Countdown to publication!

Countdown of the days in the FINAL MONTH before the publication of ABOVE THE

SALT (Flatiron/Macmillan)! Lots of wonderful preliminary news:

• starred review in Publisher’s Weekly

• starred review in Kirkus (especially hard to get)

• great Booklist review

• nice blurbs from many writers I admire

• a Literary Hub excerpt set for 3 November 2023

• on the “Most Anticipated Books for Fall” list with Goodreads & also on “Zibby’s Magazine”

I just received word that the Portuguese translation will be out in Portugal (Leya

Books/ASA imprint) in June, 2024, and that will segue with my return to leading the

“Writing the Luso Experience Workshop” in the Disquiet International Literary Program.

(Hope to see some of you there!)

I’ve been on the road a little…a vacation with Christopher in London in Spring,

2023…gorgeous roses in Hyde Park, pal Danny Rubin’s Groundhog Day: the Musical,

and meeting Sandy Welch, attached by Harrison Productions to write the screenplay for

MARIANA…nice photo of us meeting at the Dickens House. (Sandy has done the best

literary adaptations of so many classics: Jane Eyre (with Ruth Wilson), Emma (Romola

Garai, Jonny Lee Miller), Our Mutual Friend, etc. (MARIANA will be reissued in Portugal

at the start of 2024.)

With screenwriter Sandy Welch in London, the Dickens House

Really fun two-day gig as an extra for the TV hit Succession…I attended Logan Roy’s

funeral! I was visible for maybe two seconds, picking my coat up in the pew, which Chris

isolated as my Emmy-worthy action shot.

Great Action Shot of my star turn as an extra on Succession—at Logan Roy's funeral

I also attended screenwriter/director Robin Swicord’s amazing twelve-women, ten-day

intensive script-writing workshop in Munich. (I’m working on an adaptation of my short

story “Our Lady of the Artichokes.” I arrived during Oktoberfest and it might have been

nice to have seen it in action, but unfortunately I broke a toe my first night in the hotel.

(Note to self: Always turn on the light if you get up in darkness in a strange room!) But I

discovered that German medicine is quite fine, cabs were easy to take to the University

of Film & Television, and my colleagues were fantastic and lots of fun.

With director/writer Robin Swi

At Café Ignaz in Germany with

Broken toe!!

A more personal note: I lost my mother, who met her death with humor and grace, her

mind fully strong even at age 95. It has been ten years since my father’s death, and how

I wish they were here to celebrate with me as my book over fifteen years in the making

sees the light of day.

My mother, Elizabeth Vaz, meets her first great-grandson, Jackson Jacobs, the month before her death...a great example of how much love she had to give up to the very end. Miss you, Mom.