GirlChild Press

New Shipment In!

2010-09-07T14:57:00.003-04:00

Growing Up Girl has been on back order for several months. We just got a fresh shipment in today! If you have been waiting for the books you can order them here.

Growing Up Girl: An Anthology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces

A diverse collection of poems, essays, and short stories that document the transition from girl to woman, as told by the girls and women who know the journey best.

314 pages
ISBN 0-9779372-0-8
Regular price: $19.95 plus S&H

Meet (Some of ) the Woman's Work Contributors

2010-08-03T22:25:00.005-04:00

While we've been busy shipping out orders of the newest anthology, Woman's Work: Short Stories, I thought I would take the time to hand deliver some of the books to a few of the contributors and chat them up.

In the video below you will find five contributors who will tell you a little bit about their stories, why they write, and maybe some advice for budding writers.

The contributors are: Megan M. Walsh (Cats and Dogs and Spiderwebs), Candace Tyler (Social Service), Venus Campbell (A Queen's Burden), Patricia R. Corbett (Fall of the House of Snow) and Lois A. Wiley (Sousabella).

Enjoy!

Why Woman's Work?

2010-07-01T13:28:00.007-04:00

Since I sent out the first call for submissions for "Woman's Work," everyone has felt compelled to "correct" the spelling of Woman's to Women's. Although I'm quite aware that this newest collection highlights the writings of 40 women...my choice of the title was inspired by the writings of one woman in particular. See the introduction to the anthology for further clarification.

Introduction

Part of the problem is that I treat writing like a privilege not an obligation.
It comes after everything, after all my other responsibilities.
Maegan “la Mamita Mala” Ortiz
My Writing Life

In many ways, this anthology found its inspiration in blogger/poet/activist Maegan “la Mamita Mala” Ortiz’s essay “My Writing Life,” that appears in the anthology Just Like a Girl: A Manifesta!. Although we had received over 400 submissions for that project, her well-crafted treatise, speaking as it does of a writer’s life that occurred after she breastfed the baby, did the housework, and took care of her partner, is the story of all of the other women who did not meet our submission deadline that year. These twenty-first century women whose lives look very much like those of their sisters from generations ago, only now with jobs, some high-end, some barely making ends meet, to go along with all that “woman’s work” that has always threatened to keep women away from their passions.

Every week I get an email from a woman who laments not finishing that novel, or poem, or memoir that they have been meaning to get to. I tell them to write one page a day, for five minutes, and that before they know it they will have that project completed. But in reality, I don’t live their lives. I don’t have to juggle anything, except my own discipline, to get my writing done. I don’t have the traditional trappings that require that I put anyone first and relegate my writing schedule to a time after everyone is sleeping.

I admire those women who don’t give up in the face of three-hour dance recitals, chicken pox, or last minute fifth grade science projects. They keep stoking that creative fire, believing that they will get back to it and what they have to say is worth saying.

These provocative, funny, and original short stories are from the women who, like Maegan Ortiz, show up to the page deep into the night, after all their woman’s work is done, and let their passions fly.

Our New Email Addy

2010-06-21T13:27:00.002-04:00

We are changing our email address. The transition will be completed by July 1, 2010 and our old address at AOL will be terminated

Please note the change

GIRLCHILDPRESS (AT) GMAIL.COM

Michelle

READING AT RED EMMA'S

2010-06-17T16:06:00.003-04:00

Join us at Red Emma's Book for a reading of A LITTLE TRUTH ON YOUR SHIRT with HBO Def Poet Sonya Renee. Come hear new work and get an autographed copy of the outstanding collection.

Red Emma's
Friday, June 18, 2010 at 7:00pm
800 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

In the beginning... I was a poet

2010-06-04T13:44:00.004-04:00

An encounter over the weekend reminded me it has been ten years since I joined the the spoken word community of Washington, DC. My first time was at mothertongue, a women's spoken word venue. Prior to finding myself on the stage at the Black Cat, I had been writing in the privacy of my apartment and performing my work on long car trips by myself. Then one day one of my friends signed me up to read and I was blown away by the audience response.

