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!

The second most frequently asked question I get is, “How did you get the book deal?” 

Well, I had written a humor column for a paper in Queens a few years ago. When the paper folded, I wasn’t sure where or how to pitch my special brand of humor next. So, I signed up for a humor-writing class with Lynn Harris, co-creator of Breakup Girl and author of the comic novel “Death By Chick Lit,” at Mediabistro in Manhattan. (The class was awesome – you should take it!) 

After the eight-week class was finished, the TA, Dylan Stableford, asked me to write a testimonial on Mediabistro.com for an upcoming class he was teaching. The acquisitions editor at Globe Pequot Press, Gillian Belnap, was browsing the Mediabistro site looking for someone with a strong journalism background and experience or an interest in humor writing. She came across my testimonial, Googled me and sent me an email asking if I wanted to write the New York installment of their Curiosities series!

Wait — before you go canceling my college speaking tour, know that there’s more of a lesson to be learned here than sit around and wait and the book deal will find you. The lesson is: More than one road leads to publishing. Beyond pitching books directly, take a class, network, do a favor for a colleague and anything else you can think of because you never know where it will lead. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go look at my name on the cover. I’m a little behind today – it’s only been 257 times!