For a Good Cause

Only for charity will I dress up in a chain of plastic bottles. (Tom's wearing a hat with a plane on it made from recycled tin cans.) I'll also be sporting a hand bag made from recycled dryer sheet boxes. Tres chic, n'est pas? Tonight Tom and I, along with a friend of ours, are battling in our town's spelling bee for literacy. Our team's name is The Three Rs and we hope to inspire our town to have recycling pick-up. All proceeds from the teams' entry fees as well as donations go to our local Adult Literacy Center. Wish us luck!! We need it.

Snow

Last week I finally got to see snow in my back yard:

Storyglossia's Issue 26

is now live. Looks like lots of good reading in there. I can't wait to dig in.

My guest-edited issue will be live in early March.

The Liar's Diary: Blogging for Patry Francis

I'm great about buying all my writer friends' books, but ever since this summer, they've been stacking up, calling to me from my shelves. You see, the summer is when I started getting behind on my reading. The Liar's Diary by Patry Francis is one of those books calling to me. In fact, it's right over my right shoulder on my shelf as I sit and read submissions right now for Storyglossia. And I know how good a read it's going to be because of the response of her readers.

"The Liar's Diary" is now out in paperback and if you haven't bought it already in hardcover, do yourself a favor and buy it now! And stop by Patry's blog where she inspires her readers with her honesty, grace, and courageous wisdom.

From LitPark:

"Today, over 300 bloggers, including bestsellers, Emmy winners, movie makers, and publishing houses have come together to talk about THE LIAR'S DIARY by Patry Francis. Why? To give the book the attention it deserves on its release day while Patry takes the time she needs to heal from cancer."

If you buy directly from Penguin you get 15 percent off!



Patry, you rock.

Cancelled

I've cancelled my My Space account. I got tired of all the spam/pirates. Facebook is probably next...

"The Sky Isn't Visible from Here"

Felicia Sullivan's new memoir is available in bookstores. (Mine is on its way!!!) If you want to hear Felicia read, here's a list of her events:

Bookstore EventsTuesday, February 5—NEW YORK CITY—Barnes & Noble Chelsea, 7:00 pm
Thursday, February 7—PORTLAND, OR—Powell’s (Hawthorne Boulevard), 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 9—SEATTLE, WA—Elliot Bay Books, 7:30 pm
Tuesday, February 14—MILWAUKEE, WI—Schwartz Books, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, February 19—NEW YORK CITY—KGB Non Fiction Series, 7:00 pm
Wednesday, February 20—NEW YORK CITY—PAGE Series, National Arts Club, 7:00 pm
Saturday, February 23—NEW YORK CITY—Ear Inn Reading Series, 326 Spring Street, 3:00 pm
Monday, March 3—CAMBRIDGE, MA—Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, 7:00 pm
Sunday, March 16—BOSTON, MA—Grub Street, 160 Boylston Street., 7:00 pm
Thursday, April 10—NEW YORK CITY—KGB Behind the Book Series, 7:00 pm
Thursday, April 24—NEWTON, MA—Books & Brews, Newtonville Books 296 Walnut St., 7:00 pm
Friday, May 9—LOS ANGELES, CA–Booksoup, 8818 W Sunset Blvd., 7:00 pm
Sunday, June 15—BROOKLYN, NY—Sunday Salon @ Stainbar, 766 Grand Street., 7:00 pm

Radio Events
Wednesday, February 6-Motherhood Uncensored Radio Show, 9:00 pm

Virtual Blog ToursFebruary 11-February 29 Mother Talk BLOG TOUR

Note: all events are in EST

Disgusted

As if the facts exposed by Eric Schlosser in his book Fast Food Nation aren't alarming enough, this country is now taking slaughtering for cash one step further: cloning. I've never had much faith in the FDA to begin with, and this latest decision to okay cloning animals for mass slaughtering (and milk--ew) strengthens my distrust and disgust.

It's ironic really, that as more and more Americans educate themselves on the benefits of eating local, organically raised, produce and meats, the government approves a transparent attempt from the cattle industry (and others) to make more money than its greedy hands can hold by unethical means.

You are what you eat. Shoveling in that hamburger made of meat that happens to be tainted with shit, antibiotics, growth hormones, and a myriad of other chemicals from a cow that's been mistreated and inhumanely slaughtered won't make you healthy, baby.

Let's take the power (and money) from the people who care nothing about us, our families and the health of the planet and back to us where it belongs. We can do this by going to our local markets and insisting they give us healthier choices. No cloned meat. Only locally-grown or responsibly raised meat from now on. And if you find you're not getting anywhere that way, you can order your meat online.

Storyglossia's Crime/Noir Issue

Submissions are now closed for Issue 27, the issue guest-edited by me. Anthony Neil Smith will be guest-editing Issue 28, a special crime/noir issue. Should be a great issue!

guidelines are here.

Per Contra Contest

From Bill Turner:

Per Contra has featured winners of The MacArthur Award, the Caine Prize, the Orange Prize, the Walt Whitman Award, the Flannery O'Connor Award, the Pushcart Prize and more. Per Contra has published authors from the United States and North America, South America, Europe, Africa and South Asia .

Our March 2008 issue features former poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate) Daniel Hoffman, Pulitzer Prize Winning former poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate) Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet John Updike, poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate) William Jay Smith and O. Henry Prize winner Stephen Dixon, as well as great emerging writers from around the world.

You may have seen our ad in the Fall 2007 Edition of Poets and Writers.

We are now accepting submissions for the 2008 Per Contra Prize. Because of the public interest generated by our lineup for the Spring, we are working hard to find talented emerging writers to submit manuscripts for the Prize. The grand prize winner will be published in our Spring 2008 issue.

Grand Prize is $1,000 and publication at our regular professional rates. The top ten stories submitted will be published at our regular professional rates during the 2008 editorial calendar.

Deadline for Entry is January 31, 2008. We would appreciate it if you would spread the word in your writer's group and to friends. This is an excellent opportunity for an emerging writer to be published with several elite writers and poets.

You can find us on the web at http://www.percontra.net/ .

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Best Wishes,
Bill Turner
Editor

Storyglossia

I'm still reading submissions for Storyglossia's Issue 27, and I'm amazed by the large number of top quality stories. It's been a real joy. I plan on getting back to more regular blogging soon, but for now, this issue is taking priority.

Sia-Music

If you're a fan of Sia's music as I am, you'll be happy to know that her new album, some people have real problems, is scheduled for release Jan 8 in the US. You can listen to it in its entirety on myspace.com.