Dear Houston

Here's a link to a fabulous post from one of my new favorite blogs.

- L'Editrice

A cupcake of a quandary

So, I'm  heading to Austin this weekend for a little getaway, and the last time I was there I bought enough cupcakes (for the whole family, I promise!) from Hey Cupcake! to get a 40%-off coupon for any of their merch. I thought I'd take a look at their site just now to see if I want to go buy anything there on this trip . . . and of course I have come upon my usual (oh-so-tragic-and-important) quandary of loving everything!

I'm only going to buy one thing (for now), so I thought I'd see if any of my readers want to help me choose. Right now I'm waffling between T-shirt or hat, in either classic trailer (that's really what the trailers look like!), whale, or breakfast. (Don't even get me started on all the gifts that I now want to get the men, babies, and kids in my life.)

. . . Ugh, though now I see that all the T-shirts are made by American Apparel (which I never have and never will buy from, ever), so I guess my decision may have been made for me. . . . Still, your thoughts on the cutest design you would vote for in a perfect world in which our sweatshop-free clothes also came misogyny free?

- L'Editrice

A feather in Heather's cap

Rekha and I edited Heather Lyons's amazing fantasy/magical-realism YA novel, and now she has a cool website up for the series. I know exploring it will make you as impatient as I am for her to release the first book, A Matter of Fate, in a couple of months.

Heather has also created a great author site for herself and her books. On it you will find her blog, which explores her super-coolness as related to her love of indie music, among other things.

Keep up the awesome marketing and writing work, Heather!

- L'Editrice

On the 12th day of Christmas

Despite certain people who shall not be named making fun of me for continuing with this Christmas thread till the 13th day of January, here I am! Thanks for holding out with me.

Here are some last gifts:

1) I can totally relate.

2) Still have yet to watch this, but here's yet another motivation for me. I love being absorbed in a new world in all my media forms.

3) Some long-needed progress. We can only hope societal attitudes begin to catch up.

- L'Editrice

On the 11th day of Christmas

Appropriately enough, my BFF sent me the link to this. It sounds just like my friend-seeking experiences as an adult, so maybe I'll learn from it. Or at least commiserate long distance in my misanthropy/despair.

Melodramatically,
L'Editrice 

Out with the old, in with the new, I suppose

But this still made me kind of sad.

On the 10th day of Christmas,
L'Editrice

On the 9th day of Christmas

It looks like several of my authors have already accomplished their New Year's publication resolutions! The latest is Mindy Hardwick:

You can buy her wonderful middle-grade novel Stained-Glass Summer through these links, or on Smashwords. (The Barnes and Noble link will be working soon. They take a little longer to upload the books into their system.)

Congratulations, Mindy! And happy Three Kings' Day to all!

- L'Editrice

On the 8th day of Christmas

Since this time of year always has many thinking about resolutions, and many of those resolutions have to do with weight/getting "in shape" (which I put in quotation marks for a reason), I thought sharing this article with you (if you haven't already read it) would be appropriate.

Then read the author's follow-up article, which has many important takeaways, such as:

- "I think it’s important to tell people that while it’s certainly possible to lose weight, a number of biological factors that have nothing to do with character or willpower can make it extraordinarily difficult."

- " 'A society that stigmatizes people for a physical attribute that they can’t change is the real fat trap we ought to be trying to escape.' ”

- "But the best and most surprising responses I have received are from several readers who start by telling me that they don’t have a weight problem, but they now have a better understanding of the challenges overweight people face. 'I don’t think I’ll look at an overweight person in the same way again,' one reader wrote ‘You made some part of the world a more compassionate place with this article.' ”

I agree, and hope that this can once and for all stop us from being so fat-phobic and judgmental toward other people and ourselves. I really think it's one of the last accepted forms of discrimination in our society, especially since people now have the convenient excuse of "fighting the war on obesity" or worrying about "health" to mask their lookism, classism, self-loathing beneath.

Wishing you a strong, successful 2012 on *your* terms,
L'Editrice




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On the 7th day of Christmas

Happy New Year, all! So far my 2012 is going great, and I hope yours is, too. Its wonderful start began on New Year's Eve, when my disco pants (see below) received much acclaim at the downtown celebration I attended. Someone asked to take my picture, some others asked to touch them, and others said, "Sweet pants!" So what if they were all preteens or stoner kids?  ( : P )

I also have an update from my author Eric Robespierre: The price on Amazon.com for the Kindle edition of Cracking the Walnut: How Being a Little Nuts Helped Me to Beat Prostate Cancer is now a measly $0.99. Why don't you download it right now?

- L'Editrice