Fairy Dust Update

My writer friend Laurie, who lives near the East Side Alice's Teacup in Manhattan, says that she took one writer friend there to get fairy dust sprinkled on her and the friend sold her first book the next day; Laurie got fairy dust sprinkled on her and sold a book series the next day.

So I had high hopes.

I met Laurie at the West Side Alice's Teacup at 73rd Street and Columbus, and another writer named Lucy joined us. We each ordered a scone and shared all three: pumpkin, strawberry chocolate, and lemon blueberry (lemon blueberry was the best). Lucy asked Laurie if the fairy dust was a material substance or just imaginary. Laurie made the mistake of saying in a low voice, "It's glitter." I glared at her, and then she quickly corrected herself: "Fairies come in at night and scatter the fairy dust and then the staff sweeps it up and puts it in a little bowl."

I had the fairy dust sprinkled on me. Six hours later I checked my email, and How Oliver Olson Changed the World had just had book club rights sold to Scholastic, which hasn't happened to one of my books for ages. Coincidence? I think not.

Laurie said that even though she lives so close to Alice's Teacup she is careful not to abuse the fairy dust and have it sprinkled on her too often or too greedily. I think that is a good advice. It's powerful stuff, after all, and needs to be treated with respect and appropriate caution. It can lead to wonderful things, when used just right.