Hi, all!  Well, just found out that I’ve been on the front page of Yahoo! for about 30 minutes (my inbox started rapidly expanding with Facebook/Twitter requests).

I’m at my 9-5 job right now trying to keep up at least a veneer of ethical and diligent hardworkingness, so I’m taking my lunch break to say hello to the newcomers *waves* and I’ll spend the next few days trying to get everybody responded to, followed back on Twitter, etc.

In response to the most common questions I’m being emailed:

1)  Yes, I’m OK and things are looking up!  I’m still in a limbo stage, but obviously right now I have it better than I used to and better than a lot of homeless people do – I’m very lucky that I now have a job and that things have been slowly improving.

2)  Yes, Fezzik the mastiff is still with me and he’s doing great!

3)  To those asking if I still do homeless advocacy work, yes!  I am the co-founder of World Homeless Day, which launched last year and boasted participants and events in over 100 countries, and we’re hoping to increase participation even more this year!  I’m involved behind-the-scenes in the World Homeless Action Movement and it’s very important to me to bat around solutions for all homeless people of all backgrounds and circumstances.  I also take a huge interest in various other social issues that have touched my life and the lives of those close to me.  The amount I’m able to post on the blog has taken a beating (I’m sorry!!!) because I’m not only doing a 9-5 job that’s helping me pay the bills and promoting a book, but also doing work for WHAM that keeps me hopping.  I’m trying to improve my posting rates, though…please bear with me  *frazzled*  :-\

4)  To everybody asking “how could you be homeless and travel to Scotland”, there’s a long, convoluted backstory there.  It’s in the book, towards the end when things had started to improve for me a bit, and can’t be summed up in two sentences.  No, I was not/am not rich, no, I was not/am not “homeless by choice”, no, I did not just “decide” to pick up and go to Scotland, and no, I am not a “fake” homeless person and this is not/was never a publicity stunt (actually, I remained anonymous by choice for a very long time).  I don’t want to give away the end of the book, so I’ll refrain from saying more.  But a single article/interview doesn’t cover the entire story, not by far.  You sort of have to pack everything into a small space, so details get left out.  Sorry!  Once you know the story, however, by all means feel free to judge me accordingly  ;)

5)  I moderate everybody’s first comment (once you’re approved you don’t have to be again), mainly because I’ve managed to acquire the occasional psychostalker or two.  If I’m not approving your comments here it’s because you’ve probably said something jerky or classless or made assumptions based on stereotypes or called homeless people slurs or gone on a rant calling me a fakey fake McFakerson, and I don’t publish those comments because this is my blog.  You’ve got the entire rest of the internet to have a field day screaming “I think this is a fake story real homeless people don’t have cell phones OMGWTFBBQ!!!” but this right here is my own little two-foot-square space of internet, and while I welcome polite and respectful dissent, or am happy to answer questions if you email me or comment politely, I don’t bother with trolls and angry people.  I’m all about keeping it positive and proactive.  Hope that makes sense.

6)  The book is a great place to start if you’re curious about my backstory or sequences of events not covered on the blog or in interviews.  Most of the stuff in the book is NOT stuff you will find here on the blog (I didn’t want the book to just be a rehash of what’s already available publicly; I felt that wouldn’t be right or fair.)

Thanks!  Hope this helps and I’m happy to see so many new visitors!  I need to get back to work now before they skin me  :-P

 

Dropping in with a reeeeeeeeally quick line – usually I at least make an attempt to be a little more witty and engaging, but let’s face it, I’ve got a 9-5 job I gotta be at in…*checks wrist*…26 minutes. So I’m taking the prosaic route.

There’s two articles that hit the net today about me.  Reuters and O.C. Register (for which I’m on the front page.  Hi, Mom.)

If you found me through those articles, welcome!  If you’re a returning reader, feel free to like/share/Tweet/etc. either of those articles!

