Imagine Wilie Nelson singing “On the Road Again….” in the background, because that’s the music I hear in my head as I answer the 4am wake-up calls to get to the airport for the 6:45am flights.  The tour has been fantastic - so far, since the launch on March 9 - I’ve done New York City, Boston, DC, Richmond, Denver, Phoenix-Scottsdale, Houston, Dallas, Memphis…and home yesterday.  Off to New Canaan later today (but it’s spring and it’s glorious here…) and then to Palm Beach tomorrow.  Meanwhile the good news for HELL GATE is that it debuts on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list (on your doorstep next Sunday) at #9!!!!!!!!!!  It is nationally at this very moment #7 at Barnes and Noble….every single one of them in the USA…where it is also #1 in mysteries/thrillers!!!!!!!!!  And tomorrow it hits the stands as #10 in Publishers’ Weekly.  So thanks a million and come on out to say hello - I’ll be signing and traveling all spring.

If you missed my long chat with Don Imus today, you can find in my press room….and tune in to TODAY at 9:30 for my interview with AL ROKER…how lucky can I be?  A great guy, and now a terrific crime writer…and oh, if you’re anywhere near a New York Times, check out the full page ad on the rear of the main section.  BLAST-OFF!  The books come out of their boxes and I hit the road and how I do love this point in time.  See you along the way…

So it’s a gorgeous Sunday here in New York, and I am packing up to hit the road….Today, you can read about Hell Gate and Gracie mansion in the New York Daily News - a terrific feature by Gina Salamone, with some great shots of the historic house…and then you can google the DAILY BEAST and see what I had to say about domestic violence victims…like the one who was silenced by the Governor (talk about timely….a novel about NY political scandals…) and the State Police.

I love my book parties.  It’s been the way I’ve kicked off every pub date, in the hands of great friends who have feted the day the boxes open and the book buzz starts.  My first work was non-fiction - SEXUAL VIOLENCE: OUR WAR AGAINST RAPE - and even as tough as the title sounds, the launch was celebrated at a friend’s farm on Martha’s Vineyard and by the fabulous Ann Moore, who now runs all of TIME, INC (She made the event one of her famous and festive ‘rowdy girl’ luncheons).  Well, it doesn’t get any more cheerful and elegant than Friday morning, March 5th, at Gracie Mansion - the amazing historic house and its glorious grounds, which run down to the edge of the East River, right at the treacherous spot in the water called Hell Gate (read the book - you’ll find out why).   The hostess of the event was my friend Susan Danilow, who is in charge of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, the extraordinary group that has restored the house so perfectly.  There were more than one hundred Coop devotees who came out in the light snow for a delicious breakfast cooked up by the Gracie culinary crew - miniature scones and muffins, tiny egg frittatas - an entirely unique and novel approach to the book party (as in…no cocktails!).  I spoke, Dutton gave away first editions which I inscribed for my pals, and Susan’s docents led my guests - many of whom have dined in the Mansion’s public quarters - on private tours of the living quarters.  Really spectacular.  I was surrounded by family and friends - dating back to elementary school…a group of fearless (last all-women’s class at Vassar) college friends….some of the guys (only 11 women) in my law school class…and loads of beloved friends who have hosted or partied for every one of the twelve Cooper celebrations.  Manhattan’s fabulous new District Attorney (watch out, Paul Battaglia) was there - Cyrus Vance, Jr., along with many of my closest friends from the office - and then, some other names you’ll recognize:  Lesley Stahl (whose interview of me for www.wow.com will run later in the week), Cynthia McFadden, former first lady Donna Hanover (who returned in grand style -wait till I post some pix and you see how beautiful she is), and Diana Taylor, who has spent some real time in the historic house, and Lynn Sherr, along with writers Susan Isaacs, Carol Higgins Clark, Judith Kelman - and yes, Kate White, whose HUSH was just published this week and we’ll be side by side at Barnes and Noble on Tuesday evening.  So many more friends - well, I’ll post the photos and name them all.  Wish you could have been there - it was a terrific way to let Coop out of the box.

I know this massive storm still burying Manhattan should be a great writer’s day, and that I should just hunker down and get to work.  However hard I write, I never spend a day without getting outside - city or country - and taking a great hike, so I’ll get there before too long.  Now I’m distracted by the imminent launch of the HELL GATE tour on March 9th, which is my favorite time in the publishing cycle.  This week I did some tapings for book radio shows (love that they still exist) that will air nationally the week of the ninth - so look for Pia Lindstrom’s BOOK TALK program, and my delightful lunch and conversation for Bloomberg News.  If you’re in reach of this storm, stay safe and warm.

This is a site we all love.  Love.  David Patrick Columbia is so smart and charming and generous….and when we wake up each day, it’s a delight to see all the goings-on in town (photo’d by David or Jeff Hirsch), from the sheer glamorous to the wonderfully philanthropic, the parties we’ve missed and the ones to which we’d never be invited.  You can subscribe and wake up to it every day…or you can visit now - see the great ad for HELL GATE (click on Social Diary and look to the right, at the lively banner ad) - and then click on Shopping Diary and you can browse or buy the book!  Just go to www.newyorksocialdiary.com

Yes, I’ve been too lazy to say very much, but I am completely ready to hit the road for HELL GATE in just three weeks.  So here’s Coop’s Valentine - a brand new website launching this weekened.  There’s a video tour of Gracie Mansion and a bit about the novel, a contest for five winners - new readers or old, the exhausting and exhilarating tour schedule (love that graphic - it’s never going to change), and of course, a link to pre-order right away on the home page.  Go to the press room to see what Library Journal and Kirkus had to say about HELL GATE - and come back often, because I’ll be talking to you.

I’m at the keyboard anyway, working on Coop’s next adventure, watching the snow flakes drift across my window, so I thought I’d say hello.  Hope all your holidays were merry, and wishing you and yours the happiest, healthiest New Year - and tons of good books.  Cheers!

One of my favorite days in preparing for the launch of a new novel is the shooting of the video that will appear on my website next March.  The videographer we use is an enormously talented young woman who makes the entire experience great fun - almost like having an interesting conversation with her.  If you go back and watch the KILLER HEAT video, filmed ‘on location’ on Governors Island, it’s pretty obvious that it was done on one of the coldest days of the year.  Brrrrrrrrrr - I remember it really well.  For LETHAL LEGACY, the New York Public Library powers-that-be allowed us to tour you through some of the parts of that gorgeous building that aren’t open to the public, so that was a real treat.  Last Friday, both the weather and the authorities were most generous.  The HELL GATE shoot was right at the scene of the crime, on an absolutely stunning day.  Hell Gate was named by the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block in the 1600’s - because it was the most treacherous waterway around New York Harbor, and so many lives were lost there.  It’s a body of water right off the exquisite point of land where Gracie Mansion - the Mayor’s home - sits.  Most of us don’t think of New York as having elegant wooden mansions from the 18th century…but Manhattan still boasts three of them…and Gracie is the most elegant.  So the Mayor - and the wonderful folks at the Gracie Mansion Conservancy (thanks to Susan Danilow - who is just as elegant as the mansion she takes such good care of…) let us do the entire shoot right there.  You’ll see the great building from every angle…and walk the sloping green lawn down to the East River, where boats still navigate the currents of Hell Gate.  What incredible access we had….and early next year, we’ll show it all to you on my website.