It's been too long...

Sorry, faithful readers, that we have not kept up our dialogue. After Sue and Irwin filled up w dumpsters from their attic, and Lil and Wayne kept their dumpster for another week, you would think we would have cleared our homes and our thoughts to take a deep breath and relax. No way!

Lil and Wayne had a few days with their son Jeff before he headed back to Mississippi prior to his shipping out to Iraq. Please send him your prayers for a safe return home next year. On the other coast, Sue and Irwin have been working all hours to get San Diego Sexual Medicine up and running and seeing patients in a couple of weeks. No rest for the weary!

We continue to sell copies of When Sex Isn't Good (some autographed copies are still available by purchasing them directly from Lil at whensexisntgood@comcast.net) and enjoy hearing back from you about your experiences reading the book.

We will do our best to update you from time to time. Cosmo did interview Dr. Goldstein and as part of that referred to When Sex Isn't Good. If you see it mentioned in the article this fall, let us know! And the BBC is interested as well. Exciting!

Party time

Lest you think we forgot about you, our faithful readers, bite your tongues! We have just been busy. Lil and Sue have each rented dumpsters to clean out the clutter in their lives.....I mean houses. Sue and Irwin have filled two, Lil and Wayne are on their first. But last night it was time to party as we all attended a wedding in Boston.

When Sex Isn't Good is building a small following. People are buying it both from iUniverse and Amazon.com. If you want to purchase an autographed copy, Lil has those and can ship it to you. Simply write to whensexisntgood@comcast.net and Lil will let you know the cost. Once you mail her a check you can receive an autographed copy by return mail as long as these last. Don't forget that the authors are available for book signings at your local book store or book club, and for inspirational presentations at your local women's club or parents' organization or other group.

We wish you all a happy start to summer full of reasons to party.

Update

It's been far too long, and we know how much you enjoy hearing about us and When Sex Isn't Good. We have been selling the book now for a couple of weeks--from iUniverse, from Amazon and from Lil's trunk! She has them for sale at various speaking engagements or if you happen to have lunch with her. Sue lives in the city now so she doesn't have a big pile of books. So we thought, since you all love photographs, that you might enjoy seeing some pictures from "Sue and Irwin's excellent cross country adventure." Having visited 9 national parks and monuments west of the Mississippi while driving from Boston to San Diego in 2007, they could not compete with the road trip Lil and Wayne took way back when before children, but the pictures from a month ago tell it all. Here are just a few for your enjoyment.

This is the national memorial at Oklahoma City. It's eery at night but peaceful, which is the feeling it was designed to convey.

Here's the painted desert in Arizona. It's right next to the pertrified forest!

The Colorado River cuts through the Grand Canyon. On the right is the Grand Canyon at sunrise. As the sun comes up (at 5:30 am in temperatures below 40°) the shadows change as the sun hits different peaks and valleys.






Bryce Canyon looks like giant drip castles. You can see it from above, or walk down a path and look up at the spires called hoodoos!




One of the most beautiful parks because it has rocks and trees and rivers and lots of room to roam is Zion. This was our last stop before hitting Las Vegas for a show and the last day of driving to reach San Diego. The picture does not do it justice because the camera ran out of power so we missed so many possible pictures.


Sue and Lil cannot wait until we have a book tour and can visit more beautiful parts of the United States (and the world). If you want us to come to your home town, simply arrange a book signing at your local bookstore, an author reading and conversation at your book club, or any another appropriate event. We would love to visit you!

Just starting....

The book is finished, printed, available for everyone, so now we can relax, right? Wrong! The fun has just begun. Signing books in the kitchen
today, maybe in the bookstores tomorrow.

And check out our youngest reader......

It's here!!!

Lil was driving home from New Hampshire, Sue and Irwin were passing into Texas on their way to their new home, when Wayne received a big box from iUniverse with our author copies of When Sex Isn't Good! Lil checked them out and said they looked great, so now you can go ahead and order your own copies. We promised you they would be available in time for Mother's Day. What more can we say? Tomorrow we send a copy off to Oprah, since her producer is very interested in the book. Tomorrow is also a big day as the Arleques bid farewell to their son Jeff as he and the Yankee Division head back down south to prepare for deployment to Iraq. And Sue gets to fulfill a lifelong dream as the Goldsteins arrive at the Grand Canyon.

We wish everyone the opportunity to fulfill their dreams, and safe travels to all. But most importantly, happy reading. We would love to hear your comments after you get your copy of the When Sex Isn't Good.