I'm no Sonya Renee Taylor, but I can hold my own. When I first started out I use to perform almost every week somewhere in D.C. I even took a year off from my day job to perform and teach writing workshops. That was a very cool year.

Over the years, I've turned my attention to my screenwriting and publishing life and don't perform as much. But my encounter over the weekend reminded me that there are people who only know me in my poet persona. So, I decided to dig up one of my favorite poems, But Until Then, and record myself. This piece is about five years old and not how I normally perform it. Consider it a remix:)

SPRING WRITING WORKSHOP

2010-05-03T11:04:00.006-04:00

Got a story you want to tell (a short story)? Want to tell the world your story (a memoir)?

Well then you want to join us for our Spring Writing Workshop in Washington, DC!

GirlChild Press
presents
Spring Writing Workshop
Saturday, May 22, 2010
11:00am – 2:00pm
Facilitators: Yael Flusberg and Michelle Sewell

This interactive 3-hour workshop is designed to strengthen your ability to access your original voice, take creative risks, and move your writing to a deeper level. Writing exercises and feedback from your instructors and fellow writers will allow you to expand your powers of observation, imagination, and language. The workshop is perfect for writers at all stages of development.

To register for the workshop - www.girlchildpress.com/workshops.html

Trivia Tuesday - Week #4 (late edition)

2010-04-27T22:58:00.002-04:00

Start sharpening those Google skills and get ready to win a FREE and signed copy of our newest book
A LITTLE TRUTH ON YOUR SHIRT!

To qualify you must be the first to provide a correct answer in the comment section of this blog. If you have already won a free copy you are not eligible this week.

Question: What is the title of the next book to be released by GirlChild Press?
Don't know the answer or someone already beat you to it - then order your copy at www.girlchildpress.com/products.html for the pre-sale price of $10.00. Free shipping on first copy!
Good Luck!

Poet Sonya Renee Taylor on Joe's Place (WHUR)

2010-04-20T18:10:00.003-04:00

We are just a couple weeks from the release of A LITTLE TRUTH ON YOUR SHIRT and we are already starting the rounds on interviews and booking readings.

In this video, at the WHUR studio with Joe Gorham, Sonya talks about her decision to put a manuscript together, while in New Zealand, and seeking out a publisher. She ends with a poem from the book.
Enjoy - then make your way over to www.girlchildpress.com/products.html to purchase your copy of the new collection. Promise you wont be disappointed:)

TRIVIA TUESDAY - WEEK #3

2010-04-20T16:12:00.004-04:00

Start sharpening those Google skills and get ready to win a FREE and signed copy of our newest book
A LITTLE TRUTH ON YOUR SHIRT!

To qualify you must be the first to provide a correct answer in the comment section of this blog. If you have already won a free copy you are not eligible this week.

Question: Who is the little girl on the cover of Growing Up Girl: An Anthology?
-if you come up with who she is AND her name, you are the ultimate winner!

Don't know the answer or someone already beat you to it - then order your copy at www.girlchildpress.com/products.html for the pre-sale price of $10.00. Free shipping on first copy!
Good Luck!

Trivia Tuesday - Week 2!

2010-04-13T11:52:00.004-04:00

Start sharpening those Google skills and get ready to win a FREE and signed copy of our newest book
A LITTLE TRUTH ON YOUR SHIRT!

To qualify you must be the first to provide a correct answer in the comment section of the blog. If you have already won a free copy you not eligible this week.

Question: WHAT IS THE OFFICIAL MAILING ADDRESS FOR GIRLCHILD PRESS?

Don't know the answer or someone already beat you to it - then order your copy at www.girlchildpress.com/products.html for the pre-sale price of $10.00. Free shipping on first copy!
Good Luck!

TRIVIA TUESDAY - WEEK #1

2010-04-06T11:18:00.006-04:00

Introducing A Little Truth on Your Shirt

2010-04-05T00:57:00.002-04:00

I have thought long and hard about the kind of author I wanted to be the first to be released under GirlChild Press. Up until now the press has been releasing anthologies, but I was fully aware that we would make the shift to single-author books in 2010 and I wanted someone who matched our mission. I also wanted someone who was serious about their craft, understood the work involved in publishing a book and would be willing to do the work necessary to promote the book and generate sales.

