Tooting My Horn

Stellasue Lee, Editor Emeritus of Rattle, author of Crossing the Double Yellow Line,which, by the way, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize--and whose work is published in four other volumes of poetry as well as in numerous poetry journals--and whose name "means star and violet...", has written a wonderful review for my book, Pepek the Assassin.

She wrote to our mutual friend Bob, who sent her a copy: "Brilliant title. Beautifully put together, and talk about flow--this body of work holds together perfectly. The writing is strong, the voice so accessible that I feel as if I've lived next door to these people and know them in that special way that neighbors become family. It reads as a benediction on Pepek's soul. Thank you, Bob, for sharing this wonderful work with me. My husband and I have been reading it aloud each morning to one another. Both of us have been moved by this body of work."

Kindly, Ms. Lee also wrote a blurb and allowed me to put it on the back cover of the book. She is a terrific writer, whose poetry is said to "speak for and to all of us at a spiritual level..." and I just ordered a copy of Crossing the Double Yellow Line for myself.

Thank you so much, Stellasue Lee, for your kind words.

(And by the way, did I ever tell you that my book Chrysalis was up once for a Pulitzer Prize?--Didn't win, of course. That year John Updyke won for Rabbit Is Rich. It's a tough world out there.)