New York, New YorkI

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I was listening to an author speak the other day at the BEA in New York. He said that he wished that he would have enjoyed his books instead of trying to write the next one.

In other words:

Celebrate your life instead of trying to understand it.

That's what Jeff said to me when I returned from Providence, Rhode Island after I received an award for Nobody's Home.

Little did I know that the book that would someday win multiple awards is one that has so little to do with me as an author and so much to do with Jeff as a human being.

But you know what?

Let's celebrate it a little, huh?

Oh Brother! The Life & Times of Jeff Fazzolari won again in the biography category. It's coming off a win in Boston. I want to win again in California later in the year.

But I made a single promise to myself when the books were entered in the competitions.

I would go celebrate. I will stand in front of the room and tell the funny stories. I will make a group of authors, publishers, and agents laugh hard at a life so full.

I think of Sterlinghouse Publisher and Cindy Sterling, in particular. What a gift she provided when she MADE me write the story. Thank you, Cindy.

I am humbled. I am honored. I never thought in a million years that I'd accept the microphone for such a talk, but when the people leave there they will have met Jeff.

New York, New York.

Pretty cool.

You know what's even cooler?

The ceremony is on June 22nd.

Jeff's birthday.

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