Our GCC guest today is none other than the mother goddess of the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit, herself, Karin Gillespie!

Karin is currently hitting the road to promote her new novel, A Dollar Short, the second novel in her Bottom Dollar Girls series:

It isn’t every day a movie star steals your husband. Former beauty queen Chiffon Butrell faces that dilemma when her husband Lonnie wins a trip to Hollywood. Lonnie meets mega movie star, Janie Lynn Lauren—known as Jay-Li to her elite circle- and leaves Chiffon behind in Cayboo Creek, S.C., with three kids and no money.

Not to be missed, A DOLLAR SHORT (Simon and Schuster, August 2005) sparkles with energy and wit, as well as the compelling story of emotional loss and the strength to endure. It is a hilarious saga of loss, sisterhood, and the will to survive in small town Cayboo Creek, South Carolina.

Jennifer Weiner calls the book “As tart and delectable as lemon meringue pie… a pure delight!”

You can read an excerpt here. And you can read my conversation with Karin here!

--When you started writing Bet Your Bottom Dollar, the first novel in The Bottom Dollar Girls series, did you envision it as the beginning of a series, or did the characters ask to appear in more novels once you finished writing the first?

My very savvy editor read my book and suggested a series. At first the idea made me a little nervous, but then the characters started scrambling and shoving to have time in the spotlight and I realized that the Bottom Dollar Girls had more stories to tell.

--I love reading your blog, Southern Comfort. It is a wonderful resource for both readers and writers. What inspired you to start (and reach out via) the blog?

I didn't want my web site to be a stagnant thing and blogging seemed to the best way to keep it topical. I'm glad I did it because I've met wonderful writers through my blog and if I wasn't a blogger there would be no Girlfriend Cyber Circle. I blog about women's fiction, the writing life and promotion.

--Could you please talk a little bit about your decision to start the GCC? What were your hopes for the Circuit, and how has the experience been for you so far?

I started the GCC because I'd heard about virtual tours, and I thought they were a fabulous idea. I also knew several women writer who had blogs so I thought why not have a virtual tour with women writers only? I put a little item on my blog and the authors who wanted to join came pouring in. I initially thought 10 authors or so would be a good number, but the interest was so strong I ended up with 25 authors instead. The tour had definitely exceeded my expectations. I hear from publicists and publishers who want their authors to join, and now there's a waiting list. The authors who tour tell me they are picking up new readers and the bloggers enjoy having some great content. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

--Your characters have fabulous names: Chenille, Chiffon, Attalee, etc. How do you go about naming your characters? (And if you could share a bit about your writing process in general, that would be wonderful, too.)

My books are set in the fictional small town of Cayboo Creek so I would thumb through small-town phone books to get my names. While touring for my paperback, I visited Plains, Georgia and got a phonebook from 1978! I plan to use a lot of names from that book.

As far as process is concerned, I'm the kind of writer who doesn't outline but waits to see what the "muse" will dig up. Sometimes it's and old sock or a rotting piece of wood; others times it's a tiny bit of treasure.

--You are embarking upon the "Take Back the Tiara" tour. What can people expect who come to one of your readings? Also, I'd love to hear more about your experiences touring with the Dixie Divas.

I like to turn a book-signing on its head, making it more of an event than a signing. Expect some theatrics, including props, costumes, dollar store door prizes as well as a red carpet. I have an acting background so my talks are more performance than anything else.

I started the Dixie Divas because author signings can be so lonely, and it's hard to attract people to author talks without injecting a little pizzazz. All of the DDs have their own personalities. I'm the Dollar Store Diva, and I wear finds from the dollar store. We have a Deadly Diva who dons black and crime tape, a Tomato Queen diva and a Roseflower Diva. Our personalities are related to the books we write.

--Any advice for aspiring writers?

