Justine and I spent the evening of July fourth on the Moon Dance, a thirty-foot sailboat co-owned by our splendiferous publisher, Eloise Flood of Razorbill. We sailed down the Hudson from 79th, catching great city views as the sun went down, then watched the fireworks, drank beer, and grilled various things.
On the sailing end of things, Justine and I were pretty crap. As the NY Times said today, “There are few things more useless on a river than a novelist.” But I did do a bit of winching, which was well received by all.
I was going to photoblog the affair, but forgot to bring the camera. Fortunately, the Times has come to my rescue by running a photo taken from exactly our spot beside the Intrepid, looking across Manhattan toward the East River. (We also had an uninterrupted view down toward the Liberty Island explosions.)
Vincent Laforet/The New York Times
Needless to say, it was loads of fun and a great way to witness a familiar ritual from a new perspective.
On the way back uptown, we were attacked by the wakes of giant, millionaire-driven powerboats, which taught me three things:
1) 30-foot sailboats can roll over 45 degrees and still pop back up;
2) non-skid surfaces save lives;
3) millionaire powerboat owners are generally ass-hats.
But surviving made for a great workout. Thanks to Eloise, Ben, Brandi, and Andrew for a cracking good time.
Cha. Sounds like fun. Me being the “Uglies” fanatic that I am, I must say that the Fireworks in New Pretty town on the Fourth were quite lovely……OH! I JUST CAME UP WITH A REALLY GOOD IDEA!!!!!!!!! You should make an “Uglies” fan page, with message boards and such! OH! and a GAME! Like a ‘design your pretty face” kinda thing. See? I’m secretly a genious. I should be made mayor. lol.
You could do the same kinda thing with the other books too.
Yeah, anyone reading Uglies can tell I’m a big sucker for fireworks. You can pretty much count me out of any utopia that doesn’t feature them nightly.
As for discussion boards, I’ll look into it. I’m not sure if there are enough rabid fans to warrant anything like that yet. (Nothing’s sadder than a dusty old disused discussion boards.) But all should feel free to post your off-topic comments here.
Off Topic isn’t my middle name. But it should be.
You must like eyes too, because most of your covers have eyes on them. (midnighters,uglies,[soon pretties])
and peeps.
I have a feeling that “Uglies” is gonna be the next cult book. And I did notice the eye thing too. But it’s probably just a coincidence.
eyes are sexy, why not put them on bookcovers?
The whole “window to the soul” thing.
Very true. Eyes are very revealing. And, as Onyx said, tré sexy.
Woohoo! You know, i love this picture. It’s totally the way i imagined New Pretty Town.. minus the “Big Apple Buildings” such as the Empire State Building, for instance.