December 1, 2012

It's time for the annual website sale!!! Read through this update for more information, and please pass it on.

Even though I feel like I hardly got anything done, there was quite a bit going on. From Tel Aviv to Dublin to Barcelona, from Maine to California, it was a very busy year. I got to record and release an audio version of my autobiography, and read audiobooks for two other authors. Hung out with Harlan Ellison, Monica Manicini, Len Wein, and a host of other fabulous artists. Created songs with Dave Grusin and Bette Midler, had dinner with old pals George R. R. Martin and Parris McBride, watched Mike Resnick and Billy Edd Wheeler being honored, and gave my first commencement speech.

My right shoulder was re-built, and I learned just how invaluable drug patches are - and just how careful you have to be with the detox! Despite a 6-month convalescence, I managed 45 shows in six different countries, along with 62 live interviews and another 34 via e-mail. Started working new songs into the shows, refining them and blocking most of 2013 to write my next studio album, with an eye to recording and releasing in 2014. Oh, and I got to lecture at and visit NASA's Goddard Space Center, and have lunch with astronaut Piers Sellers!!

Saw the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, signed a new music publishing deal, went to the Field Museum, changed literary agents (with the old agent's blessing, I might add), wrote articles for Smartpop. Gave the Alabama Library Association's keynote, got a Samsung Galaxy III, sold it and got a Motorola Razr M instead, saw Olga Kern kill at the piano, shared stages with Tom Paxton and Karla Bonoff among others, and invited Diana Jones to open for my West Coast swing next year. Oh, and I signed on for Swannanoa 2013.

On the "and what are you doing that's interesting?" note, check the tour schedule - and a very special two-day event at Nashville's Scarritt-Bennett Center with famed theologian Miriam Therese Winter! For icing on the cake, there'll be a discussion moderated by John Seigenthaler Senior. Note that rooms can be rented for $50 a night - lots of writers use them as getaways when they're working on deadlines. I may even do it myself one day!

Foster and D'roo, our beloved Portuguese Water Dogs, died within months of each other, and though we are still mourning the loss, little Gracie Mae came in August to provide new "dogginess" to our lives. My sponsors remain as kind and committed as ever, the Foundation will distribute over $70,000 this year, and I'm feeling very fortunate right now.

Thanks to everyone for all your support - see the basic sale details below, and please pass it on to your friends and family!

Janis

The 2012 Holdiay Website Sale is over! Thanks to everyone who participated!

• Previous Updates
• February 20, 2013
• December 1, 2012
• October 5, 2012
• July 12, 2012
• May 8, 2012
• April 6, 2012
• January 10, 2012
• December 2, 2011
• November 15, 2011
• July 28, 2011
• July 1, 2011
• May 18, 2011
• February 18, 2011
• End Of Year 2010
• November 2010
• September 2010
• August 2010
• April 1, 2008
• August 2003
• July 2003