Surrender, Dorothy

Welcome to Missouri. Happy 4th of July.

Who wants to come over to my house?

Heh.

Sleep Is for the Weak Wins a 2009 National Parenting Publications Gold Award

With BlogHer approaching, I'm reminded of Sleep Is for the Weak and the journey I took to edit it and find a publisher for it. It premiered last year at BlogHer '08 with a book signing I'll never forget.

Photo credit: Yvonne of Joy Unexpected

Selling books is hard, and I have learned so much about the publishing industry in the past two years -- I can't even tell you.

While book sales are nice (and more would be nicer!), third-party awards are ... incredible. I learned earlier this year that Sleep Is for the Weak won a 2009 gold NAPPA, but I was secretly afraid it was maybe just a joke.

It's not!

Winning this award made me think my instincts are good even if the economy sucks and nobody's buying books like they used to. It's given me the courage to try to write more books, slow as they may be flowing out of me. I'm still looking for an agent for my picture book and am a whopping five pages into a new novel.

You can check out the results of all the NAPPA awards here.

You can buy your very own copy (or several hundred to give to all your parent friends) here.

You can get your own copy signed by the writers of Amalah, Finslippy, Fussy, Woulda Coulda Shoulda, Mom-101, Rancid Raves, Sweetney, CityMama, Friday Playdate, Motherhood Uncensored, Surfette, IzzyMom, Binkytown, Three Kid Circus, Mommy Needs Coffee, Not Calm (dot com), and State of Grace at BlogHer 2009 in a few weeks in Chicago.

And while I'm at it, go buy some of my short stories and poetry on Kindle. Hey, you can't blame a girl for trying?

Replacing My Wedding Ring

It's been three months since I lost my wedding ring. I've come to terms with the fact I'm not going to find it.

I struggled with replacing it because I knew it was going to cost some coin. Also, I wanted to have another ceremony to go along with it, and I will, but it's gone on too long. It needs to be replaced. It is getting replaced.

It's totally weird to shop for a wedding ring when you've been married for eight years. It engenders none of the same emotions as looking at rings when you're waiting to get engaged.  Instead of feeling excited, I mostly feel sad that I lost the one I had. I'm mad at myself for losing it. I really just want my old ring back.

But I know I need a new one. And you know what? I'm not sure what sort I want. WHO AM I NOW?

At first I thought I wanted one exactly like my old ring, which had gypsy-set diamonds scattered at intervals around the band. The more I looked at them, though, I realized a) they cost three times as much in 2008 as they did in 2001 and b) getting a new one just like the old one would make me pissed I'd lost the old one every time I saw it. So I've decided to look for something different. Reasonable, but with the same amount of bling the old one had.

This has proved difficult. My engagement ring is a marquise, and it doesn't have a lot of clearance. You can't get a high wedding band to go with it. It pretty much needs to be gypsy-set or channel-set.

So this weekend, we're going to hunt around Kansas City for a new wedding ring. If you see us getting married at a glass counter, you'll know why.

-----------

Read my review of Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!