This week, author Elyssa East and I chatted about her book DOGTOWN: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, which was published to great acclaim last year and which has just recently been released in paperback. If you haven’t read Dogtown, I highly recommend it. Dogtown is about a very tragic murder that happened in the early 1990s in a part of Gloucester, MA with a rather dark and haunted reputation that dates back to colonial times. I used to live in nearby Marblehead and had heard about the murder so I was very interested in the book when it was first published and was delighted by Elyssa’s writing style and also by the many facts about that part of Cape Ann, that I had never known.

Elyssa grew up in the southern United States, and during our discussion we talked about her childhood home outside of Atlanta, about how the history of a house or a place really alters the way people feel when they enter it, and what initially drew her to New England.

And we also talked about dogs, believe it or not!   There is a sad true story that involves a dog at the heart of Elyssa’s book, and, of course, it’s about a place called Dogtown. There have been quite a few areas in the United States that have been dubbed “Dogtown” by locals, and they are usually rundown areas that have become overrun by stray dogs. Gloucester’s Dogtown was once a village, but its population dwindled after the Revolutionary War, and only a small group of women – mostly widows and “outsiders,” remained. Some were considered witches because they concocted healing potions from herbs and they had many dogs that lived amongst them, for companionship and protection. Honestly, it sounds like the kind of place I would have loved to have live in at the time, given the alternative. I can see myself and all the other hags whipping up our brew and cackling at the antics of our pups while all the stern-faced goodly Protestant wives broke their backs churning butter and kneading bread all day.

But I’m getting sidetracked.  Why not listen to my chat with Elyssa?  It can be heard here.

My latest IN HOUSE Radio interview has aired and I am very excited to announce that this week, I had the wonderful pleasure of interviewing author Alice Hoffman.  We talked about her new book, The Red Garden and also about her career as a critically acclaimed and very prolific writer.

And, of course, we talked about her house.

I’m a huge fan of Alice’s work and in recent years have come to know her personally as well, and I can’t begin to tell you how much I admire this author.  I’ve just started The Red Garden and I can’t put it down.  It’s a series of related short stories set in New England…well, I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s really a great read.

My goal for this week is to archive all the IN HOUSE interviews so that I may post them in the IN HOUSE Radio section of this blog.

In the meantime, Here’s the interview. Enjoy:

My most recent IN HOUSE Radio interview has aired. Because the theme of the show is creative people and their working environments, many of my interviews have been with writers. This time I talked with somebody who works with readers – Tina Agati, the Executive Director of Literacy Volunteers of Greater Waterbury

I will be involved with a fundraiser for Literacy Volunteers on March 6th, in Woodbury, CT and then, in the spring, I plan to volunteer with the organization. For those of you looking for a volunteer opportunity, this a fabulous one. There is an initial training session and then you meet with your student once a week, so it;s not a huge time commitment. The students are either American-born individuals who don’t read well due to educational limitations or immigrants who want to learn our language. There are chapters of Literacy Volunteers all over the country, so it should be easy to find an organization near you.

I found Tina Agati and her dedication to her work to be very inspirational and I think you will too.

You may listen to our discussion by clicking here:

Edgar Allan Pony and Betsy

Yes, the blog update/makeover has been completed.  It’s a little different than the old format so I thought I’d give you a little tour.

We might as well start here on the main page.  This is just like the old blog, where I will post entries on a regular basis and you may feel free to comment.  There’s kind of a cool new feature in which you may reply to a specific comment made by another and it will appear under their comment.   I don’t know why I find that so thrilling but it feels very Huffington Post to me.  Also, you may click “like” if you actually do like the comment.  It would be nice if you had other options to click like “hate” “just ok” “too braggy”, etc, but I guess that’s what the comments section is for. To the right are the old categories and tags which will help you if you’d like to search for something on the blog and there is also the search bar. Also, please click on my Facebook and Twitter pages and see what’s going on there.  I really don’t know what happens when you “subscribe.” Do any of you do this? Does it notify you when I post a new entry?

