DR. Romance Blog

Friday at the Zoo

Report from New York City: Yesterday was my day at the Book Expo America, fondly known to insiders as "The Zoo."  It's an overwhelming and hyperactive place.  Richard was a tremendous support -- he was my entire entourage.  What a difference from previous BEAs, in LA, where I've always gone alone.  The Javits Center in Manhattan is a cavernous place, like being in a giant airplane hangar, filled with book publishers' booths, and lots of energy.  Adams media had a great location for its authors to sign, and when my turn came, they dressed it up with a big poster for  Money, Sex and Kids, and another that said "Meet the Author." The alloted hour for my signing was packed with people, and fortunately Adams had plenty of bound galleys (the advance copy of the book, before the final edition comes out.) It's always fun meeting the people who come up to get a copy; and here there were lots of librarians, which is a good sign.  My hand was cramped by the time they cut me off because another author was due to sign.  Then Richard and I trudged the entire Javits center, visiting Career Press, St. Martin's Press, Wiley, Putnam and HCI to say hello to old friends.  At the BEA, publishers put out piles of new books or bound galleys you can just pick up as you're walking by, and many of them provide wonderful canvas bags to put the booty in.  Richard carried it all, plus several copies of my book we begged from Adams.  By the time we had covered all the bases and visited several old friends, we were worn out.  It was a great day, and we piled into a cab for the short trip to our hotel, because we were too tired to walk any more.  Doing this with Richard was amazing -- it's so much more fun and less stress with his cheerful companionship.  Later, we were thrilled to get tickets to The Drowsy Chaperone, a Tony-award winning Broadway show.  All in all, a great day.

Relationships seem out of fashion these days, people are getting married later or not at all, but Dr. Romance thinks that there's nothing better than having a loving companion to share life's struggles and successes.  Money, Sex and Kids is all about how to stop fighting and start enjoying each other, no matter what's going on. 

What's going on in your love life?

Pop Secret

Ok, so Oprah likes "The Secret" and it's even in Newsweek this week.  And they're hyping a story about Jesus's ossuary (bone coffin) on Discovery channel, too.  Everything old is fodder for PR flacks.  The Secret is a rehash of much better books written in the early 20th century.  If you want to learn the real stuff, try The Healing Secret of the Ages by Catherine Ponder (1967.)  Or The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas. Both are better books, much less Narcissistic, and they won't make these rip-off artists rich.

Dr. Romance knows that visualizing and believing you can get what you want actually works. In "Patterns of Change" Dr Romance explains: "We have a brain mechanism psychologists call "preparatory set." It's one of the mechanisms the mind uses to sort through the enormous amounts of data that flow in daily, and keep it manageable. By writing down the things you want to accomplish and making them clear, you can "program" that mechanism. Once programmed, it directs your attention to certain events and occurrences." and in "Getting Out of Your Way" the Doctor wrote "Trust the blessings of life—even the worst things will somehow turn out to be a blessing, though you may not be able to see it now."

The best use of these gifts is not to get a new Mercedes or a fancy necklace. And if you don't get what you want, you can learn valuable things from the disappointment.  We are to use these 'magic' tools to become the most we can be, and to help others along the way.  That's what "what goes around, comes around" is all about.

It's not really all about me, or all about you.  It's about us, together, isn't it?