VA va voom!

The folks in Charlottesville sure know how to put on a book fest! I was at the VA Festival of the Book for 3 days and it was a whirlwind of meeting wonderful people who were all there to celebrate books! I felt like I had finally found my home planet. Thank you Nancy Damon and everyone associated with the festival! Oh yes...there are pictures!


This is the puddle jumper one takes from DC to the cute little airport in Charlottesville.

Who did I find my first night in town? Judy Merrill Larsen (All the Numbers), Therese Fowler (Souvenir) and Kim Reid (No Place Safe)! The four of us met in the hotel bar for a very serious discussion about books. :) Kim, I already knew. This was my first time talking with Judy and Therese in person, but I'm sure onlookers would have never guessed. It was like getting together with women I've known for ages.

The UVa Women's Center sponsored a reception for women writers. Here's a great group! The author in the hot pink jacket is Jenny Gardiner, author of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. Thanks Jenny for the rides over to the U!

The Ballantine Babes at the Author's Reception, which closed the festival Saturday night. We also met Mike Farrell (BJ from MASH), but I didn't take his pic. Judy introduced me to Rosemary Harris, author of Pushing Up Daisies. Hello, she's a gardener and a novelist? How did we not know each other?


On Sunday morning the Charlottesville chapter of the Links, Inc. threw a spectacular brunch to celebrate the African American literary tradition. I am so grateful I was able to be there! Thanks to Tamyra Turner, Donna Martin and all the Links members! This photo is of 2 of my new favorite writers: H.G. Carrillo, author of Loosing My Espanish, and Stacy Hawkins Adams, author of Watercolored Pearls.

Stacy and me at brunch. (Another room service flower in my hair)

One of the big highlights for me was meeting Walter Mosley at the brunch. When we were introduced, he recognized the title of my book! I know why he looks suspicious in this picture--I started a line of groupies taking his photo. Why I look suspicious, I don't know.

Other cool writers I met at the fest: Evans Hopkins, author of Life after Life, Adam Bradley, The Collected Manuscripts of Ralph Ellison's Unpublished Second Novel (which isn't out yet), Emilie Richards, author of MORE THAN 60 NOVELS!!!, Jennifer Niesslein, author of Practically Perfect in Every Way, Rachel Bagby, author of Divine Daughters and Peter Melman, author of Landsman: A Novel.

I heart Book Clubs!

Muchas smooches to all the book clubs who are reading Orange Mint and Honey!!! Seriously, authors owe as much to book clubs as we do to booksellers, so you have my deepest gratitude! If you're in Colorado, I can meet with you in person. If you're out of state, email me and I will do a phone in to answer your group's questions.

Send me a jpeg of your group reading my book and I'll send everybody a little orange mint somethin somethin (bathsalts or candies, anyone?).

In the back of the book there are recipes for orange mint tea and cookies. But I also have other recipes good for a book club meeting. For example, orange mint mojitos! Get the recipe over at Tayari Jone's place. As part of a weekly feature for spring called Cocktails with Writers she's posting recipes. Poet Honoree Jeffers' Almond Joy Cocktail sounds delish!!

I'll post other recipes here soon.

Best line in a movie. Ever.

I'm so excited! The Ten Commandments is on (and I can watch KU basketball on the commercials). I've seen this movie every year it's been broadcast (except last year when I was devastated to miss it). What could be better than Yul Brenner in a skirt? (Moses shmoses, Ramses is hot!) Charlton Heston as a Jewish savior? Vincent Price as an Egyptian and Edward G. Robinson has a Hebrew overseer? And Yvonne De Carlo (Mrs. Munster herself!) as an innocent shepherd girl? Nothing! Except this line that Moses delivers to Nefretiri after he finds out he's really a Hebrew and goes to work in the mud pits with the slaves: "If my people reek, it's with the stench of injustice."

The best line ever spoken on film. Disagree? Tell me a better line. And by better, I mean more ridiculously campily wonderfully sublime than that.

Seriously, though this movie is very over the top, it's also a really wonderful epic story. I can never watch it without relating my own faith or lack thereof to the Hebrews. After they're freed from bondage and Moses has even parted the frickin Red Sea, as soon as the going gets a little rough they start to doubt again. It's a great allegory for whatever troubles we're dealing with in life.

Happy Easter (and Rock Chalk Jayhawk) y'all! So let it be written, so let it be done.

My First White Friend

With Obama's speech and the issue of race front and center, I thought I'd recommend a gorgeously written, important book: My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Foregiveness by Patricia Raybon. I believe it's out of print, which is too bad, but get it from the library or buy a bargain copy. This book deserves as much acclaim as The Color of Water by James McBride.


From the jacket:


"'God help me. I stopped hating white people on purpose about a year ago.' With that daring confession, African-American journalist Patricia Raybon begins My First White Friend - a piercing account of how she decided, in midlife, to stop hating white America. In a hypnotic narrative that is part journal, part memoir, part social analysis, Raybon discovers that racial forgiveness is a dangerous choice. But the risk isn't in learning to love white people, it's in learning to love herself. 'That is the real matter. And it takes a harsh spotlight.'


Raybon turns that spotlight first on her fifties childhood in eastern Colorado, where she learned 'every race distortion ever performed by dark people: smiling when nothing is nice, laughing when nothing is funny, agreeing when nothing is agreeable.'


In that setting, Raybon mastered that polite 'grin of powerlessness,' urged on by the dogged upward mobility of her Mississippi-born father and the rigid rules of their middle-class life. But while she was soon acceptable to white people, she'd become an angry stranger to herself.


