Montanare – ON AIR!

In the studio at the Northwest Italian Radio Show (KKND) with publisher Ethan Yarbrough Sharing stories from Miracles in Montanare: Ten Years in Tuscany on the Northwest Italian Radio Show feels a bit like I’m reading the book to the world. As Publisher, Ethan, and I described vignette after vignette, co-hosts David Madrid and Tony La Stella (both with Italian heritage) became enthusiastic fans. They get it. They know there …

Launch Plus 90 Days!

Young Reflections Photography Once I told publisher, Ethan, and book designer, Sonja, that I had a date for the book launch, the drive to the finish line required a bit more gas pedal. A book release without books would be rather anti-climactic. Phone calls to confirm details from months past became a priority. The twenty-nine details about how the book would be printed, bound, and packaged all became unintended obsessions. …

The Biggest Tuesday of My Life

What an honor to speak to this Expedia audience about getting the most out of traveling in Italy. I’ve been talking about 6/7 for weeks. Every other customer at my coffee post got to hear about it, some more than once. Fortunately for me, a seasoned tech veteran with a good position on the Totem Pole made the best suggestion I’ve ever heard. Trying not to become hysterical, I agreed that …

Coffee Here, Coffee There

Nearly everything good in my life over the past 10 years has included Starbucks. Most of you reading this have been brought to me somehow via a small coffee shop on the corner of 108th Ave NE and NE 2nd in Bellevue. My vast coffee community is another ironic tie to the old country where coffee shops become the center of social community even in the tiniest of villages, like …

Excitement at the Post Office

The first orders at the post office. Thank you to all! Like many, going to the post office doesn’t fit in my Top Ten list of thrilling life experiences. That is, until yesterday. With Iron Twine Press founder and publisher-extraordinaire Ethan Yarbrough riding shotgun, I pulled into an awaiting spot at the United States Post Office in Bellevue, WA with the first dozen orders of Miracles in Montanare: Ten Years in …

Making History in Larriano

Photo by Young Reflections Photography Having Ame, Rosy, and Laura on our side of the Atlantic is an exercise in bewilderment, for all. They get the opportunity to experience our America with eyes wide open in the same way we appreciate everything about their special country. If I had $5 for every inquiry Ame has made over the past six days, I wouldn’t need an AMEX for MY upcoming flight …

Anatomy of a Book-The Launch

Waking up yesterday morning, I grabbed my phone to kill the alarm. There was only one appointment on my calendar. In a way, this date has been there since well before mobile phones made their way into our world. It had all come down to this two hour pivot. So what are cialis best buy you waiting for? Go ahead and purchase from back street vendors. Don’t get me wrong, …

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Anatomy of a Book-The Last Mile

Backing Jill’s Toyota Highlander up the loading ramp at DCG One (one of Seattle’s largest commercial printers) yesterday, I was about to take possession of 980 copies of Miracles In Montanare: Ten Years in Tuscany. The nice young man brought out a shrink-wrapped pallet of boxes on a pallet jack. A little re-organizing was in order to make his “shipment” fit in my pedestrian SUV. Once I found our common …

Anatomy of a Book-Choosing stories for Ten Years in Tuscany

Due to good fortune and a set of special friendships that lighten the credit card hit, Jill, Daniela, and I are able to spend nearly a month each summer in Tuscany. With every trip to the old country, I keep a list of experiences that occur during our stay, subjects and events I will want to write about. With few exceptions, that list is never less than 20 new stories. …