Things are crazy busy.  I read something from one (otherwise positive) reviewer who seemed sad that I don’t post as much lately, and I swear it’s on my “improve” list.  But I’m sort of working what feels like 3 jobs at the moment…my regular job, promoting the book, and I’m also involved with the World Homeless Action Movement and World Homeless Action Day, so you can imagine that’s keeping me hopping.  As well as the email inbox/Twitter feed/Facebook news feed crammed full of kind words and well-wishes that I still need to respond to (oh, it’s coming.  And it will be EPIC!  OK, not really, it’ll probably be me just dropping you an email and saying “thank you so much”, but for some reason I felt the need to really build that up).

Plus, I’m gonna be doing some book promotion in NYC next week (I’m always so excited to get to go back there!) so look for me on the Leonard Lopate Show, New York Nightly News, various radio programs across the U.S. on May 16th, and on the Colbert Report (OK, in the audience of the Colbert Report as the camera pans really quickly over the audience in the beginning…thank you so much for the tix from Stewart Nurick, who works on the show and read The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness and enjoyed it!)  Now, Stephen, on the slimmest chance that you’re reading this…you should definitely have me on as a guest.  Or, you know, I’d take Jon Stewart, too.  I have a massive fangirl crush (not the creepy kind, just the admiring-of-your-brilliance kind) on both of you.  And I promise to set aside my shyness and throw my all into charming and witty banter/repartee.  (Which will be not at all like this hastily cobbled blog post, but at least a gazillion times more dazzling).

So, to recap:  Running in circles.  Sorry for lack of post-age.  Working on it!!!  You readers are the awesomest!!!  EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!  Not reveling in Z-list celebrity status or anything, just head exploding from overwork.  But having fun, of course, or trying to, when I’m not stressing and being neurotic  ;)

 

Today is the launch of the radio tour for The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness (if you found your way here from one of the radio interviews or other promotions for the book, by the way, welcome!)

My publisher has ensconced me in a Holiday Inn Express for a couple of days, so that I have a landline to do radio from (cell phones do not fly, apparently! Too unpredictable.) On the other hand, I’ve still got a 9-5 job, so I’m doing radio for half-days and then working the rest of the day at the theatre (if my bosses stop by and read this – thank you!!!)

None of it has really sunk in yet. Oh, it’s starting to make a slight dent in my consciousness, but I’m sort of this ball of excited/nervous/terrified/exhausted and in the end all of those competing emotions seem to be cancelling one another out in a way, until I just feel numb and a little shell-shocked. And I want to do a good job, of course

Something happened a little over a week ago that just sort of made my life, and I’m still working to process it. Margaret Atwood tweeted (positively!) about my book. Of her own volition. And then had a brief Twitter conversation with me. my mind is just sort of blown and everything after that seems like it’s a bonus. Like that was the pinnacle of my life and everything afterwards is just gravy.

It’s hard to communicate how it feels having one of your heroes mention you. Authors are like my rock stars. Margaret Atwood, in particular, and this is why:

OK, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I was raised in a hardcore fundamentalist sect. It was a pretty claustrophobic, insular, and high-control group, to say the least.

My stepdad gave me several of his childhood books when he married my mother. I was 6. One of these books was 1984, by George Orwell.  I’m not sure he remembered the book specifically or what it was about, because that’s pretty heavy reading material for a kid, and especially a Jehovah’s Witness kid (who is supposed to stick to “Watchtower Society” literature and avoid “worldly” reading materials, particularly ones about totalitarianism and free thinking, revolution, etc.)

I began the book.  Fairly early on I realized I probably shouldn’t be reading it.  So I hid it and read it anyway.  Plus, I was 6 and it had some sex in it, so let’s be honest, that was kinda fascinating and taboo for me.  Even though I was so little and didn’t necessarily get the entire meaning the first time, I re-read it several more times over the next couple years, and as I matured I started making vague connections with the way I had been raised.  Similar logic patterns, doublespeak, control tactics, etc.

When I was 12 or 13, I spent a winter vacation from school in Toronto with my great-aunt.  She was a wonderful woman who took me to used bookstores, where I would load up on whatever I could carry and more.

It was in one of these used bookstores that I came across Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

I made the connection with 1984 very quickly – both books about a dystopian, totalitarian society in which freethinking is forbidden and underground.  But The Handmaid’s Tale, I felt, was even more specific to my situation – the “negative utopia” in which it was set was run by Biblical fundamentalists, and the main theme was women in particular being repressed by religion taken to the highest, most literal, possible extreme.  I understood what it meant, even then, to be a girl forbidden higher education, and taught to be very literally “in subjection” to men.  ”A weaker vessel”.

