http://www.annhood.us/blog/ Ann Hood's Blog. http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/216 Hello everyone! I am attempting to insert a new blog here that enables me to post pictures and do all kinds of other groovy things. Check it out at: http://annhood.blogspot.com/ http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/215 The view from this hotel room: Boston, gray sky. But it is good to be here at Grub Street's The Muse and the Marketplace, which I look forward to every year. Writers out there, you need to come next year! So many great sessions, editors, agents, writers...it is just great! Nice to be in the Park Plaza's terrycloth bathrobe, relaxing after arriving from Miami at midnight, enjoying a cheeseburger and then some single malt back in my room, waking up and giving a talk followed by a luncheon. Party tonight at 8, so that gives me a few hours… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/214 Looking out my hotel window at a sunny warm Miami day. Back home, cold weather, gray skies, and rain on its way so i am happy to escape for a few days. I'm in an intense work period, and I have been thinking about how many people ask me at events about the writing life, how I spend my days, when I write...It seems that I get the luxury of dreamy thoughtful weeks followed by getting slammed with deadlines and revisions. Right now, I'm in that last phase. Finishing revisions of THE OBITUARY WRITER, which I am happy to… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/213 Greetings from beautiful Woodstock, NY where I have come for the Woodstock Writers Festival. My panel, Memoir A Go Go, led by the fabulous Martha Frankel, is today at 4. But Cousin Gloria-Jean and I arrived here yesterday just in time to catch the songwriting panel, with--amongst others--our adolescent idol, John Sebastian. To have him standing about six inches away from me, playing his guitar and singing Welcome back, was enough to make me grin all day. I have knit two white dish rags that GJ and I tie dyed to give him tonight at dinner. Then I will… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/212 As many of you know, tomorrow marks ten years since my beautiful, smart, funny, free spirited daughter Grace died at the age of five from a virulent form of strep. We--all of us who have lost loved ones--mark such anniversaries in many different ways. This one is hitting me especially hard. Perhaps it is just the idea of a decade spent without her. Perhaps it is compounded by Auntie Dora's death just seven weeks ago. The reasons aren't as important as how we choose to deal with our grief. I have tried to spend a little of every day… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/211 Watching Connecticut roll slowly by on Amtrak as I head home from NYC. What a wonderful couple of days there! The best part was going to see DEATH OF A SALESMAN with Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman. The show is sold out, but I went to the box office and begged two tickets for my buddy and me--eight row, center! In front of us sat my favorite actor from THE PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, which made me quite delighted. We had drinks at a bar where Sal from Mad Men was having dinner, then we went on to… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/210 Buona Pasqua! Full and tired from Easter at Gogo's today and Easter Eve here last night. It is only 6:30 and I am already in bed, checking flights to Missoula for us to deposit Sam at the end of May, and to Little Rock where I have the pleasure to spend a few days of writing time and to participate in a literary festival on May 20. Got the movie Contagion here ready to pop in the DVD, and then Mad Men and sleep nice and early.<br /><br />Friday, after Gogo and I made our annual pilgrimage to Federal… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/209 I am sitting in my gorgeous suite at the Viceroy Hotel here in Miami, looking out at water and boats while I wait for my friend Kimberley to pick me up for dinner. Had such a lovely luncheon with the folks at Northern trust, sharing raves about the play VENUS IN FURon Broadway, Chinese adoption, and being a flight attendant with another former one. My talk was so well received, and I gave lots of hugs at the end. A lovely afternoon. <br /><br />It's about 89 degrees here, and the sun feels so fine on my bare shoulders.… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/208 When my Sunday New York Times did not get delivered this morning, I feared it was a sign that this would not be a good Sunday. Or maybe a cruel April Fool's joke? But here I am lolling about in bed with Annabelle, a cozy happy way to spend a cold gray afternoon. I've read student manuscripts, finished knitting a dish rag (more on this later), watched some cooking shows, all while she practiced her typing on Typing Pal. Momentarily I will head downstairs to make a spring vegetable dip to bring to a dinner party for my appetizer… http://www.annhood.us/blog/v/207 Here is what I learned from a day spent cleaning my closet and drawers:<br />I do not need anymore black dresses.<br />I do not need anymore jersey dresses.<br />I especially do not need anymore black jersey dresses.<br />I also seem to have a proclivity for sheer dresses with slips underneath them.<br /><br />However, it was fun to look at my stuff and remember why I bought it or where I wore it. Ah! The orange jersey dress! And the green one that students copied when they did a skit about me. And that blue halter dress...and the pink and…