Camille Cusumano

I am so pleased to announce that I will be dancing and reading from Tango, an Argentine Love Story at Book Passage, one of the San Francisco Bay Area literati’s favorite haunts. I have had the honor of presenting books at Book Passage over the past eight years, starting with my novel, The Last Cannoli. And there is nothing like it – that platform! It’s a Friday evening, so let’s make a night of it. Come see, feel, hear tango as never before (felt, seen, heard . . . ).

NOVEMBER 21, 2008, 7 p.m.

Book Passage

51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(415) 927-0960
(800) 999-7909
Fax (415) 924-3838
Café (415) 927-1503
Store Hours
Open 7 days a week at 9:00 am!
9:00 am to 9:30 pm, Monday through Saturday
9:00 am to 9:00 pm Sunday.
Café Hours – now offers Wi-Fi!
Mon. – Fri. 8:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sat. 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sun. 9:00 am – 8:30 pm
Café Phone (415) 927-1503

See you there! til then, keep cool,

Calling you if your name is on this list:

Marion McGrane Hall and Donna Surma are organizing a 40th year reunion for Mother Seton Regional High School Class of ‘69 this September 2009.

If your name is below we can’t find you and we would love to. Contact me. This promises to be a very good year for us. Do check in. Your alma mater awaits.

Kathleen Barnes
Raffaela (Rae) Cardone Leggett
Marjorie Connor
Theresa Cosmas
Mary Coyne Zena
Francine Esposito
Paula Fleno
Mary Fletcher Stancheck
Elizabeth Godfrey
Patricia Haney
Sheila Kenny Cuono
Pat Landis
Lorie Mac Dougall
Ellen McCarthy
Lynn Paskowitz
Jane Reed
Eleanor Robinson
Mary Roemer
Mary Schopfer
Kathleen Walsh
Pat Varga Marzullo
Jeanette Ziobro Fitzpatrick

I’m proud to announce that I’ve been accepted as a Red Room Author at the Web site of that name. I’ll be in the same Room with such luminaries as Barak Obama, Maya Angelou, Salman Rushdie, and my much-esteemed former writing coach, Ericka Lutz, not to mention many writers like myself, who are not widely known. Yet. What an honor. The site’s hosts accepted me over night—waiving the usual two-week period of approval. How affirming is that!

And, I just found my fellow Itinerant, Gayle Keck in the Red Room. Or, just go right to her savory Chasing a Food Memory. Here’s a taste of it: “It’s an unassuming plate – little irregular lumps of nearly naked pasta. No visual fireworks, no flashy garnish  . . .” Better yet, check out her cool side site, Been there Ate that http://www.beenthereatethat.com/.

Gayle is a member of my writing group, the Itinerants.

I’ll be blogging (and at times blah-ging) in the Room for a while.

To visit me there, click on this link, Red Room.

Here’s what I look like in Red Room–you can’t miss me:

Camille in the pink in the Red Room - painting by Williard Dixon

This past October 11, 7:15 p.m to 7:45 p.m. I was joined by two other authors from Seal Press, Joan Price and Rachel Sarah, along with our esteemed publicist Andie East, as we presented our books at San Francisco’s pre-eminent Literary Festival, LITQUAKE.

Read a review on Tango here. Read more on me here.

Rachel Sarah, is author of Single Mom Seeking. From Rachel’s Web site:

“When she hit thirty, single mom and journalist Rachel Sarah realized that she had been in domestic overdrive too long. But trying to get over her ex had all but shut out the possibility of dating and hot sex again.

When her daughter stopped nursing, however, a switch was flipped. Her libido was back. And so was her need to find a man. But motherhood had changed her. Where once she had been a free-spirited adventuress, now she was first and foremost a mom — dedicated completely to her daughter’s well-being.

Single Mom Seeking is about Rachel’s ongoing search for The One as she remains a dedicated and involved mom. It’s a spunky, sexy, and moving chronicle of the humor, pitfalls, and rewards of balancing the complexities of parenting and dating — single-mom style.”

Joan Price is author Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty

From Joan’s Web site:

“Boomer women aren’t going to roll over and play asexual after sixty. We’re the Love Generation–surely we can’t be expected to shut the gates once we enter the Golden Age!”

Come celebrate with us in one of the most literary cities in the world.

They are starting — my book reviews. Let’s hope this is a very auspicious beginning. My first book review – from Library Journal is glowing. The reviewer certainly read the book. Thank you, Carolyn M. Mulac!
Cusumano, Camille. Tango: An Argentine Love Story. Seal, dist. by Publishers Group West. Oct. 2008. c.272p. ISBN 978-1-58005-250-4. pap. $15.95. DANCE Tango has been the subject of several recent books, from Marina Palmer’s Kiss and Tango to Irene D. Thomas and Larry M. Sawyer’s The Temptation To Tango to Robert Farris Thompson’s Tango: The Art History of Love. Cookbook author and novelist Cusumano, as her web site (www.camillecusumano.com) declares, “is a writer who dances tango,” and here she recounts her journey toward self-awareness set in the context of an extraordinary year spent in Buenos Aires. According to Cusumano, tango-like yoga and Zen, which she also practices-is a way of life, and her keen and colorful observations of everything from the milongas (tango dance halls) and her dance wardrobe to the people she met and danced with to the neighborhoods she lived in and the foods she ate create a thoughtful account redolent with the sights, sounds, and tastes of her own tango experience. Cusumano’s book is recommended for public library collections serving dancers, armchair travelers, and literary-essay fans.-Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.

Today, September 2, 2008,  Perceptive Travel Web Magazine published my story, Missing in Patagonia, about an experience that I’ll remember for life.

“A brief encounter with a fellow traveler turns into a wrenching “What if…?” scenario as a young man goes missing after setting off for a hike in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park.”

read on . . .