February 10, 2008 – There are fringe benefits to being married to a Columbia University prof and former Washington Post reporter, and one of them is that you get to have the manuscript of your next book read over and edited (and edited!) before it goes to Random House. Here, Poor Paula is slaving away in our New Jersey apartment on the final draft of my next book “Izzy and Lenore, Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey and Me,” out in October. I believe this is the first ever, exclusive photograph of Paula tearing apart my work, and her students know all too well what that is like. I am lucky. The book talks about Izzy and our hospice work, Lenore’s impact on my life, and some other dramas that occurred in and around the farm. My picture is on the cover for the first time. Now I know what Peter Hanks feels like.
   I have to say, after this winter, it was nice to be there for a couple of days. We edited, walked, saw “The Bell and the Butterfly” a great movie, went to a Thai place one night, Italian the next. These are things the farm can’t offer and it was nice to not be navigating snow and ice. Lenore was stellar, but more about that later. Lenore is the cover girl of this book, (see below.)

Cover, “Izzy and Lenore, Two Dogs, An Unexpected Journey, and Me.”