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Seeing Stars, Part II: NYRP Picnic

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Last week I attended the New York Restoration Project’s eighth annual spring picnic as the guest of Lady Jane Salon co-founder Maya Rodale.

Founded in 1995 by actress-songstress and all ’round uber talent, Bette Midler, NYRP carries out the Divine Miss M’s vision of a cleaner, more beautiful New York for all residents regardless of zipcode. The organization “restores, develops, and revitalizes underserved parks, community gardens, and other open spaces in New York City.”

As a city resident, Ms. Midler, I heart you! 

Held at beautiful Fort Tryon Park, a NYRP recipient, the evening rolled out with cocktails and marvelous munchies at the New Leaf Restaurant. Afterward, guests retired to the dining tent where we were treated to a delicious barbecue dinner by BLUE SMOKE. Emcee Judy Gold had us rolling in the aisles, which given the quantity of barbeque I put away was pretty painful.

Throughout the night, trees were adopted, jokes cracked, and yes, songs sung. Living legend Tony Bennett favored us with a classic song, and Ms. Midler ended by leading us in a sing-a-long that included her unique version of “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Other celebrity attendees included Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Nina and Tim Zagat, Cynthia and Dan Lufkin and O Magazine editor-at-large and Oprah’s BFF, Gayle King (See photo op).

Pardon my "dear in the headlighhts" look. Hope cozies up to the camera with Oprah BFF, Gayle King. Photo courtesy of Narda Ducheine.
Pardon my deer in the headlights look. Hope and Oprah BFF, Gayle King, cozy up to the camera. Photo courtesy of Narda Ducheine.

The Divine Miss M definitely put the “fun” back in fundraiser. To heck with rushing home to tune into American Idol and learn the fate of Adam Lambert. Though the evening ended at 9:00, I could have danced all night.

 But the celebs needed their beauty sleep and well, it was a “school” night.

To learn more about the NYRP and opportunities for volunteering, visit the organization’s web site at www.nyrp.org.

Divinely Yours,

Hope

And the Winner Is…

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Congratulations to my mid-May contest winner, Linda C of North Bay, Ontario. Linda, props to you for playing and your prize: a signed copy of Vanquished, the launch to my Men of Roxbury House trilogy, and Strokes of Midnight is, as they say, “in the mail.” 

Didn’t win this time? Stick around and enter again. The final of four winners, in July, will win four books, two for themselves, and two to be donated in their name to Share-The-Love.org — because everyone needs a little love.

Hope

Facebook Frolics and Spam Snafus

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I was chatting with a friend the other day, who asked me if I happened to know how to delete a Facebook post. “Sure,” I answered without hesitating and went on to tell her how.

Afterward, the “wow” factor hit me like a wave! I really do know how to delete FB posts as well as do lots o’ other super cool “techie” stuffs that today’s typical teenager (or toddler, even) takes for granted. Like uploading photos. And linking to videos. And attaching “thumbnails” of my blog to my FB “status reports.” For someone whose fingers were once stained with the purplish blue ink of carbon paper, I have more than awakened to smell the cyber cafe coffee.

I have, dare I say, arrived.

It’s been a long, strange trip from those Dark Ages days of Ye Ole Smith Carona typewriter, mimeograph machines, and the personal fax (facsimile) machine as a coveted luxury item. And so I beseech you: be gentle with me.

To those of my Facebook friends who have sent me Super Pokes, invitations to Slide Space Fun, or who have otherwise offered to share videos with me and rake my um…”sea” garden, please know I appreciate the props. If you’re wondering why I haven’t responded, I could point out that there are but twenty-four hours in a day. Truthfully, I don’t technically know what those things are, though they do sound vaguely, deliciously dirty.

Likewise, I find the preponderance of spam emails promising that “women will be amazed when you drop your pants” somewhere between vaguely unsettling and moribundly mortifying. Thank goodness my high school locker room days are long behind me.

I’d say more on the subject and perhaps I will–right after I log on to Facebook and check my “wall.”

Happy Memorial Day,

Hope

PS Mid-May contest winner announcement forthcoming, so please check back post-holiday.

