In America, public radio, like many thoughtful and intelligent things, are relegated to the fringes of life. You won’t see Joe Donahue of WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany on CNN or Fox News. You have to be angry or screaming to get there. I’m not a huge fan of public radio myself, but I recognize its worth and importance to people, and  would hate to see the journalistic process end up entirely on blogs and TV, the hyper media, so I happily agreed to participate in the station’s fund drive. Joe Donahue and I have been friends for years, and fellow Lab lovers, and Joe has seen me through the light and dark times. He  lost his Lab Sophie suddenly this Spring – she died in her sleep –  and the night she died, I sent him the just finished first draft of “Going Home,” and that was when I knew it would help people because it helped him. He has new dog Brady. One e-mailer urged people to only adopt pets, and never get them from breeders. It always seems strange to me that people are so sure what other people ought to do. What, I wonder, would happen to border collies and Labs like Lenore?

Random House generously agreed to donate 50 copies of “Going Home” to the fund drive and I got there at 11 and all 50 copies went for $100 pretty quickly. That was impressive. I am enjoying this subject, sad as it sometimes is. People want to talk about it and need to talk about it, and Joe and I had our usual good time talking about it. Lenore came and worked the crowd. Tomorrow she and I (and Maria) are giving a talk and signing at Battenkill Books, Cambridge, N.Y., 7 p.m. (518 677-2515) and then Sunday at 3 p.m., Northshire Books, Manchester Center, Vt. Next Thursday begins the Support Vermont Bookstore and Library part of the tour – Shelburne, Waterbury, Chester (done) Bellows Falls, Wilmington (and Lake Placid, in support of the Jay Library). The book is doing well, I think. Several key distributors are out of stock right now, and that is a much better place for a writer to be these days than with books sitting in warehouses.  For pre-signed, personalized books, call Battenkill Books. We are going to crack 500 soon.