These two books were responsible for planting seeds in my mind that would later help shape my beliefs.  They changed my life and my outlook.  They made me consider points of view I wasn’t “supposed” to think about.

So last Friday, I received an email from my editor:  ”Margaret Atwood tweeted that she’s reading your book!”

I couldn’t believe, though, that it was the Margaret Atwood.  I stared at the screen and thought about this for a moment.  Could there be another Margaret Atwood somewhere?  Surely not The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood?

I clicked on the Twitter account that my editor linked to, and stared at the postage-stamp-sized profile pic.  It did kind of look like Margaret Atwood.

So I stood up, walked away from my desk, got a drink at the water fountain to clear my head, and came back to my cubicle.  I looked again.

Holy shyte, that was definitely THE Margaret Atwood!

Thusly was my brain short-circuited and I’ve been a little numb and in disbelief ever since.  I tweeted her a thank you, and she actually responded to me (twice!), and said very kind things about the book – that it was “gripping” and “funny” and had her “chewing the ends of her fingers”.  I do not even know what to do with that.  I just don’t.  The waves of happy and awesomeneness and “wtf?!  Margaret Atwood?!?!” just keep washing over me.

On the same day, the book received a starred review from Kirkus, which I’m told is a prize not to be taken lightly, and for which I am super grateful (and again, a little shell-shocked).  A few days later, Rosie O’Donnell mentioned on her Sirius radio show that she was reading my book and found it “fascinating”.  It’s such a weird feeling; I can’t even explain it, to think that public figures, people you’ve heard of and know because they’re authors or media personalities…have somehow heard about your book, picked it up and read it.  I feel so humbled; obviously I could never consider myself in the same league as these people, but all the same they’ve shown me such kindness by not only reading, but sharing their reactions to the book.

I’m still having trouble coming to terms with the fact that a bona-fide hero, an author and an activist like Margaret Atwood knows who I am and likes my story.  It makes me feel, just for a few fleeting minutes that perhaps I’m not a “Snooki”.  Maybe I really could be – am? – a writer.  A fledgling one with a looooong way to go, of course, but…a writer?  That terrifies me.  It excites me.  It exhausts me.  I also know that even if nothing this amazing ever happens in my life again, it’s already been so much more than I could ever expect.

Early this morning the radio tour began (hello, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas and Tennessee!  *waves*) Tomorrow the book hits shelves.  I’m just bracing and trying to take it all in.  Please keep your fingers crossed for me and let’s rock ‘n roll.  I have a feeling this might be one hell of a ride.

If you’re a regular reader, you may have noticed over the past few days a few tweaks to the site.

For instance, I now have a nifty little calendar in the sidebar counting down the weeks (two) to book launch. Social media buttons have randomly and handily manifested from thin air at the bottom of each post for your sharing convenience. There are two new tabs at the top of the site, one listing info and reviews for the Girl’s Guide to Homelessness book and one boasting a stunning feat of magnificence that I like to call a “tour schedule with interactive map” (note:  both of these items are powered by insanely self-explanatory widgets and it still took me a few days to figure out how to set them up.)

You might be forgiven for assuming that my site is undergoing a facelift for the book tour.  Because I am a very forgiving and benevolent person.  And also because that assumption is a completely correct one. But mostly the forgiving and benevolent part.

The changes you see on the site currently are as far as I was able to figure out with my sluggishly-moving and not-very-technically-oriented brain.  However, there will also be a few more noticeable layout changes this week, and the site may have short periods of downtime for scheduled maintenance. Sorry; but I assure you it’s all for a good cause and the final result will ostensibly be quite awesome and all worth it.