A quarter century later, Raybon realized her perplexed rage wouldn't be remedied by stoking her buried hate for whites, but by forgiving them, especially for the past. That 'audacious idea...a holy lunacy' meant first forgiving herself, but also forgiving her father for his seemingly excessive demands, her country for its caustic racial legacies, and even God for seeming to allow it all.


Along the way, Raybon unearths her family history to uncover the origins of her hate, then traces the significant chapters in her own life-among them her childhood confusion about race, her adolescent awe of 'white' culture, her discovery of sex and its mythology in black life, marriage and motherhood, her rediscovery of her religious faith and a friendship with her first white friend-to travel the hard road from hatred to forgiveness, trust, love, letting go, and moving on.


An honestly direct but deeply hopeful book, My First White Friend is a timely and original declaration of self-love and collective affirmation."


An excerpt:


"A book on racial forgiveness.

God help me. Because as I weigh the implications of it, and the potential of it, I clearly understand that the philosophy is provocative and good-but I know some people will hate me for it. Some will praise me for it. And some will censure me for it, or even rudely ignore me, deeming me desperate or dumb, or both. But I welcome any response even as I am resigned to it, because I am determined now to understand how my hate started, then figure finally how to slay it. Because hate has hurt me good over these long years. It has crippled me and cheated me and mugged me and left me scarred and impotent and dumb.

And if hate has done those things to me, it has done those things to millions like me."

The Hardest Working Woman in Show Business

Author tours. Do they work? Are they worth the time, effort, money? Does anybody even come out for them? We in the biz continue to debate. However, when you've got an audience, it must be worth it. Check out Jodi Picoult's tour schedule. This is the schedule of a woman who earns her spot on the best-seller lists the old-fashioned way! I need a nap from just reading the list of locales she's travelling to.

And I thought I was busy!! I'm off to the Virginia Festival of the Book next week. In April, I go to the Philly area to meet with book clubs. Then in May I'm going back to LA for the Leimert Park Bookfest and BEA. In September I'm doing the Downtown Omaha Bookfest. I'm hoping to get a few more trips in there too.

Below are pictures from the book party to end all book parties. My aunt Anita is one of the world's coolest aunts. Last Sunday she threw a party for about 1,000 of her closest friends and neighbors. We started at 1 p.m. and the last person left at 7! The wonderful Yvonne White put the finishing touches on the spread and made everything beautiful. Unfortunately, pictures don't do the table justice. (FYI, her line of candles are the best-smelling ever!)

She used palm and fern leaves and bunches of kumquats from her own yard. Plus, 100-year old silver trays from Morocco!

This is an antique card table where I signed books. Much prettier than it looks here.

The lovely Yvonne, me, cousins Michelle and Cary.

That's Gina Black...who took the bus over for the party! (I'm wearing an orchid in my hair from my breakfast tray at the Hotel Vitale the day before.)

Our hostess, Auntie Anita.

My aunt Carol, Anita's sister.

More cousins!

This is Anita's boyfriend Mac, a wonderful host!

This is June, who made orange mint cookies from the recipe in my book!

Brian. A friend I met years ago in Denver only to find out that my Aunt Anita was in his mother's wedding!

The San Francisco Treat

The day after I signed at Eso Won, I went to San Francisco. I was lucky: I had that evening and all day before my signing at Marcus to myself. Ballantine put me up at the Hotel Vitale, a tres chic hotel right on The Embarcadero near the waterfront. I spent my 1st night staring at the water in the East Bay and marvelling at the Bay Bridge. (Also had a meal of 2 appetizers and 1 glass of wine that cost $56!)

The next morning I headed out for the character-building "Who the Hell are You?" tour of downtown San Francisco. In theory this is when an author goes into a bookstore and sees stacks of her books on the front table and book-sellers rush up to her to beg her to sign them. In reality (at least for me) it involves praying that they have my book or if they don't, that they'll order it. A great big beautiful Borders didn't have my book in stock. City Lights didn't have it, but will order the next time they order from Random House, for which I thank them! I should note that on the way to LAX, my driver (I rode in style baby!) took me to a Borders in Culver City, which did have 1 copy of my book in stock (which I autographed). Back to San Fran. While I was in Chinatown, I decided to wander. I found myself at a tea bar with the world's greatest tea salesman, who is now my Chinese Uncle Gee. (This is Gee saying he will kick the ass of any bookstore owner who doesn't carry my book. ) They have wonderful teas! In you're in San Francisco, Gee puts on a great show, introducing you to a wide variety of teas and educating you about how to brew them. Just be sure not to share anything embarrassing. A young woman sitting next to me whispered that she was looking for a tea to help her have a bowel movement and Gee announced it to the whole room! However, to show you just how charming Gee is...she didn't go running out the door, but stayed and drank tea. I bought the lichee black tea. Yum! Check them out online.

That night, a driver picked me up and took me over the bridge to Marcus Books, the oldest black bookstore in the country. It's managed by Blanche Richardson--book-seller, writer and editor extraordinaire!

We had a great turnout (due mostly to a large contingency of cousins who came out to support me--thank you cousins!!!), and it was so much fun to be there. I've done many signings and 2 other book tours to other cities, and this is the 1st time that people who've actually read the book are showing up (and I'm talking about people not even related to me!). It is a great feeling to be able to discuss the book with folks who read (and, so far, enjoyed) the book. Dera from APOOO Bookclub was also there. Orange Mint and Honey is an upcoming selection for their bookclub--thank you APOOO! And thank you Marcus Books!!!

Books purchased on the road:

Conception by Kalisha Buckanon

The Darkness by L.A. Banks

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner

Song Yet Sung by James McBride (who also writes and plays music!)

