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They lost!!!

Aug 8, 2010 | 4 Comments

I go to ONE baseball game a year. ONE!! And the Yankees lost! They are not supposed to lose when I am there. After all, this is the team who’s won 27 World Series. All I need them to do is beat the Red Sox one day this year and they couldn’t manage it. Pooh!

At least when I drag my husband to the ballet once a year, the dancers don’t actually lose. They’ve never even fallen down, although one time the prima ballerina’s strap broke and her tutu top fell down TWICE. My DH thought that was kind of entertaining.

Honestly, even though the Yankees lost, it was a fun evening. I saw the new Yankee Stadium for the first time and it is, as my DH says, a cathedral to baseball. Here are some of my pix:

Reminds you of a church, right?

This is the main entrance hall. It’s very spacious.

That’s yours truly with the field in the background.

Just three of their 27 World Series flags. But they’re not bragging or anything. I like the fact that the new stadium’s design kept the arches and vertical elements that characterized the old stadium. Even if I’m not a baseball fan, I like the sense of continuity.

Here’s Derek Jeter swinging for the fences. Unfortunately, the opposition caught it and tagged him out.

This photo is especially for my buddy Lisa, the rabid Red Sox fan.

Finally, I couldn’t resist this picture because it reminds me of my favorite scene in Bull Durham.

The first person who emails me with the topic the players were discussing in the movie when gathered on the pitcher’s mound like the Yankees gets an autographed copy of one of my books. You get to choose which one. My email is nancy@nancyherkness.com.

Can’t wait to hear from all you baseball fans!

The Rita Awards

Aug 1, 2010 | 0 Comments

How many of you know that the highest award a romance novelist can win is the Rita? Each year the Romance Writers of America (the largest writers’ group in the world!) honor the best books in the genre at their national conference. As you might imagine, the golden statuette is something every romance writer aspires to take home.

The award was instituted in 1980 when R.W.A. was founded, but was named the Golden Medallion. In 1990, the name was changed to honor two co-founders of R. W. A.: Rita Gallagher and her daughter Rita Clay Estrada. The letters also stood for “Romance is Treasured Always.

Over 1,000 novels are entered in the Ritas every year. Published members of R.W.A. (like me) are the first round judges. I look forward to the arrival of my box of Rita entries, often discovering an author I have never read before who then goes on my auto-buy list.

This year the Rita ceremony took place in Orlando at Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Hotel. It’s always fun to see the gorgeous glittery evening gowns both nominees and audience members wear.

And this year’s winners are (drumroll please):

Best Young Adult Romance:

Perfect Chemistry
by Simone Elkeles

Best Inspirational Romance:

The Inheritance
by Tamera Alexander

Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements:

The Lost Recipe for Happiness
by Barbara O’Neal

Best Romance Novella:

“The Christmas Eve Promise” In The Night Before Christmas

by Molly O’Keefe

Best Contemporary Series Romance:

A Not-So-Perfect Past
by Beth Andrews

Best Contemporary Series Romance, Suspense/Adventure:

The Soldier’s Secret Daughter
by Cindy Dees

Best Historical Romance:

Not Quite A Husband
by Sherry Thomas

Best Regency Historical Romance:

What Happens In London
by Julia Quinn

Best Paranormal Romance:

Kiss of a Demon King
by Kresley Cole

Best Romantic Suspense:

Whisper of Warning
by Laura Griffin

Best First Book:

One Scream Away
by Kate Brady

Best Contemporary Single Title Romance:

Too Good To Be True
by Kristin Higgins

Many congratulations to all the winners! Someday I hope my name is among them.

The High Line: a park on stilts

Jul 9, 2010 | 6 Comments

Another adventure! My friend, Rutgers University professor Marija Dalbello, introduced me to the coolest new park in New York City: the High Line. It’s been a long time under development, but the park is now open from 20th St. to Gansevoort St. (with more to come heading north). It’s located on elevated train tracks built in the 1930s to transport freight up and down the West Side. Before the elevated tracks were built, Tenth Avenue was known as “Death Avenue” due to the large number of collisions between freight trains and street-level traffic. The last train ran on the elevated tracks in 1980.

Instead of demolishing the unused tracks, the Friends of the High Line persuaded the city to turn it into this fabulous long, skinny park. Walking it is amazing! Here I am standing on the High Line 30 feet above street level. It gives you a whole new perspective on the city…and you can catch a breeze, even on a hot day.

The design incorporates the original train tracks and the plants and grasses which grew naturally after the trains stopped running. Once the plants are established, the High Line should require little daily maintenance of the gardens.

There are decks, benches, art installations, a water feature (not quite completed yet), an amphitheater with a view of the the street below, and all kinds of other fun spaces. Marija and I encountered several photo shoots taking place on the High Line, probably because the settings are so compelling. You look across the roofs of Manhattan.

Down at the bottom of the High Line, we walked under a skyscraper which straddles the High Line. Turns out it’s a very hip new hotel called The Standard. We took a nice air-conditioned break in the lobby where the people-watching was fabulous. Even the bellboys were hipper than me (okay, not that hard but still…). Marija noticed that the ceiling above us was mirrored so here we are reflected on high.

Kudos to the Friends of the High Line for creating such an amazing urban experience! I can’t wait to stroll it again (when the weather cools off a bit).

