A Great Trip to LA and Great News Upon Our Return
Got back last Monday from a wonderful trip to Los Angeles to visit former St. Petersburg Times writers, now LA Times editors, Bill Nottingham and Susan Denley. We took a two-day jaunt into the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo wine country (known for Pinot Noir and Chardonay). Talked to the Orange County National Alliance on Mental Illness and held a book signing at the Costa Mesa Borders on Saturday, selling lots of books at both, before heading back the Nott/Denleys for a lovely private book signing party there. Lots of good company, good wine and great laughter. Not to mention an inspiring rendition of “Oh Canada” by Bill. 
Returned home to find that Falling into the Sun is a FINALIST!! in Foreword Reviews 2009 Best Book of the Year Awards! Winners will be announced in May at BookExpo America, in New York. Can’t think of a better way to end a fantastic trip!
Filed under: Thoughts
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Charrie, I never met you, but I feel somehow connected with your family though my transcriptions this summer of my father’s, Leo Hershifleld’s, daily diaries from 1923 to the day he died in 1979. He was a illustrator/cartoonist for the Changing Times from its inception was valued your dad as a great friend. I’m reliving 1962 this weekend and it’s July 28th and Dad has just had a wonderful sail with Jack and friends on the “Lark” from Hallowing Pt. to the Md. Shore where they played slot machines, had highballs, ate smorgsboard and sang all the way home by moonlight arriving back at your parent’s dock at 3 a.m. When I read about the 19 foot sloop you grew up with, I wondered if it were the same magic boat that carried them almost 50 years ago. Sam Hershfield, Bradenton, Fl and Hendersonville, NC.
Hi Sam,
Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. (I am not a very good blogger as it turns out, but I am going to try to reform!)
I LOVED your father and mother! And I have several of your dad’s paintings hanging in my house. One large one of a fisherman on a lake over my mantel, and one I absolutely adore of our cottages on the ocean in Rockport, MA. He drew and gave as a gift to my parents a picture of their house on the Potomac River (viewed from the river), with my Dad’s sailboat in the foreground, that my parents used as the heading on their personal stationary. I made of their stationary for the cover of a book of my mother’s poetry that I published for family and friends after my mom died in 2007. Check it out on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Footnotes-Along-Way-Helen-Hazard/dp/0981541003
Do you ever get to Florida? I live in Safety Harbor (across the bay from Tampa) and would love for you to come by for a visit and see the paintings I have by your father and to swap stories.
Please let me know.
Sincerely,
Charrie