Let’s have a look at some of the other pages, shall we?  On the upper right corner of your screen you will see four little boxes.  The first is called “My Books” and it has little reviews and summaries of the books and also, if you feel so inclined, NO PRESSURE, but I believe that you can click on a link and purchase one or both of the books.  Next is the “In House Radio” box. Don’t even open that yet.  Over the next few days I will be posting summaries and links to the interviews I have done on my little NPR show, but they’re not there yet.  Moving right along in a clockwise fashion, we find ourselves at the “My Videos” box, which is really my favorite.  Here you will find all my videos together in one place and you may view them at your leisure.   It’s like a little screening room.  Of animal videos. That are mercifully short. Your smiling host is, of course, our dashing Gomer.

Finally we  arrive at the “Contact/Bio” page.  This bio is rather dated, I know.  But you will find my email address there and some other stuff.

Well, I think that’s it.

Oh, one more thing, I wish all of you peace, love and great joy this holiday and always, my dear blog friends.

Photo by Katie Hylen

My first such profile is of Candace Bushnell’s beloved  Tuco, who died last spring, so this will be more of a eulogy to a great and sadly missed dog.  At the end of the post, please click on the link so that you may hear Candace and I discuss her home and her writing habits in our recent IN HOUSE interview.

The first time I knocked on the door of author Candace Bushnell’s charming Connecticut country house, I expected to be furiously barked at.  Not by Candace, of course, but by the large, elegant dog that I had met once while Candace was out walking him. After knocking again and hearing no sound, I cupped my hands around my eyes, peered into the window and was astonished to find myself gazing directly into the amber-colored eyes of one of the most exotically handsome dogs I have ever seen.   Tuco bore a distinct resemblance to the dogs that once decorated the tombs of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, which made him look like a handsome living relic – very regal and wise. He was standing on his hind legs and peering down his long nose at me with such an attitude of bemused superiority that I hastily straightened my hair and worried that there might be lipstick on my teeth.  Then he quietly slipped from my view and in his place was the best-selling author and creator of Sex and the City, Candace Bushnell.

Candace is in her prime (Tuco was four). She was towel-drying her hair, having just stepped from the shower, and wore no makeup on her flawless skin.  She’s just a natural beauty. Once we were inside the house , during that first visit, Candace’s friendly, effortless hospitality put me at ease and soon we were seated in her living room with Tuco standing quietly between us, his gaze moving from one of us to the other as if he were monitoring our conversation.

Tuco was a tall dog – Ibizan hounds are roughly the same height as greyhounds, and soon after I was seated, he stepped over to my chair and began to delicately sniff my cheek.  I expected him to give me a wet, sloppy dog smooch, but he didn’t. Instead, his nose moved over my face and neck without touching my skin, rather like an electronic metal-detection wand.  He just wanted to get a sense of me and when he was satisfied with a quick cheek and ear scan, he moved to the coffee table and began sorting through my bag with his nose.   I was able to get a good look at him then.  Tuco had a short, rich, burgundy-colored coat, with white markings on his chest and paws.  He, like many sight hounds, was built for speed.  His chest was very deep, his waist narrow and his haunches were thickly muscled and powerful.  His face was long and narrow, like a greyhound’s, but slightly more substantial and his ears were very large and stood up straight, giving him the appearance of somebody who is constantly eavesdropping.  With those ears, he could very well have been eavesdropping on the neighbors half a mile down the road.

Candace and her husband Charles Askegard (a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet) first became interested in Ibizan Hounds when they saw them on a trip to Spain.  In Spain, according to Candace, the dogs are quite common.  “You see them all over the place there,” she told me.  “They’re on the backs of trucks, on farms. They’re regular family dogs.” So impressed was Candace with the breed that when they returned to the United States, she and Charles began researching breeders and they finally found one in Ohio.

While Candace and I were talking, Tuco had his head almost completely submerged in the handbag that I had placed on the coffee table.  Like many dogs, Tuco resembled his owners.  He had the lean, athletic grace of Charles, the dancer, and the curious mind and delightful sense of humor of Candace, the writer.  He had a quiet almost cat-like presence when he moved around the room and that made him an ideal companion for Candace when she was writing.  The winter before he died, he spent most of his days curled up on the sofa while Candace worked on her bestselling new young-adult novel The Carrie Diaries.  The Carrie Diaries is about the adventures of the Sex and the City heroine Carrie Bradshaw while she was still in high school, and Tuco’s positive, quiet energy helped Candace when she was stuck with her writing and needed to take a stroll around the neighborhood to sort things out in her mind.   Tuco has also assisted Candace in the writing of her best-selling novels One Fifth Avenue and Lipstick Jungle.

