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A Day In Brooklyn

I used to live in Brooklyn, back before websites.

It was awesome then, and it’s awesome now.

I finally had an excuse to go back last Sunday because my brill editor Nancy Mercado invited me to be on a panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

We did funny mad libs about our books, with hilarious suggestions from the kids in the audience. Here’s a picture of me on the panel with a bunch of authors who had much longer lines at the autograph table than I did.

Then, my wife Cathy and I proceeded to walk all over cobble hill and brooklyn heights. here’s me in front of my old house in cobble hill. when i was there 25 years ago, it was a frat house full of slobs. now it’s a $3m town house.

we hung out on the promenade for a while, too.

on montague street, we ran into the brooklyn heights dog show, which was an added bonus, since i’m a dog freak.

then, cathy and i hustled back to the book fair to hear two heroes speak: pete hamill and larry mcmurtry. both were wonderful. i wanted to get larry mcmurtry’s autograph but the line stretched to coney island. i have a funny picture of larry – couldn’t resist — but i won’t publish it here, in deference to him. find me after class if you want to see it.

i ended the book fair back where i began, at the youth tent to hear several other wonderful authors speak. it’s quite a fair. kudos to marty markowitz, the borough president who is the overseer of this event (and he never lets you forget it, his name is mentioned at the beginning of each and every panel). he may be a power monger, but he puts on a good show.

at night, nancy took a bunch of her authors out to dinner at a wonderful italian restuarant in brooklyn heights called noodle pudding. (i know, sounds chinese, right?) we had great food, swapped nan stories and talked about how lucky we all were to be able to write children’s books. (then, when nan was out of earshot, we all asked each other if she took four months to read everyone’s manuscripts. it was unanimous.)

here’s the gang:

top: nan marino, lauren tarshis, caragh o’brien

bottom: laura toffler-corie, some guy, nancy mercado

(not picture: tracy white)

ah, brooklyn. you showed me your very best last sunday. thank you for that.

-tg

 

 

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