I have entrusted the very kind and brilliant Adam Warner with the switching over of the layout.  Adam runs wpprobusiness.com, and he stumbled across me when I was just a little barebones bloglet running not on WordPress, but on that other platform-which-shall-not-be-named.  He purchased me a free domain (this one) and helped me get a much less hideous and more professional blog (this one) off the ground.  If you’re looking to start a website and are as technically inept as I, know that he comes highly recommended from me for all of your website-building and WordPress needs.  Because of Adam, I know what a widget is.  (Also because of Adam, I also don’t even need to know what a widget is because he’s a genius at fixing things when I paint myself into a corner and freak out because I’ve been staring at the laptop screen for three hours and it refuses to conform itself to my will.)  You can hear me interview with Adam about WordPress and the importance of social media in blogging here.

So yeah; point is, with all of the exciting changes and the upcoming tour, it’s time for some updates to the site.  Since tweeting about the tour schedule today, I have been inundated with requests to know whether I will be appearing in L.A. / Seattle / Chicago / Phoenix / New Mexico / Canada / Europe / NYC / Portland / etc. etc. etc.  The answer to that is:  Probably / Maybe / Possibly / Hopefully / OK, So I Don’t Really Know Yet / etc. etc.

Please know that the tour has only just started being scheduled, so what you see right now on the map is by no means the extent of it.  I’ll be updating the map constantly every time I find out about a new radio/TV/reading/book signing event.  I do know that it’s likely I’ll be doing readings and events in many of the major cities throughout the U.S. and possibly Canada, but I have no way of predicting for sure which ones until they’re scheduled.  So for anybody in the U.S. who wants to know, “are you coming to [insert city here]???”, the only 100% accurate response I can give is “I sure as hell hope so.”  As for Europe and such, right now, the book is only available in North America, though eventually the goal is definitely to make it available internationally. Don’t worry; I swear I’m working on it.  Patience, beloved Euro-followers!

In the meantime, you guys can do one thing if you’d like to meet me in your city (well, besides create a huge demand for the book, obviously!)  If you have a book club, class, or other group for which you’d like to book a discussion or speaking engagement…I’d love to hear from you!  I’m available to do in-person meetups, Skype calls, online chats, Q&A sessions, and the like. It’s really important to me to reach out to as many people as possible, talk about homelessness, and get your feedback on the book. So by all means, drop me a line if that’s something you’d be interested in, and we’ll find a way to schedule it and make it happen.

Talk soon, guys and gals.  Love ya, as always!

 

So with all the whirlwindy dervish stuff going on at the moment, it absolutely failed to attract my notice that both my blog’s birthday and my own have whizzed on by without commemoration.

So, to recap: February 23rd, my blog turned two years old. February 26th, two years homeless/in accommodation limbo. March 6th, turned 26 years old. Eep. I think I just rolled into “over the hill” status.

By a funny coincidence, I ended up spending my birthday in NYC.  My editor flew me out to New York for a couple of business meetings regarding the book release on April 27th.  It was the first time I’d ever met my editor and publicist in person (they are the kindest, sweetest women ever!) and the first time I’d seen my agent since meeting him while I was in NYC a year and a half ago for the Today Show.

They were super sweet and not only flew me out and put me up in a hotel (which was like luxurious nirvana…a real, soft, fluffy bed!!!) but pulled out all the stops to give me a great birthday by introducing me to some of the most fashionable cafés in town.  And my “adopted mom” in London, Vicki Day, called the hotel and had them order me a chocolate cake from the Amish Market up the street, and put it in the fridge for me.  When the concierges heard it was my birthday, they upgraded my room for free.

It was kind of amazing.  I was, predictably, depressed to have to get back on the plane home.  But that’s life; back to reality, nose to the grindstone, etc.  I’m so lucky and grateful that I got to have an experience like that, though!  Thank you so much to Deb, Shara, Chris, Vicki, and Alice!

 

While in the city, I also hung out with my friend and fellow author (of I’m Perfect, You’re Doomed) Kyria Abrahams, who lives there.  I got lost in Grand Central Station, saw the Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, Build It Green!, and was treated to wine and cheese at some adorable little hole-in-the-wall Italian bistro.  Kyria, a photographer, is building her portfolio, so she insisted on taking a bajillion photos of me, which generally tends to make me really really really uncomfortable, but she’s a pro at what she does and isn’t above sometimes being sneaky to get a great shot (she’ll totally dart in and snap one when you’re just strolling along, talking, and not expecting it.  Or drying your hair in the hotel bathroom.  Yeah.)  She also drove me to dinner with my agent, which makes her a braver woman than I.  I could never drive in NYC traffic.  Thank you for the great time, Kyria!  (Read her book, people. Seriously.)