Ibizan Hounds are still used in Spain to hunt rabbits and when they hunt, they bound through fields and then pounce upon their prey.  Like greyhounds, deerhounds and other sight hounds, they have a disposition that lends itself to timidity if not raised correctly.

“They have a soft ego,” said Candace, who, being an experienced dog owner (she grew up in Connecticut with many dogs and horses), knew to handle him with care while he was young.  “They are easily crushed and need to be trained with sensitivity and positive reinforcement.”

I looked over at Tuco when Candace said this.  He was sitting on the sofa in a patch of sun, his graceful neck curled so that his chin nearly touched his gleaming white chest. His soft, sweet ego, like his mistress’s, seemed wonderfully intact.

Tuco died suddenly and unexpectedly last year. He unfortunately had a congenital heart condition.  Candace and Charles now delight in the company of Pepper, their standard poodle puppy.

Please enjoy my recent interview IN HOUSE interview with Candace,  which may be heard here.

I have recorded a series of interviews for my little NPR show IN HOUSE, and I will be featuring one each day for the next several days.

Today, please enjoy a recent conversation I had with our friend Moses Pendleton about Momix‘s upcoming show, Botanica, at the Warner Theater in Torrington, CT.  The shows are on January 8th and 9th, 2011.  The interview is right here.

If you’d like to see a little preview of the show, click here. Go ahead, have a look, you’ll be glad you did, and then you’ll want to buy tickets to the show, and you may do so by clicking here.  This is such a beautiful show.

Tomorrow’s interview? She’s a best-selling author. Gorgeous, sexy, funny.

That’s all I’ll say.

Okay, blonde.

That’s IT! No more hints.

Yes, that’s right, Katie and Steve live in an old dairy barn. The Hylens recently received an award from the Roxbury Historical Commission for the preservation of this beautiful farm.  When you drive past, it still looks like a lovely old barn. While I had heard that they had done amazing things with the interior,  I had no idea how amazing. Here’s their living room:

An upstairs studio:

A bedroom:

A hallway:

Okay, let’s just stop a moment so we can all catch our breath. Have you ever seen a more magical place?  When I arrived the other night, the interior was almost entirely lit with candles. There were candles on tables, hanging from chandeliers and standing on long wrought-iron candelabras. The entire place smells like a spa!  It’s enormous and yet it couldn’t possibly feel more warm and intimate. Okay, let’s look at the rest of the house.

The kitchen:

A bathroom:

The view from a kitchen window:

From their living room:

I know.  I know.

Katie prepared our meal in their wood burning oven.  She roasted game hens and sweet potatoes in this beautiful kitchen hearth:

Then she threw them on the stove and whipped up the most delicious sauce made from mushrooms and laced with a little cognac:

UNBELIEVABLY DELICIOUS!

Here we all are. Yes, it was girls only. So much fun:

It is just the most beautiful, magical place.  Katie and Steve Hylen are both photographers and they use the massive upstairs loft as a studio. They also lease out the indoor studio space to other artists, photographers, dance companies, etc.

Last year, Steve Hylen won an Academy Award for innovative technical achievement. He invented an optical device for high-end Digital and Motion picture cameras.  The lens is used in many films and commercials.

Which is sort of cool.

But here’s the coolest thing in my mind about the Hylens.  THEIR HORSE LIVES IN THEIR HOUSE/BARN WITH THEM!  That’s right, Katie’s sweet horse Cruiser has an immaculate stall in the far end of the former dairy barn.  It’s in an unheated area (heat isn’t healthy for horses) where they keep their car and other equipment.  Katie can visit her horse in her socks and jammies every night before she goes to bed.  My dream!

Katie took some photos for my new blog, which should be up by early next week.  I’ll also be interviewing Katie and Steve in an upcoming IN HOUSE Radio interview, but if you have any questions for Katie about their fabulous home in the meantime, you can post them here and I’m sure she’ll be happy to answer them.

Early Friday morning I went off on an ambulance call that sounded serious but fortunately was not. Still, I learned things.  At this point, as a novice EMT, I learn a great deal on every call. Mostly I learn how little I know and how much I have yet to learn. I’m so grateful to our wonderful and dedicated crew who always take the time to teach me and are very patient with my lack of mental retention ability, ADD, hyperactivity,  etc.

