Mr. Right-Enough Goes to Canada

My book is winging its way to Canada with my new friends, Penny Steele (L) and Judy Kiffman (R).
Lovely ladies who were on their way to Nordstrom Rack.
Girls, I hope you found some great clothes and I hope you enjoy my book!

More New Friends!

Here I am with more new friends whom I met on Michigan Avenue last week. They are (left to right): Connie Mundo from Las Vegas, Sharon Alfirevec from Homer Glen, me (the street walker) and Frances Arvia from Orland Park. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Joanne Foster, also from Homer Glen, but someone had to take the picture!
One copy of my book went to Las Vegas with Sharon and the other three ladies promised to pass the other copy amongst themselves and then on to other friends.

Women are so amazing, aren't they? These complete strangers were just lovely; very supportive and encouraging about what I'm doing. It never ceases to amaze me how kind women are to each other and how eager to help.
Thank you all so much. I hope you enjoy it!

You're invited...!

If you're in the Chicago area (or headed this way) you're invited to the book launch/signing party for my novel

Mr. Right-Enough
on October 7, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.
at Flourish Studios, 3020 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.

Please join us, it'll be lots of fun - wine, cheese, reading, conversation...and my good friend and speaker-extraordinaire Mikki Williams will be doing the introduction!
It's a free event and open to the public - just R.S.V.P. so we know how many to plan for:
REGISTER HERE or send me an email: samanthahoffman@aol.com
Hope to see you there!

Now I'm a Street Walker!

I decided to go out on Michigan Ave. last week and give away a few copies of my book. My idea was to find some tourists, so it would travel across the country, just to get people reading it and hopefully talking about it. So I put a sticker on the books that said "Free Copy...all you have to do is promise to pass this along to someone else after you've read it," and then I went over to the Hancock and looked for a victim. I saw a man and woman walking on the plaza. He was on the phone, she was a little behind him. So I approached her and asked if they were from Chicago. Turns out they're from Houston. Perfect. So I told her I wrote this book and I don't have a big publisher behind me and so I'm promoting it myself and I'd give her a signed copy if she would promise to give it to someone else when she was finished.
Well, we had the loveliest conversation - they were the nicest people. I'm sorry to say I didn't get her husband's name but her name is Janet Farr and she has a company that's involved with environmentally-friendly building products.
Janet, I hope you enjoy my book, and tell all your friends! Great meeting you both!

It's a Small World!

Friends of mine went into Starbucks the other day and saw a woman sitting at a table drinking her coffee, reading a book. The book looked familiar so Tracy went up and asked if she could see what she was reading, and guess what it was? MY BOOK!!! The only thing that would make this story more exciting is if I was the one who saw a complete stranger reading my book.
Maybe I should start hanging out at Starbucks!

Teleseminar/Book Reading

If you missed my online book reading on Monday, September 20th you can listen to the recording.
I read a brief section from my new novel Mr. Right-Enough and then answered some questions about the writing process. CLICK HERE to listen.

Every Business Cliche in the Book

I love the radio ad from The Private Bank. It's a 60-second spot that spoofs big banks' (and business in general) tendency to speak in business cliches, and it's spot-on. Here's the text of it:

"Let’s touch base to arrange a little face time so we can appear fully engaged. Let’s be proactive, synergistic and leverage this thing. Better yet, let’s circle back and do a deep dive so we can empower a paradigm shift with a value added, team building, best of breed, Six Sigma, perfect storm that could go viral. And be scalable! It can be a loss leader, but let’s focus on the low hanging fruit. Also, look for change agents that generate robust ideation. Make sure the concept has legs and allows our stakeholders to focus on our core competencies with seamless integration. As for the action items and next steps? Well, we’re going to be proactive and bench mark the bottom line. That’s the bottom line-- in all candor. So that at the end of the day, we’re on plan, even if we’re off plan. We’ll have to manage up. Manage down. And manage expectations. Net-net: It’s a win-win. Got it? OK? Fantastic."

And here are some new ones I've heard lately:
Silo’d
Thought-leader
Touch points
Verticals
Nimble
Footprint
Do you have any more?

