I had a wonderful day with Christopher Schelling my agent, his partner, Augusten Burroughs and my editor, Rosemary Ahern.

Rosemary and I drove to Connecticut together to see Christopher and Augusten’s strikingly beautiful new home in Connecticut. They both are fresh from New York City, and are knee-deep in the country life. All four of us are refugees from New York in a number of ways.

It was a special day, Christopher is a warm, bright and funny human being, I am lucky to have him as a friend and an agent.

I really enjoyed meeting Augusten, a best-selling author, the two are newly-weds and share great love and connection. His new house has seven or eight beautiful acres and a stream around it, we ended up talking about which animals they might think of acquiring, we talked about goats, sheep, Guinea Hens, and then donkeys.

Christopher, the most urban and dedicated of New Yorkers, is a country boy now.

Their grounds are perfect for donkeys, plenty of grass, space and shrubs, a fun house for donkeys. Augusten lit up at the idea, Christopher was skeptical but warmed up to it.

It meant a lot to me to go see Christopher and see his new home. There is a lot of disconnection in the world, in publishing people rarely actually speak to one another any longer, it is something I need. An agent is a powerful figure in a writer’s life, last year I worried about ever writing a book again.

My long-time editor had been pushed out of Random House, the recession hit, my books were pretty much orphaned.  Random House made it clear they wouldn’t be heartbroken if I left also. I was at sea.

Christopher rescued me, he got me to my new editor, Peter Borland at Simon and Schuster and Peter immediately bought my book Talking to Animals, which is being published next Spring.

I am back on a good track again, it is a gift to have someone like Christopher in my corner.

Christopher is currently offering my next book idea to Simon and Schuster as well, but we’ll have to see. Haven’t heard yet, and no news is no news. We walked the grounds, played with their great dogs (I was charmed by Otis, their gentle and enormous new Great Dane.)

We went out to lunch and talked some more.  A lot of stories, photo-sharing, smartphone searching. Then back on the road. A lot of driving, a long day, a sweet and good day. Odd to be apart from Maria, it doesn’t happen often, it was good to see her again.

It is special for me to touch base with my agent, a lifeline to my life as a book writer.