illinois for book events with the wonderful Wendy Mass (whose upcoming novel FINALLY! Is another favorite).  More book events in California and Connecticut.  Listened to Jessarae perform the POSITIVELY song.  Baked the desserts for Thanksgiving, and nobody got food poisoning. 

December 2009 – received galleys for my 2010 book, SINCERELY, SOPHIE/SINCERELY, KATIE.  Looked back on 2009.  Made resolutions, and resolved to keep them.

Exactly four years ago, I sold my first book to Simon & Schuster, and I wrote this in my journal:

If I had to say my greatest wish, for myself at least, it would be exactly what I’m doing now:  working with a wonderful agent, getting the opportunity to work with an editor at a major publishing house.  To know I’m going to be published:  I feel like I am accomplishing the thing I was meant to all along. 

The book that I knew was going to be published was SINCERELY, SOPHIE, originally slated for publication in early 2008.  Then a bunch of things happened – my editor resigned, I was assigned a new editor, I wrote a couple more books – and the publication date for SINCERELY, SOPHIE was pushed back a bit.

But it’s finally coming out from Simon & Schuster this June – June 8, 2010.  It’s being packaged as a two-for-one:  both SINCERELY, SOPHIE and its companion, SINCERELY, KATIE, are being published as one volume.  The front cover features eleven-year-old New Yorker Sophie Turner, and the back cover has her California pen pal, Katie Franklin.

I love the cover so much.  I was so nervous about it, because I thought I would never love a cover as much as POSITIVELY.  The SINCERELY jacket is so different, but so perfect. 

I can’t post the whole jacket because I only have a pdf version, but here is the front cover.



It’s a drawing by Tuesday Mourning, my new favorite artist.

This past weekend was a whirlwind of excitement, and friends, and celebration – I had a book reading, ate truffles, went to a LA Kings’ game, and danced onstage at a benefit for Echoes of Hope. I know my niece is jealous that I spent a good chunk of the trip hanging out with Jeremy from the Vampire Diaries!

I flew out to Los Angeles on Thursday morning, and that night I had a reading at the Barnes & Noble at the Third Street Promenade. It was a particularly emotional reading for me. There were a few people in the audience without whom I never would’ve written POSITIVELY, and seeing them made me want to weep with gratitude: Susan DeLaurentis, who co-founded the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; my mom’s friend Samantha (also my friend Samantha), who opened her home to me when I was 14 years old, wanted to work at the Foundation for the summer, and needed a place in Los Angeles to stay; and my dear friend Jake Glaser, who told me to keep writing and that he believed I could tell the right story. I stepped up to the podium and started explaining how much they all meant to me. I tried to avoid looking at Susan because she was crying, and I knew I was dangerously close to completely losing it.

Here, I am catching up with Jake and Samantha:

I have lost count of the number of people in my life who I have met through the Foundation, and one of them is my beautiful, incredible friend Allyson, who invited me to stay her this past weekend. Unfortunately, she had to work on Friday; but, in anticipation of my having to spend the day without her, she had made (not bought: made) truffles in all my favorite flavors.* There was other food at the house, but who wants a sandwich when they can have truffles? So that is what I had for breakfast and lunch. Allyson came home before dinner and we went to my favorite restaurant, Kate Mantilini. And then we got back to the house and I ate more truffles.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with my friend Stacia and her family – four more people I got to know through the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. I have never met such a talented family: Stacia’s husband is the hockey player Luc Robitaille, who was just inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame. Their younger son is the famed Jessarae, and their older son is the actor Steven R. McQueen (a.k.a. Jeremy on the Vampire Diaries). Stacia is a gifted artist and musician herself. But I think the Robitailles’ true talent lies in their collective compassion. They are always there for their family and friends, and they do such good in the world. I have overheard strangers talking about how Luc has a reputation for being the nicest guy in hockey. A couple years ago, Stacia realized her own dream when she and Luc started Echoes of Hope, an organization dedicated to helping emancipated foster care youth.

I often sit and think about the people in my life and I am astounded at who I get to call my friends.

On Saturday, Allyson and I joined the Robitailles at the Kings game. There was a ceremony on the ice honoring Luc, and the family was presented with a check for Echoes of Hope. The Kings ended up losing, but it was still the best hockey game I’d ever been to. Here’s a picture of Allyson and me before it started, and you can kind of see Luc’s jersey being projected onto the ice:

Unfortunately my camera died right after that was taken, so I don’t have any other game pictures.

I charged my camera that night, and I had a full battery to capture the festivities on Sunday – when there was a gala event benefiting Echoes of Hope. I don’t know much about hockey (kind of embarrassing when one of your dearest friends has a husband in the NHL Hall of Fame), so I didn’t realize until late in the evening that a bunch of the guys at my table were Kings players. Allyson also figured out that the production guy working the event was the kid who played Brighton on The Nanny! It was one of the most remarkable events I’ve ever been to. The food and performances were amazing; and most importantly, the audience never forgot why there were there. A bunch of the Echoes’ kids spoke about what the organization meant to them, and the three words used most often were: hope, family, love. I sat next to Allyson and cheered and cried. Jessarae sang at the end of the night. Here I am with Steven right after Jessarae called us all up on stage for one of my favorite songs, Uh-Oh:

Flying home yesterday, I couldn’t believe the weekend was actually over. I had been waiting for it for so long. I wish I took more pictures. I wish I could go back and do it all over again.

I am still so excited about everything that happened that it was hard to write this blog post. Nothing I write could do it justice.

* If you live in the Los Angeles area and you want to order Allyson’s truffles, leave a comment on this post and I will forward her your information.

Just wanted to post about my upcoming reading/signing in Los Angeles: Thursday, Dec 3^rd (that’s tomorrow!), at 7 PM at the Barnes & Noble in the 3^rd Street Promenade, 1201 3^rd St, Santa Monica.

Jessarae will be there, and he’s performing a set, including the song “Without You (It’ll Be All Right),” which he wrote for POSITIVELY. I’m so excited that my book inspired a song!

Also, here are the links for a couple of interviews posted yesterday, in honor of World AIDS Day:

Book Chic Blog: http://bookchicclub.blogspot.com/2009/12/author-interview-courtney-sheinmel.html
Kepler’s Youth Book Blog: http://thebookbind.blogspot.com/2009/12/courtney-sheinmel-interview.html

I wanted to write something beautiful and profound about what the day means to me – something about remembering people I’ve known who succumbed to the disease; something about the hope I feel for the people in my life who are HIV-positive; and something about what I thought yesterday as I watched the White House webcast on the eve of World AIDS Day, when they announced that since the HIV entry travel ban into the US has been lifted, the International AIDS Conference will be in Washington DC in 2012. I’ve been stopping and starting and deleting a lot; nothing I type matches the weight of all of that.

So I thought I would post this, a quote from Elizabeth Glaser. I don’t know when or where she said it. It was the quote inscribed on a card I received from her foundation, a week or so after she died.

If we can share our wisdom, our light, our love in the smallest ways – I know the world will be a better place. If we are not afraid to touch each others lives, hope will be our strength and love our prize.

Nearly fifteen years ago, I copied the quote onto a piece of paper. I still have it, in a frame on my bookshelf.