Back in February it seemed, depending upon the day, as if the winter was about to wind down. That didn’t quite work out. The day that we had scheduled to photograph Andre Dubus III, the noted writer who grew up in the Valley, for the cover brought more snow, albeit the light fluffy stuff. Publisher Glenn Prezzano, writer Emilie-Noelle Provost and I arrived at the writer’s home and were quickly welcomed in to get warm by a roaring fireplace. The UMass Lowell faculty member and author of "The House of Sand and Fog”, "Townie: A Memoir" and many other works, was accommodating, helpful and very generous with his time, which makes our job much easier. An encounter that will remain a bright spot in an otherwise bleak winter.

Andre Dubus III for the Cover of Merrimack Valley Magazine

Many of us who live near Boston think of places like Amherst as western Massachusetts. I don't know…I thought Worcester was. Actually, Shutesbury, which is very close to Amherst, is in central Massachusetts. It is surprisingly rural, but also surprisingly close to the city. On a beautiful, very warm (no, I won't start up that discussion again) June day, I visited knitting designer Gudrun Johnston and her family to do a photo shoot for AudioFile Magazine, which I love. The magazine sounds like it would be about audio gear, and something in my long, lost memory tells me that it once was, but its charter today really concerns audio books. The slowness of life reading, listening and the mellowness of people with whom the articles are concerned appeals to me.

Gudrun, who has a really interesting profession, and is a celebrity in her niche, is married to David Anthony Durham, who is a novelist and a celebrity in his own right. I would encourage you to check out the magazine, which is fairly easy to find in B&N and similar venues. The piece on Gudrun is short, but the photo is awesome[;-)], and there are lots of other great articles.