My Town Monday: Ruby Foos, New York City

I have wanted to eat at Ruby Foos since the spring of 2007.

Oh, you say, why in the world would a woman living in San Diego have Ruby Foos on her mind for three-ish years?

The story goes like this:

On Wednesday, March 28, 2007, a literary agent by the name of Kristin Nelson was visiting New York City and had lunch with a Delacorte Press/Random House editor named Wendy Loggia. About 2,800 miles away, an aspiring San Diego author snacked on too much licorice.

That night, in her hotel room, Kristin Nelson kicked off her high heels, donned her comfy sweats, and fired up her laptop (I don't know that it happened EXACTLY like this, but it might have! ). She blogged:

It’s late so I only have time for a quick blog entry. Today I had lunch with Wendy Loggia from Delacorte (a children’s imprint at Random House).

We ate at the yummy Ruby Foo’s on Broadway (which is an editor hang out by the way). You can always spot publishing folks here around lunchtime because of the close proximity to the Random House Building.

Wendy mentioned that she would love to see a MG or YA mystery (think a modern Joan Lowery Nixon-type author who can reinvent something fresh).

Even later that night, the San Diego woman woke up with insomnia and a stomachache. She decided to forget about sleep for a while and padded down the hall to her teeny tiny office to surf the net. Lo and behold, she stumbled upon Kristin's blog. "Oh, oh oh," the aspiring San Diego author squealed to no one in particular as everyone in her house was fast asleep. "That could be my little Sherry!" She immediately cut and pasted the blog post into an email and shot it off to her agent, Rachel Vater, back in New York City.

Rachel added Editor Wendy's name to the submission list. And by May 17, we had a two-book deal for I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES and I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY. (Naturally, it wasn't quite this cut and dried. Agent Rachel worked her special brand of magic. She got other editors interested. She negotiated a two-book contract. But, by the end of an exciting day in May, we did sign with Editor Wendy. Yay!)

So, on October 27, 2010, Child #4 and I walked to Ruby Foos for our pre-theatre dinner (la di da!) before seeing Wicked (beyond amazing!) at the Gershwin Theatre.

At Ruby Foos, I ordered the house salad (which came in a bowl made of cucumber slices!) and sushi. Child #4 had dumplings and white rice (She's a bit of a carb fanatic.). And while I was waiting for my food, I gazed around the restaurant and wondered where Kristin Nelson and Wendy Loggia had sat and what they had eaten on that fateful day in Ruby Foos back in 2007.

This week, I'm the hostess with the mostest for My Town Monday. So, if you've put up a MTM post, let me know in the comments section here or on the official My Town Monday blog. And I'll link to you on both blogs. Happy Monday!


Oh, and here's a link to Kristen Nelson's momentous blog post.