Michael Jackson Best Dance Moves

You can say what you want about Michael Jackson, but there was never any question about his raw talent. As a kid, he was a kind of child prodigy. I still have one of his record albums - Off the Wall - which I played over and over again. It always managed to get me motivated, no matter how tired I was feeling. His music was energetic and toe tapping, but I was always more impressed by his incredible, innovative dance moves. Nobody could dance quite like Michael. I hope his poor tortured soul has finally found some peace.

Publishing Date

I and the members of my critique group, The Poet's Garage, will be having an anthology of our poems published by Marshall Cavendish on July 15, 2010. That's next year! The title is officially, "An Eyeball in My Garden: and Other Spine-Tingling Poems. Marshall Cavendish is still negotiating for an illustrator but will let us know who it is just as soon as everything is finalized.

This is a dream come true for most of us. Never did I think that the first book I had published would be a group project. How fun! Perhaps this project will open a few doors for us, although I won't be holding my breath on that.

In the meantime, I plan to push through to the end of my novel this summer. Psychologically, I need to get it finished. It's been weighing on me. So, I have my summer plans cut out for me. Onward ho!

Goodbye Runaway Bay

Recently, Sayville's indie bookstore, Runaway Bay Books, closed it doors after nearly 20 years. It was a sad day, to be sure. Runaway Bay's owner, Marianne Bastion, was the quintessential bookstore owner - sweet, bookish and knowledgeable - and her store was cozy and always welcoming. She provided chairs for browsers and a few friendly bookstore cats to warm their laps (actually, they were strays that she'd taken in and had neutered). On Christmas eve, she hosted a reading of A Christmas Carol and anybody who felt like it could volunteer to read a few pages. She hosted a Harry Potter release party, supported local authors and poets and even helped my son when he was building a library at Stony Brook Hospital for his Eagle Scout badge. If you didn't see what you wanted, Marianne would order it for you and call you at home when it came in.

We knew Marianne well. We remembered when she was pregnant with her daughter, Rose, and when she gave birth to her. We watched Rose grow up before our eyes. Marianne Bastion was a local - our friend and neighbor.

Runaway Bay closed for a couple of different reasons -- too much competition from Borders on Sunrise Highway, too much competition from Amazon and other online book retailers and greedy landlords bent on raising the rent during one of the worst economic downturns in American history. So, we lost a pillar of our charming community. As residents of the village of Sayville, most of us try to patronize the local businesses whenever possible. Personally, I'd rather deal with a privately owned business where the owners know my name than a huge impersonal franchise like the current day Borders.

Of course, the original Border's in Ann Arbor was much different from the chainstores now in existence. I grew up in Michigan and whenever we drove into Ann Arbor (about 20 miles from home) I had to go to Border's. It was the most wonderful bookstore with 2 or 3 floors crammed chock full of nothing but books, books and more books. No toys, dolls and other junk. Just lots and lots of great books. At one time, Border's was also an indie bookstore - one that got too big and, in my humble opinion, somehow lost its way.

Please, patronize your local indie bookstore!