Learn the publishing business! Read Publishers Weekly and subscribe to Publisher's Lunch. (It's free!) Learn all the ins and outs of the genre you're writing in and join associations related to your genre. There are all kinds of forums out there that discuss what editors are looking for. Immerse yourself in your writing genre and you'll have a true advantage when you start querying agents to sell your work.

--Since I always ask a fruit-related question...What fruit most exemplifies the Bottom Dollar Girls, and why?

The Bottom Dollar Girls are tomatoes (or "maters" as we say in the South). The reason? They're bursting with juicy gossip!

--Thanks so much, Karin (and thank you for starting the GCC!) May your Take Back the Tiara Tour be a blast (not to mention a fabulous success!)

These things happened August 2nd:
My grandmother Molly was born (1884)
My sister Elizabeth was born (1972)
Her daughter Mollie Violet was born (1994)

Sister, you gave birth on your own
birthday, that day so hallow
already, the third generation
of women that day born. Sister,
my memories start that day,
the day you came home fresh
in the world, my fourth year,
Sister, my memories before that day
are yellow and fuzzy like the rug
in our room, like light
through a closed eyelid, Sister,
that day my mind slips
into Technicolor, like Dorothy
steps into Oz after all that Kansas
gray. Sister, I remember holding
you on an olive green pillow,
inhaling your burnt caramel scent,
admiring the chapped elegance
of your hands. Sister, I remember
waiting for your fingers
to open, your eyes. Sister,
that day opened the rest
of my life. My memories start
with you.

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth and Mollie! I love you!

I just found out my friend Sefi Atta won the International PEN David T.K.Wong Prize for Short Fiction 2005. Congratulations, Sefi! What a beautiful (and beautifully well-earned) achievement.

I finally got around to reading Madeleine is Sleeping, by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum. Wow. Wow! What an amazing melding of dreams and waking, the sensual and the absurd (which are often one and the same.) Each short chapter--ranging from a single sentence to two pages long--is a perfect prose poem, filled with gorgeous, haunting language and imagery. Copyright issues be damned, I have to share this chapter, which contains both birds and fruit, and thus forever won my heart:

fruit

Papa grows impatient with the fruit that litters his orchard. The air assumes the rich rot of a winery; he complains that breathing alone will make him drunk. In the evening the children wander home, bloated and sticky, but still they cannot eat the pears as quickly as they fall. The local birds, too, are so fat with apple that they can barely reach their roosts as night, and when darkness falls, the orchard floor bubbles as the sated birds make listless, halfhearted efforts at flight.

My book deal has been officially announced! Here is the listing from Publisher's Lunch:

Winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether prize Gayle Brandeis's SELF STORAGE, a humorous story of a young mother of two who loves to attend self storage auctions, and then sells her winnings at yard sales, to Anika Streitfeld of Ballantine, in a two-book deal, by Arielle Eckstut at the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).

Very exciting! PL signficantly pared down the original press release; it's kind of funny to see the book listed as a "humorous story." I do hope readers will find themselves laughing here and there, but as far as I can tell, humor is not the predominant tone of Self Storage, which delves into life after 9/11. In case you're curious, here is the original press release:

Random House Publishing Group

In her first acquisition for Ballantine, which she officially joins August 1st, Senior Editor Anika Streitfeld has acquired World rights to two novels by Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether prizewinning author Gayle Brandeis. The first, SELF STORAGE, is the moving, funny, and insightful story of a young mother of two who loves to discover what's hidden inside of things and attends self storage auctions, then sells her winnings at yard sales. Jacquelyn Mitchard says this about SELF STORAGE: "If you doubt that a deadly serious thread--also somehow all but laugh-out-loud funny--can connect the pillage of metal storage units, the fierce devotion to family, the rape of human sensibility, and the pursuit of art, read SELF STORAGE by Gayle Brandeis. Or better yet, just take the hand of its great-hearted and deeply bewildered heroine, Flan, and hang on for the ride." Brandeis's first novel was THE BOOK OF DEAD BIRDS.

