I just found out today that The Book of Dead Birds was chosen as a Notable Book by the Kirayama Prize, an international literary award dedicated to promoting literature of the Pacific Rim. What a cool surprise. It is quite mind-boggling to be on the same list as Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa and Kenzaburo Oe.

First of all, I want to thank Eula Palmer for her beautiful update of my website. Now you can see my gorgeous paperback covers on my home page!

The paperbacks will be out in a couple of weeks. If you would like to help me spread the word, please send me an email at bmcg at pe dot net, and I'll send you some postcards to distribute (they're in the process of being produced and should be available soon.) Also, sign up for my Notify list (you can find a link to it on my home page), and I'll keep you posted about my upcoming events.

Starting in July, I'll be teaching Novel Writing I: Writing the First Novel online through the UCLA Writers Program. Budding novelists, please join me--it should be a lot of fun!

Here is another lovely review of Fruitflesh, brought to me by Google Alert. Thank you, Story Circle!

I'm sorry I've been lax about posting about Santa Cruz and the Brandeis Women's Luncheon. Both were utterly beautiful, magical experiences. I'm not sure I can do justice to them by trying to wrap words around them. Needless to say, I am still glowing with appreciation.

I am now part of the Readerville Author Gallery! For those of you unfamiliar with Readerville, it is a fabulous forum for readers and writers. Lots of lively, intelligent conversation (beware, though--it's addictive!)