Laurie Sandell's Blog, page 370

September 2nd: Reading at Joe's Pub

[image error]I'll be participating in the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series this Wednesday as part of "Graphic Book Night." I've been a fan of Happy Ending—and a friend of its creator and host, Amanda Stern (at right)—for five years now; I can count on one hand the number of shows I've missed. (That particular hand has seven fingers, but don't judge.) It's a rollicking show filled with readings, music and author "risks"–past ones include eating a pint of wasabi, reading a horrible review aloud, and having

A few words about DJ AM, a guy I adored and admired

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Photo: NZT/AP

I first met DJ AM in 2004, when I attended Glamour's annual "Don't" party in L.A. I'd stepped outside to get some air, and spotted him standing a few feet away. I turned to a woman I was with and said, "I have such a crush on him." To my enormous embarrassment, she grabbed him and brought him over and said, "This is Laurie Sandell. She's an editor at Glamour. She has a crush on you!" I was mortified (to say the least), but he just smiled and said, "Aww, how about a hug?"

Three years

Standing room only!

[image error]The reading couldn't have gone better–I am so relieved. The technology worked perfectly  this time (granted, I tested it about 100 times at home); every seat was filled with 20 people standing in the back; and the line for books was so long I was worried people were going to leave! During the Q/A, people also came up with really interesting questions like, "What was the most surprising thing that came out of all this?" (The answer? That nothing bad happened when I told the truth about my father:

TONIGHT: My first big NYC reading

[image error]It's at Barnes & Noble at 7:00 PM, at 82nd & Broadway, and I have to say, I'm starting to get nervous. Not to read, because it's not like I have to make anything up on the spot (unless the projector decides to conk out like it did in LA…but I would just do what I did there, which was to stand at the front of the room, sweating and smiling through clenched teeth, regaling the crowd with stories about my "process," as blood screamed through my head and drowned out my thoughts.) No, I'm nervous bec

Tomorrow night: Reading at Barnes & Noble in NYC

[image error]My first big New York City reading is tomorrow night at 7:00 PM at this Barnes & Noble (82nd & Broadway). I'm trying to think of what I can do to lure the readers of this blog into the store, since this is a fairly important reading for me and I need to make sure the seats are filled, so Barnes & Noble doesn't get mad at me and bury my book at the back of the store. Would it help if I told you I was going to bring a very famous A-list celebrity with me? Now, I don't want you to come under false

Back to yoga for the first time in weeks

[image error]And am no longer stretchy. Literally, I take a few weeks off–not intentionally, I brought a yoga mat with me on my book tour but never took it out of my suitcase–only to find that my body has no memory of ever having done yoga before. My shoulders are killing me today. And my legs feel like they're lying in wet cement. See how this hamster can't touch its toes? That was me this morning. Tonight I'm going to my weekly meditation class. Good luck trying to fold me into a cross-legged position.

Just did The Lanigan & Malone Morning Show

[image error]And as you can see, I broadcast directly from my bed, coffee in hand. The interviewer was surprisingly kind and sensitive for a morning radio show host–gotta love Cleveland! The one strange thing about doing radio at 7:10 A.M. is trying to act all perky and awake when you're barely conscious and have a froggy voice. But it's so so so much more fun than doing television. There's none of the wide-eyed, heart-pounding fear you get when you're sitting in a chair, all made up, and hear the producer s

My first radio interview: Tomorrow morning

[image error]I'll be getting up at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning, because at 7:10 A.M. I'll be appearing on The Lanigan & Malone Morning Show on Majic 105.7 in Cleveland, Ohio. I decided to write this post tonight, on the off-chance that one of the ten people reading this blog–seriously, are there even ten people here? Raise your hands–might live in Cleveland and want to tune in. I've done radio a few times before, for Glamour, but I was always talking about some celebrity, so this should be a different e

Madame Patricia reveals what's in the cards

[image error]I met my friend Patty about 13 years ago, through our mutual friend Karen Ramos, an LA-based singer. Patty reads tarot cards and is scarily accurate at doing so. Of course you think you're going to shuffle the deck and ask every burning question you've wanted to know, and you end up asking every run-of-the-mill question everybody else asks. Will I meet the man of my dreams? When will my money problems be over? How is my book going to do? Will it be made into a movie? Oh, really? I'll be writing

My very own "sex tape" scandal!

[image error]OMG! You know how once in a while you'll Google yourself to see what comes up? Well, I did a Google image on myself, fully expecting to see photos that had appeared in magazines, a blog snapshot or two, and maybe my author photo. And this is what I found instead. Basically, my friends Emma Taylor and Lorelei Sharkey, who write as the duo "Em & Lo," posted this page on their blog. They write about sex, so it made perfect sense to feature this particular page, but I had no idea it was going to lin