When HBO Def Poet Sonya Renee Taylor approached me with the idea for her book I was a little skeptical. Sonya is a devastingly amazing performer but I had no information that said she could translate all that energy into a manuscript that would be worth publishing. Well, she spent the winter working on a manuscript that not only featured her stage work, but also included a large body of compelling and rich pieces that any "page poet" would gladly claim as their own.

It seems that over the years, while Sonya was crafting her complex wordplay performance pieces, she was also constructing and reworking smaller pieces that she hoped to one day put together in a book. Well that day has arrived.

A Little Truth on Your Shirt will be released on May 5, 2010. To get your book before the release date feel free to pop over to the website and order your copy today (and save $5.00) Each copy will be personally signed by Sonya.

Stay tuned for readings and book signing information.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Writing Prompt #2

2010-03-30T09:38:00.003-04:00

C.J. splashes through the shallow waters of a narrow, dark tunnel. He stops to adjust the breathing apparatus that covers his mouth and nose. A hissing sound escapes as he breathes in and out. His piercing gray eyes darts over at the sound of something splashing in the water ahead of him. The beam of his government-issued flashlight lands on a plump, wet rat. There is a mini standoff until the rat scrambles into an auxiliary tunnel.

As C.J. moves towards the vertical pipe, leading to a manhole cover, he hears another splash, this time louder, behind him. As he turns his light toward the noise he is startled to find a small, shirtless boy blankly staring back at him. FINISH THE STORY.

Writing Prompt #1

2010-03-29T14:06:00.003-04:00

Feeling stuck or just need to oil those creative muscles before you jump into you next writing project? Try this writing prompt to get things going.

Green Mangoes and Red Sweaters
The E Street Farmers' Market was loud and swollen with Sunday shoppers. Gillian inspected the green mangoes at the rickety fruit stand. Her orange tote bag hung from her wrist, that was encased in a dingy,white cast. She pulled the arm closer to her as she made it over to the stall with summer corn. Something made her look behind her. To this day she still doesn't know what. There he stood, clad in a red wool sweater. Completely inappropriate for New Mexico in July. He didn't look at her, but she knew he was there for her. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Embrace Your Inner Girl

2010-03-06T18:25:00.004-05:00

Last week, after conducting a writing workshop, one of the participants said I was "like the black Eve Ensler." I joked I was just doing my best to be the black Michelle Sewell. After watching this passionate TEDGlobal talk by Eve Ensler, I am just happy we are marching in the same girl army!

Deborah Randall: Putting the "F Word" in Theatre

2010-03-04T08:06:00.005-05:00

By the time I saw the world premiere of Carolyn Gage’s powerful and raw play, Ugly Ducklings, Deborah Randall had been running Venus Theatre for over four years. It was April 2004 and I was catching one of the final shows at the Warehouse Theatre in Washington, DC.

Deborah (and her set designer Paul Kelm) had transformed the small auxiliary stage into the Maine all-girls summer camp that is the setting for the unsettling play. For over 90 minutes, an intriguing and diverse cast of no less than thirteen women actors (some as young as eight-years-old), held the audience in rapt attention. As they expertly wove the delicate tale of discovery, pain and betrayal, in the world of tenuous summertime sisterhood, you knew you were seeing something unusual. Not just Gage’s well-written script, but all those women on one stage.

Since 1999, the founder and artistic director of Venus Theatre has been on a mission to create as many opportunities for audiences to see complex and provocative stories told by and performed by women. Deborah’s first indication of the power of theater in women’s lives was during her membership in an interactive improv female troupe, Venus Envy, which provided programming for women in domestic violence shelters. Through broken teeth and blackened eyes, the women embraced the empowering and healing skits and activities that gave them some of their dignity and voices back.

