June 20, 2006

Dear friends, readers, and listeners --

There’s an old song that goes, “I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter….” That’s what I told myself just now: before I empty the dishwasher, put the fresh produce away, make dinner, and eat it, I’m gonna write myself a letter and send it out to all of you.

This won’t have regular newsletter format and I can’t promise one of those until my book is finished. Still, so many new people have signed up for the list, I wanted to at least send out a blog entry and let all of you, longtime subscribers and brand new ones, know that you’re appreciated and thought of.

The news from here is that I’m probably busier than a self-care advocate ought to be, but I’m busy with the life I always dreamed of, so it can’t be all bad. And I’m taking a suggestion myself from Creating a Charmed Life and “practicing the vacation principle” tomorrow. I’m taking myself to a Wednesday matinee of Awake and Sing! which won the Tony this year for best revival of a play. It will be playing hooky, however, because my editor has asked if I can have the new book (with a subtitle I’m finally crazy about) in by mid-September instead of December 1. That would guarantee a summer pub date for Fat, Broke & Lonely: The Stupid Life that Runs Your Life and 5 Smart Strategies for Breaking Free. Otherwise, it will come out in January ’08 which is far, far off and winter. I toured with Younger by the Day in January ‘05 and it was pretty rough.

In the meantime, the book and the radio show have me in harness. My assistant, Joya Scott, is working out beautifully and I think she’ll be able to start coming ten hours a week instead of eight. I wish I could have her all the time, but not only is that in my budget, she has exciting things of her own to do, notably directing a play she conceived herself (about the notorious Stanley Milgram experiments in the 60s) for an upcoming festival.

I am loving the radio show and hope that if you have Sirius Satellite, or know someone who has it, that you’re tuning in. “A Charmed Life” is my live show on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112, on Saturday afternoons at 2 p.m. Eastern; it re-airs during the early, early (5 a.m. Eastern!) “life-coaching hour” on the same channel Tuesday mornings. Just this month, I’ve expanded to a second show, “A Charmed Life 2,” which airs on Sunday afternoons at 2 o’clock Eastern, with a Thursday a.m. prequel in the life-coaching hour. If you don’t have Sirius but you’re interested (and it is terrific: Martha’s channel alone is well worth the cost of the radio and subscription, and it’s only one of over 120 great stations to choose from), go to www.marthastewart.com and click on “radio” or go to www.sirius.com.

A guest I taped last month (to air September 9 when I’ll be speaking in Louisville) was Lori Finlay Hamilton (www.womenwisdomwellness) sent me this today as motivation for my writing, and I’m passing it on to you to use in bringing your current dream into being:

Remember to write down your vision statement

• who, what, when, where, how

then...your benefit statement

• anything you dream of
• it could be the smell of the new pages, and feel of the hard back
• could be an awesome vacation with your husband
• could be a day at central park
• or something much more exotic
• could be your own TV show ;)
• just use all 5 senses as you beautifully construct this perfect dream occasion

Then read it daily with wonderful music. Things will flow into place. And...BTW....I needed the reminder of this great feminine form of power!

—Lori Finlay Hamilton, www.womenwisdomwellness.com.

I’ve had lots of wonderful radio guests recently. Yesterday I taped a show (that will air June 29 and July 2) with Dawna Stone who won “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.” She’s absolutely delightful: motivated, motivational, and a real fitness role model. She was a competitive swimmer, does triathlons, and founded Her Sports and Fitness magazine. This Saturday I’m interviewing Barbara Stanny, the H&R Bloch heiress who ended up with money troubles and has since become a financial guru in her own right; her latest book is Overcoming Underearning. (The full lineup of all the shows is on www.marthastewart.com and www.charmedliferadio.com.)

In other personal news, my husband William and I joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) this summer and have been getting beautiful fresh produce every Tuesday afternoon, today included (that’s the produce I have to put away). The split-out is in front of a church on the Upper East Side. It’s such a lovely juxtaposition: lettuce and bok choy, radishes and fresh herbs with farm soil sticking to the roots, in the middle of Manhattan. And the vegetables are so fresh---like they were picked in heaven (or somewhere close).

Speaking of juxtapositions, last week William and I went to the Gretchen Wilson “Redneck Revival” (you know I didn’t make that up) concert at Radio City Music Hall. It was such a hoot. Half the audience was in cowboy hats and boots. The prior evening, however, I’d been a guest somewhere very different: a posh and sedate French restaurant. The dinner discussion was stimulating and the women around the table fascinating, but I was distressed that the menu featured foie gras three times. I’d just done leafleting the week before to educate people on the cruelty of foie gras and I plan to be as involved as I can in the effort to have it banned in New York City, as it has been in Chicago, the state of California, and a dozen countries around the world. Even Pope Benedict has spoken out against what has been called “the cruelest food in the world.” (If you’d like to know more, you can visit www.nofoiegras.com.)

Sunday before last, I spoke at Unity of New York and had a wonderful time. You know, sometimes things just work. It was like that. My topic was “The Oldtime Religion.” (I think you can order a CD of that talk by calling the church at 212-560-0756.) That evening, the local raw food support group held their seasonal potluck here. I’m not a raw-foodist but I get close in the summer. Having the party here further inspired me. Twenty-eight people attended (in a New York apartment, that alone is rather magical) and the food was great. Some people kept it simple---luscious fresh fruit---and others made raw vegan lasagna and seed cheeses and amazing “chocolate” puddings and coconut cream pie. (For more info on the group and its activities, you can visit www.rawdish.com.)

My daughter Adair is rehearsing for the Inwood Shakespeare Festival here in the city, and my son-in-law Nick has a role in the in-production movie of The Nanny Diaries. It’s a fairly small part (he plays a mime) but he’ll have a credit which should mean that he and Adair will be attending the premier when the film comes out next year. My stepdaughter Sian, an up-and-coming makeup artist, has been coming down from Toronto a lot to go to makeup classes at MAC. At the MAC store downtown, she ran into one of the finalists from America’s Next Top Model. I think she’ll be moving to NYC since she wants to work with models, runway shows, and fashion shoots.

Oh, I have some books to recommend! A couple of fun summer novels are Glamorous Disasters by Eliot Schrefer, and 24-Karat Kids by Dr. Judy Goldstein and Sebastian Stewart. The former is by a young man who was an SAT tutor for the East Side upper crust, the latter the tale of a middle-class gal from Queens who becomes a Park Avenue pediatrician. They’re real page-turners. I felt like I was on vacation as I read them. On a more scholarly note, a book on writing I’m loving right now is Spunk & Bite by Arthur Plotnik. And the downloadable audio (free for the first month!) of Fit from Within should be showing up soon on www.simplyaudiobooks.com.

That is going to have to do it from me for tonight. I will ask Joya on Thursday to start collecting info for a proper newsletter next time. In the meanwhile, please come by the blog either on my site, on Amazon, or at blogger.com. I am promising myself (and you) that I’ll write something for the blog on the 1^st and 15^th of every month. In the meantime, enjoy summer (it took a long time coming, at least to the Northeast) and treat yourself very, very well.