Eso Won

Flying over the Rockies.

Part of a mural outside Eso Won.

Shauna Roberts drove over 2 hours to see me!!! Amazing!

Some fans striking a pose. On the far right is Donna, who drove over an hour!

Thank you James Fugate and the folks at Eso Won!!!! I hope to get back the end of May.

Note from the road

In San Fran and having a bang-up time. Heading for the airport to go back to L.A. but I needed to take this moment to plead with you all (preaching to the choir, I know) to please, please, please support your local indie book store. They are hurting folks. I signed in two of them (including Eso Won, which thought they'd be closed by the end of last year, but the community rallied to keep them afloat...so far) and stopped in the legendary City Lights Book Store. The word every place is the same: hanging on by a thread and hoping to stay open.

I'm broke as the next person. I love Amazon and the chains. And God knows I want my novel to fly off the shelves at Target. But maybe we can all make a practice of buying 3, 5, 10 books at our local indie for every 1 we buy online or at a chain.

Going back to Cali

The stop at Dutton's has been cancelled. Sadly, the store is closing next month.

I'll try to remember to take lots of pics of my stops at Eso Won (L.A.) and Marcus Books (Oakland) and post them when I get back.

In the meantime, please stop by Shauna's place and check out the great interview she did with yours truly!

Podtastic

My Tattered Cover talk is up at Authors on Tour. Check it out!

My Town Monday Mash-Up

Travis Erwin and friends are blogging about their towns on Mondays. For my entry, this week, I want to talk about some of the writers who live in Denver (and the surrounding area...stretching "my town" to include the Front Range).

It's amazing how many published writers live here. I get emails from the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers list serve. I belong to Lighthouse Writers Workshop. I'm a member of the Denver Literary Ladies. And I still don't know (or know of) all the working writers in town. I know this because one of them, J.D. Mason, emailed me after seeing the review in Essence. Here we are both sister-writers in the same city and have never met. (Though we're going to remedy that next month!)

Some of our local writers are quite famous (Diane Mott Davidson, Rick Reilly, Stephen White, Joan Borysenko) so they don't need any extra love from this blog. Following are some of the writers not so famous (though they should be!) who live in (or near) Denver. We got everything from memoirists to literary novelists to genre writers. Something for everyone!

Elizabeth Wrenn, the novel Around the Next Corner
Kim Reid, author of the amazing memoir No Place Safe (see Q&A here)
J.D. Mason, best-selling novels including, This Fire Down in My Soul
Donna Gershten, the novel Kissing the Virgin's Mouth (winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction)
Nick Arvin, the highly acclaimed novella Articles of War (see a great Q&A with Nick here)
Robin D. Owens, RITA-award-winning author of novels including Keepers of the Flame
Debra Fine, internationally known conversation expert, author of The Fine Art of the Big Talk
Andrea Cohen, M.D., editor of A Blessing in Disguise: 39 Life Lessons from Today's Greatest Teachers
William Haywood Henderson, literary novels including Augusta Locke
Marisol, The Lady, the Chef, the Courtesan
Karen Degroot Carter, One Sister's Song
Robert Greer, author of the CJ Floyd Mysteries
Mario Acevedo, author of the Felix Gomez vampire stories
Shari Caudron, author of nonfiction including Who Are You People?
Constance Hardesty, Grow Your Own Pizza: Gardening Plans and Recipes for Kids
Marilyn Raff, The Intuitive Gardener: Finding Creative Freedom in the Garden
Eli Gottlieb, novels including the highly acclaimed Now You See Him
Janis Hallowell, novels including The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn and the forthcoming She Was
Karen Palmer, novels including Border Dogs
Sandra Dallas, best-selling novels including Tall Grass and nonfiction about Colorado
Susan Skog, award-winning author of Peace in Our Lifetime and other uplifting books
John Dunning, author of the Cliff Janeway mysteries

I know there are many, many others I'm forgetting. If you know one or if you are one, drop a note in the comments.

And on another note, thinking about best-selling rankings and the Who's Who of local writers made me think about the best books that nobody knows about. When I was a book-seller at the Tattered Cover I used to hand-sell I Asked for Intimacy: Stories of Blessings, Betrayals and Birthings by Renita Weems. I would place the one copy the store stocked on the staff recommends shelf. It would sell and the store would order another and as soon as it came in, I'd put it back out on the staff recommends shelf. I took it as my personal duty to share this slim volume of lovely, moving essays.

What would you recommend as the best book that nobody else has heard of?

#1!

On The Denver Post list of bestselling paperback fiction!!


Local Best Sellers

FICTION
1. The Appeal, by John Grisham, $27.95

2. An Incomplete Revenge, by Jacqueline Winspear, $24

3. Come with Me to Babylon, by Paul M. Levitt, $24.95

4. Now You See Him, by Eli Gottlieb, $22.95

5. Duma Key, by Stephen King, $28

6. The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt, $24

7. Remember Me?, by Sophie Kinsella, $25

8. World Without End, by Ken Follett, $35

9. The Outlaw Demon Wails, by Kim Harrison, $24.95

10. Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult, $26.95

NONFICTION
1. Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story, by Adam Shrager, $26.95

2. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan, $21.95

3. Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail, by Paul Polak, $27.95

4. The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife, by Marianne Williamson, $22.95

5. The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra, $24

6. Lyn Peterson's Real Life Kitchens, by Lyn Peterson, $40

7. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, $23.95

8. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss, $19.95

9. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, by Jonah Goldberg, $27.95

10. The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a PostReligious Right America,
by Jim Wallis, $25.95

FICTION PAPERBACK
1. Orange Mint and Honey, by Carleen Brice, $14

2. What Is the What, by Dave Eggers, $15.95

3. Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, $13.95

4. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy, $14

5. The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, $16

NONFICTION PAPERBACK

1. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle, $14

2. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia,
by Elizabeth Gilbert, $15

3. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time,
by Greg Mortenson, $15

4. The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, $14.

5. Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, by Rick Steves, $21.95


Thank you, Denver!!!!!