The Dukes of September

Okay, I don't know where they came up with the goofy name but we saw them last night at the Chicago Theatre - Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen and Boz Skaggs - and I don't use this word as lightly as most people these days, but they were awesome.
Michael McDonald's voice is as good as ever and when the three came out on stage he got the biggest applause but when Boz Skaggs sang Lowdown the audience went crazy.
Donald Fagen's hands on the keyboard were amazing to watch, and how can you not love it when he sang Aja? He sounds great altho his voice hasn't held up as well as the other two. But hell, who cares?
It was the greatest show. They did other people's music and showcased two or three of each of their own. The oddest moment of the evening was when they did the Beach Boys' Help Me Rhonda but their energy and passion was evident throughout the show and I was completely enthralled. If they were playing again today I'd go right back there to see if I could get a ticket.
Does Dukes of September mean they won't be playing together beyond this month? Too bad cuz if they were close I'd go see them again. And again.

Cute Old Lady

Walking down the street I got to a crosswalk where a car stopped and just sat there. It was a stop sign, no one was coming the other way. So I started across, thinking, "Do you have to sit in the middle of the fucking crosswalk?" But apparently I said it out loud because a young woman who was just behind me laughed. She said, "Sometimes you just have to let off steam." I apologized for my language and she said, "Oh, you're so cute."
Seemed like an odd thing to say until later as I walked away I realized what she meant was it was cute because you don't expect an old lady to say "fuck."
I liked it better when I was cute for other reasons.

What Not To Wear When You're Over 50

Okay, so maybe Jane Fonda can get away with wearing ripped-up jeans, an off-the-shoulder blouse and a funky fedora, at 72.
Well...you be the judge. Can she? To me, she looks ridiculous. There are certain clothes that are too young for anyone over 30, let alone 72, and shredded jeans are one. She's gorgeous, no question, and in great shape. But the jeans just look stupid.
Anyway, even if you think she looks great you have to admit the majority of women of a certain age shouldn't wear that kind of stuff. So what to wear when you're over 50?
If you look good in it and you're comfortable, wear it. Great advice, right? The only problem is some older women think they look good in things like leggings and short skirts when the fact is they look like old ladies trying to look young.
Even if you're thin, things happen to your body after 50; parts droop, rolls appear, skin sags, spots show up...believe me it's endless and ugly. And thank god for clothes. The right clothes hide a multitude of sins and make us look fit and youthful and appealing, no matter what's underneath. So what are the right clothes?
One rule says if you wore it when it was fashionable the first time you're too old to wear it now. Makes sense. I'm no arbiter of fashion but here's my short list of what not to wear if you're over 50:
1. Leggings (even with a butt-covering top)
2. Mini-skirts
4. Short-shorts
4. Low-cut blouses (who wants to look at wrinkled cleavage?)
5. Anything that exposes your belly ( I mean, really...what are you thinking?)

Hey Smokers, Quit It!

It seems like smokers are getting younger and younger, doesn't it?
My Bill's a smoker and I love him to pieces so I put up with it. Not happily, but I've been there and I know how hard it is to quit. I'm not giving him a pass on quitting because I sincerely hope one day (soon!) he'll do that, but YOUNG PEOPLE...WTF? Are you stupid? Quit it!
You probably don't see it so much if you live in the suburbs but I live in the city and walk everywhere. And since people can't smoke anywhere any more you see a lot more of them smoking outside. And I'm amazed and dumbfounded by the number of young people I see smoking. Didn't they learn anything in school??? I want to slap them, especially the young women. I don't know why that should bother me more than the guys but it does. Haven't they grown up knowing that smoking kills? Stupid little shits.
Okay, I'll jump down off my soapbox in a sec, but aren't they supposed to be farther than 15 feet from a building entrance? So how come I have to walk through a haze of smoke when I go over to the Hancock? And what do those idiots (oops, sorry Bill!) think happens to all those cigarette butts they so blithely throw on the ground? Pigeons don't eat those.
And how'd I fall in love with a smoker anyway? And a Republican to boot.
Jesus. (He's gonna kill me for this!)