I'm thrilled to announce that Press 53 will be publishing my short story collection WOMEN UP ON BLOCKS in March of 2009. I'm so excited to be publishing with them--I love the work they've been putting out, and am thrilled to be added to their list. :)
Saturday, December 06, 2008
My Short Story Collection
I'm thrilled to announce that Press 53 will be publishing my short story collection WOMEN UP ON BLOCKS in March of 2009. I'm so excited to be publishing with them--I love the work they've been putting out, and am thrilled to be added to their list. :)
Friday, November 21, 2008
College Hill Review
A new online quarterly review has just launched. The College Hill Review. It looks great and this first issue has an essay by a writer friend of mine, Clifford Garstang and an essay of mine.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Greatest Gift
Here is the new trailer for the UK edition of our non-fiction book, The Greatest Gift. Kim McDougall of Blazing Trailers did such a fantastic job. I especially love the ending. Thank you, Kim!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Jericho Brown
Check out the website and new book of poetry (PLEASE) by Jericho Brown. He's a friend, and a kick-ass writer, too.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
New Trailer!
Kim McDougall at Blazing Trailers has made the most wonderful trailer for the Australian version of the NF book. I couldn't be happier!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Our UK Cover!
Simon & Schuster has designed a wonderful new cover for our UK release. What do you think? (Click on the image to see it full-sized.)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
A fun article about ITME and me
Michele Deluca is a charming reporter and it was a delight to be interviewed by her. You can read the results here. (Photo by Dan Cappellazzo)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Maternal Is Political
Today I received my contributor copies of the anthology The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change. What a great looking book! And I am thrilled to have my essay appearing alongside the work of Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Anna Quindlen, Nancy Pelosi, and Benazir Bhutto. Way cool. A huge thank you to editor Shari MacDonald Strong for putting together such an amazing anthology--and to my friend Linera Lucas for encouraging me to submit!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Feeling the Book Club Love
Andy and I recently had our first book club experience and it was amazing!
The wonderful thing about book clubs is that they are most often held in private homes, with a small group of attentive readers, there's food and drink, and no need to "perform" as with a public reading. The meeting is held primarily to discuss the book with readers who have already read it, who are discriminating and intelligent and have interesting questions. We even sold nine additional books to members who already had their own copies and wanted to share the book with others.
It was so amazing to see this articulate group of interested readers sitting there with their books all marked and tabbed and highlighted. I think they remembered more about the book than I did. And several members had marked specific passages where a quote or a lesson or even just a simple observation had come to them at the perfect time to help them through some difficulty in their lives. What could be better? This is why I write. This makes all those long hours at the keyboard worthwhile.
I feel so grateful to readers, strangers who voluntarily give me approximately 8 hours of their lives, attending to words on the page--words that I've written. Then they take the words into their minds and hearts and make the book into an experience that speaks to them alone. They finish my book. Did I mention that it's amazing?
The wonderful thing about book clubs is that they are most often held in private homes, with a small group of attentive readers, there's food and drink, and no need to "perform" as with a public reading. The meeting is held primarily to discuss the book with readers who have already read it, who are discriminating and intelligent and have interesting questions. We even sold nine additional books to members who already had their own copies and wanted to share the book with others.
It was so amazing to see this articulate group of interested readers sitting there with their books all marked and tabbed and highlighted. I think they remembered more about the book than I did. And several members had marked specific passages where a quote or a lesson or even just a simple observation had come to them at the perfect time to help them through some difficulty in their lives. What could be better? This is why I write. This makes all those long hours at the keyboard worthwhile.
I feel so grateful to readers, strangers who voluntarily give me approximately 8 hours of their lives, attending to words on the page--words that I've written. Then they take the words into their minds and hearts and make the book into an experience that speaks to them alone. They finish my book. Did I mention that it's amazing?
Friday, May 02, 2008
Looking for a good story to read?
Check out the new website Five Star Stories that features new stories available on the web that have been nominated by the editor that published them (as the best of the issue) and are then critiqued by an established author. What a great idea! (I thought it was such a good idea, I volunteered to go first.)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Second Printing!
Good news! We've just heard that Radical Gratitude is going into its second printing tomorrow--whoo hoo!!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Chimpanzee Release and Rescue
Encourage your federal legislators to support new legislation that will prohibit:
-Invasive research on great apes
-Federal funding of such research both within and outside of the U.S.
-Transport of great apes for such research
-Federal breeding of great apes for such research
And require:
-Permanent retirement of all federally-owned great apes
It's time, don't you think?
-Invasive research on great apes
-Federal funding of such research both within and outside of the U.S.
-Transport of great apes for such research
-Federal breeding of great apes for such research
And require:
-Permanent retirement of all federally-owned great apes
It's time, don't you think?