Q&A at TC

Thanks to Sarah Ockler (again!) I'm on YouTube. Sad to say, I'm on YouTube making the mistake of not repeating the question before I give the answer. D'oh! Lots to learn.

And Julie Layne, I don't sound like a goofball...I sound just like my cousin Karen!

KUVO

Thank you Susan Gatschet Reese for a wonderful interview! The rest of the staff was in a meeting so we couldn't do a photo of the 2 of us together.

One of the posters at KUVO letting me know I was definitely in the right place!

I was especially happy to hear the tune "O Nina" by jazz vocalist Rene Marie! What a great tribute to Nina Simone!

More pictures!

Sarah Ockler (on the left) has posted pics from the Tattered Cover signing on Flicker. Look for fellow Lighthouse Workshopper Sarah's first YA novel Twenty Boy Summer in 2009!

This is a photo of some of the Lighthouse folks who came out to cheer me. Let me say a great big fat thank you to Lighthouse for all the support (and for a case of wine)!!!!

If you're in Denver and you're a writer, check Lighthouse out: our people get published.

On the radio

I'll be on Jazz 89 KUVO (89.3 FM) tomorrow morning about 10:30 a.m. MST talking with Susan Gatschet Reese about Nina Simone and Orange Mint and Honey. If you get a chance, tune in! Click here to listen online.

Health care for all

I'm "one of the lucky ones," which means I have health care coverage. Though I pay more for insurance through COBRA every month than I do for my half of our mortgage, I'm grateful to have it. There are more than 790,000 people in this state (roughly 47 million in the country) who aren't so lucky. I try not to think about what happens when my COBRA runs out (you can have COBRA for 18 months).

Yesterday I went to a rally at the state capitol to encourage the Colorado legislature to act now on universal health care, rather than wait to see who gets in the White House and what they do once they get there.

A woman named Regina spoke. She too is "one of the lucky ones." She has health insurance through COBRA. Except, Regina has stage 4 breast cancer, which means the treatments that are extending her life come at the cost of basic necessities for her and her husband. I believe she said half their monthly income goes toward her health costs. As a woman standing said next to me said, "It's a crime." With the energy and time she has left, Regina works hard advocating for health care reform and universal health care hoping to leave a better system for her son.

I suspect most folks who read this blog agree that health care is in a state of crisis in this country. But just in case you don't, check out this story from 60 Minutes, which talks about a physician's charity organization that has been delivering care to Third World countries and now finds that it's needed in this country. In Tennesee, people slept outside in 20-degree weather the night before the clinic opened, hoping to get a spot in line! (Lack of health care anywhere in the world is a crime and a shame, but in a country that has wealth, it's especially sinful that we can't guarantee this basic human right.)

I am not well-versed on policy enough to argue for or against single-payer care. But I have to say from the way Gov. Ritter so quickly dismissed it yesterday and urged a slower approach (how much slower can it be??), it made me believe single-payer must be the right way to go. Anyway, Health Care for All Colorado was one of the sponsors of the rally, and they have a great website. I intend on learning more and advocating for this issue. As one of the lucky ones, it's my duty.

On a TOTALLY different note, doesn't this young man look Oliver-esque? He was so cute, I had to snap his picture!

Gettin linky wit it

No time for My Town Mondays today, but do head over to Travis' joint and check out who's blogging about their fair cities. Travis features a very interesting (read: kooky) gentleman today!

I'm getting some lovely reviews from blog readers. Here are a few:

Julie Layne even put Ann Patchett aside for me! Wow! Talk about an honor!

Sustenance Scout's sneek peek of the launch also reviews the book.

Miss Sherry has a review at one of her many blogs (when does this woman sleep?)

Have I forgotten anybody? Oh...and I won't be mad at ya if you leave a review on Amazon, either! :-)

More signings

Don't despair! If you missed the big bash at Tattered Cover, you can still join the Orange Mint and Honey party at West Side Books this Saturday (March 8) at 7:30. West Side Books is located in Denver's Highlands neighborhood at 3434 W. 32nd, Denver, CO 80211. There'll be live jazz, free food AND I'm giving a free gift to the 1st 10 people who buy a copy of OMAH there that night!

If you're in California, I hope you will join me at the following events coming up soon!

7 p.m., Wednesday, March 12
Eso Won Books, 4331 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008. Phone number: 323-290-1048

7 p.m., Monday, March 17
Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, 11975 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. Phone number: 310-476-6263.

7 p.m., Friday, March 14
Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland, CA 94609. Phone number: 510-652-2344.

(Yes, I'm doing Oakland in between events in L.A.)

And if you're in Virginia, don't miss the VA Book Fest in Charlottesville March 26-30! See Kim Reid, Therese Fowler, Judy Merrill Larson, Jenny Gardiner, me and many, many others!

But here's the big news: Look what I discovered to get my feet CA- and VA-sandal ready: orange mint foot cream! And speaking of feet...I have a confession to make: I have discovered zappos.com, a Godsend for a girl with size 11 feet. Check out one of my pairs of book-signing shoes (which were a bigger hit than me Tuesday night!) So the confession is that now that I Zappos...I kinda get the shoe thing.

