Articles in month: June, 2009

Oh, Banff. How I loved you. Your mountains! Your lakes! Your forests! Your colorful money and your lack of Internet access!

(The view about halfway up the hike between Lakes Louise and Agnes. This is Louise.)

Frankly, I am not thrilled to be back home. After this:

(The Devil’s Gap, view from boat on Lake Minnewanka)

Or these:

(Bighorn sheep at Lake Minnewanka)

But I am, and I will deal with it. Meanwhile I want to see your pictures of nature from your summer travels or local adventures, okay? Okay.

*Of course when hiking from Lake Louise to Lake Agnes, I could not get John Prine’s song, “Lake Marie,” out of my head. (And the wind was blowing, especially through my hair.)

1. Thanks to everyone who came out for the chat on Wednesday—that was fun. If you missed out, you can read the transcript at the rgz blog, where the Sweethearts discussion continues throughout the month.

2. I am totally chagrined by last night’s SYTYCD elimination. Max is an incredibly strong dancer. But then, this season it seems like they all are, so every week will be devastating, I’m sure.

3. I want to thank, hug, clasp hands with, send flowers to everyone who has already responded to Once Was Lost. Between your tweets and emails and blog posts, I’m feeling grateful that you have made the Season of Nausea less stressful, and am excited for fall. (And, FYI to bloggers, I do not have any ARCs to send you, I’m sorry! If you have a review site and want one, you’ll need to contact my publicist. With a modicum of effort, you will find her contact info on this site.)

4. Yesterday I finally watched Shut Up & Sing, the documentary about the fallout for the Dixie Chicks after Natalie Maines made a negative comment about Bush. It’s very good (and maddening), dishing up a lot of food for thought: What is patriotism? Was what happened to them censorship? How does the near-monopoly situation of the broadcasting industry filter what we get to hear and see, even when there is no specific controversy? What if a grizzly dude instead of an attractive female had made same comment? The immediate reactions after the fact included referring to the women of the Chicks as twits, sluts, bimbos, and airheads. When you watch the documentary, it’s obvious they are none of those things, not even close. You know the rhetoric would have been different (or non-existent) if they were not young, cute women. As a writer, I was especially interested in their conversations after the fact with their manager about what kind of artists they want to be. How far should any artist have to go in playing the game?

5. I’m getting out into the wild for a few days. I may try blogging from my phone, just for kicks, but I should probably resist that impulse when I’m trying to get back to nature. We’ll see. So, see you late next week if not before!

The month of Sweethearts over at Readergirlz continues! Believe it or not, it is already June 17, so we’re over halfway through. Yikes! Here’s what’s going on:

• Live chat tonight at the rgz blog. 6 p.m. Pacific / 9 p.m. Eastern. (7 p.m. Mountain, 8 p.m. Central! And if you’re in Arizona…well, who knows. You can always check the world clock if you’re not sure.) It should be easy. The chat opens at 5:45 Pacific. You should just be able to go over to the blog, and see a chat box and start yapping! The address, once again: http://readergirlz.blogspot.com

• Yesterday, Sarah Darer Littman, whose book Purge is a recommended companion read to Sweethearts, posted to the rgz about that and about her own experience with food and body image.

• Also yesterday, the featured discussion question was: Jenna and Cam’s relationship isn’t really romantic, and it isn’t really platonic. Sara asks, “What is challenging about that kind of friendship?” Whoah nellie, what isn’t complicated about that? Add your thoughts.

I hope to see you at the chat tonight where we can talk about all things Sweethearts, or just So You Think You Can Dance!