Seeing Stars…

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Yesterday’s Matthew Modine sighting turned out to be but the kick-off to a plethora of Real Live Celebrity sightings. (And the RL’s are ever so much perkier than the alternative). 😉

Thanks to Regency historical author, and Lady Jane Salon co-founder, Maya Rodale who asked me along as her guest, I attended the twenty-fifth anniversary of “A Gala Evening of Readings” hosted by Literacy Partners. For the past thirty-five years, Literacy Partners has provided “hope and opportunity for adults who cannot read” in the form of free adult and family literacy programs reaching more than 25,000 disadvantaged New Yorkers.

Held in the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the evening was “gala” indeed, the guest list studded with stars, the plaza outside a veritable red carpet Who’s Who of Manhattan socialites and celebrities from the news media and literary worlds, all decked out in designer duds. Note: We didn’t look any too shabby ourselves but since shutter-bugging didn’t seem to be quite the thing, you’ll have to take my word for it).

At the pre-program cocktail reception, Yours Truly, along with Maya and our mutual friend, Scandalous Woman Elizabeth Kerri Mahon jostled for vino and noshes with celebrity attendees including Martha Stewart (she sat two rows behind us in the auditorium later), Tommy Tune (“Jenny, Jenny…”), Barbara Taylor Bradford, Barbara Walters, and Barbara Goldsmith to name but a few. (And yes, that’s a lot of Bab’s).

The main event featured readings by Barbara Walters (who read the prologue from her recent memoir), Marie Brenner (author and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair), Christopher Buckley (son of the late William F), and David Wroblewski (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle).

Sarah Lindsey, Rob of Romantic Times BOOKREviews, and Hope share the love at the May Lady Jane's.
Sarah Lindsey, Rob of Romantic Times BOOKReviews, and Hope share the love at the April Lady Jane's. Photo courtesy of Rob, RT Mag.

In like support of literacy and general feel-goodness, I hope anyone in the New York area, or in town for Book Expo America will join us for the June 1st Lady Jane’s Salon. We’ve just added a fourth fab author to our line up. Talented historical author, Diane Gaston will join Amanda McCabe in reading from their anthology, The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor, May ’09, a featured book for Harlequin’s Diamond Anniversary.

Diane Gaston. Photo courtesy of www.dianegaston.com.
Diane Gaston. Photo courtesy of www.dianegaston.com.

As always, the proceeds support Maya’s charity, Share the Love, which reaches out to groups serving women-in-transition as they work to build hopeful, independent lives.

Hope

Live from New York–Real Live Celeb Sighting

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Okay, I just all but brushed shoulders with Matthew Modine (“And the Band Played On,” “Gross Anatomy”), one of my all-time favorite actors, and I’m just un-cool enough to hop online and report it.

I say “all but” because at six feet four he stood head and shoulders above me. I was dashing out to pick up my morning cuppa–okay, more like my afternoon cuppa but well, I am a writer–when I saw two men walking up Broadway toward me. The one was tall, good looking (make, that hot or better yet, sizzling), and wearing this uber cool turquoise tapestry vest over a white cotton tee, a look that seemed a lot more California than New York. The other guy was…well, don’t ask me. I’m sure he had a great personality.

And then I realized just who He was.

Like two ships sailing past one another in the night, Matthew and I brushed by. He never broke his stride or his conversational train-of-thought. I, on the other hand, was likely bug-eyed and slack-jawed, in the throes of a full-on Fan Girl Moment. But props to me, at least I was cool enough not to invade his personal space. I mean, it is Manhattan, not LA.

And Manhattan is well, pretty great. We city dwellers may live in apartments the size of the average workplace cubicle, but really, when the city is your oyster (shell), how much personal space do you need? Every time you walk out your building, there’s this amazing, butterflies-in-stomach feeling that something wonderful, magical, may just be around the next corner. It’s sort of like living if not in a fairytale then certainly a romance novel. You may have to slug through sidewalks stacked with garbage and wait in line with your fellow 1.2 million “neighbors” for just about everything but somehow that’s okay because you know, just know, there’s going to be something positive, something wonderful waiting at the end of it all, so long as you remember to believe.

Happy Monday,

Hope

Pining for Paris…

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Okay, the past s-i-x plus days of straight rain aside, springtime in New York is well, pretty great. Still, the grass is always greener, especially once you put the manuscript deadline to bed and pull the vacation pictures out.

This March, author buddy Liz Maverick and I decamped from a blizzard-stricken New York for Paris. Liz was the perfect traveling companion and Paris was…Well, let’s just say that if you like romance and beauty, amazing food and yes, the chance to consume copious quantities of wine and butter with giddy, unrepentant abandon, then Paris is definitely the place for you.

