August may be here (with a vengeance), but there’s still plenty of time for fun in the sun on the beach, the lake, in the backyard and at the park (or in front of a blasting A/C). I’m hard at work on novel #2 but man, sometimes the call of the sand and ocean is just too strong…

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my newly updated site. I’ll be blogging and Tweeting away, so check back here or follow me on Twitter for some fun stuff in the coming weeks and months, especially as we start to transition through the seasons. But I can’t think about that now…it’s still August and I’m not letting go of the summer so fast!

I can’t believe the “July 4th Weekend Triathlon” (LoveHampton, Chapter 8) is here already! June flew by and even though I’m staying in the Hamptons for the rest of the summer, I have a feeling that July and August are going to follow suit.

I’ve always wanted to do this–live out here “full time”–and I finally got all my ducks in a row this summer so I could swing it. Many of my friends have visions of me lying on the beach “phoning it in” via my new CrackBerry (a birthday present from my parents, thanks M&D!) but in truth, I am working. Hard. Though in the spirit of full disclosure, I am doing so in my bathing suit on the deck of my aforementioned house.

So far, the “Summer of LoveHampton” has been fun–hectic, busy, at moments stressful, gas-guzzling, but fun. My new favorite spot is the Surf Lodge in Montauk even though the night I went the sky was threatening a storm that never made good on its threat, so we didn’t get to eat there or see the sunset. Two weekends ago I attended the Love Heals at Luna Farm charity event (as featured in Chapter 6) with a big group of friends. While I didn’t run into any exes or get trashed on cheap champage, I did run into myself once or twice, so to speak, until I finally just chilled out and danced the rest of the night away. There may have been some post-party text-messaging and cold pizza, but nothing too dramatic. (I’ve decided to leave those kinds of shenanigans up to Miller and the gang.) And over the past week, I’ve gotten to celebrate my birthday with friends and family (you must check out Eartha Kitt at Cafe Carlyle this summer in NYC–she is my new hero) and plan to continue doing so through the holiday weekend when my nephew, niece and sister-in-law arrive from London at last.

I always say “Being in the Hamptons is what you make it” and it’s certainly true again for me this summer, as I balance work, friends, family, yoga, beach and something that has eluded me thus far, relaxation, but in a way, right now, that’s the thing I need the least. I love being busy and productive, connecting with the people I care about, driving past the corn fields with my mix CDs blasting, doing yoga almost every day and having an iced coffee klatch with my friend K. afterwards, and still keeping all of the balls that comprise my life in the air.

Now, if I could just figure out how to keep the sand out of my laptop keyboard, I’d be golden.

I’m in love.

It’s only been one week and two weekends (but who’s counting). However, I can safely say that this is the real deal.

Maybe it will only last for three months like (too) many summer loves do, but I can already tell that every minute is going to be wonderful.

Who is the lucky recipient of my affections? My new summer house.

Much like Goldilocks enjoyed on all of her third tries, this house is just right for me and my two housemates, S. and D. It’s equidistant between East Hampton and Sag Harbor, two of my favorite villages: East Hampton for its unabashed flashiness and Sag Harbor for its staunch yet admirable hold on its whaling town heritage.

From the very first night in the house, I slept like a rock. That could’ve been due more to the fact that sirens weren’t screaming by my window every ten minutes as is the case when I’m home in NYC than the deliciously comfortable bed in the “green” room upstairs. But whatever the reason, I felt right at home from the minute I walked in the door. And the absolute stillness outside save for a gentle breeze didn’t hurt, that’s for sure.

After that first restful night, the pace sped up and the rest of Memorial Day Weekend whizzed by in a bit of a blur, albeit a fun, hectic, exhilarating blur. A few highlights:

• My friend K. and I fell right back into our daily summer yoga-followed-by-coffee routine and took two classes with our favorite East End yoga teacher. Classes were so packed that people had to be turned away, but those who made it in gamely dealt with the mat-to-mat proximity–or at least pretended to.
• Saturday afternoon I taped an interview for Hamptons Plum TV about LoveHampton—my first TV appearance ever—which started airing this past weekend.
• My good friends hosted a party at their beautiful home in Bridgehampton on Saturday night. I thought it was going to be an intimate birthday celebration for my friend R., but it turned out to be a 150-people clambake on their gorgeous lawn. It was the exact perfect way to kick off the summer of 2008, even though it was a tad too chilly to be wearing strappy platform sandals. (It took the whole ride home with the heater in my car blasting to get my toes to warm up but so worth it.)
• On Sunday, I went in to BookHampton in Sag Harbor, where I’ll be giving a reading in July, and saw that they had a stack of my books on the front table—perfectly positioned for the casual book browser looking for a fun beach read. Then I had lunch at a friend’s house in Bridgehampton, stopped to visit the Saturday night party hosts for a “Thorough Party Post-Mortem” and then met the gang for dinner and a little dancing at Madame Tong’s in Southampton. (No, I didn’t see Tori Miller there.)

I definitely ran myself ragged during Memorial Day Weekend (hey, I thought this weekend-at-the-beach thing was supposed to be relaxing?), but I was having way too much fun to stop, except for maybe a couple of hours on Monday afternoon when the tank finally ran out of gas–literally and figuratively! By the time I got home on Monday night, it was all I could do to drop my bags at the door and fall into bed at 9:30. Despite the relentless sound of trucks barreling down Second Avenue, I slept like a rock. Funny, that.

As of today, May 13th, 2008, my first novel, LoveHampton, goes on sale.

I’ve been busy with lots of last minute details–let’s just say that yesterday I spent serious quality time on YouTube, Facebook and Blip.TV–to be as prepared as possible for the book’s official launch into the world. The last couple of weeks have been filled with emails and calls to my aforementioned advisors and experts (thank you all for your patience and help!), making lists, crossing items off lists (though not as quickly as I had hoped), writing and distributing my first newsletter, and more hours than I care to count online doing god-knows-what.

Many friends have asked me what will “happen” today. While I’d love to be able to say that I have several celebrations planned, interviews scheduled and a send-off for my book tour as dramatic as newlyweds leaving their wedding reception dressed in their “travel clothes” to embark on their honeymoon, the truth is, well, not much happens on the actual launch day.

Let me clarify: while it’s a momentous occasion for me personally and a busy day for my publicist, the release date of my book is most notably marked by bookstore employees across the country opening up boxes of my books and putting them on the shelves for lots of nice people to buy. Otherwise, it’s a regular Tuesday. The actual books were printed a couple of weeks ago and I received my finished copies last week. Celebrations and interviews will be happening over the next couple of months. As for a book tour send-off, there won’t be one of those–at least not this time–but there will be a number of readings and events.

So, to mark the day, my friends Stefanie and Mary will accompany me on a trip to the Barnes & Noble in Union Square to go visit my book in an actual store and wish it well. Mary, who is my awesome video producer and editor, will be taping that moment as well as other happenings tied to my book launch—which I should really start referring to as a “rollout”–over the course of the next few weeks that you’ll soon be able to see on my site.

Stay tuned!