I've just wrapped up writing a couple of essays--one on alcohol consumption for Regina Barrecca's forthcoming anthology MAKE MINE A DOUBLE and another on the 1970s' cult classic "Dark Shadows" for an anthology on soap operas to be edited by Suzanne Strempek Shea and Elizabeth Searle.

I'm always reluctant to spill the beans about my current manuscript. But let's just say it's been a real hoot working on a novel that pokes fun at the poetry business. It follows the adventures of Christina Galliano, a young woman who has her affair with the Poet Laureate of the United States exposed through a You Tube video, thus threatening her job as a teacher at a private girls' school and her chance to form a more meaningful relationship with the headmaster's son. The novel is set in what I now consider my home away from home: Lake Forest, Illinois. I hope to finish the novel by the end of 2010. Fingers crossed. Prayers appreciated!