I'm going to squeeze in a post here before I go to my NIA class in 20 minutes. (NIA is a dance fusion thing with dance moves from different cultures, along with elements of yoga, tai chi, martial arts, you name it... it's the only organized form of exercise I'll do, since it involves cool music and feels more like dancing than exercise.)
So, first I want to thank the kids/teens of Nebraska, who nominated RED GLASS to the Golden Sower Award! It's one of ten nominated books, and they'll be gathering votes later this year and early next year. Last year's winner was Twilight... wouldn't it be cool if RED GLASS won the same award as Twilight?!
Last night my writing group-- Old Town Writers Group-- did a reading at Old Firehouse Books for Independents' Day, to encourage people to support their local indie bookstores. We had a blast! I cannot tell you how incredibly brilliant and fun the women in my group are, but I will attempt to here:
This is Sarah Ryan (on the right), who, in her spare time, flies (as in, she's a pilot!) little planes in places like the wilds of Alaska and Africa... she wrote a fabulous camping guide to Colorado, and now she has a hilarious, touching, insightful, juicy memoir represented by a great agent. She read an excerpt from it last night (about a revelation she had upon discovering a stash of Glamour mags from the eighties when she was about thirteen). She had the audience in stitches.
Kimberly Fields is on the left, and she read a very funny piece set in a coffee shop about trying to feel better about herself after a breakup... she should be a standup comedian, I've decided. AND she's great at writing about serious stuff, too-- like her experience with surviving leukemia last year. I'd link to a beautiful This I Believe essay she wrote, but the website is having issues. (Go to thisibelieve.org, and then do an author search).
Above is Carrie Visintainer, who's always hopping off to some cool locale, whether it be a pirate ship off the coast of Turkey or the used car lot scene in Thermopolis, Wyoming or a monastary filled with black-hooded monks in middle-of-nowhere, New Mexico. She's done a bunch of travel writing (she read a side-splitting piece about her experience in German sauna last night). Ever the adventurer, she's now embarking on writing a beautiful novel.
Above is Leslie Patterson, and she's published her delightfully bizzare historical fiction pieces and witty, deep personal essays in many literary journals. Now she's working on a dark and twisted novel loosely based on some really weird historical stuff involving body-snatching in 19th century London.
Molly Reid came on the scene after I took these pics (in a pizzeria after our reading last night), so I'll offer an illustration from an ancient bestiary in lieu of her photo. She's blond and pretty and always wears interesting jewelry, oftentimes featuring birds. She wore hummingbird earrings last night to fit with her sensual, haunting story involving hummingbirds. She's working on a bestiary of sorts-- a collection of short (often very short) stories in which animals reflect human emotions and relationships. So intriguing.
This is moi, who should be working right now on her/my latest revision of The Ruby Notebook. I'm on a tight deadline. Real quick, I'll tell you that last night I read a fun travel piece called "Naked in Oaxaca", which was published a few years ago in a Lonely Planet anthology.
If you came to our reading last night, THANK YOU! Having a super-enthusiastic audience made the event so much fun for us!
Okay, no more dilly-dallying for me! Off to my trailer to revise!
xoxo
Laura