The agent is Arielle Eckstut, The Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. World rights, first serial, audio inquiries to Claire Tisne, ctisne@randomhouse.com

You know, I see this in black and white, but I still can barely believe it. Part of me is expecting to get a call saying "Ooops. We made a mistake. We take it all back." But the rest of me is incredibly thrilled and deeply, deeply grateful.

For those of you in North San Diego County...

I am going to be at the Carlsbad City Library this Wednesday, August 3rd at 2pm, to read from and discuss The Book of Dead Birds over coffee and tea. The library is located at 1775 Dove Lane (a perfect address for my book, don't you think? I promise not to kill any doves during the event.) For more info, please call 760-602-2012. I hope to see some of you there!

My friend Dewi posted a fun list on her blog of what would happen if writing could be transformed into something edible. Sylvia Plath's work, for example, would be "Dark chocolate (the kind you can only get at the fancy shops--the kind that is almost entirely cocoa); wild strawberries." Ernest Hemingway's work would be "Fresh-from-the-garden raw vegetables; tart apples; blueberries; coarse brown rice." And my work would be "Fresh fruit salad (of course)."

I love lists like this. I can remember writing a list in fifth grade about which animals all the kids in my class reminded me of. I lay on my stomach my parent's bed with a pad of beige lined paper and thought very seriously about each person and their animal likeness. My best friends Emily and Sonja were both rabbits, as I recall. I think I was a monkey.

Dewi's work, by the way, would be honeydew melon (because that's what I think of when I hear her name) mixed with hot peppers--something scorching and delicious.

I was so touched by Maureen Dowd's tribute to her mom, who died last Sunday: A Women Who Found a Way to Write.

MY mom always wanted to be a writer. In 1926, when she was 18, she applied for a job at The Washington Post. An editor there told her that the characters she'd meet as a reporter were far too shady for a nice young lady.

But someone who wants to write will find a way to write. And someone who wants to change the world can do it without a big platform or high-profile byline.

It sounds like Peggy Dowd was an amazing, courageous woman. Her daughter (who looks just like her!) is carrying on her legacy beautifully--I love how Maureen Dowd can speak to power with honesty and humor and verve.

I love seeing what search terms bring people to my blog. My recent favorites are "orthopaedic halo poems", "eggplant primary kids poems", and "really great sad and groovy stories and poems" (of course the terms weren't in quotation marks in the search engines.) I love that so many people are looking for ultra-specific poems. I hope they ultimately find what they are looking for. I also hope the person searching for "sexy old woman 97201" found what he/she was looking for, too!

My life has changed a lot since my last entry.

I guess I should just come out and say it: I was offered a two book deal on Thursday. By the editor of my dreams.

I am stunned and grateful and excited and relieved and pretty damn giddy. The last few months have been full of publishing frustrations, so that makes this all the more sweet.

I got the good news in a hotel room in San Francisco, with my daughter, my sister, and my niece around to watch me sink to the bed and cry and tremble and laugh like a maniac. It was so wonderful to share that moment with them. Both my agent and my (yay!) new editor happen to have their own satellite offices in San Francisco, so we were all able to meet for lunch on Friday at the gorgeous Boulette's Larder. We drank melon spritzers that got more and more flavorful with each sip, and stared at each other in amazement, and kvelled over the timing of it all.

Aren't the names Anika and Arielle wonderful?! They are such incredible women, and I am so lucky to be able to work with both of them.

Self Storage will be published by Ballantine, Spring 2007. My next novel should come out a year or two later. I have a lot of writing and revision ahead of me, but I am looking forward to all of it.

I'm home for just a few hours between trips and thought I'd touch base. My time at the Juniper Creek Writers Conference was amazing--such a generous and warm collection of wordsmiths (plus I got to spend time with my beloved Fruitflesh editor, Renee, which is always a sublime treat! And I got to go bathing suit-and-ice cream shopping with a bunch of very cool women, Renee included!)

