Claire Bidwell Smith

Good morning from New York!

I’m writing this from my chic little hotel room in Soho, where I arrived blearily last night. I’m due in the Penguin offices in an hour and am catching up online for now. News on the television in the corner, a cacophony of buildings and bright sunshine outside my window. Being here is surreal, to say the least.

It was hard to say goodbye to Greg & Vera yesterday, hard to know that I would be so far away from them all week. My life feels so heightened right now and they are truly my anchors. I slept fitfully last night, tossing and turning, waking up wondering where I was, falling back asleep to the kicks of the baby in my belly. Life just keep swirling forward.

This week I’m featured on Brad Listi’s OtherPeople podcast and I am so thrilled to share it with you. I had an absolute blast recording it with Brad a few weeks ago and I listened to the whole thing on the plane again yesterday and couldn’t believe how well it turned out. Brad is a fantastic interviewer and he asked me so many interesting questions that led to a fascinating conversation about life and death and grief and the afterlife, but not at all in a depressing way. Rather the podcast is funny and uplifting and really quite thought-provoking. I also talk a lot about my book and the process of writing it.

Play it right now!

A couple of other links:

Here’s a really lovely review of RULES in BookReporter.

Here’s a write-up in Daily Candy.

Here’s another review in BlogCritics.

I am just LOVING all your notes and images as you read the book. Please keep them coming!

And wish me luck in the recording studio today!