my editor, danielle durkin, was interviewed about BE in this month's publisher's weekly.

check it out here.

in honor of the 100th anniversary of the subway, the mta is now running historic trains on the a-express track. at least they were on sunday. what a complete surprise! one minute i was on the e-local, the next minute a perfectly preserved a-train was pulling in on the express track. many of the cars that made up the train were from the 40s. some from the 50s and at least one from the early 70s. each preserved in great detail.

of course, the moment i stepped onto the train i wished i had brought my camera with me.

enter: odelia sharon, a complete stranger with outstretched arm and digital camera in hand, who asked if i wouldn't mind snapping a photo of her in the train. "sure," i said, with a plan already brewing.

check out the link to the gallery for dozens more shot by odelia and emailed to me just this morning.

speaking of subway, coincidentally, i've written a little ditty mocking the 100-year anniversary, which you'll get to read on another website later this week. stay tuned...

                                        

                                        

for more of odelia's subway photos,click here.

we have a cover that's been approved.

i couldn't be happier with it. large tall hats off to the designers at random house!

                                        

a few of you have written in asking for an update on the release date.

well, funny you should ask: the good folks at random house are now saying jan 25th, 2005...

there's a little blurb in publisher's weekly this week, on newsstands now. once i get my hands on it, i'll post it here.

more as i know...but the cover is looking wonderful. truly.

was at my friend yoav's gig last night at pianos. and although the band struggled with a truly lame mix, with the fucking sound check eating up a good 15 minutes of their time, which meant they couldn't play my favorite song, "today, tonight" the show was hot, as usual. it's beyond me why these clubs hire such untalented guys to man the boards. donald rumsfeld could have mixed a better show.

sigh.

anyway, a few photos in the gallery here.

rode the irt 9 local with mayor bloomberg today. he was surrounded by a few secret-service agents, but i was able to get a word in.

me: "mr. mayor, i know how much you love to ride the subway. would you have any interest in being interviewed for an essay about the subway that i'm writing?"

bloomberg: "i'm getting off at 50th street. that doesn't leave us much time."

me: "well maybe some other time then."

bloomberg: "maybe."

yeah right. like that's going to happen.

a year ago today my novel, behind everyman, was born.

in chapter 3, entitled, "how to catch a snowflake in the middle of summer," everyman travels to long island and takes sonja out to dinner at a restaurant on the beach.

check out the receipt above. life intimating art or the other way around?

i wrote chapter 3 first and gave it to my editor, danielle durkin, who loved it. the rest of the book spilled out of me over the next 7 weeks.

happy bday BE!