It was funny--my trip to Carson City, Nevada was framed by two very jaded articles about teaching writing. On the plane there, I read "Doing Time: My Years in the Creative Writing Gulag" by Lynn Freed in Harper's Magazine, and on the plane back, I read an article by Rick Moody in The Atlantic which blasted the writing workshop environment. Both articles, especially Freed's, were funny and honest, and I admit I nodded my head in agreement at certain passages, but I also found both articles kind of sad. I guess I'm new enough to teaching that I still find it exciting, and hopeful, still find my students' ambitions and efforts touching and inspiring. Maybe someday I'll be jaded and bitter about all of it (although I kind of doubt that) but for now, I love watching people find their voices, stretch their imaginations, delve deeper and deeper into their potential. And not just in my own classes.

A lovely woman came up to me at the conference to tell me how she has used the strawberry exercise from Fruitflesh in her children's writing workshops. She described how she gave the kids magnifying glasses so they could explore the strawberry all the more closely. When it was time to eat the strawberry, she turned off the light and put on classical music. "I wish you could have seen their faces," she said, and she showed me how they chewed with their eyes closed, in revery. She shared some of the poems they had written--amazing poems by kids in 2nd and 4th grade, some of them non-native English speakers, full of fresh and wild metaphors. I love how the book has such a life beyond me now, how other teachers are using it to touch people's lives.

I recently visited my friend Donna's English class at San Bernardino Valley College. Donna decided to assign The Book of Dead Birds in her class; she taught it over several weeks, using it as a jumping off point for essays and dictionary explorations and research projects. Many of her students--a very international group--had never read a novel before. To see how they responded to the book, with such insight and passion and personal involvement, moved me so deeply.

It is moments like this that make teaching, that make writing, so gratifying.

On another writing-related note, my poetry group was recently profiled in an article about poetry in the Inland Empire. I was slightly embarrassed that the article states I was "ecstatic" about having three poems accepted to journals in one week, but then one of my former students wrote to me and said something along the lines of "I guess the reporter didn't know you are ecstatic about everything!" which made me laugh out loud. The reporter is actually a good friend of mine, who I'm sure is well aware of my tendency to bubble over; contrary to my student's sweet assessment, though, I'm not always ecstatic--I can get as dark and funky and broody as anyone--but I think that teaching does induce a kind of ecstasy in me at times. It makes me feel that anything is possible, and if that's not ecstasy, what is?

The GCC visits are coming fast and furious this month! Today, our visitor is Alesia Holliday, who wrote a guest blog about the genesis of her new novel, Nice Girls Finish First:

NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST

So one day I was thinking about today’s woman, as I often do, considering that I write funny books about the everyday (and not so everyday!) things we all go through, and I was wondering about that perpetual dilemma – the Myth of the Nice Girl.

Somehow, through a peculiar evolution of the professional environment, women today are finally recognized (mostly) as equally competent, ambitious, and dedicated as men in the workforce. (We’ll leave the “we have to work smarter and harder” argument aside for now.) But yet, we have an added burden: we have to be NICE.

Now, this isn’t really tough for most women, most of the time. We were raised to be nice. That’s what little girls do, right? “Play nice!” “Be nice!” Except, well, there are times when you can’t be all that nice . . . Boyfriend cheating? Kick him to the curb! Um, in a nice way? Opposing counsel trying underhanded tactics? Notify the judge and get him sanctioned! Er, nicely?

The idea of a character who is very ambitious and a great person, but a little bit of a tough chick on the surface, really intrigued me. And I had the perfect character in Kirby Green, newly-hired exec at the Whips and Lace Co. She’d pretty much stolen every scene she was in in AMERICAN IDLE (Double RITA finalist, how cool is that??). Then I wanted to compare and contrast Kirby with a character who was so nice that she was in danger of becoming a doormat. Brianna sprang to life. My good friend who is an opera singer (no, really!) provided some great background for her. Then I set the two of them loose to play on the pages – each helping the other learn something about life, and about herself. That’s how NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST was born.

