I don't think Elena would mind me usurping her.

So, I'll start.

I know you were at U of M. (as in Michigan), but where did you go to high school and how did you end up at U of M?

Your father was a musician - was that his profession? And what about your mother?

You attended Columbia Journalism School. Is this correct?

Did you get a degree?

Regardless of whether you got a degree or not, how do you feel about your experience at Columbia? If you had it to do over again, would you?

What is the nicest part of the year for the town where you live?
Thinking of bicycling the area someday.

uh. oh. what hath i wrought? thanks, kathy (i think).

okay, i guess i can put off bed for a bit....

i went to high school in new jersey, and i wound up at UM because after getting into bennington (my first choice), a friend from music camp said if i went there i'd grow up to be an outcast from society.

having felt that outcast was my probable destiny, and on the lookout to thwart it, i was open to the suggestion from this same friend that michigan was a more wholesome place to be.

as it happened, a former president of bennington college started something called the residential college on the university of michigan campus. an experimental school, a la bennington, with a core curriculum, and all the students living together and attending classes in one very large building.

but on the UM campus.

the best of both worlds--the experimental college experience, but with access to all the benefits and broadening of the big ten campus.

it turned out to be a brilliant choice.

and it made my father very happy as he had an uncle who was a dean there.

my dad was a professional musician until his mid-30s, and then he switched to business. my mom is a photographer.

yes, i got an MS in journalism from columbia. it's only a nine-month program, so unless you flunk out (not hard to do!), most everyone who starts the program finishes it.

the j-school at columbia is a much tougher program than being a working journalist in real life. it's very, very, very demanding.

i would do it again because of the contacts i made there. great people!

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
What is the nicest part of the year for the town where you live?
Thinking of bicycling the area someday.

this is a great place for biking!

may through mid-october are just magnificent here. the summer is one halcyon day after the other, if it's a good year.

if it's not a good year...

may it rains.
june it rains even more with lots of electrical storms.
july with dry lightning and the forest fires start up.
august you can't breathe from all the smoke.
september the snow puts the fires out.

please let me know if you plan to come up and mr. pique and i will give you a bike tour.

A really silly question, and one that I'm embarrassed I don't already know the answer to:
How does one pronounce your screen name?

it's about time we took a peek at pique

(you're always peek to me)... it just can't say P K

I know you have told us before but, how did you and Mr. Pique meet? First marriage? Second?

How did you deal with being the "you're not my mom"?

quote:

Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
A really silly question, and one that I'm embarrassed I don't already know the answer to:
How does one pronounce your screen name?

P.K.

quote:

Originally posted by apple*:
it's about time we took a peek at pique

(you're always peek to me)... it just can't say P K

silly. (love your headdress ).

Oh dear, this is terrible. I've always read it "peek" too. I don't know if I'll be able to adjust!

Here's a question.

What is/are your favorite piano book/s? Beside your own, of course!

On the subject of your book (which I loved!) Have you re-read the entire thing since it's been published? (I know you do readings, but I mean the entire book). Are there places where you'd want to change the wording or make some other adjustments? Or do you feel totally satisfied with it?

quote:

Originally posted by EHpianist:
I know you have told us before but, how did you and Mr. Pique meet? First marriage? Second?

i was on assignment for skiing magazine. he was a backcountry ski guide. he heard there was a writer from missoula coming on the week-long backcountry trip his outfit was doing and so he volunteered to carry the propane tank up to the cabin where we stayed our first night.

this was because only the week before another ski guide ran off with a beautiful client, and mr. pique said, "how come that never happens to me?"

he moved to missoula three months later.

quote:

How did you deal with being the "you're not my mom"?

argggh!!! how did YOU deal with it?

the first summer was the worst. junior was only six years old and he would literally turn his back to me at the dinner table. he was a much indulged child (his parents had been divorced since he was two, and his dad had been alone since), and completely out of control.

i was not going to play bad cop, which mr. pique was apparently setting me up for (his ex was the only disciplinarian), so i told mr. pique that i was going away to a friend's cabin to write for the summer, and did.

about a week into it he called and wanted to know when i was coming back. he needed me, because, you see, his son was driving him completely crazy with his demands. i told him i didn't want to be around either of them if he wasn't going to take charge and not let the kid run roughshod over him.

it evidently helped him to see the light as the next time i saw junior he was pouting.

"what's wrong?" i asked. we were in my car, on an outing to get ice cream.

"my dad is always telling me what to do!" he moped.

it didn't just magically get better from there, and there were definitely days i was ready to kill him, or wonder how i ever could have considered marrying a man with a child. but over time he began to confide in me more, and even share confidences he didn't want me to share with his father. like all kids in his situation, he was grieving that his parents didn't love each other. i'd like to think i helped him work through that... then he became a teenager and we saw him less and less....

today he is the most amazing, incredible, well-spoken, thoughtful, and politic young man you could imagine. we are friends, have great heart-to-hearts, and i'm very proud of him. (and i had nothing to do with how well he turned out--his incredibly dedicated mom gets all the credit).

over christmas this past year we talked about his growing up years, and how hard it was for him sometimes that i was in the picture. then he said an amazing thing to me: that he was mad at me back then because it was too risky to be mad at his father, but it wasn't really me he was angry with.

pretty astute for an 18 year old.

we just wish we saw him more often.

quote:

On the subject of your book (which I loved!) Have you re-read the entire thing since it's been published? (I know you do readings, but I mean the entire book). Are there places where you'd want to change the wording or make some other adjustments? Or do you feel totally satisfied with it?

yes, i had to. they asked me to make corrections for the second edition, and then again for the paperback.

the paperback actually has some significant corrections and revisions. i made all the changes there with wording, etc. that i really wanted. it's pretty well polished now.

i would have liked to have had illustrations for a piano action in the book, as many people have asked for, but the publisher couldn't justify the cost. it's already so long that it drove the retail price up more than we would have liked.

i would have loved to retain one particular chapter that we cut, a profile of a quite well-known technician who wasn't comfortable with the portrait i'd painted. it was a very poignant story. fortunately, that person was an aside, and not necessary to the main story.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
i would have loved to retain one particular chapter that we cut, a profile of a quite well-known technician who wasn't comfortable with the portrait i'd painted. it was a very poignant story...

Dear PK,

OK, you have 'piqued' our curiosity...

Are you going to tell all your favorite WTF friends just who this was or share that chapter with us?

Sincerely,

Your WTF friends