It was raining in New York.  I love the rain.  I love New York City.  Together it was all sort of perfect.

* * * * *

So now I’m back on the lot and such, still loving the theatre, etc.  The company sent me to work a festival today in Fullerton.  I love Fullerton as a city, but I hate going there now.  It’s where I grew up and my mom lives about a mile and a half from the college where the festival was.  It’s paranoia-inducing any time I go into Fullerton now, especially after the close call last time.  My car is too distinctive and my mom is not above keying a paint job or even getting a little stabby-stab happy with tires.  I’ve seen some things, people.

But the festival was lots of fun and it was the first theatre festival I’ve ever been to in my life; enjoyed it immensely.  I did see one of my high school teachers there, which was kind of weird.  I feel so old.  All the little high school and college kids were adorable and sooooo innocent and pumped up and silly and sweet.  I wonder if I was that cute when I was young (probably not.  I was pretty sullen/angsty/awkward, if I recall correctly).

* * * * *

Publishers Weekly reviewed The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness this week and the review was pretty glowing for PW.  They called it a “candid and wickedly humorous memoir…Karp’s voice is instantly appealing and her message that basic respect shouldn’t disappear when you lose your home is a vital one.”

I waited for the “…but”.  It never came.  There was nothing negative in their review.  I thought this was very cool, but didn’t quite understand the magnitude of it (not knowing the ins and outs of the industry).  It turns out that PW is like the Coca Cola of the trade papers and it’s the one review that gets posted smack dab in the middle of your Amazon page and some other retailers’ pages.  It’s the first review of the book that you see, and the most important.  And I guess PW has a reputation for occasionally being kinda harsh/snarky/tough on books.  Especially by new authors.

Now that I know all this, I am very, very thrilled.  And scared.  Mostly thrilled.

Guess what makes me even happier?  The following quote from Augusten freaking Burroughs appears on the back cover:

“Brianna Karp is the perfect example of how a person can triumph not in spite of adversity but as a direct result of it. This smart, pragmatic young woman takes us inside the new face of homelessness in America and her dramatic memoir guides us through our assumptions, fears and judgement into a place of understanding, compassion and respect. Truly essential reading.”

Augusten Burroughs has read my book.  Augusten Burroughs, the author of Running With Scissors, You Better Not Cry, A Wolf at the Table, and Dry…liked my book enough to say super-kind things about it. *brain short circuits*

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG.

Yes, I am a fangirl.  I can’t help it.  Authors are my rockstars.

If Jeannette Walls liked it also, my heart would stop and my head would explode and I would die the happiest person on earth.  (Hint, hint, universe.)

So I think I’m going to list some of the advance reviews I’ve gotten on the Read the Book page over the next couple of days, including from ARC galley readers who work at bookstores and such and have reached out to me (don’t worry; if you’re one of those people, I won’t use your name if you emailed me privately, just what state you’re in.  If your review was public though, on a blog or in the media, then I will properly attribute and link it).  I also promise only to quote professional reviews or reviews from strangers who have reached out to me; nothing from friends, because that would be cheating – they’re sort of obliged to tell me they like it, even if it’s a lie!

Exciting, exciting things happening.  Picking up speed.  The next two months are set to be the craziest in my entire life.  I’m game.  Let’s do it.

* * * * *

(Note:  I’ve got a moving story from Rev. Cynthia Eastman of Common Ground Worldwide, about altering perceptions of homelessness, that I’d like to make into a guest post this week.  Cynthia has agreed to this; so stay tuned!)

 

Hi everybody!

Whew, work is keeping me hopping lately! BUT, there were several news tidbits lately that really struck me and that I wanted to share with you guys:

I’m gonna start off with the article that made my blood boil (that way I can finish up on a positive note with some more uplifting stories):

Five homeless people have died as members of the “control group” (very lab rat terminology) of a $110 million study funded by the Canadian government:

Like police detectives, Michelle Patterson’s group of interviewers scour city streets, homeless shelters and churches on the hunt for some of society’s most downtrodden.

