and also the editors, supporters, and each of you who purchased a copy.
If you have anything nice yourself to say, please feel free to comment.

Dear contributors, angels, saints, mischief-makers, miracle workers,

Today marks exactly four months from my surgery.
I am well, whole, and sane, largely because of you.
I just finished a cross-country tour which I likely would not have been
able to undertake at all, without the generosity of my amazing friends and
benefactors, namely yourselves. Not only have I been surrounded by
healing energy all this time, I have been freed from the shadow of my
first terrifying grown-up debt.

At every opportunity in my live performances since I got back on the road
in late January, I have pointed out the unprecedented wonder which is the
Ravens in the Library anthology. Obviously I can't describe all of the
magic which makes up the book in my patter between songs on stage, but I
give it my best. My fans will back me up on this, I hope.

My one regret is that I cannot at this moment thank each of you in person,
let you read in my eyes what it means to me that you came to my rescue
when given the opportunity. I, small girl with guitar who runs around
singing for her friends and stealthily making a living at it, deserve all
of this magic, all of these wonders? Some would say no, but you have said
yes. The fact is that this anthology is so incredible, so unbelievable,
that I am still reminding myself here, now, in the spring, that it's real,
that I can hold it and read it, as can everyone. And so, my words of
gratitude can never be enough.

What I can do, which I hope will add up to something like 'enough' one
day, is keep singing, keep adding more interesting art to the world, just
as each of you do. Wherever I go, I can keep telling the story of how I
was once rescued not so very long ago, by an army of magicians and
avengers and artists and wordsmiths, most of whom gave of their talents in
spite of not knowing me at all. This in itself is an incredible tale, but
at the end, I can always pull the actual, tangible book from under my
bard's cloak, to prove it true.

I fail horribly at 'damsel in distress', but hopefully I won't get a
chance to practice it further.
Thank you for all that you have done.
With more gratitude than my body can hold,
S. J. Tucker

Just got word from Ginger, so I'm spreading it.
Go help my girls! If they don't get enough money for their tour, we might not get to meet up again as the Traveling Fates next month, and I will be a sad, sad Sooj.

Hullo from GBmojo!

We wanted to let you all know where we're at with the Summer Tour Fundraiser and Sale: An effort to raise the dough we need to hit the road this summer!

OUR GOAL: Raise $1,000 by Saturday 5/23/09

OUR STRATEGY: Have a big ol' sale by offering you crazy savings on GBmojo Merchandise AND open up our Online Tip Jar for donations in ANY amount! (No really, any amount from $1 and up!) :)

RAISED SO FAR: $490.00 (wahooo! THANK YOU!)
STILL TO GO: $610.00
DAYS LEFT TO DO IT: 4!!!!

To get your limited-time-discount merchandise, come see us at
http://www.gbmojo.com/buymerch.cfm

If you'd like to make a secure donation to our online tip jar (in ANY amount), you can do so by cutting and pasting the following link into your browser. Remember: many pebbles, big pile. Even a little goes a long way when you multiply it by the power of the people!
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5580706

Thank you for all you do! We'll be looking for you soon out on the road.

xoxoBekah&Ginger
GBmojo

"Next to mine and Phil's, she knows your voice best," Emily told me, holding her tiny 5-week-old daughter Harper in her arms.  "We listen to your CDs all the time!"

I remember vividly the music my mother and father played for me when I was very small.  There was a surfeit of classical music, for which I'll always be grateful:  Beethoven, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky (my favorite), Dukas, Gershwin, Copland, Wagner, Rossini, Haydn, Dvorak...the list goes on. 

There was the music my mother loved and sang to me, sang along with when she played it for me:  The Beatles, Carly Simon, John Denver, James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, The Mamas & the Papas, Marvin Gaye, and Carole King. 

There was the music my father loved passionately, which half the time had no words, but almost always had a horn section:  Ray Charles, Canadian Brass, Dizzy Gillespie, Chicago, Dave Brubeck, and Louis Armstrong. 

I came to love all of this music on my own, and I've been adding colors and flavors and elements to this childhood baseline, pun intended, ever since.

In the past few years, so many of my friends and fans have had children, have been raising children, have sent loved ones off to war, have gone to war.  Stories come back to me on the wind, or spoken with love and smiles:  whole groups of soldiers falling asleep to my music overseas, comforted for a while; a small knot of the newest generation of great thinkers and movers and shakers, with me for their lullaby as well, every night. 

This is why I sing.
This is why I do what I do.
I will never tire of these stories, this news.
I will never stop smiling at the wonder of the power music holds, the good that it can do.

I may never grow out of the humbleness that comes over me when I hear from a soldier, or from someone who loves him/her, that his/her whole squad is rocking out to, or gets rocked to sleep by, an album of mine, in a hostile place where, in my mind, they really should not have to go, where comforts are few.

I may never be able to speak of how amazing it is to know that there are mothers who love my voice and my work enough to feed it happily to their own children, to let my work influence their own life's work, the way that my mother and father fed their favorite music to me.

I am someone's Carole King. 

This is my happy thought today.  This will carry me through a whole lot of despair, should it ever come.  I am doing what I set out to do.  I am making a difference.  I am making someone's life better by being myself, sharing my art. 

What more could I ever want? 


Today is my lover's birthday.  Happy 34th, Kevin!  I love you, and I'm so glad you're here.