During this period, Deborah was also seeing a “dumbing down” of the already limited roles for women in theatre and she could no longer abide by the worsening opportunities for an entire generation of female actors. In response she created Venus Theatre. Within a year she had incorporated and was now Washington, DC’s only non-profit feminist theatre. Almost immediately she started requesting work from women playwrights, submissions now number in the hundreds, and the wRighting Women Reading Series was born. The series allowed Deborah to cast talented actors in challenging and important roles and introduce fresh stories to hungry audiences.

Deborah has noticed that there are female actors that shy away from auditioning for roles at Venus. When asked why she thinks this is, she is frank in her response. “I think actors who work primarily in mainstream theater, who often contend with paper thin characters and productions, find the material, that Venus is known to produce, intimidating. We want to show life from multiple angles and that means seeing actors on stage who depict stories that are complex, heady and challenging. So, yes, you might see two women kissing.”

Deborah reflects on one of her own earlier challenges when mounting these productions. “For the first seven years of the company, every time we launched a new show or reading, I had to rent a space.” Over the years, Deborah has set up her feminist caravan in every available theater space in Washington, DC (as well NYC , Pennsylvania, and Baltimore). In 2007, she decided it was time to create a permanent home for her mercurial company. Venus Theatre The Play Shack is now located at 21 C Street in Laurel, Maryland. The convenient location makes it accessible to theater lovers coming from DC, Annapolis and Baltimore. “Once we moved into our own black box, I was surprised to discover how much stress I had been feeling having to bounce around D.C., finding venues to do our plays. Now I get to park right in front of my own theatre,” an amused Deborah shared.

Deborah is the first to admit that it takes a great deal of sacrifice to do what she has done. It helps that her partner of 21-years, musician Alan Scott, has been unwavering in his support of her work. He has encouraged her to take more risks and make Venus her chief focus in her artist’s life. She hasn’t had a “day job” in years. She is immensely grateful, that on a daily basis, she has the opportunity to embrace her desire to create a space for women.

But running a theatre company doesn’t mean that she gets to churn out her own plays in any regular frequency. After ten years of producing and directing Deborah has had to put her own writing and performing to the side at times. But this year, she will direct the second play of the Venus season, In the Goldfish Bowl, which focuses on four women on Texas death row. She will also debut and perform in her own one-act play, Tuesday, at the Capital Fringe Festival, later this summer. The play centers on a hotline volunteer that is faced with the truth of her own crumbling life as she tries to support the women who call the hotline. Lee Mikeska Gardner, who Deborah is eternally grateful for her talent and her demand that she stretch herself in this new work, directs Tuesday.

When asked what is her advice for women who want to follow their dreams, Deborah sighs. “Don’t try to do this alone. You don’t have to isolate yourself. As women we are not always in a team environment when we are younger. We are pitted against each other to be the prettiest, smartest, or the center of attention, so we don’t always recognize each other as valuable supports.” Deborah admits she has been guilty of trying to go it alone for a long time. Now as she reflects on this decade milestone, she is happy that she is embracing the idea of collaboration and learning what kind of support is out there for her. “Reach out and ask for help. It is much easier than we think. I think the Internet has become for women artists what the golf course is for men. It cuts down the isolation and opens up a community we might not have access to in any other way.”

What’s next for Venus Theatre? More plays that set flight to the voices of women. “I was born to do this. This is where I feel like I’m in my vein of gold,” Deborah says, as she prepares to get back to work.

On March 11, 2010, Venus Theatre will kick off its 10th season with the world premiere of Zelda at the Oasis, written by P.H. Lin and directed by Lynn Sharp Spears. The play takes a fictional look at the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, wife of the noted American novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wants nothing better than to be recognized as an artist in her own right. Two things stand in her way: an inherited mental instability, and an overbearing husband. The play runs until April 4, 2010. For more information on tickets click here.

Michelle Sewell is a screenwriter who was horribly miscast as the “wicked witch” in her sixth grade Halloween play, when she really wanted to be the “cute alien,” and has been plotting her revenge ever since.

50% of the earth's population has a period!

