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. …
Vaticano Natale – Christmas at the Vatican
Recounting the emotions and tangible spirit I felt standing in Saint Peter’s Square on Christmas Eve 2004 while the late Pope John Paul said mass was one of my most favorite stories to include in Miracles in Montanare: Ten Years in Tuscany. To be present at that holy spot on that holiest of eves had been a faith-driven fantasy 10 years in the making. As Parkinson’s Disease continued it’s progression, the world …
Ultima Giorni in Montanare
The mood seems to change every year at this time. “Ultima Giorni” Rosy reminds us from the back seat as we exit the Outlet Mall. This shift isn’t foreign to me but it is my least favorite part of preparing to exit the spot which is responsible for much of who I am and will always will be. Every friend here (dear and not so) knows our departure is near. Each …
A Tuscan Book Launch!
Friends are such an important part of life, especially when they are enthused about a shared passion. Cortonese, Ivan Botanici caught it and said yes to helping me produce a bi-lingual, Ten Years in Tuscany book launch event in Cortona. Trying to use the past three launch events a model wasn’t an option. I’m in a foreign country, 7500 miles from my resources. My biggest fear: Would anyone come? Like …
One Week In
[ Montepulciano, Italy by Larry Snyder ] Although our coordinates look similar year after year, we’ve come at it from a different direction this time. Pisa is a seaside, regional Tuscan airport accepting jetliners full of primarily Euro fliers seeking some Vitamin D, a well-priced glass of vino rosso, and a bit of stylish culture that comes in many forms. Celebrating the arrival of all our four checked bags, we …
Tuning Into the Creation Station
[ Sotto Montepulciano ] There’s a push, a tangible draw coming from within this Ryan Air 737-800. It’s time to create. For this short window, I’m free of the norm, to take chances while I occupy land that nearly built the act of creativity. Feeling the need to up my artistic game, this trip has to be big on discovery. Not necessarily new destinations, although that is tempting. The surgeons …
Take It (Yes/No)
Sagre Amedeo: Our annual American-style 4th of July bar-b-cue on Amedeo’s birthday. The 20 stairs connecting our main living area to the garage provide me a little extra cardio this time of year. Each time we make this trip across the Atlantic, I’m commissioned to drag our three-piece hard-sided luggage set up the stairs only to take at least one back when Jill realizes how far over weight we’ll be …
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 …
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 …