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| | And Once Again...Good morning! (No pressure, as always!)
Ahhhh....it's been quite a while since I've shown my 'model-good looks' face around here, eh? So, okay - let's start off with my usual stuff first, before I get into the (ummm?) other stuff.
Today is April 15th, the IRS' nefarious, infamous personal income tax day. But what else is the day known for, you might well ask - and since you asked so politely (if you did indeed ask) I shall tell you. Today is the day for:
• Rubber Eraser Day  
• Art History Day (who is this guy Art???)
• National Library Workers Day (these folks really 'book'! Get it???!!!)
• The 1st McDonald's opened in Des Plaines, IL in 1995 on this day
• The Titanic sunk in 1912. This occasion made Leonardo DiCaprio a mega star years later in the movie of the same name
• and speaking of Leonardos, Leonardo DaVinci was born in 1452
• Take a Wild Guess Day (Pistachios??? I dunno. It was a wild guess.)
• That Sucks Day (probably has something to do with income taxes. Just a wild guess, but whatever...)
• Equal Pay Day (I guess this is self-explanatory)
And that's about it for now. At least, for the holidays of April 15th.
And now, for some news of my own (with a teeny bit of backstory, which is the norm for me.)
I have a book coming out! Yep! That's right!
It's called Mugging for the Camera and it's a book of offbeat, quirky, humorous poetry. Written mostly in rhyme, traditional poetic form and (of course!) light verse - it's a compendium of weird news, puns and plays on words, life in the 'burbs, food, science and whatever else I felt like writing about. Nothing sacred, ya know? Just all (or mostly all) done in fun.
A few of my pieces some of you might recognize from Xanga's ye olde Daily Haiku (and thanks for the inspiration there!) but there's a lot of other stuff too. It includes poems that were published (and in some cases even won awards!) at Sol Magazine, Trellis Magazine and AsininePoetry, just to name a few.
(Note: some of those awards actually paid $$$ so, I can honestly say I am rapidly on my way already to becoming a hundredaire! No mere millionaire stuff for me! Ha!)
Anyway, I had a lot of fun putting the book together. And in case you are wondering what the title is all about (because, what does a camera have to do with a book of [mostly] funny poetry?) the idea came from the concept of an album of snapshots, which is what these poems are kinda sorta in tune with (to mix metaphors even more.) Originally, I saw the cover of the book as having an assortment of photos of people in funny poses (or, well, mugging for the camera), but a member of my writing group suggested a strip of pictures like the kind you get in one of those photo booths. And voila!
(Thanks, Lisa - and thanks, Laurie, for telling me where I could find such a booth.)
And that's what it is, even if Amazon doesn't have the picture of my book up yet (see the 'Currently Reading') because my publishing company (Virtualbookworm) is at this time, getting it ready for print. (The whole Amazon POD thing slowed things up just a tiny bit, but that enchilada is a blog topic for another time.) Right now, I'm in a celebratin' frame of mind. My book actually should be available within the next week or two. Yay!
So - buy the book!  (You can actually pre-order it now!)
Now then, let's see what else I can tell ya. Oh yeah, Goldfinch!
I belong to a statewide women's not-for-profit writing collective called Women Who Write.
(Side note - especially considering I have a giant picture of an eraser [see above]: We have a large calendar on our 'fridge where my hubby and I keep track (kinda sorta) of appointments, commitments and kidlet activities. I had a WWW board meeting coming up, so I penciled it in the block for that day and date. It said: "WWW Board Meeting, 7:30PM." My hubster then wrote underneath my entry, "Men Who Erase, 8:30 PM.")
heehee
Right. Now back to Goldfinch. I am the editor this year (and was last year, too) of the annual literary magazine of Women Who Write. Submissions are only open to members, but the journal is (or will be) available to the general public for sale soon. We're just finishing up a few tweaks right now - and then we should be going to print. There's some amazing writing in the mag, I must say! I'm really proud of our writers! So...another yay! And if you are a woman who lives in NJ and you're a writer, then check out the website.
Now then, some weird news, n'est pas? In honor of the fact that it is an election day in my town (school board), I wanted to relate a story from Naples, Italy. According to Yahoo News, a man ATE his ballot in protest against the politicians whom people were voting for (or against, I suppose.) In stuffing his own "ballot box", the unnamed gentleman was reported to have said, "all
Italian politicians and politics 'are crap' and that he was
protesting against the system."
Any wild guesses as to what happened next? I bet he didn't just get some pistachios, huh?
Well, I have things to do, so I guess I'll be on my way. Hope your day doesn't suck (despite the holiday) and apropos of nothing, if you mug for the camera, SMILE! 
| | | Posted 4/15/2008 9:50 AM - 2 comments
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