2010-03-02T17:37:00.007-05:00

Innovation to improve quality of life comes in many different kinds of ideas. This one focuses on girls and women and in turn benefits entire communities. After you check out the video, check out the website she:sustainable health enterprise and learn more about the she28campaign.

A Little Truth on Your Shirt -Photo Shoot

2010-02-21T23:09:00.005-05:00

An amazingly busy weekend in DC. One of the tasks on my to-do-list was the photo shoot for the new book by Sonya Renee Taylor.

We have been putting the A Little Truth on Your Shirt project together while 3,000 miles apart. While I was in L.A., Sonya met with the official GirlChild Press graphic designer, Kendra Kuliga, to sketch out some ideas for what she would like to see for the cover. Now I am in DC and Sonya is gigging some where in the south, so I am overseeing the photo shoot.

Our model for this project is the Sudanese beauty Elen Awalom. Elen is a talented photographer in her own right - which made the shoot so much easier and efficient.

Check out our video on the shoot and keep an eye out for the new cover.

Interview at WPFW with Nkenge Toure - In Our Voices

2010-02-19T17:06:00.006-05:00

Living a bicoastal life for the next couple months and this week finds me in snowy Washington, DC.

This morning I battled to find parking (don't let me get started about lawn chairs in parking spaces) so I could hang out with Nkenge Toure (In Our Voices) at Pacifica Radio WPFW. She has hosted the show for over 20 years and has always been a strong advocate for women and strengthening our voices.

I came in to talk about the press and our upcoming projects (Woman's Work and A Little Truth on Your Shirt), but I also got the chance to help out with their winter pledge drive. WPFW has been a part of Washington, DC for over 30 years and they have been a vital, informed voice in the progressive dialogue about all the issues that impact the city.

I appreciate their continued support of GirlChild Press.

GirlChild Press Accepting Manuscripts

2010-02-12T00:34:00.006-05:00

Although we have set the publishing slate for 2010 with the anticipated release of Woman's Work: The Short Stories (the final anthology from the girls series) and our first single-author book, A Little Truth on Your Shirt, by Sonya Renee Taylor, we are already preparing for 2011.

In line with the GirlChild Press mission, we are interested in publishing the works of women and girl writers. We are especially interested in submissions from writers 21-years-old and younger, although writers of all ages are invited to submit their work.

We are currently looking for manuscripts in the following areas:
* YA Novels(with special interest in a Native American/Latina/Arab/Asian protagonist)
* Speculative Fiction
* Historical Fiction
* Poetry
* Memoirs
* How to (with an emphasis on girls)
No exclusively erotica manuscripts at this time. Also no anthologies.

Submission Guidelines:
1. Submit the first ten (10) pages of your manuscript electronically to girlchildpress@aol.com.

2. The subject line of the email should include the title of the work, your name and the genre. Example: Black Swan submitted by Michelle Sewell - memoir.

3. A basic summary of the work should be included in the body of the email, along with your bio.

4. Also share why you believe this book should be published and who is the intended audience.

5. Please allow 3-4 weeks for reveiw. If we are interested in seeing the entire manuscript we will contact you for a hard copy.

Adventures in Mothering Mother: A Book Review

2010-02-08T19:42:00.006-05:00

The winter Meg Federico’s 81-year-old mother, Addie, fell and hit her head on the sidewalk, while vacationing in Florida, they suddenly found themselves cast in a geriatric version of the movie Freaky Friday. Seemingly overnight, they swap roles in the parent/child dynamic and every day, for the next three years, is a series of unexpected and unbelievable adventures.

Federico’s bittersweet and humorous memoir, Welcome to the Departure Lounge: Adventures in Mothering Mother, is in many ways an instructive step-by-step narrative on the Herculean task of taking care of an aging parent, while trying to live your own life.

If the natural cycle of life plays itself out as intended we will outlive our parents; and in doing so we might also be placed in the position of caring for them in their final years. Federico bravely writes about her imperfect attempt to do just that and the lessons learned along the way.