Leaping

Happy Leap Year Day! Here's a little from my book launch party on Tuesday...the results of my taking a leap of faith about 6 years ago. And what results! It was a grand time!

So the thing about being the guest of honor is that you don't really take photos. But lots of other folks did, so as soon as I get photos emailed, I'll be posting them. In the meantime.... One half of the crowd, taken right before I was introduced. Sold more than 150 books!

Signing books for Diane and Marleen.

With my flowers Leslie brought for me.

Don't know what the heck was going on here, but that is one glam photo!

Today, the Rocky Mountain News gave Orange Mint and Honey an A-!

Sneak peek

Sustenance Scout over at Beyond Understanding has a sneak peek of my very successful, extremely fun book launch!

Tattered Cover

Killing a couple of birds with this one (hmmm, sounds like a metaphor created by my cat!): taking care of My Town Monday and hint, hint my book-signing tomorrow when it's supposed to get cold and rainy/snowy. Grrr. On Wednesday it's supposed to be back sunny and in the 50s! Not that I take weather personally, or anything. :-)

Anyhow, back to Tattered Cover, one of the best independent book stores in the country. TC (as we friends of the store call it) has 3 locations. The store I'll be signing at is the LoDo (Lower Downtown) store.

The other day I was at a meeting and someone commented that after I do my signing at TC, my life would change. Getting published and doing signings is great and all, but...I've done 3 signings at TC already. It doesn't exactly change your life.

I actually worked at TC for about 2 1/2 years. I used to (very lovingly!) call it the home for the vocationally challenged. I know I was when I worked there. It's a good place to go when you need to lick your wounds or dial down the stress in your life. You'll never meet a bunch of kinder, smarter, more interesting people anywhere. I worked with a former judge, a former ER nurse, a former nun, a former monk, and a lot of good writers. Many of my coworkers had more than one advanced degree. It was hard not to laugh in the face of people who wanted to apply for a job when they tried to impress me with their BA, JD or MFA. I used to think, "Yeah, get in line." (Not that I was hiring, but sometimes people would ask me for an application and take the opportunity to point out just how cool they were and how lucky the store would be to have them.)

I started about a year after my first book, Walk Tall, had been published. I actually had the opportunity a couple of times to sell my own book. Once a customer approached me and asked if I knew where she could find it. I thought a coworker had put her up to it. But no. Just right place right time. Another time, a man was buying it along with a stack of others. As I rang up the book, I turned it over to reveal my photo on the back. We both had a good laugh, but I always wondered if those customers left thinking, "Book must not be any good or would she be working in a book store?"


Which leads me back to my point: in terms of fame and fortune, for many, many, many of us writers being successfully published means about as much as any other job I've had. You could fill the Grand Canyon with writers who've published multiple books and been reviewed in newspapers across the country and yet they're not household names, they don't get on Oprah, they don't have a million dollars, nobody recognizes them in the grocery store.


Having said all that, being a published author is much cooler than any other job I've ever had! And for all you out there working on your first novels I hope you get to find out just how cool it is. I'll be posting pictures from the launch party sometime later this week. I've got relatives and friends coming in from 4 cities for a few days of celebrating (I'm taking 7 of them to Idaho Springs on Wednesday). I'll be back to the blog when the champagne wears off!

Yoo hoo Borders

Update on the Borders OMAH-pub date situation: Lafreya tells me that in Ann Arbor she went to one of the new hi-tech Borders today. Their computer still stated that my book hasn't been published yet (so much for hi-tech!), but when she talked to a salesperson, they discovered there were 3 copies on the shelf.

So, if you go in Borders, please check the shelf (I believe they're shelving me in AA Fiction) first. If you don't see it, ask them to order it.

BTW: Lafreya says the store is absolutely beautiful. Thanks Lafreya!! And thanks everybody for helping me get the word out!

In memory

Today is a day I remember two women. The first: my mother, who died on this date 16 years ago. She was the age I will turn in May (God willing). Ever since I was 28, I've been haunted by the idea that I might die the same way she did (of breast cancer) and at the same age she did. It looks like I'm going to make it past the age she was when she died (God willing). And who knows how I'll go? Perhaps this is one fear it's time to let loose. A poem by Lucille Clifton says it better than I ever could:



poem on my fortieth birthday to my mother who died young



well i have almost come to the place where you fell
tripping over a wire at the forty-fourth lap
and i have decided to keep running.
head up, body attentive, fingers
aimed like darts at first prize, so
i might not even watch out for the thin thing
grabbing toward my ankles but
i'm trying for the long one mama,
running like hell and if i fall
i fall.



The other woman I commemorate today is Nina Simone, who was born on this date 75 years ago.



On the surface these two women seem to have nothing in common. Nina Simone, born in the south, a piano protege, a voice like no other, mother to one daughter. My mother, born and raised in the midwest, not famous, couldn't sing, mother of three children. But they were both larger than life characters. Each one just...herself. Each one an inspiration. Each one on my mind and in my heart today.

At a book store near you?

Next week is the big launch party at Tattered Cover LoDo (NOT Colfax as was reported in yesterday's Denver Post). It's Tuesday, February 26th. Hope to see you there!

I've also added some dates for California next month. Please check here for list of my events. (And more to come--I'm looking to set up something in Omaha and Chicago...maybe in May)

On another note, if you live near a Borders would you please help them learn that the book has actually been published? And if you feel brave enough, ask them to stock it. Thank you!

For Shay

One of the best things about publishing Orange Mint and Honey is that I feel like I got to give a voice to these people I came to know and love. I actually cried for Shay (my main character) when Essence called her "talented" and "super smart." I know how much she would like that.