Our new EMS truck has just been outfitted and it’s a little pleased with itself.  I keep seeing it posing around town.  Here it is in front of the park named for the family of one of our EMS chiefs who was in charge of having it equipped with the very best emergency response equipment:

Photo by Bernie Meehan.

The truck will be used for various emergency operations. Mainly it will be used to tow our rehab trailer which responds to fires in our area.   EMTs provide rehab care,  not just to the victims of structural fires, but also to the firefighters who can quickly become exhausted and sometimes are injured while performing their duties.  I believe the new truck made its maiden call to a fire on Friday afternoon.  I wasn’t there because I was in another part of the state, taping the most recent IN HOUSE radio show.

After a rather long hiatus, and a few interviews here and there, my NPR radio show IN HOUSE is up and running again. It will air every other Saturday on WHDD-FM Robinhood Radio.  But I will also post it here where you may listen to it any time.

This week I interviewed my friend Marcia DeSanctis, a writer/journalist who wrote a great piece in last month’s Vogue about Ophelia Dahl (daughter of author Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal).  Marcia and I discussed her recent trip to Haiti to interview Dahl about her work as one of the leaders of the organization Partners in Health.  If you would like to hear the interview you may.  But just turn down the volume for my introduction.  For some reason I feel compelled to shout the words, “I’M ANN LEARY, WELCOME TO IN HOUSE” at the beginning of each show.  But if you can make it through that first two seconds you can relax because then I start using my inside voice.

The interview is here.

Yesterday I was up with the dawn and racing off to get my little horse Mark ready for another hunter pace. This pace was in the Quaker Hill section of Pawling, NY, on and around the beautiful Akindale Farm, home of Akindale Horse Rescue where our very own KC works doing thoroughbred rescue and rehabilitation training.  She had Zeus and Siggy with her –  two thoroughbreds that she rescued from kill pens. They were once on their way to the slaughterhouse and now, thanks to KC, they are on their way to promising careers as eventing horses.  Yesterday, they looked magnificent.  And who was KC’s pace partner?  Our own Arliss, that’s who!

Here we are before the pace.  I’m on the little grey with the erect mane. His eyes are closed in prayer. He doesn’t have a lot of faith in his rider and is a little apprehensive when we start off on any ride. My friend Jen is on the other grey, then KC and Arliss:

The pace was organized by the Oblong Trail Association. It was a lovely pace, great weather, beautiful country and many teams turned out to support this wonderful organization.  Jen and I placed fourth in the hunt division!

A few days later I received a follow-up email announcing the format of the evening, which was now being described as some sort of “show.” A soundcheck was involved.  I studied the email carefully and then I Googled the other people who were participating and I realized that I was going to be on stage with a bunch of comedians.

I will not be reading something terribly witty in an otherwise dreary lineup of dull authors.

I will be the dull author appearing in a show. With comedians.

This whole thing reminds me of the time I was asked to audition for a television show that was described to me as “kind of like The View, but edgier.”  This was soon after my first book came out and the producers of this show had seen me on TV plugging my book and they thought I had “presence,” so they wanted me to audition (now, thinking back, I’m wondering if maybe they had meant “presents” and I misunderstood). My kids were still rather young then and we lived up here in Connecticut, so the idea of being on a daily television show seemed ridiculous and impossible, but I realized I’d never actually get the show, so I decided to audition just for the fun of it.  I thought that perhaps it would make for a funny story to tell people.

The audition was set for the following Monday and I spent the entire weekend thinking about the show.  The View, but edgier, I thought.  All weekend. Over and over again.

Yes,  I’m just like the women on The View, only I’m edgier!  No wonder they want me on this show! And it probably tapes in the late morning.  I can drop the kids off at school and then drive in … wait, what am I thinking, I’ll be the co-host of a television show, they’ll send a driver for me…blah, blah, blah.

By the time Monday rolled around,  I had somehow worked it out in my mind that I was already the star of this edgier The View.  And though they hadn’t officially told me that it was going to be called  The Ann Leary Show, that’s what I called it now.  I was just curious as to who they were going to pick to be my costars.