The story is told in a series of compelling flashbacks, starting with the author’s father dying on her wedding day. If there was ever an example of foreshadowing you couldn’t get a better one than that. It is also clear early on that Meg and Addie have a strained relationship, a fact that will become critical as Meg becomes one of the central people in charge of her mother’s care.

Once Federico and her siblings make the decision not to place their frail mother in a nursing home (prompted by Addie’s earlier escape, aided and abetted by her Alzheimer's-addled, 83-year-old second husband) they realize how ill-equipped they are to take care of their strong-willed and sometimes alcoholic mother. But determined to give her the best care possible they call in a team of in-home “experts” that range from tremendously caring to outright crooks.

As Addie and her sex-crazed husband, Walter, become more like petulant teenagers, the author the frazzled parent, and the incidents stack up at an outlandish (sometimes outright life threatening) rate the reader can’t help but wonder why they continue at this impossible circus, with all its loony characters. No one would judge them if they called it quits.

In the midst of the chaos of bedpans, missing jewelry, and sex-toys, Federico must also come to terms with the uneven and sometimes-distant relationship she has had with her diva mother. As the youngest of five children, Federico always felt that her mother saw her as an inconvenience that never met her expectations. Faced with these long held resentments, now butted up against her new power and responsibility, she somehow resists the temptation to “pay her mother back.” In fact, as Addie decompensates, and her own family life starts to show the strain of her routine absence, Federico renews her commitment to maintaining her mother’s dignity and making room for her to have a say so in her care, even when it was inconvenient or impractical to do so.

Just as the author deftly uses humor as a way to soften some of the more difficult issues caretakers face (i.e. changing diapers, dementia, and slowly losing the person who once took care of you), she is also straightforward in the reality that ultimately, unlike parents taking care of children, there is no future or bettering to the situation and what frees you from this obligation is death.

Their last days together are both tender and a celebration of her mother’s long and determined life. And although Federico knows that death is how this obligation will end, it doesn’t make it any easier when her mother takes her final breath while sleeping in her arms.

Welcome to the Departure Lounge is a poignant testament to how human we all are, including our parents.

Michelle Sewell, founder of GirlChild Press, has recently been hired to write a memoir involving death, teen pregnancy, and raising kids in the Valley. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA.

The Soulmate Search : A Book Review

2010-01-18T18:56:00.006-05:00

If you think the concept of having a soul mate is crap or that “attracting” the perfect person into your life is double crap, then you should probably stop reading here. But if you have been romantically attached to a long list of losers or every weekend you find yourself reluctantly sitting on your couch with only the company of a bag of Doritos — then read on.

Arielle Ford’s The Soulmate Secret: Manifest the Love of Your Life with the Law of Attraction just might be the antidote to your partner-less life that you’ve been looking for.

I bumped into this little book of love and joy while searching the new arrival stacks at my local library. I am personally not in the market for a new mate, but Ford’s sunny and hopeful writing style compelled me to check this little puppy out and I have not been able to put it down.

Let me be clear that The Soulmate Secret isn’t bringing us any late breaking information that we have not heard before. What makes this 207 page quick read so compelling is its accessibility. Ford saves you from chapters of psycho-babble, that normally makes you feel like who would want to date you any way, and jumps right into how to find that special person.
The book takes you through a quick soulmate IQ test: Do you believe there is a soul mate out there for you? Are there past lovers who still have their energetic hooks in you — or are yours in them? Are you psychologically ready to receive your soul mate? These are just a few of the probing questions put to you on page one. If you answer “no” to any of the nine questions, Ford lets you know right off the bat that you and the current state of mind is the barrier that is stopping your soulmate from showing up. If you must know I answered “no” to half the damn questions.

But don’t fear; she has a host of activities and testimonies to get you into relationship shape. In many ways the book ask that you accept full responsibility for all the sub-par mates that have been showing up in your life. When you look back on your failed relationships you knew they were trouble or broke or alcoholics or needy or crazy from the very start, but you let them in anyway. From the start they couldn’t give you what you needed and you certainly could not impact change in their chaotic lives, so you were forced to ride it out until the relationship died some horrible, often messy, death. Then you were back on that couch, with your bag of Doritos, feeling like a failure and wondering why you are so unlucky in love.