New spaces, new places

Tonight Lil and Sue and spouses will spend their last evening together as Massachusetts residents. Sue and Irwin are leaving on a cross country journey tomorrow that will take them under the Arch in St. Louis, to the rim of the Grand Canyon, and on to their new home in San Diego. But Lil and Sue are tied together forever as co-authors of When Sex Isn't Good, and as sisters in spirit. We are saddened by the impending separation, but inspired by our futures. Our kids have all left the nest and we are enjoying our new lives. We look forward to sharing our stories and the stories of other women when we appear on TV talk shows and are interviewed by magazines. We look forward to helping other women regain their sexual function by offering them hope, and sharing our knowledge and that of our experts for both our readers and their healthcare providers. When Sex Isn't Good will be available for sale in a few short days. Visit us in the pages of our book. Visit us when Lil is giving one of her famous humorous presentations full of lessons to be learned. Visit us at San Diego Sexual Medicine if you decide you want our medical consultant as your physician. Visit us on the web and see what we are up to. Thank you for your support and well wishes as we prepared our 315 page book. Look here shortly to find where you can buy your own copy of When Sex Isn't Good!

Radio

For those of you who don't live in the Phoenix area, When Sex Isn't Good received some exciting publicity yesterday! Dr. Goldstein was featured on an "ask the doctor" call in radio program in the Phoenix area, and the host invited Lil to participate. She had an opportunity to answer questions, and the host announced the publication of When Sex Isn't Good. As a result we have received e-mail requests for the book (whensexisntgood@comcast.net) which is exciting. Next month our book will be featured in North Shore Magazine.

Note the change in our book cover. Previously we had the working version of the cover posted here. Now that the book is at the printer we are able to post the final cover!

Toolkit

So you thought tools were only for crafty people? The publisher of When Sex Isn't Good has been kind enough to send us an author's marketing toolkit. Of course if we are on Oprah we won't need that. And when each of you buys your copy and tells a friend to buy we won't need it either. What this really means is that the publisher has sent our book off to the printer. In a couple of week we will have our first copies. If they look all right to us--if the printer hasn't made any major messes--we can start to sell our book! How many of you doubted we would ever get here?

Speaking of getting there, Sue and Irwin rented a lovely apartment in San Diego. They have a guest room, so Lil and Wayne will visit often. It's a different apartment than originally planned--better of course!

So that is our news. We would love to hear from all of you, especially after you see a copy of When Sex Isn't Good. We try to be humble, but truth be told, we are very proud of ourselves.

Update

Yesterday we received a revised proof with our previous corrections incorporated. Unfortunately the publisher has made an additional mistake, so that will delay our getting book in hand, but we still hope to have it before Mother's Day. Once again Lil and Sue are on opposite coasts, but that doesn't keep us from working together! Meanwhile Lil is already getting speaking requests because of the book, and Sue has had physicians interested in purchasing When Sex Isn't Good for their patients. As soon as we have the URL to order the book on line we will let you know, but you can always sign up for information on our book website.

Hard at Work

Although we intended to take pictures of us on computers, sitting side by side (which we did whenever the sun was too strong or down for the evening), here are a couple of photos of us hard at work. We were actually discussing what needed to be done for the book ... and a few other things maybe!

Back home again

We've been home a few days. St. Maarten was a wonderful vacation but also a work time for us, since we received the proof while we were there. On Wednesday the document went back to the publisher with all our corrections (far more than we had anticipated, but mostly one letter or one word changes). We expect the final proof in another week to ten days, which will put the real book in our hands the first week of May, if all goes on schedule. As soon as we have the online ordering information we will post it, but we will be happy to e-mail you with it if you want to write to us requesting info at whensexisntgood@comcast.net. You can also use that e-mail to schedule a book signing, book club event or speaker for a function.

To fill you in on our personal news, since so many of you have asked.... Lil's son left Massachusetts yesterday with his National Guard unit. As a captain, he has some training to do in Mississippi before being shipped to Iraq this summer. I know you all join us in wishing him safe passage, and hope the war will be over soon. Jeff, we are all proud of you and your fellow soldiers, and pray that each and every one of you returns to your home safely. Sue and Irwin have been busy traveling to California where they are setting up a new multi-disciplinary sexual medicine facility for patient care, education and research, called San Diego Sexual Medicine. As authors we will be living on opposite coasts, but hope to meet in the middle for the Oprah Show and other opportunities to share our book publicly.

The Proof

It's here! We sat anxiously waiting for the proof of the cover of When Sex Isn't Good to download, hoping it hadn't been changed significantly from the cover Jeremy had designed for us, and they hadn't touched it! Then we downloaded the contents of the book. We are so excited to be able to tell you that we have a 300 page book in proof form. We have two weeks to complete the proofing, but plan to have it done in plenty of time so we can get the book out to you to read. Can you tell from this post how excited we are? It looks beautiful—and we hope you feel the same way—although we may be slightly prejudiced!

