Weekend Miscellany

Thanks to everyone who entered the Nadine Dajani book giveaway on Friday--I'll be picking a name at random tonight and announcing the winner on Wednesday. Also, thanks to everyone who came out to see my presentation with Gail and Danielle on Thursday at the Wisconsin Book Festival, but particularly to Denise (love the name!) and Sandra. I've known Sandra in a blogging capacity for a few years, and it was lovely to finally meet the woman behind the words.

I spent the rest of the weekend with my family, and I must say: when my mother makes beds, she tucks the sheets into the tightest hospital corners in THE WORLD. My feet involuntarily spent eight hours in the en pointe position Saturday night. It was like sleeping in a narrow manila envelope. She also makes the best autumn dinners in the world: supper in a pumpkin and spicy squash soup on Saturday, and white beans with sage, swiss chard, and butternut squash AND a wild rice, cranberry, and celery salad on Sunday.

Which reminds me of another word I truly despise: medley. Isn't that a prissy, self-congratulatory, smug word? MEDLEY. Please, dear copy writers who compose descriptive language on menus and food labels: stop using this word to describe fruit plates and pasta primavera. Food is only musical when it exits our bodies in gaseous form, per the old ditty. Any time you offer a 'medley' of any food item, I immediately suspect it of costing too much and arriving in a portion that would leave even Lara Flynn Boyle hungry. So stop it.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to GCC author Deborah LeBlanc, who is currently promoting her latest release, Water Witch.

Deborah LeBlanc is an award-winning author from Lafayette, Louisiana. She is also a business owner, a licensed death scene investigator, and an active member of two national paranormal investigation teams.

She is the president of the Horror Writers Association, president of the Writers’ Guild of Acadiana, president of Mystery Writers of America’s Southwest Chapter, and an active member of Sisters in Crime, the National Association of Women Writers, and International Thriller Writers Inc. In 2004, Deborah created the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge, an annual, national campaign designed to encourage more people to read, and soon after founded Literacy Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting illiteracy in America’s teens. Her latest novel is WATER WITCH. For more information, please go to http://www.deborahleblanc.com/ and http://www.literacyinc.com/

About the book: Dunny knew from an early age what it meant to be an outsider. Her special abilities earned her many names, like freak and water witch. So she vowed to keep her powers a secret. But now her talents may be the only hope for two missing children. A young boy and girl have vanished, feared lost in the mysterious Louisiana bayous. But they didn’t just disappear, they were taken. And amid the ghosts and spirits of the swamp, there is a danger worse than any other, one with very special plans for the children—and for anyone who dares to interfere.
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Kinda gets me in the mood for Halloween...good luck with the newest release, Deborah!