But rather than hunting for suspects, Patterson’s team follows clues to track down 200 people who make up the control group for an ambitious national housing study.

Interviewers with the At-Home project have ended up in hospital rooms, jail cells and even the morgue in their efforts to locate control group participants in Vancouver’s $30-million study into housing the mentally ill. Five have died since the study began just over a year ago.

Three hundred other study participants are provided a roof and assistance through the project. But the 200 members of the TAU (Treatment As Usual) control group are only monitored by project staff.

They are not offered any housing or support services, said Patterson, co-investigator of Vancouver’s arm of the study and a clinical psychologist who does research at Simon Fraser University.

This raises some vexing moral questions.

All of the potential study participants were identified as needy. And yet only some are receiving help.

But without the control group, researchers could not prove whether advancements in the health and stability of those given housing resulted from the project.

So:  We need to spend $300 million dollars (and the lives of 5 people so far), to prove that a homeless person is better off with shelter than without.

Nice.

Of the 500 participants in the survey, 300 are housed and provided with support services; 200 are left as the “control group” and given absolutely nothing.  Nada.  No help whatsoever.  300 participants were identified as having high needs, 200 as having moderate needs.  OK, so if you can only afford to help 300, and you absolutely have to pick who to help, you’d suppose they’d aim for the ones with high needs, right?

Except no.  It’s all done randomly, by lottery.  Which means a good chunk of those with the highest needs are being turned right back out there onto the street.

Oh, but I should clarify.  They don’t get nothing.  They’re given a one-time “honorarium” of a whole $30 in exchange for being tracked down and answering questions about how much their life still sucks every 3 months.  Lovely.

So yeah, to reiterate:  Dangle the carrot of “hey, we might give you a home!” and then instead go, “oops, sorry bro, you didn’t make the cut.  Here’s your $30!  But hey, it’s for science!  So thanks a lot!  Buy yourself a cup of coffee and a hot meal.”

“We have got to know people, and it’s difficult for our field staff,” said Patterson, who has been involved in other research projects involving this vulnerable population.

Oh, yeah.  I bet it’s been really tough on your staff.  You know who else I bet it’s been tough on?  The people who died on the street because you handed them $30 and sent them on their not-so-merry way, without actually helping them at all.

The study is ongoing until March 13th, 2013.  So fear not, there’s a good two years yet for plenty more of their “control group” to die off, thus proving their theory, that housing really does help homeless people.  Unbelievable.

 

* * * * *

 

On a higher note, happy stories!

A friend sent me this – please watch tonight’s episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel – the network has teamed up with the 100,000 Homes Campaign to help house homeless Americans. The Travel Channel has committed to donate 10 cents for every viewer who watches the March 1 San Francisco episode – up to $100,000 – to the 100,000 Homes Campaign, in addition to other donated marketing efforts to promote awareness.  The episode airs tonight at 9 p.m. E/P.

Twitter helps a homeless man reunite with his daughter! Social media has become such a force for good in helping the homeless, and connecting them with the outside world.  This story gave me the warm fuzzies.

Miss Colorado has come out and spoken to the media this week about being laid off from her job, evicted, and how she is currently homeless with her mother.  She remains optimistic, however, and plans to compete at the Miss America pageant in June.  I wish her all the best.

 

* * * * *

 

Personal news:  I am holding in my hand an Advance Reader’s Copy of The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness, and it feels kind of awesome and surreal and dizzying all at once.  ARC’s were sent out a week ago and I’ve been getting back some super-kind, positive emails from so many lovely people all over the country (and even one in the Netherlands!), telling me how much they enjoyed it or that it moved them, as well as relating their personal stories and why the book connected.  (No negative reviews yet, luckily, but I’m sure they’ll come at some point, so I’ll enjoy this while it lasts!)

I’m so dumbfounded and awestruck that the book really has touched people already, and grateful for the advance feedback.  So please know, if you’re one of those people that emailed me, I thank you!  It means the world to me.  Also, absolutely feel free to leave a review on Goodreads as I’m sure it would help spread the word!

