89

Today my mom would have been 89. Thursday was the 4th anniversary of her death. I miss her very much, and often as I'm standing in line at the airport or the post office I'll think of her and every now and then start to call her before I remember. (I used to call her in line to pass time and touch base).

My cousin Jan called, I called back, cell phone tag. Mom was like a second mother to her, I know she misses her as much as I do - almost.

We bought tickets for the Saints game on Sunday. The first 2,500 patrons to show up get a bobble-foot Larry Craig doll, so we'll be there early! I wonder when they start letting folks in...

The thing about Gerry is, with his walker, he always has a place to sit when we're waiting in line. Mom would get a real kick out of the bobble-foot handout...

I went out for a long walk this morning and bought myself a small shoulder bag which will be perfect for travel (a pocket for wallet, passport, inhaler and small knit project) I love bibelot! The walk was perfect, Atticus was having fun and the kids are both engaged with friends.

I stopped to chat with a neighbor and thought how far we've come in terms of feeling part of the neighborhood in a year. I'd love to get Gerry out for more walks, but it's hard for him - he'd rather stay around the house where he can sit whenever he wants. I also think he feels very visible with his walker. He'd love to see the hundreds of different shades of lilac that are blooming up close!

Max started baseball this week, he hit the ball a few times at practice but his catching needs some work. He's on the same team with "old" friends and a wonderful, supportive coach. I was thinking about this when this ad came on TV



I'm beginning to believe it's all a conspiracy to see how wrinkled the skin under my eyes can be with a week of crying. I'm closing in on Eleanor Roosevelt territory.

We went to the Surly Brewery last night for the most low-key tour in the world. A bunch of folks standing around tasting beer, then a brief talk by the brewery owner about how he got started (we all should have been sitting around a big bar...)

I asked if the brewery was named for the Duff beer character, but it's not. Oh, well... For me, it was the best kind of tour Ð but not so fun for the kids Ð so we ducked out when the talk winded down. I did buy a growler of Furious, it's very hoppy!

Max is off playing with friends, Hannah is meeting a friend at the playground and later today we'll all go to Indiana Jones as a family event, although Hannah and her friend may exercise their autonomy by seeing a different movie. Not Baby Mama. Although I'd like to see that, myself...

I sent in the promo proof manuscript of Knit With Courage to the printer, along with the cover. I'm having 200 printed in a small run to hand out at TNNA and send to reviewers, to start a bit of buzz and find the places in the book where things may need to be explained better.

The actual pub date for the book will be September 1st, Gerry's "birthday" - his first day with his new stem cells last year. I put Atticus on the cover because he deserves to be, and used my favorite photo of Gerry and the kids on the back cover.

I've never hired a PR person, and I'm not sure if I can afford to this time, but I'm reading up as much as I can on ways to get the book into the right hands to review it. I did a lot of leg work with Confessions and it really paid off, but so much of the work is researching which person at which publication should get the book. And, of course, which bloggers need to get a copy of the book, too...

Very helpful in this process is my old standby, Bestseller in 30 Days, which has a lot of great tips on ways to position and market a book. I was surprised by how short the marketing process seemed to be for my 3 published books, it was as if they expected the market to die off in 6 months, so there wasn't a lot of push after that. I believe that knitters tend to be a longer-term market, and thus deserve a long-term marketing strategy.

Now if I could only come up with one...

You may have noticed the large SC to the right on the blog page. It's the Stitch Cooperative, a new endeavor I'm involved with - several independent designers are getting together to offer our patterns for retail (online) and wholesale (through shops) in the hopes that a cooperative will allow yarn shops to more easily carry a variety of independent designers. Instead of needing to buy a minimum of 5 or 6 of each pattern, they can just buy a few and spread their minimums across all the offerings of the Stitch Cooperative.

We've secured a booth at TNNA - #1056 - and we're hopeful to start taking orders to see if this is an idea that might fly!