It has been too long since I’ve written. I am quite sorry. Please forgive me! I have missed you all quite dearly. I’d like to share with you what I’m doing this fall, in hopes that I may again see your lovely faces and hear how YOU have been!!

But first… I want to encourage you and your employers/friends/neighbors to hire Steel Town Fire for your halloween party! This is our favorite time of year for bookings, and we are filling up quickly! We love a good excuse to dress up and play with fire at your office/roof-deck/block party. OF COURSE, we are insured to the maximum and absolutely committed to safety! Contact me for booking information.

& an **EARLY WARNING** ~~ I’ll be opening for Dar Williams on November 20th at the Rex Theater. In case you haven’t heard of this folk legend, she is the one who taught Dave Matthews how to play guitar (or so the legend goes). I also used to babysit her nieces back in MA, though I’m pretty sure I got this gig for my musical prowess and not my nannying skills… Anyways, it’s sure to be a GREAT night of songs, and please buy your tickets through me or Gray Area’s website in advance.

  I’ll be playing music for this, back-to-back (and possibly alongside) with my musical cohort Rob Gray (aka Several Conclusions). There are SO MANY talented performers on this FREE afternoon show at perhaps my favorite venue in all of Pittsburgh, including Texture Contemporary Ballet, No Name Players and Blue Mango. RAD is an excellent, arts-supporting organization that I hope you support with your attendance! To hear about all three weeks worth of amazing and free happenings, check out RADworkshere.org and the full event listing.

  An evening full of delightful friends, delicious food and delectable music! Who could ask for more? Call ahead to make reservation or hedge your bets and show up at Pino’s! I’ll be accompanied by John Parades on bass, as well as a few other surprise guests (you know how I roll, right?), and will surely play ’til your heart is content. Pino’s website: http://www.chefpino.com/

  24 hours of literature! I’ll be reading out of one of my favorite books (by Tom Robbins? Richard Powers? Margaret Bashaar?) at 1:30am on the steps of the Carnegie Library in Oakland as part of their all-night read-athon. This is a fundraiser, so even if that’s way past your bedtime, please consider a donation to this vital cause. More info at http://www.clpgh.org/events/programs/readaloud/ (…& Stay tuned, for in November, which is National Novel Writing Month, I will officially give it a go, if only to distract me from writing you such lengthly emails… Wish me luck on my first full-length piece of fiction, and learn more at NaNoWriMo.com!)

OCTOBER 21ST – STEEL TOWN FIRE — Pittsburgh Glass Center’s Great Glass Pumpkin fall party — East Liberty (Pittsburgh)

 It might sound scary at first, but really it will be such a treat ~ come make your very own glass pumpkin during the PGC’s fall open house! Steel Town Fire will be there to entertain you with other hot things while you’re waiting for your turn at the glory hole! I’m so excited for this, as I haven’t done any glassblowing in about five years, and it was, at the time, one of my favorite hobbies. Come visit and support one of Pittsburgh’s greatest artistic resource centers, the nationally recognized PGC ~~ visit www.pittsburghglasscenter.org for more info

OCTOBER 22ND – EMay Music @ RPM’s for benefit show — Bridgeville, PA

  My friend and former Sectionals bandmate Gabriel Ceroylles is throwing a benefit to support the medical costs that his mother incurred on a lapse between insurance coverage. I hope you come out and support this cause, and we will give you a night worth of great music in return for your hard-earned dollars! More info at http://www.wix.com/cancerbenefitgc/rockagainstcancerpgh

Also, please put on your calendar OCTOBER 15, where my friend Vince Eirene will be having an official book launch for his book The Day the Empire Fell. Vince’s work is critical in supporting the kind of change that I wish to see in the world — a decline in environmental destruction, de-nuclearization, and a healthy happy world for generations to come. Please support his life’s work and give yourself the gift of hearing him read from his new book first-hand! At Lilli Coffeeshop in Polish Hill. More info at http://barbaryshore.tumblr.com/

Hope you all have an EXCELLENT start to your bread-baking, leaf-turning, cider-pressing, pumpkin-carving, candy-eating, hoodie-wearing, bonfire-lighting season, and I’ll be seeing you out and about!

Love & Light,

EMAY