If you’ve already read the book and I haven’t heard from you yet, I would love to – so please drop me a line!  info@girlsguidetohomelessness.com.  If you work at a bookstore or in the media and are interested in scheduling a book signing, public speaking engagement, or interview, the contact info for Shara Alexander, who is booking all of that, is here.  If you write for a blog, newspaper, or magazine and would like an ARC so you can do a book review, she would be the person to contact about that, too.

Also, you may have noticed a new tab up in the top-right corner of the site – the book is up for preorder!  So far I have three retailers up there (Amazon, Borders, and IndieBound).  It’s available from more (i.e., Barnes & Noble, Indigo-Chapters in Canada, etc.) but I’m still waiting to be approved for their affiliate programs so I can put up a link…however, it’s already up for pre-order from all of them, so just search for my name on their websites if they’re your preferred retailers).

Thank you again for your support!  I love you all; I’m so excited for the book launch, and I know this would never have been possible without my friends and readers.

 

Happy 2011, everybody.  I’m holding out high hopes for this year to be most excellent.  Fingers crossed.

Been working at the theatre for just over three weeks now.  I absolutely love it there.  If it keeps on going like this, this is by far, no contest, my most favorite job that I’ve ever had.  The people are so great and they seem to like me pretty well, so I’m pleased about that. There’s also some breathtaking shows coming up in the second half of the season, so I’m really stoked about getting to see them.

Most of the people have fled the lot after code enforcement came and turned things upside down.  All the trailers and vehicles and such had to be removed from the property.  I think the lot owner gave most of them away, or sold them for peanuts.  I was one of the few people allowed to stay, and have been esconced in one of the converted garages/sheds on the property.  That’s kind of nice actually, since it’s a little more room and open floor space than the trailer, but it’s still legally…iffy…for me to be here, of course.  Laying low and more camping out than anything, switching between Riverside and my friend’s house in Orange County every now and then when I get the chance…I think the code enforcement officer is coming back for a follow-up visit this week or next, and I need to have my stuff out of the garage when he arrives, so it looks like everyone has cleared the lot.  After he confirms that and goes away, maybe I can furnish it a little and stuff.

I’m not sure where the people who left went.  It was pretty horrible, everyone was (understandably) upset and at one another’s throats about the last-minute shakeup and uncertainty.  I think most of them had no idea where they were going to go.  I did hear that one was pulled over a week later for driving his car without a license and was arrested on an outstanding warrant or something.  He’s spent the past few weeks in jail.  A shame, but I guess at least there they feed you.

Sage is visiting her family out of state at the moment, so I’m babysitting her dog Piglet, who is the sweetest.  He and Fez are best buddies.

It almost seems really trivial after everything else, but hey, my book just went up for pre-order last week on several sites!  I need to find pretty shiny clicky buttons to all the major retailers and install them conspicuously on my site, but at the moment you can find the book simply by searching on Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, etc. etc.  Please feel free to pre-order if you like! (Wow, this is so surreal.)  The sites say the book will be available April 26th.  I’m told that I start promotion-y stuff last week of April, first week of May, so I’ve gotta prep for that whole whirlwind again…  O.o

Everybody seems to be posting holiday pics and sending out Christmas cards en masse, so allow me to contribute to the pile.  Fezzik, of course, looks typically stoic and dignified and embarrassed to be wearing a silly hat.  That’s a Neo mastiff for you.  He’s almost 5 years old now, so he’s starting to get a little grey around the muzzle…poor sweetie.  I think it goes with the wintery season.

I’m not gonna be celebrating this year, though.  Being an ex-Jehovah’s Witness, I did/do want to.  You know, the tree, the colorful ornaments, the tinsel, the eggnog and general pervasive warm fuzziness. I’ve kind of got that longing for my first perfect Christmas in my head, even though I’m an atheist now so I suppose it really shouldn’t matter all that much…but it does.  Call it romanticism or love of tradition or whatever you will.  I do want to experience the holiday, on a purely secular level.  But I think I need to skip it for the next few years.

