All About Me

I hope you'll forgive this pimping of myself--that's what we call it here in corn country. Or is it beef country. And it's been so cold here, in the low to mid 50s, so darkly overcast, I've not seen one butterfly or moth in the garden from the safety of my slightly warmer house (I refuse to turn the heat on). The only things stirring outside are some bumblebees and hordes of blue jays, brown thrashers, chickadees, house finches, and mourning doves at the feeders. The sun may break through tomorrow with some 70s in its wake. May. Is it May yet? What a strange year--spring was late and wet, summer dry and sweltering, tail end of August wet, and fall early and dry. On off on off on off. My dad always said it's better to be pissed off than on.

1) Amy Stewart has a short Q&A with me up at Kirkus about my book, Sleep, Creep, Leap (book trailer, excerpt, buy it here). Watch out for a longer review and giveaway at Garden Rant next Thursday.

2) Carole Brown of Ecosystem Gardening did a lovely review of the book, mentioning how she almost spewed tea across her keyboard laughing. Esther Montgomery has a thoughtful and kind review, too, over at Esther's Boring Garden Blog (which isn't that boring).

2.5) I did a guest post at GardenBloggers.com detailing the self publishing process, why I decided to do it, what I hope to get from it, how much money I don't make (not the goal anyway), and all that good stuff. You can find some of this on the above SCL tab.

3) I have a lyrical / contemplative garden photo essay over at Sweet.

3.5) I took 3rd place, honorable mention, and 1st place in two photo contests this summer.

4) Last month I did a radio interview about my garden and writing on a local public station. My voice is sexy if you're distracted while listening to it.

5) And I'm becoming more regular on Twitter (it's the bran flakes), posting pics to Flickr, and also updating stuff on The Deep Middle's Facebook fan page, so like me there. Please. I am a small man.

6) And if anyone is interested in editing or workshop services, I started Dig Deeper as a way to stay in touch with past students and keep myself limbered up. The crown jewel is a 5 week internet / phone workshop for $300 (most writers charge a heckuva lot more). You can see what my students have said about me, too.

Now, back to work. This fall is WAY busy: applying for academic teaching jobs for fall 2012 (I sure miss teaching already), and trying to organize 100+ sources for memoir #3--so far the title is Turkey Red: A Memoir of Oklahoma.