Saturday, June 21, 2014

People In Your Neighborhood

take a seat and read!!

Shebooks hasn't only published my memoir ( which has 18 reviews on Amazon, each and every one I am so appreciative of. Reviews are very important for sales! ) OBVIOUSLY, but they have published many amazing short story collections, journalism, other memoir and fiction. For the monthly price ( under 6$ ) you can't beat it.

I've watched all of Season 2 of OITNB, and this brief write up articulates clearly the kind of real life situations prisoners are living with in the jail the series uses as its model.  “Why are they there? By and large, they’re there because they couldn’t make bail, because they’re poor. And if they had five hundred dollars or fifteen hundred dollars to post bond, they wouldn’t have to be there.”

I'm a big fan of Roxane Gay- her writing, but also her general presence online, which is formidable, intellectual, passionate, stubborn yet searching, engaged and transparent. Here are her 6 favorite books

The newest breakthroughs in cancer research are truly thrilling

A blogger writes a powerful blog post that goes from being flippant to political, on women dying because they have to defecate and urinate in fields, exposing them to murderers.

This mother of a 13 year old boy who died at his best friends house wants us to ask ' Do you keep unsecured guns in your home? ' My two cents: I have asked, but not 'unsecured' just: Do you keep guns in your home? It's awkward and not received well, every time. 

A very engrossing write up on the author of The Fault In Our Stars

This boy has been in a terrible car accident, hit by a drunk driver. Help his family during his hospitalization and rehab.

This is one of the best blog posts I've ever read.  Corbyn Hightower writes.

A woman finds a note in an airport that says READ ME. Find out what it's all about. So moving.

Ever heard a noise that drove you nuts. Read this fascinating piece on the mysterious Hum.

Monday, June 16, 2014

thank you, house



we are leaving this grass and shadow ground in two weeks. 

two years of memories and years 1-3 for Ever, years that i as her mother will remember as some of the most precious of my life and that she will not remember, but will bear, in her heart, her mind. years that shaped her underlying structural beliefs of relationships and the very basic truths of life: am i safe? am i worthwhile? am i happy? am i ok if i am sad? am i capable? yes, yes, yes, yes, yes Everkins. 

this house was an important part of that foundation. the bold, cheerful colonial style shutters, the wide wrap round porch spilling with toys, the bright white kitchen with potted plants, the dogs panting from the back porch to the front yard grass, the big master bedroom with our bed overflowing with pillows and comforters and mommy's computer, desk and quotes and pictures taped to the wall. the bathroom where daddy gave her a bath every night, often joining her to have his hair washed. lola's bedroom, every year with more personality, this year with The Breakfast Club poster hanging over her bed. the boys room, messy and under vacuumed, the place where Ever appears with handfuls of change. the living room: tv time, reading curled into the couch, rolling on the floor with siblings for Family Night. 

thank you, house, for every sheltered night, for every air conditioned summer afternoon, for every crackling fireplace, for the cool pretty wood floor the dogs pressed themselves against. thank you house, for the shadows across the wall, for the blue light at evening tide. thank you house, for the raccoons on the porch i have made friends with, their bandit eyes gleaming, watching me as they eat the dog food. thank you house, for being strong, warm, safe and true. thank you for providing sanctuary.


Friday, June 13, 2014

Happy Father's Day, Mr. Curry



I killed the monsters. That's what fathers do. ~F.K. Wallace

to the monster killer in our house
we love you
happy father's day!!!


Sunday, June 8, 2014

sand storm


We got the house we wanted
to get,
yay! for all that.
Now the hard(er) part: we can't move in until August 1, but can't live here past June. So for the month of July, we will be living with my sister-in-law and her husband and their two kiddos, my nephews. They live in fancy La Jolla five minutes from the beach, so we aren't exactly slumming it. We'll be living a vacation, basically. I'm half terrified and half thrilled. I think these kinds of adventures in life are really good for a person. Shake things up. Get out of your comfort zone. I think it will be important for my kids, they'll bond with their cousins on a whole new level that includes supreme irritation, I'm sure, but that's family, that's important. Irritation is the sand in between the toe that binds, or something. Mr. Curry will be living mostly with his uncle, because there is only one teensy weency room for all of us to squeeze into, and Mr. Curry has very strict sleep needs, including the fact that he wakes at 5:10 or abouts every morning, an ungodly hour that you won't catch me waking up at unless there is an earthquake or fire or a three year old toddler named Mini-Kinny who wakes up with a start and says WHAT IS HAPPENING? which she did the other night. Nothing is HAPPENING, it's three in the freaking morning!!! Go back to bed! But no, she wanted a glass of water. Which I got. Then she had to pee, and I carry her to the bathroom and hold her tiny butt over the toilet while she pees, a nightly ritual which I cherish. I'm not kidding. I love it. I can't fully explain why, because it wakes me, and I'm exhausted, and sometimes I feel profoundly irritated having to wake up and do it, but the fact remains that every time I do it, I am filled with a loving devotion that is so tender I often find my eyes filling with tears. I love, love, love being a mommy.

xo

Saturday, June 7, 2014

People In Your Neighborhood



Bustle magazine covered my publisher Shebooks Kickstarter campaign, still going strong and very successful. 

Really can't wait to read Young God by Katherine Faw Morris, a writer I've just excitedly discovered

Jane Devin is an old online friend of mine and a furiously devoted writer. Her book Bright Lines is getting rave reviews and in buying this sweeping story of a young boy moving through foster care and pain, loneliness and loss toward a self realized future. I bought it and drank it down in two sittings!

I loved these absolutely helpful and true reminders of what to do when your child won't listen, by Andrea Nair

There is a reason I have this bookmarked, and her name is LOLA. Like a smurf exploded in our bathroom. That is all I will say.

A 19 year old Texas kid is facing possible life in prison because he made and sold pot brownies. What a nightmare our laws have become. This is so outrageous and barbaric, it's hard to really wrap the mind around it. These kinds of injustices are why I joined Amnesty International and continue to write letters and sign petitions for the things that infuriate and horrify me.

Incredible photojournalism of the aftermath of a chemical disaster in Phopal in Mother Jones

Tannis Miller writes about the loss of a friend to drugs and mental illness in Blue Eyes

This story of a 19 year old college girl and her boyfriend who murdered her is so deeply sad. I couldn't stop reading it, partly because I always think maybe I'll learn something to protect my daughters, and partly because I'm always trying to face and absorb how random and unpredictable life can be- two opposing goals in reading. See what you think.



Thursday, June 5, 2014

Helping is the Only Helping

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