Last night we had the “official” launch of Backbeard and the Birthday Suit in the Opalka Gallery at the Sage College of Albany. As I told everyone during the presentation, it was exactly the kind of capstone an author dreams about during the long months toiling away at a book. Over a hundred people showed up, and there were some fun surprises, even for me. For example, I had no idea this crew was going to be there…

They are, from left to right, Elizabeth Wunderlich, Joely Johnson, and Ola Mork. (Joely is the Director of Media Relations at Sage and I’m grateful to her for her work helping to pull this event together.) The pirate costumes totally blew me away. Having these three there really set the mood for the evening.

I gave a short presentation, and we gave away some cool pirate booty, including some books and a few giant archival prints of images from Backbeard. The evening flew by, and for me, the best part was catching up with so many people I haven’t seen for a while. I saw family, old friends, teachers and even fellow authors. (Can you find Karen Beil and Dan Mahoney in the picture above?) I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun, and my thanks go out to everyone who came out to the Opalka last night. Shiver me timbers, indeed.