O CANADA

We are having a wonderful time on our vacation. We've been to Montreal, Quebec City, St. John, Prince Edward Island, Halifax, Peggy's Cove, Lunenburg....

Prince Edward Island is my favorite so far although Nova Scotia is perfectly lovely too. I bought a copy of Anne of Green Gables in P.E.I. after we saw Green Gables. I read the book as a child and saw the mini-series on TV. The story is so good. It's so much more special to read it after being there and seeing , for example, the Haunted Forest, that Anne and Diana walked through and of course being in the east gable. We also saw Lucy Maud Montgomery's house and I read her biography. She was a fascinating individual.

Today we head back to the states on a ferry to Bar Harbor, Maine. We've been to Maine a couple of times and absolutely love it, as we do Vermont. We're looking forward to some Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

THE MYDOLS

BOOKS FROM CITADEL

My friend Matt (lead singer for Cleveland's Amps II Eleven) emailed me a while back to tell me I was in very good company. Mr. Lemmy Kilmister is also on the Citadel imprint.

(I saw Motorhead with Paige about 5 years ago at the Royal Oak Music Theater. I think we were the only two females there. We walked to the concert which is one of the cool things about living in Royal Oak. I'm digressing...)

So I looked up books about musicians from Citadel on http://www.kensingonbooks.com/. I found quite a few including books on Led Zepplin and The Boss... and one on James Taylor. His song "Something in the Way She Moves" is one of my favorites. When I worked for a book compositor (Huron Valley Graphics) in Ann Arbor in my 20s there was a guy named Robert who made me a mix tape with all this great music. It had "Something" on it and "Buzzin' Fly" by Tim Buckley. I wore that tape out.

SIMPSONIZED

What a great way to waste away an afternoon--Simpsonizing!

Check out Dylan and Willie.

MANUSCRIPT IS FINISHED!

I finished my manuscipt today. It feels incredible. The last chapter is really good. My lit agent looked at it and had no comments or suggestions. She thought it was perfect.

Now the hard work is over and the fun begins. I can't wait to get my editor's feedback. She has been reading my stuff and giving me suggestions but I haven't seen anything on paper yet. She told me she didn't want me to worry about writing for her--she just wanted me to get the story out.

I really trust and believe in my editor. I believe she will take my writing to a new level.

I feel so relaxed. I am dreaming of Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia. I'll be there soon!

ZAP!

What a great week. We celebrated Willie's 12th birthday at The Zap Zone with a party of 15. (Dylan won a free party there on the first day of summer vacation.) The kids had a ball. My sons have chosen the nicest kids to be friends with and it was a pleasure to see everyone having so much fun.

Dylan completed his gym requirement last week so summer school is officially over and he'll have more free time. (He went to school 4 hours a day.) By taking gym in the summer, he'll have the opportunity to take an extra elective in the fall. He got his course schedule already and he's pysched. He also got his sports physical last week. He's 5'-6" and weighs 114 lbs. He's soooo skinny. He continues to run and work out with the high school soccer team 3 days a week.

I am very close to completing my manuscript for Rock Star Mommy. I have less than 2000 words to go. There is one very special person I want to interview for book before I am finished. I want the book to end on the highest note possible. In the meantime I got a list of my publisher's pre-publication promotion plans that included many exciting ideas.

The Mydols are busy making plans for 2008 too.

And last but not least, we had dinner with Frank and Kim and the adorable Carolina at the famous Lafayette Coney Island. We are honored to be part of the "Carolina does Detroit" photo series featuring the 13-month-old cutey (she a dead ringer for Dora the Explorer) at points of interest throughout the city--not to mention, eat the best Coney dogs in the State of Michigan. Frank shared the story of when we did a presentation to the Mayor of the City of Detroit urging him to save Tiger Stadium and he ordered out for Layfayette Coney. I don't think Dylan and Willie believed him but it took John and I back.

PICKS

Guitar picks are here! Want one? Just ask.

The art is from a poster my son made for a Mydols show.

THE WRITE STUFF

I spoke to Maureen today at the Detroit Zoo and she said she got a lot of calls this week regarding MamapaZOOza from other Zoos. They're all excited about Moms Gone Wild! I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time in Zoos across America next summer. (In 2007, The Mydols, Candy Band, McCabes Ladies and Jo Serrapere all played at the Detroit Zoo.)

