Last week Mike, Hanni and I brought a copy of Safe & Sound down to Hackney’s, our local tavern. Jim — one of the owners — Showed the book off to everyone at the bar. I was so busy answering questions about the illustrator – “He lives in a farm house two hours north of Minneapolis.”, “No, I didn’t know him before. The publisher chose him.” “Hanni and I took a bus up there from Chicago, he watched us working together and sent sample drawings to Mike.” “Oil. each page is a painting. He did them in oil.” — that I didn’t notice Jim slip away downstairs.
When Jim re-emerged, he had a couple of bottles in hand. Champagne! Not only that, but real champagne glasses, too. Oo la la! Everyone in the bar that night celebrated with us.
Cheers to Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. And cheers to Hackney’s, too.

Every semester I give a guest lecture for a disability awareness class at DePaul University in Chicago. This semester, though, the class decided to come to me.
Twenty or so students piled into our apartment this afternoon to see where I live, how I manage in the house, and what my talking computer sounds like.
As an added bonus, they got to pet and play with a Seeing Eye dog. Hanni doesn’t wear her harness in the house – I know my way around, so I don’t need her to guide me. And when Hanni’s harness is off, she’s fair game – you can pet her, play with her, talk to her. The second her harness goes on again, though, she’s working. I ask people not to pet her or talk to her while she’s at work. Quoting Hanni from Safe & Sound:
“I like people, but they shouldn’t pet or talk to me while I’m working. That way, I can pay close attention to Beth. That way, we’ll be safe.”
Back to the DePaul students. I enjoyed having them over – they had lots of good questions. “How do you deal with trust? You have to trust a lot of people!” “Here’s a whimsical question: do you and other blind people dream differently than we do?”
A few students arrived early – one was thinking of majoring in journalism. It was fun to talk to her about writing, and her interest in journalism provides a segue to my next subject: my nephew Brian Miller is a writer, and he got a story published in an on-line magazine today!
Brian teaches English as a second language in South Korea –he has lots of interesting stories about life in Jeju. One of them was published today in World Hum. Brian and I found out about World Hum through my writer friend Tara Swords, her story “An Island in Costa Rica” was published there last year.
Obviously the editors at World Hum have good taste – congrats, Brian. Your aunt is very proud of you.
And now, it’s time to put Hanni’s harness on to take her out. Back to work —

Hanni and I gave a presentation in the BookKids department at BookPeople in Austin yesterday. I started the presentation by explaining that even though my eyes are open I can’t see. “When I was little, I went to school just like you – and then when I lost my sight I had to go to school and learn to do things all over again,” I told the kids.
Only trouble was, There were no kids in the audience — I had no idea that I was talking to a bunch of adults. Duh! It is so embarrassing now to think of how painstakingly (for the people in the audience, I’m sure!) I explained what Braille is. I encouraged the audience to try squeezing toothpaste onto a toothbrush with their eyes closed. I teased them, telling them they could borrow some of the Seeing Eye dog training methods to “train” their parents.
It wasn’t until I’d finished signing and paw-printing copies of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” afterwards that it dawned on me. I’d signed 20 books or so but didn’t talk to a single kid. “There were some kids mingling around,” the BookKids event planner told me. “But the audience was all adults!”
Well, adults and dogs, that is. A couple from Austin brought their Seeing Eye dogs along to the presentation, so Hanni had a little competition. That’s good for her – her head was getting big after those designer treats at the Renaissance Hotel!
Karen Thomas was there, too – she’s the editor of Dialogue Magazine. DIALOGUE is an international news magazine for people who are experiencing vision loss or are blind. It comes out in large print and on cassette, and Karen brought a copy of both formats for me. Guess what? “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” is reviewed in the September/ October 2007 edition! I listened to the review — and the rest of the magazine — on my flight back to Chicago.
And now that I’m home, I’ve made a note to myself: in the future, I’ll start my presentations by asking the audience to say, hmmm, let me think. How about they say “Safe!” if they’re adults. “Sound!!” if they’re kids. Then at least I’ll know who I’m talking to!

Hanni and I have stayed in plenty of hotels, but never before has a concierge offered us a gift bag…for the dog!
We’re at the Renaissance Austin Hotel – I gave a presentation about assistive technology at the Convio Summit yesterday, and tomorrow I’m giving a presentation about Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in the Kids Department at BookPeople. BookPeople is the largest bookstore in Texas. We all know everything is bigger in Texas, so Yikes, Book People must be a pretty big place!
But back to Hani’s goody bag. Renaissance Austin Hotel is “small dog friendly” so it keeps a stash of goody bags on hand for canine guests. Hanni is not a small dog, of course, but her Seeing Eye status gets her in everywhere. Her goody bag was perfect for one of those toy-poodle-like dogs –a fancy paper bag, slick and shiny to the touch, tied at the top with a ribbon and everything! Inside I found a Mutt Mitt for easy “pick up” and a few treats for Hanni. The treats, I was told, were made by the restaurant’s pastry chef. But that wasn’t all – she also got a squeak toy (Hanni loves squeak toys) and a teeny-tiny rawhide bone.
Needless to say, Hanni loves this hotel.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised at the goody bag. Mike, Hanni and I were lucky enough to be in Austin last June, and everywhere we went that weekend people – and businesses — were friendly and welcoming to dogs. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport even has a dog park! I
was so taken by Austin’s love of dogs after that June trip that I contacted Dog Fancy Magazine to see if they’d be interested in my writing a story about it. My article about Austin will appear in the January issue of Dog Fancy – look for it on newsstands in late November.
For now, I’ll reach in that goody bag for a Mutt Mitt — time to go out with Hanni before her goodnight snack. Hope she doesn’t get too used to these homemade dog treats – I can assure you, I won’t be making these at home!

          “Is your hand tired?” “You doing okay?” “Got writer’s cramp yet?”
Those are the questions I was getting last night at the Easter Seals national Convention. It wasn’t until Hanni and I got back to our hotel room that I realized why: I’d been signing books for two hours!
Here’s the deal: I work part-time for Easter Seals Headquarters in Chicago. I’m the “interactive Community Coordinator” there – a fancy-schmancey title that means I moderate the Easter Seals Autism Blog. You have Easter Seals to thank – or blame – for this blog I’ve started about my new book. It was at Easter Seals that I learned to use the blogging tools.
When Easter Seals found out Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound was coming out at the same time as their national convention this year, they arranged with my publisher to produce a special Easter Seals edition. The special edition has the same cover design as the regular book, but the inside book flap is different – it describes my connection with Easter Seals. The back of the special edition features the Easter Seals logo and explains “Vision 2010”: Easter Seals’ goal to serve 5 million people with disabilities annually by the year 2010.
I spoke at the Easter Seals President’s Council event last night — President’s Council members each give $1000 to Easter Seals annually. After my speech, each President’s Council member was given a copy of the special Easter Seals edition of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & sound” as a thank you gift. Members stood in line for me to sign and Braille my name into their books — Hanni’s paw print was rubber-stamped onto each copy, too.
It was such a happy occasion, it never occurred to me we’d been sitting there signing for two hours! Hanni noticed, though – by the end of the night her paw was in my hand, she was begging me to go home with her. Or in this case, to go back to the hotel room. And trust me, when we got there, we both slept very well. You know…safe & sound!