To combat these unintentional relationships, Ford suggests that you make an exhaustive list of the attributes you want in a partner. I know it sounds super easy but try it. After you scribble down the first five or six characteristics a lot of folks find themselves struggling to come up with the recommended minimum 25 items. Partly, the exercise is about showing you you are not necessarily connected to what you want in a partner. This disconnect is why you accept anything that shows up. Once you get past the cute, nice, good in bed and not allergic to the cat, you discover there is a lot of things you hate about your new love. And there you are, back on the relationship roller coaster. The author suggests you should commit about 30 minutes to making this list.

Making your soul mate list is just the start to the process that leads you through a lot of purging and reflection in your life. When it comes to your physical space: throw away those bedsheets that are still around from two relationships ago. They are probably carrying around some bad love juju. Make a vision board of what you want your soul mate to look like and what you would like to do with them and hang it in your bedroom. Set up an altar to remind you that you “purposely” trying to attract your true love. When it comes to you, get your butt into therapy or some form of counseling. Take inventory of your life. There is a reason that you keep attracting the wrong person. Find out why, and then stop doing it.

My favorite part of the book is the couple testimonies sprinkled throughout. Ford says that all the couples highlighted took the steps recommended in the book and found their true love. We got people meeting on planes, in gyms, in snowstorms, at seminars, and in parking lots. One guy reports that he woke up one morning, with a random phone number running through his head, and when he called it it was a woman living 50 miles away that he had never heard of. After he told her how he came to call her, and she did not hang up on him, they met for coffee and have been together ever since. Stop rolling your eyes, especially if you are still sitting on that couch covered in Doritos dust.

If I had any criticism of the book are Ford’s “Feelingizations.” These are meant to be meditations that you can do when you want to connect to the idea of attracting your soul mate. I personally could not get through them, but maybe you will have better luck. There is also a website that provides a guided audio of these feelingizations that could make the meditation a little easier.

All in all, I think this book is perfect for those who are ready to take a real hard look at their romantic life and are serious about getting into an intentional and healthy long-term relationship. Happy manifesting!

Growing Up Girl contributor Cherien Dabis' film "Amreeka" nominated for three Film Independent Spirit Awards

2010-01-15T13:33:00.007-05:00

The super talented Growing Up Girl contributor Cherien Dabis (Amsterdam It!) first feature length film "Amreeka" is getting a lot of much deserved praise. Recently it was nominated for three Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best First Screenplay (Cherien Dabis), Best Female Lead (Nisreen Faour).

Cherien wrote and directed this film. In total "Amreeka" has won 11 awards. You can check them out here

Synopsis

Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, dreaming of an exciting future in small-town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways like he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers at the local White Castle.

Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka portrays the universal journey of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world they now call home.

The awards will be telecast live on IFC on Friday, March 10, 2010 at 8:00pm. For more information check out the Spirit Awards website.

And, of course, check out the "Amreeka" trailer below.

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were seven-years-old?

2010-01-11T20:17:00.004-05:00

Did that dream follow you into adulthood?

When I was seven I discovered I could read an entire book (Ramona the Great). I have been in love with books and the written word ever since. I am not surprised that I run a press or that I write screenplays. But this morning it came to me that when I was little I liked reading to other people, specifically to other kids who could not read as well. I guess some where along the way words and helping others became one in the same. Do you think you can know your "calling" as early as seven?

Let us know about your little girl dreams.

New Article on the Press by Lisa Rose - emPOWER Magazine

2010-01-10T14:13:00.005-05:00

Mission Accomplished: Michelle Sewell’s GirlChild Press
Former social worker uses the power of words to help women and girls in need
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
by Lisa Rose
Article link -
What does a master’s degree in Social Work have to do with starting a publishing company? Everything!

Michelle Sewell worked with children and families for 15 years. Each year, she became more and more stressed and burned out. So in the summer of 2004, Sewell got out!

