A Day in the Life of a Writer

Lots of people who read this blog are writers, so you will understand when I say that a day in the life of a writer usually includes: sitting at a keyboard wondering why the miraculous flow of words that came to you in the shower look so ridiculous on the computer screen. You write, delete and write again. You take breaks: tea, coffee, water, seltzer, cookies, a short walk, a long walk, a power walk, an hour at the gym.

In other words, you struggle. But every now and again, a writer has a great day. Here’s the story of mine. Lina Zeldovich and I were invited to do readings from Murder New York Style at the Windsor Park branch of the Queens Borough Public Library.

My story, “Strike Zone” takes place in the Bronx in 1961 and has a NY Yankee element. Lina’s story, “Murder in the Aladdin’s Cave” takes place in a modern day Turkish restaurant in Astoria, Queens, which has belly dancing as the entertainment.

I always think a reading should be a party and, apparently Lina feels the same. She brought Turkish Delight candy to go with my New York Black and White Cookies. We also served seltzer.

What's a party without music? Lina brought a CD of Turkish belly dancing music and I brought a CD of New York songs.

We played belly dancing music softly in the background while Lina, in her complete belly dancing costume, gave a great explanation of the different parts of the costume and gave a demonstration of some belly dancing moves without actually performing. Then she read a section of her story. Pretty cool.

After I read my piece, we moved to Q&A and the attendees were very lively and interested. They asked about the writing process, getting an agent, the publishing process; their questions touched on everything.

Then I played the New York music and we raffled off bags of peanuts decorated with the Yankee emblem as well as a Yankee baseball cap donated for the raffle by the librarian. We also posed for pictures and signed a few books. Before we left, we asked the children who were in the children's library to come in for cookies and candy. One little girl took a cookie for now and a cookie for later.

I drove Lina back to the subway and was on such a high, I got up my courage to go into the local Barnes and Noble to request that they get a copy of MNYS to put on the shelves. I was amazed to find that not only do they have two copies shelved, they have another on order because, according to Bill in customer service, the book moves well. Now, walking on air after such a great day, I had to go back to the library because I forgot to return a DVD (Mrs. Henderson Presents) when I was there earlier. I got on line behind a woman with two children and one is the little girl with our black and white cookie wrapped in a napkin still clutched in her hand. She looks at me and says: Hi." I say hello. She asks if I know why she said "Hi." I answer: "Is it because of the cookie?" And with a child's honesty she says "No, it's because my teacher said when we see an old man or an old woman we should say hi because it makes them happy."

I was able not to laugh out loud and we had an entire conversation about how happy her "hi" made me!

So, there you have it folks, a day in the life of a writer or in the life of an old woman, depending on your perspective.

Terrie