http://www.openroadmedia.com/ann-hood

Yay!

My back list now available as e books!

I am so excited that Open Road is publishing my back list as e books, and that they are all available for pre-order now!

Individual Ebook Pages: 

• Do Not Go Gentle: http://www.openroadmedia.com/do-not-go-gentle 
• Places to Stay the Night: http://www.openroadmedia.com/places-to-stay-the-night 
• Ruby: http://www.openroadmedia.com/ruby 
• Something Blue: http://www.openroadmedia.com/something-blue 
• Waiting to Vanish: http://www.openroadmedia.com/waiting-to-vanish 

Coming in September 2014!

Slowly I step

Inch by inch indeed! This pneumonia has really taught me a lesson! So so so wiped out still. And it sounds like I've miles to go still before I feel back to normal. Sigh. 

But I did get cleared to come here to sunny, mild St. Petersburg, FL to teach at the Eckerd College Writers Workshop. On Saturday I spoke at Vogue Knitting in NYC with KNITTING YARNS contributors Taylor Polites, Kaylie Jones, and Barbara Kingsolver. It was really great! Then I went to LGA, flew here, picked up black bean soup at the airport outpost of that terrific Cuban restaurant Columbia, and went straight to bed (sadly missing my old buddy Tim O'Brien's reading). 

Luckily heard his craft talk the next day, and had faculty lunch watching sailboats glide by. And taught three hours. And kind of collapsed. Yesterday napped four hours and more of the same today. 

But excited to be booking hotel and tours for annabelle and me as we prepare to go to Barcelona in a few weeks for publicity for THE RED THREAD there! This is keeping me happy, as knitting and reading have been sacrificed to napping. 

You know, that thing when you're sick?

Fever broke! I shvitzed like I was in Las Vegas in July! And then you think: I'm better! But alas, still no energy and a headache and a craving for soup and sweet potatoes. 

Big talk to give Saturday with Barbara Kingsolver, Kaylie Jones, and Taylor Polites at Vogue Knitting in NYC. And a week of teaching in FL to follow. And my body is saying How in the world are you ever going to get out of this bed???

I live on good soup, not on fine words.

So says Moliere. And me, I'm afraid. 

My nasty Christmas flu has turned into pneumonia. Here I am, back in bed, sipping soup and tea and antibiotics. I admit, I never felt 100% better. But I did manage to have the most lovely time in Paris. And now I guess I'm paying for those wine soaked, cheese filled, walks in the drizzle, days and nights. Le sigh. 

In bed. Doctor's orders. That chicken soup heating on the stove...

Still coughing in 2014

Well. This is some flu. The thing just doesn't know when to leave!

But I did manage to get to Paris and spend two lovely weeks there, leaving behind the so called polar vortex for 55 degree weather with occasional rain (mostly at night, in a very Camelot way). Our apartment was in the Marais, perfect for walking and eating. The weeks included lots of museum visits (Rodin, d'orsay, Pompidou, Louvre, and de les poupees), food (Robert et Louise my favorite), croissants and canelles and baguettes and Comte and Camembert, French history (Napolean and Marie Antoinette), churches (St. Chappelle, sigh), wine, one surprise party, one NYU lecture, and lots of just family fun. 

Back to reality now. Could have stayed months, but a novel is beckoning me to write it. And there is the Vogue Knitting talk on Saturday with Barbara Kingsolver in NYC. Then a week teaching in FL at Eckerd Writers Conference...

And off to Spain February 14 for the publication of THE RED THREAD there. 

Here a Paris photo. Note rainbow:

Thrilled!

Audible version of KNITTING YARNS available today! Note that narrator son of mine!

I can see the Eiffel Tower, almost...

One of my favorite New Year's Eves (after last year's on a ship north of the Arctic Circle and the year before's on a beach in the Dominican Republic): home! Lunch with Gogo followed by an afternoon spent reading in bed while watching THE TWILIGHT ZONE marathon. At 7: Hors d'ouevres and champagne by the Christmas tree. Spaghetti carbonara and Caesar salad while Burt Bacharach crooned by the fire. And then my still flu-achy self sunk into bed and was blissfully asleep my 10. At midnight Annabelle burst in shouting "Happy New Year". I shouted the same and went back to sleep. 

Woke up in 2014 with frost on the windows, thinking about Paris. We leave tomorrow! Visions of macarons are already dancing in my head. 

My vow for 2014 (I've done this one before) is to read a book a week. This week I've read two (thanks to the flu) and recommend them both:

THE STORY OF A NEW NAME by Elena Ferrante (book 2 in her trilogy)

and for mystery lovers like me, RANDOM VIOLENCE by Jassy Mackenzie (takes place in South Africa and is terrific!)

Coming to Paris with me are Donna Tartt's GOLDFINCH and Elizabeth Graver's THE END OF THE POINT, as well as either the first in the Louise Penney series or the first in the Maurizio de Giovanni series. 

And all the yarn to knit a super long colorful scarf. 

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes, which kind of sums up my own philosophy. Thank you, Audrey Hepburn, for saying it so well!

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.