Look at that! March, folks, is Small Press Month. We should celebrate! Let's start by taking a look at the Small Press Month website. Especially the Things To Do section. Look at all of the ways we can easily support small press media.
I'm just saying. It wouldn't kill you.
So, here's what I'm asking. If you have a book out, if you have a magazine, something like that, I'd like for you to destroy it a copy of it. Then, I'd like for you to turn those pieces into a piece of art and donate it to me to auction off at Pilcrow Lit Fest on May 24th to benefit New Orleans Public Libraries. Decoupage it onto something. Make a sculpture. Make a mobile. Carefully take it apart and put the pages back randomly. Anything you want as long as it's legal. I'm going to do it with a copy of Three Fallen Women. You don't even have to be a participating author or publisher, you just have to be willing to reconfigure your own book, get it to me, and let a stranger buy it. Want to? Fun, right? Just email me and let me know so I can make a spot for your art that night. I don't have a ton of spots at the venue, so the first people I hear from will be the people I'll hold spots for. It'll be swell. I promise.
You guys!
All hail, Peter Wild, who is apparently, the brains behind this collection, Paint a Vulgar Picture, fiction inspired by The Smiths. Uh mah goh, that is so cool. I cannot wait to bu a copy! (A big thank you to Steve Finbow for letting me know about this.)
Mmmm, on an unrelated note, does anyone out there in Blogistan happen to have an extra magnetic power source cord for a MacBook? I'm not saying I did do something accidentally to the cord to botch it up, I'm not saying I did not do something accidentally to the cord to botch it up, but the fact remains that I need a new one.
I have the travel bug today.
We've got to do something. Chicago's Women and Children First Bookstore put out word this week that if sales don't improve soon, they are going to close their doors. With the ease of use as such sites as Amazon, indies are suffering. So, we all have a book we have been meaning to buy. Let's all shell out and pick up a book or two from them to show our support of this incredibly great bookstore. Really. We can even order online for you out-of-towners. It would be a shame to see this place go.
Click click, people, click click.
I know what all of you were thinking. Oh, now that Ms. Fancy Yogapants has her fancy new faucets and pipes and drains, she's going to be sooooo spoiled with her fancy showers. Well, for those of you who were worried that maybe I'd start the take my shower for granted again, fear not. Though my shower has been running for the past two hours, I have yet to see a drop of hot water. Just FYI.
Sigh... I clearly was a colossal asshole in my past life to water, probably going around peeing in every body of water I saw. Damnit
In other news, listen to this funny line:
"Hey baby, what are you doing for lunch today? And by the way, when you're having a heart attack, is the numbness in your right arm or left?"
Don't worry if you can't pinoint it. It's out of a book I am reading in all my adundant (ha!) free time. But, you have to stay tuned because I'm not going to tell you just yet. Let me finish it first. You know, in all my abundant free time.
I love post-dated blog posts. Write it up, set the date ahead and one can be sound asleep while a post pops up. I love it. And, although I rearely do this, I did last night with the "crack ain't kosher" post below. And, I was out like a light when it posted. I slept so much last night. I guess I just really needed sleep, but damn, I slept forever. Forevah.
So, let's see, I have a little free time as I wrap up my morning work, before I launch into a busy afternoon. What can I tell you with this free time? Well, my left ear and the very back of the left side of my throat still are a bit sore, which I find very weird, but ignorable.
It is zero degrees in Chicago, with a windchill of fifteen below or something.
I still have a frozen shower so I have managed to continue the pioneer bath experience nicely. I now have a space heater pointed at the wall in my bedroom the bathtub backs up against and am seeing marked improvement in the temperature of the porcelain of the tub. The drain is still not draining, but I am dumping a huge stockpot of boiling water into the tub every hour or so to at least keep the temperature up in the hopes of melting something, just a little, just enough to get some water moving. This morning, desperate to feel water running everywhere, I did dump said large stockpot full of water over myself and while it was perhaps a bit too hot, I was glad to feel moving, as opposed to still, water. I am investigating options of shower-borrowing this evening. I am a trooper and all, but I am getting a little desperate for a real shower.
In the meantime, question of the day, who would like to give me some really cracker jack advice for thawing a shower. Oh, and the hot water on my bathroom sink is all frozen up, too. To avoid repeats, here is a list of everything I've tried so far. I have:
(a) filled tub with pots of boiling water
(b) poined space heater at various points of tub, walls and tile
(c) rubbed a very hot iron over all shower tiles
(d) begged with faucet in desperation to thaw itself
(e) filled tub with hot water, lined bottom of tub with baking sheets right out of the oven the increase temperature
(f) added salt to hot water before pouring it into the tub
Really, if you have any wisdom, feel free to help a sister out.
Oh will you look at that. The temperature has moved up to one degree! The high today is going to be five. Look at that. Spring just around the corner. Whimper. Speaking of which, I need to make a reservation today to go visit my folks, who live in a considerably warmer climate.
My stack of work is getting smaller.
An eBay purchase arrived Saturday that I neglected to mention! I found a favorite book from my childhood. The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments by Arnold Lobel (1968, Harper & Row) and it made me so happy that I read it with welled-up eyes.
See, lately, I've wanted to gather books that I loved as a kid. The Great Blueness was a big favorite, as were the Dorrie, the little witch series by Patricia Coombs. I've only found two, which sit proudly on my bookshelf near the little blue typewriter.
That's all I have for now. Back to the salt mines.
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