November, 2011 | Ann Leary, author of The Good House

Our Resident Bad Boy

November 29, 2011 by Ann Leary 61 Comments

A Dog About Town

I’ve been having dog problems. Gomer, the Leonberger, has been leading our girls astray. He’s turned our sweet Holly and Daphne into common street walkers. Yesterday, they were found on a busy road near our house and thankfully, were returned by a friend. The day before that, it was a state trooper who brought them home, dirty and panting, Daphne wriggling and grinning horribly in shame, Holly’s eyes bright with wonder at all the things she had seen out on the streets. Gomer swaggered coolly away from the trooper’s car as if it was all a big joke.

Filed Under: Dogs, Cats, Horses

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011 by Ann Leary 57 Comments

Recycled 2010 Thanksgiving Photo

Happy Thanksgiving to all my beloved blog readers. I just read some of your comments on the last post and was so moved by your kind words. Maureen posted: “I recall posting here last Thanksgiving, directed at Gloria, and saying that I hoped that this year at Thanksgiving, we would all still be here, reading Ann’s blog, and would be able to say that we are all thankful that Gloria had successfully beaten the big C…Gloria, how are you doing?”

Filed Under: Dogs, Cats, Horses, Very Important Stuff

SEMINAR with Alan Rickman

November 21, 2011 by Ann Leary 46 Comments

Last night, Denis and I attended the opening night of Seminar, Broadway’s newest play, starring the amazing Alan Rickman. We both loved, I mean we really, really LOVED this play.

It’s a comedy about a fiction writing seminar taught by Alan Rickman, and if you have ever been in a writing workshop or seminar or have been in any situation where you must reveal something you have created for the scrutiny of others, you’ll be laughing one moment and squirming in agony the next, while watching this play. Rickman is fabulous as the ruthless/borderline sadistic writing teacher who, after glancing at the first sentence, trashes a story that a young woman (Lily Rabe) has worked on for years. Other members of the workshop are played by Jerry O’Connell and Hamish Linklater.

Filed Under: Husband, Literary stuff, Red Carpet Diaries

An Evening of Literary Delights

November 15, 2011 by Ann Leary 14 Comments

Last night, Denis and I attended the Ploughshares 40th anniversary celebration at Emerson College’s Paramount Theater. What a GREAT night – Boston luminaries reading works that were originally published in this great Boston literary journal.

Alice Hoffman

Sue Miller

Denis was the host of the evening. Boston Bruins legend Cam Neely read a poem by Seamus Heany (and Cam was honestly one of my favorite readers of the night, really, really great). Alice Hoffman read Grace Paley, Sue Miller read Alice Munro, Wally Lamb read an excerpt from one of my very favorite short stories, Raymond Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing.” Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island, etc) gave a very moving tribute to Robert Parker, famous for the Boston-based “Spenser For Hire” series and Andre Dubus III, author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Townie, read an excerpt from a piece written by his father. All in all, a great evening.

Filed Under: Husband, Literary stuff

A Phantom Post

November 7, 2011 by Ann Leary 22 Comments

Here is a post that I wrote Saturday morning BUT THEN NEVER HIT THE PUBLISH BUTTON. That’s just the way these past weeks have been going. It was just as well, because instead of being able to hang with Julie at the Hickory Stick Bookshop, I ended up relieving some exhausted volunteers at the Washington Town Hall, which had become a temporary shelter for people in town who still lacked power. I was only able to run across the street to the bookstore for a quick hello and to snatch up a few copies of Love at First Bark, before they were sold out. Anyway, here’s the phantom post that was meant to appear on Saturday morning:

Filed Under: Baseline Vitals (EMT stuff), Dogs, Cats, Horses, Literary stuff