I enjoy reading pre-publication manuscripts and offering critical feedback to Vermont authors trying their hand at a novel. Every book I write goes through a minimum of three such critical readers before an editor even sees it.

I’m reading now a beautiful elegy on logging by Vermont author Bill Torrey, a life-long woodsman. It’s going to make an excellent read when it comes out this fall. 

Not only is it a rich reminiscence of a life spent logging the Vermont woods, it’s a rumination on how man treats the natural world and the author’s evolving understanding of trees, the material from which we make our homes, our furniture, and objects of utility and beauty… but that also endanger his life daily, provide him with a livelihood, and sustain our planet… a  beautiful book- in-the-making that I will remind you of when it comes out.

It is, in fact, my new “ball joint” or, in arthroplastic terms, “a Pinnacle acetabular shell/liner, an Actis stem and a DePuy ceramic head.” 

I had a hip replacement in January and highly recommend it whether you need it or not.

Oh, the other thing pictured on the  right side of the X-ray. When I was eight years old, my left hip was pinned. The nurse at DeGoesbriand Hospital made me memorize the name of my condition so when my second grade teacher asked me in front of the whole class why I had a cast and crutches after a one-week absence from her classroom, I answered earnestly, “I have a slipped upper female epiphysis.” The class looked a bit confused by my answer and the teacher laughed heartily.

I too, was confused.

My teacher then looked it up and had me repeat what she determined was my condition several times “a slipped upper femoral epiphysis.”

I’m often asked what book I would most like to be remembered for and at this point, I say “I Am Baybie.”  It is about one of the most memorable women I’ve ever met, a blind street singer in New York City who sang for many years under the awning at Bloomingdale’s Department Store on 59th and Lexington, where she was not only tolerated but became a welcome fixture for many, including the doorman.

If you’re curious about her music, you can hear her here recorded in our Philo Records studio in 1975.

The book is available in most indie bookstores. It’s currently in production at Voice Over Vermont as an audiobook read by Jody Petersen of Cliff House Audio and will be available in August. Uncharacteristically for audiobooks, some of Baybie’s songs will be woven into the reading as they appear in the narrative.

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