What a weekend! On Friday, I drove up to New Paltz to the majestic Mohonk Mountain House (appropriately the location for heaven in the TV show Uploaded) for the 44th annual Wonderful World of Words Weekend. This is an event where, I was told, Sondheim himself once presented (in the late 80s, early 90s – trust me, I’m now on the case tracking down the details).

First of all, what a fantastic community of word lovers. Kind. Generous. Creative. And SO SMART!

On Friday night, I was the kick-off speaker. The room felt straight out of Clue – the board game or the movie — or a Knives Out murder mystery. It was a treat to present with a number of folks in the audience from my book, including Will Shortz!

On Saturday, I had very successful book sale (sold ALL of my books, including three on seltzer!), and had fun along side Will, Julianna, A.J., and Greg. You can see us goofing around below – while the three of us hold up our books Will is in front of his mountain!

Then Saturday night I ran a Sondheimian Parlor Game event. We played The Listening Game, Running Charades and more. I’m willing to admit it got a bit away from me in the end (which I loved): in the photo see Tom lying on the floor demonstrating his “feet-only” variation of Charades (if you can’t tell, the answer is “War and Peace”).

I also had a wonderful time at a hilarious live recording of The Puzzler and a thrilling puzzle hunt by Eric Berlin.

It’s one thing to helicopter in to give a presentation then pop-out. It’s a whole other thing to get to spend the weekend with them afterwards. A true delight! (Felt very Chautauqua).