I'm polishing up Children of the Waters, so I'm reading poetry (it greatly helps with editing). Today, I ran across the poem "Dance in Your Blood" from Rumi and it made me think of her. So I post the last stanza for Shay:

Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.

My Town Monday

Travis Erwin came up with this great idea. On Mondays we blog about our home towns, or where we live or about some town. I'll be blogging about Denver.

Travis blogged about (yuck!) Dr. Phil. I'm blogging about Hattie McDaniel. Most of y'all know her as "Mammy" from Gone with the Wind. McDaniel wasn't born in Denver, but moved here when she was a little girl. Now, all this I've known for a while. What I didn't know, is that her family (her father was a freed slave) was lured here just like white folks were by the idea of striking it rich. There was a black prospector named Jeremiah Lee (former slave of Gen. Robert E. Lee) who hit the mother lode and was living it up in Central City.

During this time, 1890s-early 1900s Denver was very welcoming to blacks (y'all remember I pointed out that Madame C.J. Walker had started here in the early 1900s). The city had African Americans in city government and on the police force.

But as the black population grew, the white citizens became less hospitable. (Denver actually has quite the Klan legacy.) McDaniel's family struggled quite a bit, but Denver is where her career began. Her family's history and continuing racism is what led McDaniel to famously declare she'd "rather play a maid than be one."

McDaniel, of course, was the first black person to win an Oscar (and the first black person to even be invited to the ceremony--though she was made to sit at a different table). That means in one generation, her family went from slavery to Hollywood. I'm sure she took a lot of shit (from whites who were racists and blacks who saw her as a sell-out), but what an achievement!

And, good to know: Clark Gable was a good friend to her and advocated strongly on her behalf in Hollywood. I knew I always liked Rhett (especially more than ole wimpy Ashley!).

Source: Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, by Jill Watts

Spring!

Look: buds on one of the rose bushes!

The first daffodil!

For all you suffering from this long dreary winter (Sherry!), hold on: spring is on the way!

Superdelegates, listen up!

Democrats turned out in record numbers at caucuses and primaries around the country to make our voices heard. Superdelegates need to honor our choice. As my good friend E put it, we were betrayed by the Republican party during the 2000 election. What do Dems do if we're betrayed by our own party during the 2008 election?

Click here to sign a petition that MoveOn.org is sponsoring to tell superdelegates to honor the will of the people.

Jamaica Kincaid, pub day and Angela Davis

Jamaica Kincaid was fabulous! She spoke about her experience as a gardener and read from the book I linked to before, Among Flowers, which is about her trip to Nepal to collect plants and seeds. Unfortunately, I didn't take the best notes (more on that in a minute), but a couple of quotes:

"There's no place I feel so much like myself as I do in the garden."

"All cruelty should be confined to the garden." Said in reference to how gardeners fall out of love with a plant and get rid of it.

So, Jamaica Kincaid spoke on my pub date, as you may know. And this is how pub date went: Got up at 6 and read all your wonderful comments and emails! Thank you all so much!!!

At 9 I met my good friend Maryann for breakfast at a Greek diner and then we went over to Tattered Cover (the Colfax store) to witness the miracle of my novel actually being on the shelf. It was so much fun. The booksellers there are excited and handselling, and putting my book in nice displays. Thank you Tattered Cover!

After that, I went to Target and Borders, where I didn't yet see my book (or Theresa's). Then I came home and read and reread the Essence review about five million times. :)

After that, I met my good friends Elizabeth and Heather for a 3 p.m. happy hour of champagne and tempura (they also had sushi). Which turned into 3 happy hours of eating, drinking and gabbing.

After that, I hopped in the car and over to the Botanic Gardens to hear Ms. Kincaid. My good friends Lois (owner of West Side Books) and Karen were there, so I showed off Orange Mint and Honey and Essence and got a few other people excited about the book.

Then, Ms. Kincaid went to the podium and they turned down the lights. She has a beautiful British accent and was very charming and wonderful. Except...I'd been drinking champagne for 3 hours. And they turned down the lights. And I'd been up since 6 a.m. So you know what happened, right? I didn't go all the way to sleep, but I spent most of her talk mentally slapping myself to stay awake. Hence the bad notes.

Yesterday, I did see my book (along with Therese's and Patry's) at Target.

Yesterday, I also received an invitation to go hear Angela Davis speak about "radical social justice." Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend. But here's the details:

Place and time: The Regis University Student Center Cafeteria at 8 p.m. on February 21st.

Background: Through activism and scholarship Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation’s quest for social justice. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality. Email for more information.

It was in the 60s yesterday. Today, snow. But that's ok because girlfriend has to get some writing done!

ringShout

I just discovered ringShout a cool new blog that is a breath of fresh air. Started by black writers "of some seriousness and ambition," the site says:

"RingShout was founded following Martha Southgate's essay "Writers Like Me" in the New York Times Book Review in July of 2007. The response in the blogosphere and in the literary world was enormous. So Martha wanted to harness this energy. She contacted Cornelius Eady and Alison Meyers of Cave Canem , a group she greatly admired, for insight into how they had formed their organization. The next step was contacting several writers, editors and a bookseller (Sarah McNally of McNally Robinson Books who participated in our first couple of meetings) who she knew and respected. The five got together over a period of six months and brainstormed until they had come up with a way to form a book list and a tool kit that would help carry out the group's mission. We kicked off with a party to drum up support and volunteers on February 1, 2008. At the present time, we remain an all-volunteer effort that is unaffiliated with any larger organization."

Writers (black, white, Latino, Asian, Indian, everybody!) please check it out. The most recent post is about a desire for "our books to be for everyone--Barack style."

