Manual for Motherhood and Amazon.com - July 27th!

Wow, I haven't posted anything here in awhile. I can't even say that life has been hectic, because it really hasn't.

Anyway, I wanted to pass on a note from the Editor of The Manual For Motherhood: Volume 1. I hope that if any of you are up for a good book and haven't yet read this one, you'll think about picking it up from Amazon on July 27th. Christine Fugate, the editor, is absolutely wonderful to work with and an amazing writer herself. You can check her website out at: Mothering Heights.

Here's what she sent me:

Mothering Heights The Run for Number One

July 2008~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you know that my anthology book The Mothering Heights Manual for Motherhood is a bestseller on Amazon? Well, not yet but it could be with your help! I have just learned that a book's ranking can be greatly altered if people buy the book on the SAME day. It also captures the attention of the Amazon's promotion engine (for example, the 'if you like this, you would like this' offers).

On Sunday, July 27th, we will be making our 'Run for Number One.' While the book obviously won't become Amazon's #1 seller, it can become #1 in the Parenting category. Running the numbers up on Amazon gives The Mothering Heights Manual for Motherhood a chance at getting the attention it deserves. Called 'hysterical' (BookLoons) and 'a must-read, must-share for moms' (Coast Kids), the book needs this bump for mainstream media coverage.

I could use your help on making the 'little book that could' a notable book on Amazon. If you still haven't bought a copy or know someone who is having a baby or a birthday, The Manual makes a great present. Of course, feel free to pester your friends, family and postal workers to also partake in this obsession.

Thank you again for your continued support of Mothering Heights and its many adventures.

In love & laughter,

Christine

***********************

Like I said, the book is a great read. If you're interested and able, July 27th would be the perfect day to pick it up.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Or trying to, anyway.

Today I subbed out two things. The first was a fiction piece under my pen name. I'm not really expecting anything to come out of it, unfortunately. It's a 100-word "drabble". They're kind of hard to place and even harder to write. I'd like to think I wrote a complete story in 100 words, but maybe it's just a scene. We'll see what the editor thinks, anyway.

I think I mentioned here that I got another rejection on a parenting essay I wrote a few weeks ago. The editor had good things to say about it, but decided to pass. So after letting it set for awhile, I rewrote parts of it and I think it flows a lot better. Of course, I thought that the last five revisions of the essay.... I think this is it, though. The Last Revision. At some point you just have to spot tinkering with essays and I think I'm at it with "Blow and Gene".

So I subbed it out today to an anthology.... which I'm also not expecting anything out of, either. But if it gets rejected there, I have a few more spots where I think it might fit. Gotta keep trying.

The real problem comes when you can't find a spot to "fit" something. I have one more story that could go out, I just don't know where it should go out to. I've been trying to place it for about three years now and while I've gotten quite a few positive responses on it, I just cannot sell the darn thing. I think it's just waiting for it's ship to come in. :-)

I guess it's on to Duotrope to find a spot for my unpublishable story. I love that website. If you're a writer and don't know what it is, check it out - you'll fall in love, too, I'm sure.

New Post at MotherVerse

I posted again at Motherverse.... here's the link: It's the litte things

And here's a teaser:

Yesterday, after finishing work, I drove over to my son’s daycare to pick him up. I parked the car and walked across the asphalt to the playground where he was swinging on the monkey bars, a slender, blond haired little guy in black shorts and a white t-shirt. He’s getting so big that on the lowest bars, when his arms are stretched above him and his legs are pointed towards the ground, his feet skim the mulch.

The sight of those sandal-clad feet skimming the ground only served to remind me how much time was passing and how I just want to slow down a minute and breath, to savor the moments I have with him. It makes me wonder if I’m spending enough time with him. I wonder if I, as one parent, can be strong enough to be both parents for him. I wonder if I’m doing enough for him.

It's official! Book signing / reading

I will be signing "How to Fit A Car Seat on a Camel: And Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids" on August 23rd at the Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem, PA., along with fellow Car Seat Author Elrena Evans.

There will be some children's activities as well as our reading and signing, and there's a tentative plan for a contest with a copy of the signed book as the prize (signed by me, Elrena, and Sarah Franklin, the editor).

So!

August 23rd!

Bethlehem!

Me probably hyperventilating and being a complete spaz!

It's going to be fabulous.

Time Bandit by the Hillstrand Brothers

I feel obligated to say something about this book because for some reason, the majority of people coming to my blog have googled "Johnathan Hillstrand" and gotten my page (and scarily enough, one person googled torture stories and landed on my blog... can I just say WTF?).

So here's a mini book review, in case you're so inclined.

