My interview with Ann Arbor on KFJC in the SF Bay Area, California will now be next week at
Wednesday, April 9th, 7:45am
She will do a second reading of Dear Isabelle right before the interview.
I'm so glad I'm able to listen to KFJC online even though I'm in Egypt. Ann did a such great job with the reading today! It was the first time I had ever heard someone's voice other than my own read my book. I loved her British accent for James!!!
A very, very special thank-you to Ian Whitaker for his beautiful music he played on the piano. It created such a mysterious, wonderful background for Ann's reading of D.I.! It really made the story come alive. I was really touched. And Ann was quite right about the story of the piano. Ian's father, Bruce, bought that piano from me right before I left for London. I loved that piano and was so sad to part with it! It was a mahogany Hamilton Upright Grand that dated back to 1900. And it was utterly gorgeous!
But it also weighed a zillion tons and my husband said, "There's no way we're taking that monster to England." He must have remembered the agony and uncertainty when we first moved it in to our Belmont apartment! Four strong boys came out bruised and nearly destroyed that day, vowing "Never again!" along with, "You better play this thing every day after what we went through." I contend it was worth it. It gave such a rich, almost haunting tone when played... no other piano has ever sounded quite like it. But David was right. There was no way we could take it to our tiny London flat (3rd floor with nothing but narrow, winded stairs leading to our door.... ouch!)
And so, we put in an ad on Craigslist and was hoping for a nice family to come and love it, despite it's missing key faces here and there and all the scratches and bruises it had earned over the years.
Lo and behold, just a week before we left for England, Mr. Whitaker and his wife come in through the door telling me they want to give their talented son a surprise for Christmas: the piano that he always asked for. Upon leaving, Mrs. Whitaker kindly tells me that her husband Bruce (AKA "Skokiaan Guy" knows someone who might just like to read Dear Isabelle... Ann Arbor on KFJC.
And now it's five months later and I heard my beloved piano on the radio, accompanying the reading of my first novel. Thank-you, Ian!