Can we be successful as women today and still retain some of that niceness that was so valued in earlier years? I think so. But nice doesn’t mean dumb, and today’s nice
girls DO finish first. They might just have to kick a little ass along the way.

Nicely.

I probably won't have much of a chance to post for awhile. My beautiful sister and her beautiful family are in town from Toronto (yay!); we're heading off to visit our parents tomorrow, then I fly off to the Juniper Creek Writers Conference on Friday (I hope to see some of you there!), and will be visiting various people and places the following week. If I have a chance to check in on the road, I will. In the meanwhile, I hope everyone will find wonderful books to read, ample inspiration for whatever art you may practice, and plenty of ripe summer fruit!

One of my favorite parts of summer is the fruit. I can remember a song from a commercial from my childhood--it was for Jewel or Dominicks or one of the other Chicago-area grocery stores: "Fresh summer fruit! Luscious peaches (peaches) juicy plums (plums) and nectarines! Fresh summer's in the bag." Ripe fruit, beaded with water, rolled around on the screen while the peppy music played.

I have had some amazing fruit this summer, from the farmer's market, and from friends' gardens--green and purple figs, tender apples, peaches that drip their juice down my arms. My favorite fruit this summer has been a certain variety of pluot (a mix of a plum and an apricot.) I've had uninspiring pluots before, tart and pale, but these pluots are a vibrant gorgeous garnet inside, almost electric, and are so fragrant and sweet and delicious, I can hardly stand it.

I love how people have figured out how to make fruit hybrids--and I'm not talking about genetically engineered food, like tomatoes with fish genes woven into their flesh, or bug-resistant potatoes, or other food that disrupts the natural order of things; I'm talking about trees that have been grafted together by hand, their roots melding into something natural but brand new. A friend told me his parents grow apples and pears from the same tree. This is so magical to me--I would love to see it, to taste it, to see if the pears are apple-y, if the apples are pear-y, or if they manage to maintain their separate identities even when they've been grafted together...

A few days ago, I blogged about MJ Rose's fabulous Good Books/Good Causes campaign (based around the Vidlit of her latest spine-and-loin-tingling novel, The Halo Effect.) Today, it's my great pleasure to have MJ as my guest during her GCC tour.

MJ Rose is a real force of nature. Not only is she a sensual, suspenseful, Anthony Award-nominated, international best-selling novelist, she is also a tireless advocate for all writers, and a much-needed whistleblower within the publishing industry. Her blog Buzz, Balls and Hype exposes the follies and triumphs of the publishing world, and explores how we can transform the business to benefit writers, publishers, and the reading public. Her other blog, Backstory, is a fascinating compendium of writers talking about the genesis of their novels.

I had the chance to ask MJ a few questions. Here is our exchange:

--Thank you for being such a fierce and generous advocate for writers. Could
you talk about how you came to want to empower writers (and, in the process,
revolutionize the publishing industry)?

Well, I'm flattered, but I certainly don't think of myself as being a revolutionary. Though the longer I'm in this business the more it's clear it needs a big revolution.

I never set out to do anything but get published and have a few people read my work.

At first, for three long years, I had every door slammed in my face and had to deal with a huge amount of rejection. And then when I decided that I wanted to "test market" my novel by way of self publishing it and getting reader reactions, I was met with outright hostility. From booksellers to published authors, I was treated pretty much as a no-talent non-entity. In fact, I was told over and over from the industry at large that if I was any good, I would have been published the "normal" way and I was destroying any chance I had at a career.

I can't tell you how much anger and resentment I felt towards this business I so badly wanted to get involved with. I knew quite a few indy filmmakers and couldn't understand why they got applause and their own film festival and writers who struck out on their own got the metaphorical finger.

It made me furious. But also more determined. And it did eventually lead to me getting published.