The Essence Recommended Read

Wow! I'm over the moon with joy! This feature opens with:

"Carleen Brice's Orange Mint and Honey, a new novel about real mama drama, will have you hooked from page one. Taking on the fabled mother-daughter bond, the Denver author confidently strides onto terrain many lesser writers have tripped over--with winning results."

A great day...

...to curl up with a great book!

Or even two great books! Don't forget: Souvenir hits shelves today too. If you're so inclined, please post a review on Amazon.com or other sites.

Thanks everybody for all your support and for sharing my excitement! And P.S. you did it! My friend M is writing! Thanks for all your comments for her too!

Fans of Hillary and Barack, enjoy!

Refrigerator magnet synopsis

Two brief shining moments

I caucused last night. What a madhouse. In 2004, 15,000 Colorado Democrats caucused. Last night, over 100,000 did! Lines were out the door and down the block at my caucus site. Caucus workers were told to plan for 600. Several thousand showed up. I heard at least a dozen people say "This is a zoo!" as they wove in and out of lines trying to get to the line for their precint. It was crazy.

Mayor Hickenlooper was at the same site (we live in the same district, but not the same precinct.) He said something that summed up the evening for me, "Democracy is messy." If the caucus here and the caucuses and primaries around the country are any indication, get ready for a very messy election.

But what better reason to be "messy" than to be passionate about making your voice heard? I was thrilled to see many of my neighbors, and I was proud to be part of the process. Others obviously were too: they brought their children from infants to teenagers to show them what it was like to speak out about how you want your country to be led. Also, the sense that we were participating in a historic event was palpable.

In funny coincidences, my precinct was crowded into a tiny middle-school classroom in which writing is taught. On the board was a reminder for students to give themselves permission to write "badly." And the Obama precinct leader was Charlene Porter, author of Boldfaced Lies.

In other news, for this brief shining moment, Orange Mint and Honey is #24 on the Amazon list of best-sellers about mothers & children. Therese Fowler's Souvenir is #21. The Amazon numbers fluctuate wildly and mean next to nothing, but, for now, it sure feels good!

Jamaica Kincaid coming to Denver

As part of the Bonfils-Stanton Garden Personality Series, author Jamaica Kincaid will give a presentation called, "The Writer in the Garden: The Garden as Metaphor and Paradox" on Tues., Feb. 12, 7 p.m. at the Denver Botanic Gardens. The price is $17 for Botanic Garden members and $22 for nonmembers.

Kincaid is author of best-selling novels Annie John and Autobiography of My Mother. A visiting professor at Harvard University and an avid gardener, her gardening books include My Favorite Plants: Writers and Gardeners on the Plants They Love, My Garden (Book) and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas.

Go here for more information.

Yes we can

This video sort of sums up everything we've been discussing here lately: writing, hope and politics. These 3 little words are my new mantra: yes we can.

The dark place

My friend M is a writer. Somehow though she's got the idea that there's something wrong with her because she's afraid of writing, publishing, revealing herself, rejection, failure, success, the whole ball of wax. I try to tell her it's common. It's normal. But she still doesn't quite believe me.

So I'd like to enlist your help. Please leave a comment about how you handle fear and writing.

And for all of us who battle fear, here's a quote from Walking on Alligators, A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy:

"The dark place seems less dark when we get there. It was only the journey that was fearful....Join us as we take the less-lit road, the road that curves into the unknown places. See what you bring back."

In the stars

So much going on in February. Black History Month. Groundhog Day. Super Tuesday (I will be caucusing for the first time!). Valentine's Day. The American Heart Association wants us to remember to be good to our hearts. But, of course, the big enchilada for me (and my pal Therese Fowler) is February 12th, pub date.

FYI, because Karen asked about events, I added a link to the event page on my website. We're still working on a trip to LA and San Francisco, but right now it looks like I'll be there the week of March 10. And I'll be (along with Kim Reid, Therese and Judy Merrill Larsen among hundreds of others) at the VA Festival of the Book at the end of March. Other cities are in the works too, so stay tuned.

Jamey Hatley turned me on to Susan Miller's Astrology Zone. Because so much is going on, I thought I'd check my February horoscope, and boy is it interesting! Susan predicts publishing or broadcasting opportunities/developments and travel, and says my picture will be in the newspaper or on TV. I especially like this part about the solar eclipse on February 6th:

What will happen precisely? Much will depend on what you've done in the past, for as you enter each month...you bring with you previous hopes, dreams, past experiences, and ongoing projects and relationships. This eclipse is meant to be your moment of reward. It will offer you a chance to take hold of something you've always wanted to do and run with it.

If you're a Gemini, you just got a taste of what's in store this month. Check out your horoscope and let's see what's up. If anything interesting pops up, let me know in the comments, ok?

The Liar's Diary

I've ordered my copy. Have you?


More than 300 bloggers will be writing about Patry Francis and her novel, The Liar's Diary, today. So almost certainly you won't be able to avoid hearing about how Patry is being treated for cancer and, therefore, unable to tour to promote the paperback release.


I've written before about how much I appreciate my blogosphere friends. One small, easy-peasy way to pay it forward is to dedicate today's post to Patry and buy her book (like I needed an excuse!). If you have anything to pay forward (and who doesn't?), please do the same.

Good advice

From Jesse Jackson for Dems to keep our eyes on the real prize, which is November:

My point is I know that in November, whoever wins, Clinton and Barack are going to need each other. I saw in 1980 there was such a dog fight between Carter and Kennedy that they could not reconcile at the convention, and that opened the door for Reagan to get through to win. So, however tough this thing gets right up in here, keep one eye on the primary and an even bigger eye on the Super Bowl, which is in November.

