Connecting on 9/11...

September 11, 2006

Dear readers and friends –

I’ve been rather silent due to the book deadline, but I wanted to reach out today and be in touch, deadline or not. This is a somber day in New York City, as in the whole country I’m sure, and yet it is a very beautiful late summer day at the same time. One of my friends talked this morning about waiting for the bus before 9/11/01 and how she always saw another bus that said “World Trade Center” go by the other way. She routinely saw the same eight or ten people waiting at the stop to get on that bus. After the disaster, there was no more bus and there were no more waiting passengers. She never knew what happened to any of them. Over time, another bus took that route, this one saying “World Financial Center,” and now again, five years later, eight or ten people wait every morning at that stop. The tragedy is in some ways so fresh, and yet life goes on, and we are evidently supposed to be a joyous part of that ongoing.

There’s a lot to share from me to you since I haven’t blogged in awhile. Let’s see, there’s:

The way you look tonight…My stepdaughter Siân moved in with us last week. She’s a young makeup artist, trained in Toronto, who wants to do fashion shows and model shoots. She got a gig through Elle magazine to do four days for Fashion Week, and today she got me in to the Malan show. It was dizzyingly fashionishta-like! Malan was in season 3 of Bravo’s Project Runway and his designs were all flowy and gauze-like, fantasy clothes with lots of skin showing. It was so much fun to take a break from reality and go over to 7^th Avenue and pretend that all that glitz is my real life.

My old Kentucky home…This past weekend I spoke in Louisville, Kentucky, which was lovely and fun. The hotel I stayed in there, the 21C Museum Hotel, was built to showcase a collection of amazing 21^st century art. It was like staying late at an art gallery and getting to spend the night. The Louisville Courier-Journal did a wonderful story about the event at which I spoke, Norton Healthcare’s “Celebrating Women,” and ran a Q & A with me. If you’d like to read those, the link is:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=features. (That will take you to today’s features, but if you scroll down you’ll get to last week’s. The story about me ran Thursday, September 7.)

By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea…I spent the last week of August on writer’s retreat at the Serendipity Bed & Breakfast in Ocean City, New Jersey. It was so charming! Ocean City has a wonderful old-fashioned boardwalk and a serious downtown with real shops for shopping. They have a five and dime, an appliance store, a bookshop, clothing stores. I was totally sold. I plan to be a regular. (And Serendipity is terrific: it’s a vegetarian and vegan-friendly b&b. I got spoiled having somebody make me scrambled tofu every morning.) The change of pace did propel me forward on the book and I’m about eight short chapters shy of being finished. I won’t have it in by September 15, but my editor has kindly given me a week’s extension. I’m still writing like mad, and will be away this weekend in Vermont for a wedding, so I’m getting up extra-early these days and spending a lot of time at Starbucks at my special writing table.

The name game…On the book front, we’ve been going through a lot of discussion over the title. I am very lucky with this one that everyone at the publishing house is so behind the book, they want have input on the perfect title. The downside of that is that everyone has a different opinion. It was originally Fat, Broke & Lonely: The Stupid Lie that Runs Your Life & 5 Savvy Secrets for Breaking Free. Then my editor came up with one I love: How to Break Up with Fat, Broke & Lonely: When You’re Finally Ready to Split from Overeating, Overspending & Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. I was sure that would fly, but some people think it sounds like a book on how to break up with a boyfriend/girlfriend, so we’re back to the drawing board. I wrote to my agent today: “We should just call it what it really says: God Doesn’t Want You Fat, Broke & Lonely.” She called back and said, “I really like God Doesn’t Want You Fat, Broke & Lonely.” As she spoke those words, a gorgeous orange butterfly flew past my window. You’ve got to understand: I’m on the far East 50s in Manhattan, not near any parks---and I’m seventeen flights up! I think that seeing that butterfly was a sign. And whatever the book ends up being called, I’ll always believe that. (And I will let you know via blog as soon as the saga comes to a conclusion. The book, by whatever title, is due to come out in June of ’07.)

All good things must end, they say…and one of the best things in my life is, sadly, coming to a close: my radio shows, A Charmed Life and A Charmed Life II, on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112. October 1, Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern, is my last show. It will be very special: my guest will be Julie Gold, lyricist and composer of Bette Midler’s mega-hit From a Distance. That song is so important, I think, for its message of peace and oneness. It feels like a gift that, even though I’m losing these programs which mean so much to me, I get to go out with a show that could ripple on to bring a tiny bit more peace to the world. What is happening with the station, as I understand it, is that they’re tightening everything up to make the channel more distinctly Martha Stewart. Virtually all the individual shows are being eliminated, and weekend programming will be all replays of weekday shows. Each day Monday-Friday will focus on a different magazine in the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia family. There has been some talk that I’ll be kept on as a contributor, but I know nothing specific yet. Again, I’ll keep you posted….

A few of my favorite things…Well, a few of my favorite books actually. I’ve been introduced to so many fabulous books for the radio show. Some of the ones I’ve loved lately have been Diary of a Modern-Day Goddess by Cynthia Daddona; Microthrills by Wendy Spero; Unleash the Power of Nature Foods by Susan Smith Jones; The Office Sutras by Marcia Menter; and The Flip by David Rippe and Jared Rosen. For now, I’d love to share with you one that I absolutely love: The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark, by Sera Beak. I met Sera last week and she is an utterly delightful 27-year-old with a Masters in Divinity from Harvard. She has whirled with dervishes, volunteered at Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta, and had a private audience with the Dalai Lama on her twenty-first birthday. She is such a radiant light, and yet also a thoroughly contemporary, fashion-savvy, has-a-cute-boyfriend kind of gal. The E! network is in negotiations with her to host a TV show on spirituality for a young, hip audience. I think this is very exciting. And the book, even though it’s geared to 20-something women, is a great read for any person, any age. I can tell you honestly that I feel more spiritual from being in the midst of it. Do take a look.

I wish you all every good thing. If anyone is reading this who has a personal connection to someone who died five years ago today, know that you are in the thoughts of many, many people, and certainly in mine.

-- Victoria