Here's my friend, Yuvi Zalkow. This was taken a few years ago when a group of us writers went to the beach for a weekend. We each settled into our favorite place in the house and wrote for long chunks of time. Then we came back together and read a paragraph or two out loud, then we went back to writing. This is the spot Yuvi chose, on the chaise, by the window, looking out on the ocean. But Yuvi wasn't looking at the ocean most of time. He was working. He may have been working on his novel, a brilliant novel in the works, at the exact moment this picture was taken. Whatever he was doing, I know he was writing something good. Because, from my perspective, that's pretty much all he writes.

When we were there at the beach, the five of us talked about what it would be like when one of us had our first book published. Well, now we know. Yuvi is the first of us and the rest of us can't quit smiling. Well, there are  a whole bunch of people who know Yuvi and have admired his writing for a long time. They're all smiling.

One of the other cool things about Yuvi is that he has a great voice, not just in his writing, but when he speaks. So I'm going to go hear him read on Thursday night, the 16th at Powell's. And get my copy of his novel, which I've been waiting to buy until just this very moment. Come on out to Powell's this Thursday!