If you want to read his whole interview with activist and blogger Gina McCauly, founder of the What About Our Daughters? site, it's at Essence.com.

January?

Yesterday it was in the 60s, as it was on January 29th 9 years ago--the day hubby and I tied the knot. Sustenance Scout asked me some time ago what I like best about Denver. I'd have to say getting t-shirt weather in January is right up there! As is the fact that this is the city that brought me my husband. Denver has been very, very good to me.

I took this in City Park (she's got a more colorful summer pic on her site). You can't tell from this snapshot, but the park was full of folks biking and walking, playing with kids and dogs. Everybody happy for the hint of spring in the air. I even stopped at City Floral to see if they had any pansies out. Not yet, but soon come.

"Fairy tales" can come true

Change is gonna come.

Linkages

As South Carolina Dems go to the polls today, NPR's John Ridley offers another take on the aspect of race in the Democratic primary. In a nutshell, Ridley says we all know race is a consideration in America, so we're better off knowing up front how the candidates think/feel about it. I enjoyed this essay and agreed with most of it, except for his slam of Obama's answer to the question about whether or not Bill Clinton was "the first black president." Actually, I think the ONLY way to answer that question was with humor, and I'm glad he pulled it off. Lots of stuff to think about here.

News from the gardening world. The NY Times says drought-tolerant plants and plants that can withstand harsh conditions with a minimum of care are the hot things in the marketplace this year. Well, duh. From the article:

Sedums and fragrant creeping thymes are being marketed as “Steppables,” “Jeepers Creepers” and “Treadwells,” because these old-fashioned plants have been rediscovered for their ability to take beating sun and very little water. They will ramble over that bare slope where the grass can’t grow, or creep between pavers on the patio, or stones in the garden path.

Yeah, we've got sedums and thymes for just this reason. But let me tell you, in Colorado, they still take a beating when we get up into the 90s!

The writer ends the story with this note: I left the show with an optimistic feeling: maybe the gloom and doom of global warming and high fuel costs have given us gardeners a road map to smaller, hardier gardens that give back to, rather than take from, the earth.

What a concept.

Download ebooks and audio ebooks legally and for free. As a consumer, this makes me happy. As an author...I dunno how I feel. Check it out. What do you think?

Abandon hope?

While we're on the subject of peace...In my own search for peace, I've been reading When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron, an American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun, and it's blowing my little mind. One of the things she seems to be saying is give up hope. Hope takes you out of the present, which cuts you off from the real experience of life. Hope also sets up a false idea that one day everything will be groovy, and this false idea causes suffering. The reality is that some days will be groovy and some days won't. In a word, the Tibetan Buddhists seem to be saying (with loving kindness): deal.

But let go of hope? I would have slit my wrists years ago without hope that things would change and get better. (And they did.) So I'm struggling with the notion even though I can also see the wisdom in it. In her words:

"Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring security or confirmation. Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring any ground to stand on. In fact, when your mind turns toward the dharma, you fearlessly acknowledge impermanence and change and begin to get the knack of hopelessness.

"In Tibetan there's an interesting word: ye tang che. The ye part means 'totally, completely,' and the rest of it means 'exhausted.' Altogether, ye tang che means totally tired out. We might say 'totally fed up.' It describes an experience of complete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope. This is an important point. This is the beginning of the beginning. Without giving up hope-that there's somewhere better to be, that there's someone better to be-we will never relax with where we are or who we are...."

"To think that we can finally get it all together is unrealistic. To seek for some lasting security is futile....One has to give up hope that this way of thinking will bring us satisfaction. Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's somewhere to hide."

Now doesn't that make sense? However, even though I'm not a religious person, I am a believer. When I look at the world and see Darfur, Iraq, Gaza and good old Haliburton, deep underneath my inability to see God, deep underneath even my certainty that there just can't be a God, is still a belief in God. I don't think I could shake it no matter how hard I tried.

I am Grandmama's granddaughter. She and her sister, my Aunt Susie used to take me to church when I was a little girl. I loved everything about church when I was little: The Methodist ladies in their hats. The butterscotches and peppermints my grandmother and great aunt kept in their "pocketbooks" to calm coughs and soothe children. I'm going up yonder to be with my lord sung in loud, sweet voices. The paper fans with Jesus's or Martin Luther King Jr.'s picture on one side and ads for Thomas Funeral Home on the other. (Grandmama & Aunt Susie's brother-in-law was Lonnie Thomas.)

But when I was about 10 and my parents' marriage was beginning to unravel and I was old enough to hear the snippy gossip and notice when folks weren't exactly walking their talk, I stopped going to church. When I went to college and took religion and philosophy classes, I grew even more distant from religion.

Yet it goes bone deep. The first thing I do when I need help is say "Please God." The first thing I do when I'm happy is say "Thank you God." Belief is all through my writing. Every single book.

Belief in God and hope (for me) go hand in hand. Letting go of one would seem like letting go of the other. And even though that makes sense on so many levels, the Grandmama and Aunt Susie in me will never let go.

However, I'm still getting a lot from this book (which I have to read very slowly because it does blow my little mind). And I have some CDs by Chodron called "How to Meditate." Clearly, there is much to learn. If any Tibetan Buddhists (or anyone else) wants to weigh in, I'd love to hear what you have to say about hope.

10 ideas for peace

For the MLK holiday, my friend Susan Skog, author of Peace in Our Lifetime: Insights from the World's Peacemakers, has an article on Beliefnet called 10 Ways to Bring Peace to the World. Please check it out.

Peace to you.