Let them eat cake--or better yet chocolate cake gilded with gold! Mariage Freres, Rive Gauche, Paris.
With French friend and impromptu guide, Bernadette, near the Louvre.
With French friend and impromptu guide, Bernadette, near the Louvre.

Highlights: taking tea at Mariage Freres, Paris’s oldest and most respected tea house and emporium, taking the ritual ham-man bath at the Mosque of Paris (you can ask but we won’t tell!), and indulging in Sunday afternoon champagne and caviar-level conversation with our delightful flat neighbor, Bernadette.

Friends and strangers alike can view the full album, which I’m adding to “as we speak,” on FaceBook.

A la prochaine,

Hope

With Liz Maverick on the (many) steps of Sacre Coeur, Montmartre.
With Liz Maverick on the (many) steps of Sacre Coeur, Montmartre.

PS Leaving Paris was hard, but we more than made up for it with another wonderful week–in London–where we met up with Scandalous Woman, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. Sadly we have not a single photo!

PPS: Photos courtesy of Liz Maverick. Thanks, Liz!

Lady Jane’s May ’09 Wrap-Up

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Thanks to all who braved the rain on Monday to turn out for Lady Jane’s Salon, including the authors of Operation L.O.V.E. and Romantic Times BOOKReviews Web Manager, Rob; the latter favored us with a song.

The authors of Operation L.O.V.E.:Tara Nina, Anne Elizabeth, & C.H. Admirand. Photo courtesy of www.ladyjanesalon.com.

On tap for the Monday, June 1st salon are bestselling authors Marjorie Liu, Wendy Corsi Staub and historical author extraordinnaire, Amanda McCabe. Again, the venue is Soho’s uber cool Madame X. The time is 7-9 though we may go a bit later to accommodate all the goodness.

Lady Jane’s Salon, Monday, May 4th

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If you live in or near the Big Apple, or plan to be in town for Book Expo America, I hope you’ll join Maya Rodale, Leanna Renee Hieber, Ron Hogan, and Yours Truly as we host a very special Lady Jane’s Salon. Local NYC author J.S. Hawley will be reading, along with the authors of Operation L.O.VE.: Anne Elizabeth, Tara Nina, and C.H. Admirand.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each copy of OPERATION: L.O.V.E.-the Special Ops Anthology of Sweet Romance is donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides full scholarship grants and educational and family counseling to the surviving children of special operations people who die in operational or training missions and immediate financial assistance to severely wounded special operations people and their families. The book debuts the new military anthology line for Highland Press.

As always, admission is five dollars or a gently-used romance novel to benefit Share The Love. This month only we will be splitting the proceeds with Operation L.O.V.E.

WHEN: Monday, May 4th. 7:00-9:00 pm. 

WHERE: Madame X, 94 Houston Street (btw LaGuardia and Thompson Streets), New York, NY 10012, 212.539.0808, www.madamex.com. Nearest subways: F,V,B,D at Lafayette, N, R at Prince Street.

Congratulations Contest Winner!

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Congratulations to my mid-April contest winner, Amira H of Humboldt, Nebraska. Amira’s prize package, a signed copy of Strokes of Midnight, my contemporary Harlequin Blaze and Vanquished,the launch to my historical “Men of Roxbury House” miniseries, is en en route to her “as we speak.”

Daisy Jane settles in with a good Hope Tarr book. Photo courtesy of Her Person, Rebecca G.
Daisy Jane settles in with a good Hope Tarr book--better yet, two! Photos courtesy of Her Person, Rachael G.

Here at hopetarr.com we pride ourselves on promoting compassion for all creatures great and small. “Animal-friendliness” is a big part of the brand for my books. I’m happy to report the critters are reciprocating in kind! Please savor these photos of Daisy Jane, the four-legged companion of my mid-March contest winner, Rachael G of Cairo, MO. Check out Rachael’s blog for more photos as well the dish on her latest reads.

Didn’t win this time ’round? Dinna fash as my Scottish historical hero, Ewan Fraser of Bound to Please would say. I’m offering the same great prizes through June, so if you didn’t win, there’s still time to head over to my Contest page and try your luck again. Someone’s gotta win. It might as well be…You.

Hope