I also spoke to the director of a home for adolescent girls today. I willing be starting a Writers Club in the fall for them after school. I can't wait to get started. We'll meet one day a week. Many of the girls at the home are already into journaling. EVERYONE has a story to tell.

I've spoke to Gilda's Club and I am hoping to run a workshop there as well that will also happen this fall.

Kate, my lit agent, sent back Chapter 13 with her comments. I am so lucky to have found her. If I get my chapter back and it has lots of [hee]s, [snort]s, and [HAW!]s I know it's good! I love to make my agent laugh. (She also tells me when a joke falls flat too--but she is kind about it. She'd never say "You suck!" or something like that. She's nice.) The other great thing she does is point out where she thinks the reader needs more information. Sometimes I think I am writing for myself. I have to stop and realize the reader has no idea who Rick Ruiner is. He may be famous to me, but not to someone in Boston.

Well gotta get back to writing. Whaddaya think I do? Sit around and blog all day?

ROCK AND ROLL NEVER FORGETS

My 75% manuscript review is due on July 15, but I've already turned it in. I was hoping to spend this week, while Willie was at camp, completing my100% MS review, which isn't due until September 15. I'm almost there but the week has not been as productive as I had hoped.

For starters I forgot that I promised Ginny I would participate in the Duck Race she organizes. I told her I would paint a decoy for Rock Star Mommy and also paint one for the Founder's Festival. John helped me and we spent an entire day on the two decoys. John's turned out lovely but mine was sort of a mess. It's pink and has a blonde wig and it looks like a tramp. Both ducks are on display in downtown Farmington.

On Monday rather than write, I somehow I managed to waste an entire afternoon looking for airline tickets. I booked my flight to San Francisco where The Mydols will be this Labor Day Weekend. We were each given a $300 stipend to purchase a flight and I was able to find one for $298 on Spirit. But I couldn't stop there. I checked out flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia too, where we are vacationing this summer. In addition to going to all 50 states (we've been to 48) we're going to try and visit all ten Provinces of Canada. We are planning to visit Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island this summer. Somebody stop me! Next I checked into flights to Alaska. You need to book those a year in advance. The only flights they have available right now (using our frequent flyer miles) start in June 2008. I figure once I have the boys' school schedules, I better jump on snatching up our Alaskan flights for next summer.

On Tuesday I got a phone call from the Nashville Zoo inquiring about MamapaZOOza. If everything works out, we'll be having a concert there on Mother's Day 2008 which is great because my sister Kim lives in Nashville and I'll get to spend some time with her. After I got off the phone, I hurried to pick up Dylan from his gym class to meet John, Fred Butters, and his girlfriend Ann at Copper Creek in Southfield. Fred's an attorney and his law firm treated us to a Tiger game and dinner at Comerica Park.

I have to admit, I hate to go to Comerica Park. All it does is make me homesick for Tiger Stadium. John and I shared stories with Fred about seeing Tom Petty, Alice Cooper and even sitting with Toni Tenille at the old stadium. The whole time I watched the game, I was flooded with memories. We were interviewed by Scott Simon for NPR at Tiger Stadium. I was photographed there by Life Magazine photographer Jay Maisel. (He still has my picture on his website.) We ate pecan pie with Ernie Harwell and my teenage heart-throb Mark Fidrych in the owner's box. And I got over 30 baseballs during the games while I sat in my seat. I told Fred the story of being the only person in the stadium Reggie Jackson signed an autograph for during a 4-game series.

Somehow during all my day dreaming I managed to spot Bob Seger at Comerica Park. He was sitting off to the side of our seats. I spent the game watching him. John walked over to his seats to point him out to Fred and Ann. And right after he left Bob got up to get some hot dogs. When he came back, it seemed he couldn't remember where he had been sitting. A bunch of fans got involved and pointed him in the right direction. Maybe rock and roll never forgets but on occasion Bob Seger does.

On the Fourth of July we had a barbeque for my family. Nothing really eventful happened but it was a lovely day all the same.

And that brings me to today. I completed Chapter 13 - The Wheels on the Minivan: Touring Mom Style. And I got a good jump on Chapter 14 which is about competing in Little Steven's Battle of the Bands.