And then, there I was with a book coming out and all those negative feelings.

At the same time, I was doing a lot of reading about Buddhism for research for
a new novel and I realized how I needed to deal with all my pent up feelings.

I was going help other writers as much as I could so that no one else would have to go through what I'd gone through. That would dilute the anger. Every time I wanted to scream, I'd try to do something that was positive. It was all about karmic energy not about changing anything.

At about the same time, I got a job as a columnist covering the publishing industry for Wired.com and really got to understand the business inside out. The more I learned, the more I saw this huge disconnect between how authors and publishers dealt with each other and how authors were so disenfranchised from their own books once they turned them in.

Without planning to, I started focusing more and more of my journalism on that schism and trying to come up with solutions for how to erase it.

--I love your Good Books/Good Cause campaign. How did you come up with the idea?

I keep trying to up the ante when it comes to how authors can help promote their own work but at the same time I'm very conscious of how obnoxious self promotion can be and how much most of us - including me - really hate to do it.

To that end, I keep trying to come up with stuff and then be the guinea pig. In 1998, I used banner ads to get the word out about the self pubbed book before other authors did that. Then in 2000, I was the first author to do a virtual book tour, which got written up in Salon and was tons of fun. Every time I had a new book out, I tried to come up with something else. Some stuff has failed miserably, some succeeded. (Backstory - which was the first glog - group blog - for authors worked really well.)

Getting attention for any one book is harder than ever.

The problem that we're facing is 3000-5000 marketing messages a day, a dropping readership in newspapers and magazine - where readers find out about books, 25% -50% fewer book reviews across all media, and so much competition for readers' time from the Internet, iPod's, cable TV, cell phones, etc.

But blogs are getting a lot of attention, and in a way that I think can have some real meaning. Each blogger gets his or her following, has a voice, can seriously connect. So I wanted to come up with a really good reason that bloggers would be willing to link to a book and mention an author.

About a year ago, I started working on an idea that eventually led to Good Books/Good Cause. The jury is still out, but I hope it works. I'd like to do
one book a month, and then one a week, and get a lot of exposure for a lot of
authors and do something positive for a few charities in the process.

--What are you working on now?

I'm working on a novel that will be out in January of 2007. Yikes, that sounds far away. I never talk about books in progress, though.

--I always ask GCC visitors a fruit-related question. Because your writing
is so sexy and full of mystery, I was wondering--which fruit do you find the
sexiest, or most mysterious (or both!) and why?

Pomegranate. It's so complicated with all those chambers inside, like rooms in an underground cavern. The seeds are covered with such a thin layer of jewel like meat. You can barely scrape off enough with your teeth to actually feel like you are eating anything. But you are. Your whole mouth reacts. And then there is the mysterious story connected to this fruit which goes back as long as we have storytellers. As if all that isn't enough, the fruit leaves your fingers and your mouth stained. Marked. It can never be a secret that you ate one, the evidence shows itself.

Thanks Gayle, this was fun. You're books are wonderful and so are you to do
this.

--Thank you so much, MJ; it was wonderful to have you here! Thank you all you continue to do on the behalf of writers everywhere. May the Good Books/Good Causes campaign be a resounding success for The Halo Effect and beyond!

I love finding poetry in unexpected places, so I was excited when my poem "Nashi" was recently selected to appear on java jackets at Michaelangelo's and Fair Trade coffee houses in Madison, WI. The poetic java jackets are part of Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, the brainchild of poet Shoshauna Shy, who wanted to bring poetry out of the library and the classroom. The website lists some of her previous campaigns:

In the summer of 2004, 18 different poets from all parts of the country had their poems laminated onto bookmarks and attached to 90 bicycles belonging to Budget Bicycle's Red Bikes "free" rental pool. In the fall of 2004, 15 poets contributed to hand-sized books placed in the glove compartments of Community Car which is a local company that has a fleet of cars shared by a membership.

