Go buy this book!

My friend Eileen wrote it (Eileen of the Skirt #15: The Eileen). Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Unpredictable-Eileen-Cook/dp/042521396X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201551718&sr=1-1

Yep, that's right, my friend wrote a kick-ass novel about a girl who fakes being a psychic to get her ex back, and winds up finding love in the most unexpected of places. Aptly titled, Unpredictable is a romp through love in this cynical new century. Jenny Crusie lauds Eileen as one of this generation's great new voices, and I could not agree more.

This book is a hoot - Eileen let me read it before it went to print - but don't take my word for it, go buy the book!

Fuel your passion

Poking around the Interwebs today looking for someone to give me money just for being me, I found several interesting grants for writers, among them:

Journalism grants, including investigative journalism (like say you're writing a book) http://newswise.com/resources/j_grants

The Fine Arts and Writing Center in Provincetown has a 7-month fellowship that sounds amazing: http://www.fawc.org/winter/index.shtml

Of course, there's always the Fulbright (http://www.cies.org/), the NEA (http://arts.endow.gov/grants/index.html), and the Stegner (http://www.stanford.edu/group/creativewriting/stegner.html).

A Room of Her Own (http://www.aroomofherownfoundation.org/home.html) looks great, too.

More grants for writers are here: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/grants.htm. It's crazy, what's out there if you just look for it.

Stardust

Have you seen the movie "Stardust"? I want to hump Neil Gaiman's leg.

New skirt; also, impending doom.

First, check out the new skirt in all its glory at The Daily Skirt.

Next, the impending doom. There's a reorg brewing at work and people are being their worst selves. Then there's this root canal thing in two weeks, and last Tuesday, I slept on the living room floor for eight hours. During the day. Which can't be normal, can it?

And then last night our furnace quit! It is currently 53 degrees in the house. The dog and I are huddled together for warmth. She is not that big a dog, people. Next dog? Giant schnauzer.

Is it any wonder I have this pervasive sense of impending doom? I just want it to be springtime and over, with everyone OK. (And warm. And orally healthy.) Maybe I just need to take a cue from Eat Pray Love and stop worrying, just let it all go. What will be will be. Although that's easier when your fingers aren't white with cold.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. Have a good day, people!

Root canal

Dudes, I am having root canal in two weeks. The endodontist gave me the bad news, said "Teeth are a mystery," and then prescribed some Valium because I am not the most pleasant person on earth when people are jamming sharp things in my mouth.

I can't help it. I'm not the most relaxed person as it is; when you lie me down and ask me to open my trap for an hour or two so things can be put in there and then taken out of there, I get a little tense.

I've tried meditation but the monkeys in my brain keep fixating on the sounds of the drill and all that. Xanax works, but you know, X works a little too well. It's too tempting. And I've tried laughing gas. You know what it makes me do? Burst into tears, and then want to get naked and run around. It simultaneously ratchets up my anxiety. Laughing gas, my ass.

But I'm not the only one in the family to have that reaction - Mom can't do laughing gas, either, and when we were in high school, my brother went to the dentist four successive times in one month to try to have his teeth cleaned, and each time they tried, he flipped out on the table and they had to spring him. I don't know that he's seen a dentist since.

Root canal. Man. I should just go ahead and close comments on this post right now.

Two new paintings

Here are two new paintings I've been working on lately, in between making skirts. (Incidentally, tune in to the Daily Skirt tomorrow for a departure from Skirtopia.)

1. Truth as a Construct is a little (12" by 12") mixed-media I just did today. It's about PR, actually; about how we work so hard to construct the "right" message that it becomes an orchestration of words.



2. Construction of Self is a larger 24" by 24" that is also mixed media (silk and encaustic) that I made today after planning it for some time.

Skirty goodness!

So I've been cheating on you with another blog. I know, I know, and I'm sorry. But I couldn't resist. I give you The Daily Skirt, a sometime chronicling of my love affair with my sewing machine.

So far, I've got 8 skirts up there; next, look for misshapen pajama tops that will, with any luck, gradually turn into shirts I might wear out of doors. Hey, you never know, it could work.