Six

Oh, thank you, gods of the meme. You’ve saved me from posting a movie that Caleb and I made Thursday night. (And by “movie,” I mean two minutes of the two of us being unable to tear our eyes away from the image of ourselves in the monitor. Don’t let your babies grow up to be narcissists, people.) In a very cool coincidence, both Tiffany and Libby tagged me for the Six Things Meme.

The rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on you blog
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your entry.

In honor of the impending paperback release of PPIEW and the finishing of Brain, Child’s summer issue (not there yet), I’m going to do six things about me related to publishing.

1. When my proposal for the book went out, quite a few houses wanted to see a picture of me. So I scanned in a bunch and sent them off. Then they came back and asked for, like, full-length ones. Miss Jay said I lost my neck, but Tyra thought I looked “fierce.” On my go-sees, everyone agreed I needed to work on my walk. Oh, I’m kidding. Except about them asking for pictures. And looking fierce.

2. If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have written the whole section about Caleb and Parker in PPIEW. I believe I did it well and sensitively, but nonetheless, I wouldn’t do it again.

3. The cover of the hardback PPIEW is the same image that we ran as a cover one time on Brain, Child. I kind of fought against having that image on the book until I almost wound up with a cover with a fake-me-out Barbie doll, then one of (inexplicably) toast. Eventually, I became fond of the cover. But I really like the snazzy new paperback cover. One of the little circles has a drawing of a dog that looks like Luna, one of our pups. The woman holding the book is not me, although I do admire the arch of her eyebrows.

4. At Brain, Child, we run between one and two percent of the essay submissions we get. Isn’t that crazy? And to be honest, in the early years, if I myself had submitted an essay to Brain, Child, it probably would not have gotten in. I’ve learned so much about writing from editing really good writers. So, holla, you BC contributors!

5. I have really excellent graphic design skills for a person working in 1995.

6. Stephanie and I live about an hour and fifteen minutes from each other and I don’t have a single picture of us together that floats my boat. (We were recently asked for one because faces tend to attract people's attention--hence all those magazines with babies/models/celebrities on the cover.) There’s one that comes close, but the expression on my face might be best summed up as Yes, I Work For Brain, Child, But Let Me Tell You, I Am Not Happy About It. Subscribe today and you can achieve the same grimness as me! Jeesh.

So, I can’t remember who does memes and who doesn’t, so if you’re interested? Consider yourself tagged!