This just in: “New York Curiosities” was held at gunpoint while traveling on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. The suspects are thought to be part of the “Loomis Gang,” aka the Mystery Company of the Finger Lakes, a known gang of bandits/actors who “rob” the Thendara-to-Carter line on Wednesdays in July and August.  

Lissen up, book. This here's a stick up ...

When he's not robbin' trains, this bandit likes to curl up with a good book.

I'm not going to hurt the book. Naw, I just want to scare it a little ...

Y'know that "mighty purdy" part? Yeah, that's us!

You can read more about the Loomis Gang train robberies in my book.  A huge thank you to my friends Sandy, Chrissy and Doug of Marcy, NY, for sending the pictures.

I know, I know. They always say, don’t judge a book by its cover. But please, please judge my book by its cover! Bret Kerr’s redesign of the cover for the “Curiosities” series is amazing. It jumps off the shelf! As a writer, that’s so important: Your words are nothing if no one pulls your book off the shelf to read it. And now it’s official: Bret’s redesign won a 2008 Graphic Design America award from GD USA magazine. Congrats, Bret. Yeeeeeeeow! So well deserved.

Wondering how he came up with the design? Check out a blog post by Bret in which he explains how he came up with the idea and the over-the-river-and-through-the-eBay adventure that ensued to make it happen!

After all of the bad news in my family lately, you can imagine my reaction when my mom called me at work on Friday out of breath: Omigosh, what now? 

“I just came back from Barnes & Noble!” she exclaimed. “They have your book — a whole bookshelf of them!”

Aside from the obvious relief, this was an amazing moment to share with my mom. This book is as much hers as it is mine. First of all, she believed it would get done – even when I was skeptical. Plus, she was my partner in crime for several curiosities in western and central New York. Quite honestly, if this book were “Survivor,” she would’ve outwitted and outlasted everyone – even me! She was caught in the middle of an international manhunt (seriously, I’m really sorry about that), had a reading by a medium, ate a “garbage plate,” went to a chicken-wing festival that was “like a fraternity party” and nearly had her car stolen – and that’s only her first page of notes!

I sent her back to Barnes and Noble the next day to take pictures. But this time, I said, don’t tell them your daughter wrote the book. Open it to the dedication page, point and say, “That’s me!”  

And, in 5-4-3-2-1 … OK, we’re back! Thanks for tuning in. As you may have noticed, the blog went dark in August. I overheard the blog, which is very into its Polish heritage, mumble something about being on “holiday.” OK, blog, you’re in America, now. Time to buckle down, OK?

 OK, OK. Enough blaming the blog. What happened, as many of you know, was that my family got hit with a double whammy of devastating events just as “New York Curiosities” was hitting store shelves. I had to cancel the book-launch party and return to Rochester to be with my family. A giant thank you to everyone for the thoughts and prayers. I’m proud to report that we’re on the road to recovery now and everyone is doing well.

And now, it’s fall, my favorite season. With my family situation stabilized, the blog and I can pick up where we left off: celebration and shameless self-promotion!