I think this is so wonderful. Poetry should be everywhere.

After thinking so much about the vulnerability of the body yesterday, I woke up today to the horrible news of the bombings in London. So many innocent bodies destroyed, injured, traumatized. I hate how war and other terrorist acts target our vulnerable living, breathing bodies to make ideological statements (and when I say bodies, I am including the minds and spirits so entwined in our flesh.) These idealogues are so detached from the native wisdom and compassion of the body, they have no compunction about harming other bodies--bodies to them are numbers, objects, rather than sentient beings with memories and desires and dignity.

My poem The Body Politic of Peace addresses this, in a way. It was lovely to do a search online and discover that the poem has been used by yoga studios and churches and other spiritual centers as a meditation.

May we as a people some day learn to live together, and in our own bodies, in peace.

I found out today that my son has a fractured shoulder. He's had it for awhile--over a month--but we didn't know it was fractured until today. He had a bad spill on his mountain bike a few days before our trip to Washington; he scraped up his face and arms pretty severely, but didn't seem to have any other injuries. His shoulder started hurting several days into our trip, the same time he developed a fever of 104. We took him to an urgent care center--the doctor there said that the fever and the shoulder pain were most likely viral--the virus had probably lodged in his muscles, she said. We gave him ibuprofen and waited for it to get better. And it did, although his shoulder has been sporadically hurting since then--a sign that it was most likely not a virus. Lately, his shoulder started hurting even more, so I finally scheduled an appointment with my husband's orthopedic surgeon. I should have done that a long time ago, I realize now. I'm kicking myself about this. Although I guess there wasn't anything we really could have done. The bone is healing nicely on its own. But I just feel so horrible knowing that my son has been walking around with a fractured shoulder--a shoulder that formed in my own body!--and we had no clue.

The body is so much more vulnerable than we'd like to believe. I had a weird body thing happen a few days ago, myself. I woke up on Saturday morning with strange red blotches under my eyebrows. It looked as if someone had dotted the tops of my eyelids, and part of the area under my eyes, with a red pen. I did some nervous web searching, and found that the most likely candidate was burst blood vessels--they usually happen around the eyes after violent coughing or vomiting. Fortunately, I had done neither of those, but I had done some handstands the night before (sometimes I just get an urge to do handstands) and I think that was the culprit. Amazing how something like a simple handstand can cause mayhem!

I think the vulnerability and unpredictability of the body make it all the more beautiful, all the more worthy of our appreciation and respect. We're in these bodies for such a short time--we might as well love them tenderly and passionately, splotches and fractures and all.

More inspiration for the day--the indefatigable, ever-inspiring MJ Rose has created the "GOOD BOOKS/GOOD CAUSE BLOG-A-THON" campaign.

She writes:

The goal of this two-week campaign is to connect book lovers with a good cause and a great summer read via the vidlit for THE HALO EFFECT.

I've secured pledges from real-life supporters - my publisher, agent,
family and friends - who will collectively donate $5 to the nonprofit literacy organization, Reading Is Fundamental, for each website or blog that links to the Vidlit for THE HALO EFFECT before July 19.

The goal is to get at least 500 blogs to link and raise $2500+ for the charity.

I am happy to add my blog to the list. The vidlit is a great peek into the spirit of MJ's sexy, suspenseful novel. And I love that the woman pictured in the vidlit has a real body--not a wafer-thin model frame. Plus, RIF is such a fabulous organization--I was always thrilled when the RIF people came to my elementary school to launch the annual read-a-thon. It was such a treat to get a free book at the end of the time period; I was always so happy and proud to show my teacher the list of books I had read. I need to start keeping lists of the books I read now--I did that a few years ago, but drifted away from the practice; it would be nice to have a record of the stories that pass through me, move me, change me...

You can read my thoughts about the latest book I read, Specimin Days, over at my other blog.

