Boy, nothing like a day spent meeting members of the public to measure character – yours and theirs – as I discovered when I appeared wearing my deux chapeaux, as WAG editor and author of the new novel “Water Music,” at the recent Hudson Valley Gateway Experience in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

First, a big shout out and thank you to Chereese Jervis-Hill of Events to Remember in Mount Kisco, N.Y.; Deborah L. Milone, executive director of the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce in Peekskill, N.Y.; and The Mansion at Colonial Terrace in Cortlandt Manor for a truly terrific day. Some 500 guests milled about the antebellum manse, with its Doric columns and brocade wallpaper, savoring carrot-ginger soup, gluten-free crab cakes, mango ice and sweet potato tartlets. Attendees saw cooking demonstrations; got a chance to meet authors like young Claribel Ortega, who’s on her way with the teen witch novella “The Skinwalker’s Apprentice” (more on her in my upcoming women warriors post); and received freebies like the sweet plants provided by Manzer’s Landscape Design and Development and the smart, sturdy canvas bags from Entergy. Who doesn’t love free stuff?

Well, it was a triumph, if I do say so myself. (Not that I’m prejudiced, of course.)

But my “Night of Beauty” at Bloomingdale’s – which featured a reading from my new novel “Water Music” – went, well, swimmingly. It helped that I had an appreciative audience of friends and co-workers and especially my sisters Jana and Gina. My heart leapt when I saw them. You know what a sister is? A sister is someone who comes all the way from Washington D.C. or leaves her event early in Connecticut just to hear you read. Because that’s what sisters do. (Afterward we went out for dinner in the neighborhood and fell into an easy conversation. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how long we’ve been apart, it’s like we were talking five minutes ago. Because that’s what sisters are.)

“A Night of Beauty” was a night for sisters and the sisterhood of all women.

Adventures in the book and mag trades

‘A night of beauty’…and memories