WHEREABOUTS: Stepping Out of Place, An "Outside in Literary & Travel Magazine" Anthology, oh and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Grave of Washington Irving

This past weekend, my mother-in-law and I toured the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 15 minutes from where my husband grew up and his parents still live. Our first stop was the grave of Washington Irving. It was a grey, misty morning, the perfect setting to learn about the writer of some of my favorite stories, including Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I was very happy to hear he was one of the first writers to figure out one could make a living as a writer, and it didn’t need to be a side gig!

Our morning reminded me I hadn’t yet leaked the details of my latest publishing adventure. It’s one I’m thrilled to be sharing with my friend, Brandi Dawn Henderson, and a number of other “crazy talented” writers. Brandi is main brain behind Outside In Literary & Travel Magazine, and I mentioned in my last post that we're working together on a project.

The first anthology from Outside In, called WHEREABOUTS: Stepping Out of Place, An "Outside in Literary & Travel Magazine" Anthology, was published last week. It’s a compilation of the best nonfiction from the magazine, which Brandi started in 2011. She and her editors thought the piece I submitted, “Beauty,” was worthy of inclusion, and for that I’m very grateful.

The release is being celebrated with two events, one at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on October 12th and one in DC on the 16th. I’ll be at both, especially since I'm reading my piece at the event in Baltimore. The Baltimore event (scroll down the page for details) is at JHU’s Homewood campus in the Levering Lounge and starts at 6 with a cocktail hour. Readings start at 7. Readers are all Johns Hopkins University alumni:   me, Michele Fizzano McFarland, Shenan Prestwich, Vicki Valosik and Dario DiBattista (reading from his recently released memoir). The DC event is the official launch. It’s at 6:30pm in room A-5 of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Readers are Paula Cruickshank, Adrian Mangiuca, Angela Magnan, Shenan Prestwich and Vicki Valosik.

Hope to see you at one or both. If you can’t make it, or even if you can, I’d highly recommend buying the book, available on Amazon. It’s a great gift for the traveler in your life.

BTW, there are some Rockefellers and Chryslers buried at Sleepy Hollow. And the infamous Leona Helmsley and her husband are there as well. We’re saving those for our next trip to the cemetery, now that Mama Vera wants to do the 2-hour tour.