Adventure 1 (continued)

Jun 19, 2010 | 1 Comment

My good friend Ellen requested more photos from my visit to New Jersey’s Grounds for Sculpture. Since I LOVE to take pictures, I just happened to have a few more to share. Thank you, Ellen, for asking. And here they are….

This tiger is one of the newest installations. There are several of the big cats roaming around the amphitheatre.

Yes, it’s Manet’s Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe in 3-D. In fact, it goes beyond 3-D to reality because the ladybathing in the background is standing in a real pond. You can walk all around it and become part of the painting.

I expected Darth Vader to emerge from this sculpture at any moment. Its real title is Dorion.

I kept hearing someone screaming for help and wondered what sculpture that was emanating from. The mystery was solved when we encountered a flock of peacocks (no hens in sight). Mother Nature is an amazing artist herself.

Here’s another example of how beautifully the sculpture and the landscaping interrelate.

Ellen, you should really try to take a trip here! You’d love it!

Adventure 1: Grounds for Sculpture

Jun 13, 2010 | 4 Comments

My friend Betsy and I decided we were in a rut and needed to get out of town more often. So we promised each other we would go on one adventure every month. Our first was a trip to the Grounds for Sculpture near Trenton, NJ. We set out on the New Jersey Turnpike, which is an adventure in itself, and arrived at this spectacular 35-acre spread of gorgeous landscape and 200+ giant outdoor sculptures. It’s well worth a trip if you’re anywhere in the vicinity. Here are some pix to prove it:

The Loch Ness monster greeted us as we began our wanderings. That’s not its real title, of course, but what I love about modern sculpture is that you can interpret it any way you want to.

Another cool installation in water was this head. The mist is artifically created by water jets. Her name is Leucantha by Philip Grausman.

My friend Betsy is a garden writer so she especially appreciated the landscaping the sculptures were placed in. She really opened my eyes to the incredible creativity of the plant design. You see how the plantings echo and accentuate this sculpture’s lines?

I had just been into New York City to see the Monet exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery (free! I recommend it too!) so I was struck by these real waterlilies growing by Rat’s Restaurant, which is situated in the Grounds, and where we had a yummy lunch.

Here I am participating in a sculpture called Were You Invited? It’s a boating party from Renoir’s painting. Most of the sculptures invite you to touch them. One even has drumsticks attached so you can play it!

I felt very in-the-know when I saw the horse below and said, “Hey, I’ve seen this artist’s work before…outside the Denver Airport.” Luis Jimenez’s style is pretty distinctive, especially since his horse’s eyes always glow. I remembered the giant horse from Denver in particular because it wasn’t a popular installation there. People thought it looked evil and threatening. What do you think?

I have LOTS more pictures but I think you’ve gotten a good idea of what a great place this is. Thank you, J. Seward Johnson, for creating such a gorgeous venue, and letting us stroll through it at our leisure!

Thanks for supporting Brenda Novak’s auction!

Jun 6, 2010 | 0 Comments

The results from Brenda’s 2010 Auction for Diabetes Research were fantastic! Thanks to supporters like you, my blog readers, the auction raised a record-breaking $285, 780 this year. That’s in a depressed economy! Clearly, readers are generous folks. This put the cumulative total donated to Juvenile Diabetes research by the auction over the $1 million mark. Pretty darned impressive!

To the wonderful person who purchased my “Indulge Your Inner Reader” gift collection, many thanks! I haven’t gotten your name and address yet, but I’m looking forward to finding out who you are.

I almost didn’t go this year…

May 31, 2010 | 0 Comments

…but then I thought of my father who served in World War II. And of my nephew who hasn’t met his new son because he’s on a ship somewhere near Iraq. And of an old, old friend whom I never see anymore, but who served as a military policeman in the Vietnam War. So I put on red, white, and blue and went to our small town’s Memorial Day parade and ceremony. And I was glad I did.

For one thing, I’m a sucker for a marching band. When the piccolos trill in Stars and Stripes Forever, it gives me chills. Although my daughter graduated two years ago, I still know many of the kids in the band, and I’m still proud of what they do. Besides, once a Band Parent, always a Band Parent.

Even more moving is seeing all the people who come to hear the honor roll of names called year after year. Most of us don’t know any of the servicemen from our town who died for our country. In fact, we don’t even know their families, but it doesn’t matter. Those soliders and sailors and marines and pilots offered up their lives so that we could live our wonderfully ordinary, safe, healthy lives. The hundreds of people of all ages gathered in front of our memorials come to say thank you every year for that tremendous sacrifice. I was glad to be one of the grateful crowd yet again.

For Desperate Housewives fans…a fun giveaway.

May 18, 2010 | 0 Comments

Many moons ago, I contributed an essay to the anthology Welcome to Wisteria Lane, a completely unauthorized discussion of various aspects of the Desperate Housewives television series. It was a blast to spend time analyzing the show from an essayist’s point of view.

Anyway, I just got an email saying that the publisher is marking the season’s finale by giving away a copy of the anthology to someone who comments here:

http://www.smartpopbooks.com/1814

Thought there might be folks out there who’d like to check it out. Good luck in winning the prize!

Brenda Novak’s auction starts Saturday

Apr 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

Brenda’s auction is filled with fabulous items for readers, writers, and everyone else. The money raised goes to Juvenile Diabetes research, a very worthy cause. You’ll have a great time browsing; just click on the graphic above.

I’ve donated an “Indulge Your Inner Reader” gift collection. You can find it by searching for my name.

Here’s what’s in it: