Literary Locals - The Package Deal

Tif at Tif Talks Books hosts a monthly meme to support local authors. On the last day of each month, participants are encouraged to post reviews and links to local authors. What qualifies as a "local author"

Tif says:

• Local Authors Defined: Authors that you can find in either your hometown or homestate, or the equivalent if you are not in the States.
• Home Defined: Your hometown or homestate can be either past or present, meaning you can use your current location or anywhere you have ever lived.
• Type of Books: The books can be children's picture books to adult novels and everything in between.
• Literary Local Icon: Feel free to copy and paste my little icon for the meme/challenge on your own blog and proudly support those local authors!!

My main goal is to support West Texas writers, but I'm claiming all of Texas as my "home" for this meme.

With the conference last week and me just finding this meme, I'm not quite ready to post a new local review, although you can check out my review of local author Annette Presley's The Liberation Diet.

This month, though, I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing The Package Deal, by Izzy Rose. Izzy is an author who lives in Austin, Texas, and who I met at the BlogHer conference last week. Here's a summary of her book from her website:

Meet Izzy Rose—a hilarious and chic new stepmom trying to come to terms with. the package deal. A single “middle-class socialite” living in San Francisco, Izzy loved her career as a successful, Emmy Award-winning TV producer and she was fine with the fact that she was unmarried and kid-less at thirty-five. But, then she fell in love with an irresistible Southern man named Hank and her Izzy-centric lifestyle turned upside down.

In short order, Izzy finds herself saying I DO to becoming a wife and “instant mom” to Hank’s two sons and packing her bags for a new life in Austin, Texas. There, Izzy struggles to hold on to a bit of her professional identity while reinventing the stepmother role in her sassy, stylish, but also loving and vulnerable way. Honest and daring, The Package Deal is a toast to the richness of her new life and a tribute to any woman whose ever fallen in love and then asked, What exactly did I get myself into?

Published by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc.

Hope you can check out this book and some of the local authors in your area!

My Favorite Chicago Restaurant.

I know... I know... you come here to talk about books, and I promise we'll get back to that soon, but today I have to share my love for my favorite Chicago restaurant.

One of the down-sides of moving to a small town in West Texas is the lack of restaurant variety. When I know I'll be visiting someplace like Dallas or DC or Chicago, I immediately start planning what restaurants I'm going to hit. I usually have my meal-stops planned before I ever pull out the suitcase to pack.

For this recent trip to Chicago, the one restaurant I was most excited about was Cozy's. It opened right about the time I moved to Chicago a few years ago and was just around the corner from my apartment. I ate there at least once a week. Sometimes, I even had them deliver the Thai food goodness. Yum!

After the BlogHer conference, I spent the day with a friend of mine who lives in the city. Of course I dragged her back to Cozy's. We had to time it just right to avoid the Cubs game crowd, but it was totally worth it.

I took advantage of a lull between groups in this corner. The tables are antique sewing machines, topped with toys under glass.

Mmmm... Thai iced tea, edamame, and Crispy Pad See Ewe. I was dreaming about this from West Texas for months!

Love the Cozy's decor!

If you live in Chicago, check out the restaurant. It's at 3456 N. Sheffield. No, they didn't pay me for this post, I'm just hoping they start a franchise and open a location somewhere in Texas.

Wordless Wednesday - Metal Moose

Love Chicago street art! Click here for my TexasRed Quilts Wordless Wednesday. Click here for the Wordless Wednesday Headquarters.

BlogHer Wrap Up

I went to the BlogHer conference in Chicago last week, which was my first time to go to a blog conference. It was so much fun! There were 1,500 bloggers there (well, actually more, but that many tickets were sold). The parties ... the networking ... the swag ...

Here were my best highlights:

(1) I got to meet some of my personal online rockstars:

The woman on the left is Ree -- the Pioneer Woman. Her stories convinced me I could make the change from city girl to West Texas girl. Plus, her kids are ADORABLE!

The lady in blue is Jenny, aka The Bloggess. She cracks me up!! Next time she comes out to West Texas to visit her family, I'm taking her out for drinks and recording everything she says. (The lady in pink is VDog and I'll talk about her below.)

(2) I got to hang out in person with my online peeps!

This is Dawn, aka KaiserMommy. She introduced me to my husband several years ago. This is also the limo she arranged to take a mob of screaming bloggers from the airport to the hotel.

These are the girls waiting for the limo (from left to right): Everyday Celebrating, AmazingGreis, Perks of Being Me, Kaiser Mommy, Snarky Kisses and Heathen Mom

This is Kat, of Sassy Irish Lassie. She's fun at a party!

This is VDog again. She, Kaiser Mommy and Mrs. Flinger threw an awesome Room 704 party!

There weren't many book bloggers at the conference, but these are two I knew were going. Florinda is in the middle and Sassymonkey is in red. I also met Beatrice from My Kingdom for a Book and can't wait to get to know her.

I was not the only one in a cowgirl hat (but there weren't many of us)! This is Leslie from Leslie's Omnibus!

Rachel from A Southern Fairy Tale (and others) totally recognized me because of my hat!

I also had a blast rooming with the Mommentator and Amanda, but somehow managed not to get any pictures of them (sheesh, what was i thinking...).

(3) The conference part of the conference (oh yeah, there was a conference, too)!

The keynotes were very interesting. I loved hearing samples of the best writing across the blogosphere. I also loved the people talking about how the blogs were changing and how they were changing public discourse and society.

This was my favorite of the seminars -- talking about taking your writing from blog to book.

And, of course, I can find a bookstore anywhere!

So, that's the brief recap. It was fantastic. I met so many fun people who I didn't get pictures of, but can't wait to chat with. Now I just have to do laundry, catch up on sleep and take care of everything else from last week!

On the Road Again

Today I am on planes all day, headed home from BlogHer '09. It was such a fantastic weekend. SO good to meet so many fantastic bloggers face to face. I even got to meet Ree, The Pioneer Woman!

I promise I will post stories and pictures soon, but first I need to navigate my way back through the fun of regional airports to get settled back in West Texas.

To all the new people visiting, please come back and say "hi" later in the week.

Chat with you soon,

Book Blog Appreciation Week

Amy from My Friend Amy has organized the second annual Book Bloggers Appreciation Week, which will be September 14-18, 2009.

Last year more than 400 blogs were involved. If you're a book blogger, please come register to participate. There may be even more this year!

There are also BBAW Award Nominations open between now and August 15, 2009. Nominations can be made by book bloggers or non-book bloggers. Check out the page here: BBAW Award Nominations 2009.

Whether you participate, nominate, or just follow along, I hope you'll get involved. Why? Because, as the BBAW website says: "Because books matter. In a world full of options, the people talking about books pour hard work, time, energy, and money into creating a community around the written word."

So, come celebrate!

Literary Locals Meme

I saw this monthly meme over at J. Kaye's Book Blog. It is hosted by Tif at Tif Talks Books and is a wonderful idea!

Tif says:

Many of us are aware of the popular authors from Stephen King to Toni Morrison to James Patterson and more; however, what about those local authors that do not receive as much PR as the big-named ones that have movies made out of their books? I have a special place in my heart for these "little" authors and wanted to give them a bit more kudos for their work! So, I thought . . . "Why not start a "little" monthly meme or challenge highlighting our local authors?!?!" And, here we are!!

On the last day of every month, I will post a reminder here on this blog. I encourage all my readers to post links to their reviews on these reminder posts or if you do not have a blog, feel free to post reviews in the comment section itself. As for the guidelines, I've posted a few below:

• Local Authors Defined: Authors that you can find in either your hometown or homestate, or the equivalent if you are not in the States.
• Home Defined: Your hometown or homestate can be either past or present, meaning you can use your current location or anywhere you have ever lived.
• Type of Books: The books can be children's picture books to adult novels and everything in between.
• Literary Local Icon: Feel free to copy and paste my little icon for the meme/challenge on your own blog and proudly support those local authors!!

If you are interested in participating, please post a comment on this post with a link to your blog and I will keep a running list here. If you have any questions, just let me know. Thanks!

One of my goals with this blog is to support the West Texas Writers -- my local writers' group. Can't wait to take part in this meme!

(At this point - I'm on a plane headed to Chicago. Please excuse my delayed responses while I find my suitcases and get the laptop hooked back up!)

Wordless Wednesday - Desert Willow

Very excited about today's pic -- first, because I didn't kill this tree by moving it from the back yard to the front; and second, because it's my 200th post!

My quilty Wordless Wednesday is at TexasRed Quilts and there's always the Wordless Wednesday Headquarters to check out, too.

Off-Kilter

Normally, this is where I would be posting about my Teaser Tuesday for the week, but this is not a normal week for me. I'm headed to Chicago for BlogHer veeeeeeeeeerrrryy early on Thursday morning.

That means right now, instead of reading, I'm planning and packing and doing laundry --- that sort of stuff. For instance, who do you get to watch a prairie dog when you go out of town? I think we're all set with one of the neighbors' boys coming over to take care of him, as long as we set out little baggies for the prairie dog's meals each day (a little kitten kibble + broccoli from the garden).


Plus, with any plane trip, one of the all-important questions (after what to wear) is what books to take. (Seriously, I went on a trip to Italy once, and half my suitcase was full of books -- it was in the days before e-readers.) I have some wonderful advanced copies that I've received and a book tour I'll be part of in August, so lots of good stuff to take with me.

It's all good excitement (well, except the part where I worry no one will talk to me at the conference), but definitely different from my usual work-from-home life. It just has me a little off-kilter, but before you know it I'll be back with stories of Chicago and then things will be back to normal.

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife Giveaway

Nava Atlas is a woman of many talents. She has written several vegetarian cookbooks, a veg cooking site and a score of vegetarian cooking articles.

You can also check out her Nava Atlas artist site to see some of the visual art pieces she's created, especially readable art and altered books.

If you like your art dished up with a healthy helping of sarcasm, though, you'll want to check out her new book, Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife. In this book Nava has combined 1950s cookbook pictures and cooking commentary with tongue-in-cheek faux recipes describing various stages of married life.

The book started out as a collection of stories from several of Nava's friends going through divorces at the same time. Nava expanded it to cover a variety of situations, from newlywed "bliss," to the first children, through to a a possible long-term marriage (or divorce).

Just as an FYI, this is a humor book, not an actual cookbook -- unless you can think of a way to combine a "... small dollop of reality, drizzle of domesticity [and] blueberries..." (from Honeymooners' Bountiful Brunch on p4). If you can -- I'm scared/ impressed by you & please don't invite me over for dinner!

Nava not only gave me my copy of Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife, but an extra signed copy to give one of my readers. So, I will give the extra copy to the first person who leaves a comment asking for it and telling me that you're not able to go to BlogHer '09 (because I hear rumors that there will be some copies of this book available at that conference).

Wordless Wednesday - Prairie Dog Play

I know -- two prairie dog pics in a row for Wordless Wednesday, but I couldn't pass this one up.

For my quilty Wordless Wednesday, click TexasRed Quilts. Click here for the Wordless Wednesday headquarters.

Teaser Tuesday - Larger Than Life

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

"One thing I have been able to find out: Saber Duncan was born just about two years ago. The bio that Mosaic -- or you, or she -- concocted is just that. Concocted."

This is from Larger than Life by Kay Hooper. Kay's been one of my favorite romance authors since the early 1990s. This is a new paperback reprint of a book that was originally published in 1986. Since I started out reading her books whenever I found them in the local used book store, there are plenty from the 1980s that I haven't read yet.

Saber Duncan is a singer who was a fairly forgettable pop star until she returned from a year out of the spotlight. Her style, passion, and maturity were completely different when she returned, so biographer Travis Foxx is curious. He's decided to investigate and to convince Saber to authorize him as her biographer.

Mystery, glamor, romance... sounds like my kind of summer reading.

Humane Award!

Caspette, from The Narrative Causality, just gave me the Humane Award:

The Humane Award is to honor certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn't for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world.

Thank you so much, Caspette! I am nominating the following bloggers for this Award:

• Smash at Great Books and Fresh Coffee
• Daryl at On the m104
• Kat at Sassy Irish Lassie
• Janie at Sounding Forth
• L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk On a Stick
• Kaye at The Road Goes Ever On

I'm celebrating with a new work desk (ok, so I finally decided the one I'd been working on was just too small for 8 hours a day and found a great deal over the weekend).

Drop Dead Diva - July 12 Premiere

This weekend is the series premiere for Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime, which I got to watch ahead of time.

Plot Summary: In the beginning we are introduced to two women. One is Deb (Brooke D'Orsay), a beautiful tiny blonde whose only worries are her interview to be a TV gameshow model and possibly fat knees. The other is Jane (Brooke Elliott), a "plus-sized" trial attorney who has been pulling all-nighters, but blending into the background at work.

Both women die at about the same time (don't worry, that's not a spoiler -- it happens in the first few minutes). Things happen and Deb's soul (personality, memories, etc.) comes back in Jane's body (getting her cravings and, thankfully, legal knowledge). Deb now has to decide, with the help of her guardian angel (Ben Feldman) and very loyal assistant (Margaret Cho), if she can live Jane's life and become a less shallow person now that she has a second chance at living.

My Reaction: I thought this series looked interesting from the commercials. It's pretty much a chic lit novel in TV form.

I liked the definition of the characters of Deb and Jane. Lifetime is setting this up as a new twist on the brains vs. beauty comparison. To me, it seems more like a story of finding balance. Deb is almost completely self-centered (and I'm glad we won't be getting too much pure-Deb screen time). Jane is still a caricature of the hard-working no-time-for-herself junior attorney, but in a fairly believable way. The writer (Josh Berman) has a law degree and must have either worked at a firm or have friends who do.

Like most pilots, this one works hard to build the backstory that supports the focus of the series. Ok, the afterlife / unauthorized reincarnation plot is not my favorite and I certainly won't be building my theological framework on the show's view of heaven, but it's a device to get where the writers want to be -- which is a combination of Deb and Jane. There are plenty of equally implausible origin stories that I've been glad I've suspended disbelief to see how they play out (ummm.... teen vampire slayer, etc.).

I like the people in this series so far. I like the conflicts they've built up between Deb's old life and Jane's life. I like where it looks like they're going combining Deb's strengths and Jane's strengths. I some good ways, this reminds me of the first season of Ally McBeal. The challenge is going to be playing on the dynamics the pilot sets up without overdoing the fat-girl jokes or ugly-duckling / vapid swan stereotypes. If the writers aim to have Deb and Jane be more realistic people I think the show will do well.

Bottom Line: I've set my DVR for this series to see where the writers are going to take it -- even though it's a change from the "no legal TV shows" rule I set after joining my first law firm.

Drop Dead Divas premieres on Sunday July 12 at 9pm EST/ 8pm here in Texas.

(Thank you Lifetime for letting me get a sneak-peek at this show!)

Wordless Wednesday Prairie Dog Celebration

For my quilty Wordless Wednesday, click TexasRed Quilts. Click here for the Wordless Wednesday headquarters.

Getting Ready for BlogHer '09

In 16 days I head to Chicago for my first ever blog conference. I'm meeting up with friends, like KaiserMommy, at BlogHer '09.

I've been hearing about the seminars and parties that are scheduled and am so excited to learn and to meet some of the amazing women I've been chatting with online in person, like Mrs. Flinger, VDog, the Mommentator, Amazing Greis, and Florinda.

Right now, I'm just trying to get prepared and figure out what I'm doing. Thanks to Lane Bryant, I've stocked up on new girlie clothes (trying to step up from t-shirt and flip-flops, although I couldn't pass up their jeans!).

Also, this morning, I just ordered new Moo business cards through Room 704's link.

Now I just get to be excited / nervous until it's time to pack!

Teaser Tuesday - Secret of the Sands

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

"I see our King treats his own family no better than he does his people. Whatever he is up to could be dangerous to us all. I think he needs a lesson in respecting others, would you not agree?""

This is from Secret of the Sands by Rai Aren and Tavius E. The book is an action-adventure that combines modern archaeologists with ancient prophecies and secrets. Cant' wait to get to this part and find out the context for the quote above!