you might have noticed the new pic I have for my profile.  the book one.  well, here's the story.  my friend Shalom called me to ask if she could crash with me for a weekend in March (pun not intended, I just realized since her car was totalled in a 5-car smash-up this wknd, um....she's fine by the way :) - see her car pics on my top friends) - because she is going to Israel with a group from Hollywood & they were stopping in NY for a day.  to which I of course said yes!  but then....I started to ask her about the trip, and somewhere in the middle of her telling me about how they were going to study all the biblical sites in advance, and then go to them, with an archaeologist, and have a service in the Garden of Gethsemane (a place, I guess, that it's unusual for tourists to be allowed to go), & it will be led by Pastor Ed who is sort of like the Sean Connery of pastors (wise & tough & all, & loving at the same time)...  I couldn't help getting completely caught up in it (even though, strangely enough, I have never wanted to go to Israel, and in my mind it is still a very dusty place).  the main thing that distressed me a little was the $2000 or so price tag (which covers the flights/hotels/food etc.), which, after flying my sister out here for her 18th bday present, and booking my Christmas flight home, was just not going to be there...

so, after writing myself out a completely scaled-down budget where I would eat a lot of pbjs & have very little spending $ for about 8 months to pay off the trip, I came to my senses.  & I wrote a book!  well, actually the poems in the book were written over about the past 8 years, but last weekend I compiled them.  it's most of the poems I've written - or many of them anyway - that had been either inspired or influenced somehow through the scriptures (the Jewish scriptures & the New Testament).

here's the plan: I need to sell at least 200 of them at $10 each to finance the trip - it would be nice to sell even more than that and cover the whole thing (because printing costs will take from that a bit), but that's my basic goal for now.  sooo....that's where you come in! 

if you'd like to see more about the book, you can go to christymerry.com, where there is a list of all the poems included, and several of them are linked to a webzine where they were previously published.  and then, if you're interested in buying, please e-mail me either through myspace or at hey@christymerry.com, and we can work something out.  if you're in the area, we can meet up, or I might even schedule a reading at some point, in new york or minnesota, so you could get one there.  and then, for those farther away, perhaps if I don't know many of you, I'll get a p.o. box so I can get your checks without disclosing my whereabouts to potential stalkers.  (not that anyone would stalk me, but if they wanted to, I like to make it hard for them ;) )

well, that's all I have to say!  thanks for being my friends, & I hope you're having a fab day!  hugs from nyc, Christy  :)