We will let you know the final progress as it happens, but suffice it to say that we believe When Sex Isnt' Good will have been worth the wait.

Proofing

When Sex Isn't Good is now with the designers. We have been told it will take a little longer than the normal book because we have so many specific instructions as to layout—all the better to make the book easier for you to read!

Next week we will be on vacation in St. Maarten, and expect to receive an e-proof while there. As usual, we will get on it as soon as possible and send back corrections. But to give you a flavor of how we will be forced to work in distasteful surroundings, here is a picture from our vacation there last March.

We also want to congratulate our medical consultant, Irwin Goldstein, on his new position as Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego!

Family fotos

Since we have not posted any photographs recently, and we have heard from so many people how much you enjoy them, it seems only appropriate to show you the loves of our lives, Elijah who just went on a Caribbean vacation with his grandparents, and Tyler who recently went on a Caribbean vacation with his grandparents. Both boys cannot wait until their grandmothers' book is available for all of you to read!

Catching up

We want to apologize to all our readers for not having written since the beginning of February. Both of us have had a lot happening within our family units, but that doesn't mean we have been ignoring When Sex Isn't Good.

After submitting the manuscript, we got a very positive editorial evaluation, with some solid constructive criticism. We have reworked what we felt was necessary, reproofed the manuscript, and returned it today to the publisher to be sent to the design team. We are both out of town at present, but we will both be back in the Boston area by the time the proof is ready.

We have maintained the schedule, and the publisher has as well. We expect to have the book ready for sale before Mother's Day, in case you were looking for the perfect present....

We know you love seeing photos—we hope to have some new ones posted soon.

3 years...

As promised, the book may have been sent off to the publisher but we are still keeping you updated. We have heard back from our publisher regarding time lines, and expect that our manuscript will be back in 3 to 4 weeks with editorial comments, and then its back to work for Lil and Sue! In the meantime we are enjoying the hiatus, catching up on other tasks. Lil, in particular, decided to clean up her office and came upon the notes we took from our very first interview.....on January 22, 2004! We had forgotten, but this endeavor took us 3 whole years! But we promise it will not be another 3 years before our book is in print. In fact, if luck is with us, it may be as early as 3 months, but no promises.

FINISHED!!!!!

We're done! The book went off today to the publisher. Lil and Sue are excited, nervous, exhausted, hopeful, and wondering what will happen next. This process will take several months. We will have conversations with our production associate about starting chapters on the right, special fonts we used in special places, and other assorted minutia. We don't know how long we will have to wait for the proof, but we know we will only have 14 days in which to make corrections--a scary prospect. We also know that the president of the publishing company has taken a special interest in this book. Do you think this is because she knows Oprah is interested?

We will miss driving back and forth, working together two or three times a week, or even working on the phone with Lil in Andover and Sue in San Diego, Lil in Andover and Sue in Los Angeles, Lil in Andover and Sue in.... you get the drift. Tomorrow Lil can focus her energies on her new clients, and Sue is on yet another airplane. But we will start our days knowing that When Sex Isn't Good is one day closer to being in your hands. Thank you for all your interest and support.

Our Web site was recently updated (thanks Jeremy and Lauren) so check out the corrected table of contents. As soon as our first appearance is booked we will let you know! In the meantime, stay healthy and keep visiting because we will continue to give you updates.

Progressing

We are excited to be able to update you. Lil and Sue have now reread Part I and will finish making those corrections tomorrow. While we had hoped to get When Sex Isn't Good off to the publisher tomorrow, we are now aiming for Monday. As usual of late, we have been working independently and on the phone, as Lil has been in freezing Massachusetts and Sue has been in balmy Southern California, on business and visiting family.

We have had the Web site for the book updated recently, so feel free to check it out again, and send the URL to all your friends.

Still here!

By now you must have thought we forgot all about you, our family, friends and readers. We have taken a little time off, but have been working in different parts of the world. Having read through all the stories, making small corrections in most and a few major overhauls of others, we set those aside to work on Part II of When Sex Isn't Good. So Lil in Massachusetts in Sue in the Caribbean have read the medical sections separately, and this week will compare notes. If we can keep on schedule, getting through all of Part II this week, and rereading Part I separately so that we can make any last changes on that next week, we hope to have the book to the publisher before the end of the month. Of course the biggest problem we are having is that each of us is writing our own acknowledgments, and we can't seem to quite finish those. That's because we have so many people to thank, and we know we will leave someone out by accident, and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So let us say right now, thank you to all of you who have read, encouraged, supported, asked, loved, and been there for us through this project. We appreciate all you have done and all you will do.