Last year I tried for the perfect white, romantic Christmas, and instead I ended up thrust against my will into the midst of hell x 12.  Christmas/New Year right now are more trauma triggers for me than anything else, and I need to avoid them until I can handle them.  Which is likely to be a loooong while. I just can’t deal with the stuff haunting me at this time, so naturally, I’ll hide indoors and ignore it after this blog post.  (Because nothing says “I excel at coping with horrific tragedy in a healthy and rational manner” like pulling the old ostrich maneuver.)

Still, I want to wish all of you a Merry/Happy/Joyous/Pleasant/Safe Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Holiday, Winter Solstice, Yuletide, Generic Snowy Weather, and whatever other seasonally-appropriate greetings that Wikipedia can generate for me in a single hasty fell swoop.  So I let Sage play around and test her new photo studio on me and Fez; ergo, the above photo.  Ironically, my mom gave me that scarf, which I really love because it’s very Christmassy/autumny/cornucopia-esque.  And has dangling, multi-hued, crimpy stringy bits.

Enjoy your families and friends and presents and holiday cheer and snow and love and joy and happiness and sparkly Christmas ornaments!  And also, if you’re in Orange County, go see your local production of A Christmas Carol!  The theatre I’m about to start working at is putting it on.  And if slightly raunchier/edgy adult humor is more your thing, check out the Chance Theatre’s production of Eight:  The Reindeer Monologues.  They stage it annually.  It’s tradition.  And also the funniest thing ever.

I was supposed to start tomorrow, but they have to run a background check to make sure I’m not a criminal mastermind or possibly a wily, evil genius con artist like Leo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can.  I filled out the paperwork today but it hasn’t come back yet.  Rats.  Probably tomorrow.  It’ll be nice to have work to drown myself in.  I really, really want to work full-time again and I can’t wait  :)  I was getting so damn sick of random, unreliable temp/freelance junk.

Aaaaaaand…I’m off on a tangent.  Steering sharply back to finish off with blog topic:  Happy Holidays!

You are looking at the new marketing assistant for a really prestigious, world-renowned, Tony-Award-winning theatre with a huge reputation for taking risks and premiering a substantial amount of new and edgy material.  Seriously, some of their commissions have even won Pulitzer Prizes and been made into movies!

And I just (somehow) beat out at least a few hundred people for the job.  I know this because while I was waiting for the interview, I struck up a conversation with the receptionist and she mentioned just how many bajillions of inquiries they’d received.  She also told me that I was the very first to be interviewed for the position, so I worried that I’d be forgotten in the ensuing two weeks of interviews.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, ohmygodohmygodohmygaaaawwwwd!!!!!

Interestingly, when they called to tell me, I was lying on the ground frantically trying to put my toenail back on and staunch blood from spurting everywhere.  Somehow, I’ve managed to trip and fall down the stairs for a second time in a couple of weeks, this time ripping most of my big toenail off.  This is weird for me, since I don’t tend to be particularly notable for clumsiness, or prone to injury.  I hope it’s not getting to be a habit.  I can only say that the stairs I was supposed to be walking down were no longer there.  They had been moved.  Silly me, expecting there to be stairs where there have always been stairs, and instead finding only air…anyway, I lay there sobbing, watching my toe turn black, and afraid to walk for fear of dribbling blood all over the place (I really don’t handle blood very well), until somebody came and brought me Hydrogen Peroxide and bandages.  Then I saw the missed call on my phone, and went from “life sucks” to “woohooadrenalinerushmaybeIgotjobafterallomgmustreturncall!”

So…yeah!  One of those “good news, bad news” situation.  Or really, more like “brilliant news of awesome-ness, bad news”.  When the hiring executive offered me the job, I sort of half-hopped, half-hobbled in a circle of “yay!”

I go in Monday to fill out paperwork, and then I presume I start Tuesday, or however long it takes for the background check to come back and let them know that I’m not a felonious psychokiller, or whatever.

I’m sooooo thrilled!  Things are looking up  :)  But now the adrenaline is starting to subside a little and ouch-ness is returning, so I just really need to find some painkillers and perhaps a really large shoe to wear on my right foot until the swelling goes down.

And then I’m sure in an hour or so, pure terror will set in.  This organization is a huge fecking deal. Please, please let me be brilliant at this job!!!