It was good. It was really, really, really good.

Here's the longer version:

I absolutely love Deadliest Catch. I am a Deadliest Catch geek. El Nino and I watch it every Tuesday - I even let him stay up for it. My dad and I discuss the previous episodes on the weekends. Right now, I am currently alternating between wanting to smack Phil Harris and hug him (and if you watch the show, you know why).

So of course I bought Time Bandit. In fact, I'm apparently not the only one who ran out the week it hit the shelves, as I got the last copy at my local Borders that week. I don't have the book on me at the moment, only because my brother is currently reading it.

But here are my thoughts- parts of it might not be the best written, but that's just the writer in me. But that didn't really bother me, because I still finished it in like two days. And the reason it didn't bother me is because of how true and honest Johnathan and Andy are in their writing.

Yeah, they can be full of piss and vinegar. They have that tough guy swagger and sure, at times I felt like they were sexist. But you know what? That's what they are and that thrilled me to no end.

Because they ring so true on the TV show, I was really afraid that when I picked up the book I was going to be disappointed. I wanted them to be rough and tumble guys. I wanted the piss and vinegar. And they delivered. They're totally honest in the book and I respect them for that more than anything. Sometimes they haven't made the best choices and they acknowledge that, but it's just who they are.

But at the same time, that honesty really opened up my eyes to a lot of things. Things like growing up in Alaska and what really happens on the show. It opened my eyes up to the editing process... not in a bad way, really, but it was interesting to read.

And the part about their father dying was just heartbreaking. They mentioned it on After The Catch this week (yes, dork, I know - I can't help it), so I don't think I'm giving anything away, but... when their father died, the three brothers buried him themselves. That just really struck me - I just can't imagine burying a parent with your own two hands.

I think his burial also really highlighted the whole Alaskan mentality, too, and showed me how different it really is from my little suburban naivety.

Anyway, I recommend the book. If you're a fan of the show (and like the Time Bandit), you really can't go wrong.

The only bad thing? I found out that they had a book signing very close to my house... the day after the book signing. It's my luck. El Nino and I were both very disappointed.

And the hits keep coming...

Besides class and massive amounts of work (which I need to get back to), in the last 2 days I've gotten three rejections on my stuff. Three! I've been waiting months for one of them, the other I wasn't expecting for months, and the last one I thought I had a good shot of getting in. And... nope.

I wish they could've waited until next week. It just kind of blows. The one story I'm pretty much giving up on, I think. I'm going to give it one more shot, then it's officially being retired. After all, it's been floating around out there for three years and it's been sent to about a hundred magazines. I'm thinking that it's just not sellable at this point. Oh well.

The kicker is, that most of the editors I've sent it to have good things to say about it, but in the end it's too much like "poetry" than short fiction and it's never quite right for the magazine. Nuts.

So, at the moment, I have nothing out there, which is the first time in three years that I haven't had at least one story/essay out for submission. And sending anything out is going to have to wait until next week.

I have to admit, it feels weird. Kind of like I'm slacking.

On a plus note, at least I won't get any more rejections!

Academic Torture

Lordy.

I'm taking a week long summer course. The good news about it: instead of 8am to 5:30pm, the prof is making it 8:30am to 4pm (no lunch break, however - we have to bring it with and eat in class).

I have a 30 page paper due (she gave us an extension option, otherwise it'd be due on Monday - you better believe I'm taking the extension), an entire student course manual to read and fill out (on top of the textbook), 2 presentations, a research article and a final exam. And a partridge in a pear tree.

So why am I on here and not doing the buttloads of work I have?

Because if I don't take a break, I'm going to go into a psychotic break. I had 7 hours of Freud and an hour of Carl Jung - and we were supposed to do Adler but never got to him. She REALLY likes Freud. He's interesting, but not that interesting.

Not to mention my legs are freaking going to fall off, because my group decided to run downtown for lunch. I didn't know how far downtown we were going to go, but apparently the first 15 places we passed weren't good enough... but Subway almost at the end of main street was the only obvious choice. Ugh.

When you're a chubby chick in flip flops with one fully loaded purse (including 6 action figures) and a shoulder bag with two textbooks, one notebook, your lunch bag, a huge water bottle, and your laptop, AND THEN you realize that you have to be back at 12:30 and it's, oh, 12:30 NOW and your companions (who are both a good 6 inches taller and considerably skinnier than yourself) decide to haul ass and then make a crack about to you about getting some exercise(and therefore inferred fat ass)... you get a little cranky. Okay, a lot cranky.

I'm going to go back to my book. But it's going into the bubble bath with me.