I had made an appointment to have my hair blown out out early on the morning of the audition. It was at my favorite hair salon in Manhattan and Paul, my hairdresser, asked me what I was doing that day. When I told him about my exciting new television show, he said that I was the third woman that morning whose hair he had done FOR THE EXACT SAME AUDITION. It wasn’t even 8:00 in the morning yet.  Weird that the other women auditioning for my show had all had their hair done by Paul.

When I got to the midtown suite where the auditions were being held, I came to understand that I was part of what is known as a “cattle-call.”   Remember the scene in Gone With The Wind, where Scarlett is walking through Atlanta and the camera pulls back to reveal that she is walking amidst thousands and thousands of wounded soldiers? Well, I was exactly like Scarlett when I walked into that vast midtown ballroom/holding-pen, only instead of finding myself surrounded by filthy, wounded confederate soldiers, I was surrounded by beautiful, smiling models and actresses.

We were called in to audition in groups of four and when my group was called, we entered a room that was set-up as a makeshift studio.  The producers wanted the four of us to sit around a table and they videotaped us as we discussed a topic that they provided. They wanted us to “banter” about the topic.  I don’t recall what the topic was, but the other three women were models.  I no longer entertained any delusion that I would be chosen for the show from amongst this minion of beauties, so I just started bantering and I was sort of cracking myself up. The three models joined in and they were cracking me up.  I remember wondering who had told them each that opening your eyes wide and flipping back your hair makes words funnier.  They were all doing that.  It was fun, the producers thanked us, and on my way out, one of them ran over and asked me if they had the correct contact information for me.  When I arrived home, they had left a message asking me to return for a “call-back” the next day.

Well, now I started telling all my friends and family about my new television show.  I repealed my decision that raising my children was more important than pursuing my own career.  That silly decision had been made when I had no career! Now I was being asked to star in a very edgy show that would make mincemeat out of the very bland show that people used to watch. The old View.

The next day I sauntered into the ballroom/holding-pen with a newfound confidence, but the minute I sized up the rather small group, I stopped dead in my tracks.  These women weren’t traditional beauties.  They didn’t wear fashionable clothes.  Several were very overweight, one had a voice that was so high-pitched I thought my ears might bleed, and though none of them smiled or laughed,  the short snippets of conversation I was able to pick up were riotously funny.  These women just sat there blithely delivering deadpan observations to one another and frowning.  Yes, you guessed it  - all the other women who had been called back were comedians.  I recognized a few of them from when Denis worked in clubs. Others I recognized from their appearances on Letterman.  Unfortunately, a few of them actually recognized me.

“Hey, aren’t you Denis Leary’s wife?  Didn’t we meet at Caroline’s once?”

“Yes,” I whispered, staring at my feet.

“Oh cool, what are you doing here?”

I think you know the end of the story.  We were called into the studio in groups of four again, only this time I sat there wearing the most painful, insipid grin while the other three tossed hysterical one-liners this way and that and all the producers screamed with laughter.  A some point I blurted out something that was supposed to be witty and the screaming laughter petered out to a few polite titters and then one of the comics made fun of what I said and everybody was screaming with laughter again.  I recall raising my eyebrows maniacally and flipping my hair back a few times in desperation, but when I left, nobody rushed over to check on my contact information and…nobody wanted me on the new, edgier The View.

It was only slightly gratifying that the new edgy show never aired.

So why am I telling this long-winded story now?  Because I am hoping that some of you who live in the greater New York area might come to the show I’m going to be in on Monday, October 4th, and laugh REALLY HARD at the stuff I read.  PLEASE?  It’s bound to be a fun night, given the actually funny people who are participating.  And then I’ll get to see some of you that I already know and meet those of you that I don’t.

Here’s the information.  It’s Monday, October 4th. Hope you can come.

_____________________________________________________________________________

The New Jack Paar Show is back!

Because of predicted storms, Roxbury’s annual Pickin’& Fiddlin’ Contest has been postposed until tomorrow. So everybody who was planning to compete can lay down your bows, head indoors and rest your phalanges for a spell. Oh, sorry, phalanges is what we almost medical personnel call fingers. Yes, I passed my EMT class final exam and now only have to pass the state and national certification tests (only). Anyway, try to make it tomorrow. Bring a blanket, a picnic, some refreshing beverages and enjoy wonderful acts like this:

In the meantime, my NPR radio interview with author Wendy Burden is now on iTunes. You can go there and search “Ann Leary WHDD”  and download the podcast for free.  Or just click here to listen.