Here’s mine (and yay, because I love her):

You Are Ani Difranco!

Honest, real, and well liked. You’re not limited by any boundaries. “And you can call me crazy But I think you’re as lazy as white paint on the wall”

Hi, hi. Today I have a story live at one of my favorite ezines: juked. Here’s my story for you to read, or not: Celestial.

You better set yourself aside a good chunk of time when you pick up The Liar’s Diary (the stunning debut novel by Patry Francis) because I can tell you from personal experience that once you start reading, you’re not going to want to stop until you’ve finished.

On the surface, this is a book about the seemingly perfect Cross family, living their slightly flawed lives out in the suburbs (the only flaw appears to be the superficial flaw of the son who is overweight) and the woman, the unwanted element, who enters their lives–Ali Mather. Below, the surface, however, this is a book about betrayal; it’s about secrets and lies and years of abuse and denial and how all of these things if not uncovered and dealt with in some healthy way, can lead to disaster, which in this case, they most certainly do.

It is also about Jeanne Cross’s awakening and her realization that she has been stuffing down her emotions for close to 20 years. As is typically the case with such repression, when the pressure cooker reaches its limit–it explodes.

Most heartbreaking of all, this book about errant mothers, abusive fathers, and lost children. And while there are certainly villans (Gavin Cross being the most obvious choice for villan, but Ali being cast as one as well from time to time), these villans are also human beings, who are damaged and hurting and acting out in the only way they know how.

I will not (because I don’t want to ruin it for you) go into details of the plot (there are many surprises in store, though!), but I will say without hesitation that if you don’t pick up this book and read it, you’re going to be missing out.

The new issue of elimae is live and it features work by two of my talented friend writers: Kim Chinquee and Alicia Gifford.

There is also one by me: Quarter

Thanks for reading.

Last year was the first year of the Newburyport Literary Festival and it was utterly fantastic. Since then I have been faithfully checking back on the web site for updates.

While the events are not listed yet, the authors are–and it looks like another great group: Fiction, Poetry, Children and Teens (nonfiction not listed yet).

I’m definitely planning on attending again this year. Maybe I will see you there.

Just got this in email from my pal Jordan and am passing it on–looks great:

Your Turn
in the Write Free Newsletter
edited by Rebecca Lawton and
Jordan E. Rosenfeld

This Month: Rebirth and Susan Bono of Tiny Lights
Deadline: February 15

Your Turn is a feature of the Write Free E-Newsletter (by the co-authors of the forthcoming book Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life—Kulupi Press), which offers writers and artists 10 monthly issues full of insights, activities, and open-hearted inspirations on how to attract and expand upon the creative life.

This month, we’re asking for your 300-word contributions written on the theme of Rebirth. If you’ve already created a short essay on this theme, dust it off and send it in. Or, if you’d like to exercise your writing muscles by coming up with something new, write a piece of 300 words or less and email your submission to us at guides@writefree.us by February 15.

If your essay is chosen, you will receive a complimentary issue of the newsletter.

If you’d like writing prompts to get you started, you can use either of these:

The biggest period of renewal in my life was . . .
Rebirth is the process of . . .

Or answer these questions:

Is death necessary for rebirth?
If death is not necessary for
rebirth, what is?

We’re pleased to have as our Rebirth guest editor Susan Bono of Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Essay. Many of you have read of Susan and Tiny Lights, a beacon of literary memoir whose reach has extended beyond its roots in the northern San Francisco Bay. If you haven’t, check it out at http://www.tiny-lights.com/. Tiny Lights is an exceptional and respected literary market. Those who publish in it have the pleasure of working with Susan, whose wise and insightful editing helps them grow as writers.

We look forward to reading your submissions, and Susan Bono will choose her favorite contribution and comment on it. The chosen essay and Susan’s comments will appear in the March 15 issue of Write Free. The contributor’s bio will be posted alongside the essay.

Have fun! May your writing follow your heart’s desire.

***
The Write Free work relies on a universal principle in which like attracts like. We use our writing energy to consciously attract the lives we want by flowing our creative vibrations onto paper.

Just as you create worlds, images, essays, and stories with your words, you can create the artist’s life you dream of with just as much pleasure and delight. We invite you to energize your dreams!

Write Free work is supported by workshops, retreats, a book and a monthly E-newsletter.

Find out more at: http://www.writefree.us/

Ellen Meister has launhced an exciting new project called Brava!:

Welcome to Brava, where mothers get their well-deserved moment in the spotlight. Inspired by James Lipton’s Inside the Actor’s Studio, this site asks a set of questions—including the famous Bernard Pivot interview—designed to offer an inside glimpse at the glorious women so often obscured by their role.

Look for details of how you can be a part of Brava on Ellen’s myspace profile page.

Here’s some stuff I’ve read and enjoyed recently:

Tom Perrotta’s Joe College: A Novel is the fast-paced and darkly humorous tale of Danny, a kid from a working-class background who attends Yale in the early 80s. At work in this novel is Danny’s struggle between the fancy restaurant world of his college life and the tawdry strip club world of his hometown life. These two worlds are symbolized by the type of women Danny is attracted to (or not) in each of them–and when the worlds collide we see what he is really made of. Basically, he tries to be a good guy, help his father, but he makes shitty choices and sleeps with a hometown woman he doesn’t love and then doesn’t stand by her when she later ends up pregnant. It would be easy to judge Danny in this situation (and I did) but I found it utterly believable that he chose his comfort over doing “the right thing” and because of that I thought this book was a real gem.

Just finished the Winter 2007issue of The Kenyon Review. Man was there some great stuff in there. Enjoyed the Patrick Tobin story very much and was utterly blown away by Holly Goddard Jones‘s story Life Expectancy. The story starts out simple enough–a high school basketball coach is having an affair with one of his female players–but as things progress and the more you learn about the circumstances of the coach, his life outside of the school, the deeper and deeper the story draws you into the vortex of helplessness. And the ending! Whoosh! It’s a punch right in your gut.

Last but not least, Meridian Issue 18 features an excellent story by my friend Matthew M. Quick. As I told him after I read the story, it has two of my favorite things a quirky protagonist (who is in his late 30s and lives with his parents and has a paper route while he pursues his dream of becoming a Shakeperean actor) and Shakespeare. Don’t miss it.

GUD (Greatest Uncommon Denominator) is a new and exciting journal that is definitely worth a read. Here’s a blurb from the web site on what you can expect to find:

Issue 0 is headed up by Kaolin Fire. His background has long been fantasy and science fiction, but through Scrawl and Night Train he’s received a better understanding of and even a desire for a more literary bent.

He has had a subscription to F&SF for several years, and is especially interested in trends of technology, ritual, consciousness, dreaming, artificial intelligence, the nature of intelligence, the meaning of life, reincarnation, religion, programming (of all sorts), and much more besides.

He generally prefers dark and unsettling to light and fluffy, but appreciates quirk wherever it’s found.

3AM has undergone a facelift and man, does it look great! It also reads great and features two of my favorite writers:

Alicia Gifford with Punk Love

and

Liesl Jobson with Three Stories: Oupa, Oprah’s Girl, Prognosis

The latest issue of FRiGG is live and oozing with goodness. Read it. Love it. Wrap your arms around it and make sure not to miss the work of Kathy Fish, Claudia Smith, Dennis Mahagin.

Please take a few minutes to head over to La Bloga and read this thoughtful essay, by my friend Désirée Zamorano: Unfolding Lives