My inspiration for the day:

This amazing sestina by Chris Stroffolino

and

This LA Times story about Lisa Salem, an artist who decided to chronicle her walk across LA (she rigged a camera to a babystroller and is posting updates on her blog.) I especially loved this quote:

"I like the idea of doing something absurd, passionately. To me that's poetic, but you have to find a roundabout way to access that kind of poetic feeling, especially in L.A."

And her process sounds a lot like my creative process:

"During the first week I realized that a lot of this project is about
serendipity," Salem says. "Rather than imposing any kind of agenda, I want to see what comes in front of the camera. The point isn't to do an anthropological survey of each area. It's not about 'this place is like this and that place is like that' but more about what happens when I just do the walk."

In my earlier post about Deep Impact, I forgot to mention how tickled I was by the food metaphors in the on-air commentary. For awhile, the people at JPL were calling the comet a pickle. Then they briefly called it a banana. Then an eggplant. Matt thought it looked more like a potato with an eye. I thought a slightly bruised avocado was more like it.

Kelly Link writes amazing metaphors, food related and not. And now you can download one of my favorite story collections of the last few years, her fabulous Stranger Things Happen, for free here. Kelly's new book, Magic for Beginners is just out now. I can't wait to read it. I had the pleasure of meeting Kelly and her partner Gavin at BEA last year, and am so impressed with everything they do together at Small Beer Press.

Proof that good writing is not only good for the soul, it's good for the people: Poor Writing Costs Taxpayers Millions.

I hope everyone had a happy Independence Day (I personally celebrated my independence from our administration--at least philosophically and emotionally. And my interdependence with the rest of the planet.) We saw some spectacular fireworks--I am especially fond of the shimmery, sparkly, gold ones--but we saw even more amazing fireworks the night before, during NASA and JPL's Deep Impact mission. We had NASA TV streaming on Matt's computer for a couple of hours--my sister in law Sharon's boyfriend Steve is on the navigational team, and it was fun to see him on the screen, wandering around Mission Control, his long hair flapping. I got a little teary when the projectile hit the comet and burst into white light. I have to admit I have some reservations about the space program--I worry that it diverts resources that our own beleagured planet could benefit from--but at the same time, I am in awe that we as humans have figured out how to go into space. And it is truly wonderful--wondrous, really--to learn more about this universe we live in.

It's Buy a Friend a Book Week! Thanks to author Debra Hamel for creating this wonderful movement and letting me know about it!

I actually bought a book for a friend (my daughter's friend) earlier today before I even knew that this was BAFABW. My daughter is obsessed with all things Japanese, so we went to the Anime Expo today (a wild and slightly overwhelming experience! Lots of people with neon hair and school-girl mini-skirts and swords and capes and dramatic make up. Hannah named herself Zika Moonbeam, sprayed the tips of her hair blue, colored her lips black, and wore a groovy purple dress that I had worn in a dance performance she and I did together when she was 2.) We picked up copies of the Crayon Shinchan manga for her and her friend Sara (aka Lola). Not fine literature, but books, nonetheless!

To celebrate Buy a Friend a Book Week, I want to offer a special deal. I will send a free signed first edition hardcover of either The Book of Dead Birds or Fruitflesh to the first person who can prove you bought one of my books for a friend this week (you can email me the receipt if you purchase it online.)

Happy reading! Happy giving!

We've had the Live 8 Concerts streaming at home all day--Stevie Wonder just finished singing "Superstition" in Philadelphia; Pink Floyd recently played in London. So inspiring to see people coming together to fight poverty through the arts. I read that tens of thousands of people wearing white created a human chain around the capital in Edinburgh today, where the G8 Summit is being held. Just thinking about that image gives me chills. We have so much collective power, and I love to see that being embodied (with so many bodies!) We have so much individual power, too. If you have a chance to see the G8-themed HBO movie, The Girl in the Cafe, please check it out--it is a beautiful and hopeful vision of how one voice can change the world.