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
INTO THE SUNSET by Donald Capone
Wayne Benson is tired of living a complicated life. His needs are pretty simple—quiet time to write, three square meals a day (preferably prepaid and prepared for him), and comfortable surroundings. But where to find all of these things in one place? Enter The Sunset—a retirement community he once toured with his parents, prior to their move to Florida. The only problem? He’s thirty-two years too young. Enter Wayne Senior, his alter ego and aged doppelganger, courtesy of a grey wig and stage makeup, complete with cane and a stooped, halting gait (he’ll learn not to run for the bus when late).
For a time, Wayne’s plan works great. But what he hadn’t planned on was the complications of falling for a sexy fellow resident (yes, sixty can be sexy!) and becoming friends with his cranky next-door neighbor. Add a suspicious landlady and a blackmailing security guard, and things soon get way more complicated than Wayne’s former young life had ever been.
Perhaps the best part of the book for me (and so much of it was great fun) was moving through Wayne’s emotional maturation as he goes from viewing his fellow residents as obstacles to insightful, interesting people. His initial, skeptical view is evidenced by this passage:
“Eventually, the van would arrive in front of the supermarket and park. The driver would stay inside with the engine running and the A/C downgraded from arctic blast to cold front. Slowly the seniors would stir and with the help of a couple of Sunset staffers begin to vacate the vehicle. The legs of walkers and the tips of canes would emerge first, like the tentacles of some strange space creatures trying to blend in with humanity, they would descend on the store, sporting wraparound sunglasses, shawls, light-weight summer sweaters, and fistfuls of double coupons. Aisles would be congested, workers berated, and cashiers interrogated.”
Into the Sunset is a lively, engaging, romp-of-a-read, and by the end of the book, Wayne’s attitude and understanding have greatly softened—a truly older, wiser and more sanguine Wayne has emerged for us, his readers, and we welcome his rebirth into old age.
Amazon
For a time, Wayne’s plan works great. But what he hadn’t planned on was the complications of falling for a sexy fellow resident (yes, sixty can be sexy!) and becoming friends with his cranky next-door neighbor. Add a suspicious landlady and a blackmailing security guard, and things soon get way more complicated than Wayne’s former young life had ever been.
Perhaps the best part of the book for me (and so much of it was great fun) was moving through Wayne’s emotional maturation as he goes from viewing his fellow residents as obstacles to insightful, interesting people. His initial, skeptical view is evidenced by this passage:
“Eventually, the van would arrive in front of the supermarket and park. The driver would stay inside with the engine running and the A/C downgraded from arctic blast to cold front. Slowly the seniors would stir and with the help of a couple of Sunset staffers begin to vacate the vehicle. The legs of walkers and the tips of canes would emerge first, like the tentacles of some strange space creatures trying to blend in with humanity, they would descend on the store, sporting wraparound sunglasses, shawls, light-weight summer sweaters, and fistfuls of double coupons. Aisles would be congested, workers berated, and cashiers interrogated.”
Into the Sunset is a lively, engaging, romp-of-a-read, and by the end of the book, Wayne’s attitude and understanding have greatly softened—a truly older, wiser and more sanguine Wayne has emerged for us, his readers, and we welcome his rebirth into old age.
Amazon
Monday, March 17, 2008
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
The Money Factor
Kelly Spitzer gets feedback from a number of authors (including yours truly) over at her blog, Writers in Profile on the subject of submitting to paying vs. non-paying journals.
Monday, February 04, 2008
The Roycroft Campus Corporation
The RCC in East Aurora, NY has very graciously offered to host a luncheon and book launch for Radical Gratitude and other life lessons learned in Siberia.
The luncheon will be held at the Roycroft Inn on March 8th.
If you had asked me two years ago to dream big and tell you where I'd most like to celebrate a local book launch, I'd have answered, "At, the Roycroft, of course, as if that would ever happen..." Well, I can't believe it, but it's actually happening! Yay!!
And (by the way) if you'd ask me, nationally where I'd like to launch a US release of the book, I'd say, "Oprah, of course, as if that would ever happen..."
(Just putting that out there for the universe to mull over...)
The luncheon will be held at the Roycroft Inn on March 8th.
If you had asked me two years ago to dream big and tell you where I'd most like to celebrate a local book launch, I'd have answered, "At, the Roycroft, of course, as if that would ever happen..." Well, I can't believe it, but it's actually happening! Yay!!
And (by the way) if you'd ask me, nationally where I'd like to launch a US release of the book, I'd say, "Oprah, of course, as if that would ever happen..."
(Just putting that out there for the universe to mull over...)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Liar's Diary
Today is the day that the blogosphere is celebrating and supporting and sending hope to Patry Francis, debut author of The Liar's Club. It's an amazing story--hers and her book's--and you simply must check it out at Susan Henderson's wonderful Lit Park.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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