“I decided to take a sabbatical and explore the creative aspects of my life in a more full-time way,” Sewell said. “I spent that summer being a touring poet and teaching writing workshops to women and girls in shelters, group homes and detention centers. By the end of the summer I was in love with the idea of providing the opportunity for women and girls to use their voices in the way they saw fit.”

Sewell was so impressed with the stories and poems of the women and girls she met that she decided to bring those voices to a broader audience. So about a year after her break, instead of returning to social work, she decided to apply for a local arts grant. She was awarded the money and used it to fund a local anthology.

“But once I put the call for submissions online, the anthology became…an international anthology.” she said.

After nine months of hard work, Sewell finished “Growing Up Girl: An Anthology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces.” The anthology features writers from the Philippines, Canada, Australia, England, and across the United States.

“The excellent reception the book received put me on the road for a year, touring bookstores, recreational centers, and universities,” she said. “During that year, I decided to formalize GirlChild Press and commit to publishing the work of girls and women (on) a regular basis.”

Sewell publishes girls and women because she doesn’t “believe women writers are given the same attention from the publishing world. Not enough eclectic voices are allowed in print and what is printed is not a representation of the brilliance and creativity that women writers bring to the table."

“Historically, women’s access to learning (reading and writing) was barred by others and then their writings were not taken seriously, sometimes forcing them to take on male pseudonyms to get their work in print (i.e. The Bronte Sisters or Louisa May Alcott). People might say that practice is a thing of the past, but you only have to look at the writer of the hugely successful “Harry Potter” series to find an example of a woman (who) was forced to use a gender neutral name—J.K. Rowlings—to get the respect of the entire literary world,” she continued.

The next project and final anthology in the “girl” trilogy is “Woman’s Work: The Short Stories,” which is a collection of short stories by 40 girl and women writers.

“As always the work is eclectic and daring,” Sewell said. “The voices are unique and their stories are filtered through extraordinary life experiences. I am really excited about this project.”

GirlChild Press received more than 300 submissions for the project, which made it difficult to choose only 40 writers.

“I really try to focus on new writers or writers who have a unique story to tell,” she said. “Having an extensive publishing resume doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your work will be included in the collection. In many ways I am looking for 40 different experiences that my readers can identify with but are also foreign to them—tricky.”

The publishing company is also planning to release its first single author project. Sonya Renee Taylor is an award-winning, international slam poet. The projected release date is late fall 2010.

“She is zany, provocative, smart and progress,” she said. “I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to publish her first poetry collection.”

In 2011, Sewell will release a parenting handbook geared to growing smart and strong girls and will be written by two licensed social workers.

Although Sewell is excited about her new venture and upcoming projects, the realities of the recession and the decline in the book publishing industry are sinking in. She has had to rethink how she markets books.

“Sales keep us alive,” she said. “As I prepare to release the next anthology, Woman’s Work: The Short Stories, I am looking to universities and colleges, book groups, sororities, online groups, designated women’s spaces and organizations to get the book out to the same audiences that might be lost because the book maybe on fewer shelves. I will also continue to use the web, social networking, YouTube, and our vast and growing database to get the word out regarding the book and the press.”

To learn more about Sewell and GirlChild Press' writing projects, visit www.girlchildpress.com. You can also contact her directly at girlchildpress@aol.com.

More New Titles from GirlChild Press Contributors

2010-01-09T12:01:00.016-05:00

Upon further investigation it seems 2009 was a huge publishing year for a lot of the contributors from GirlChild Press. There were no fewer than seven new titles added to the literary universe by these talented women. Make haste and go check them all out. Most are available on www.amazon.com and I've added a link for your buying convenience. The authors are in alphabetical order and the description of the books have been pulled from their websites or other sources when possible.

Accomplished poet Antoinette Brim (Burning Bridges),whose work appears in the anthology Just Like A Girl, released her collection of poetry PSALM OF THE SUNFLOWER in the fall of 2009. The collection was published by Willow Books. In Psalm of Sunflower, poet Antoinette Brim explores the painful reality of divorce as a foundation for self-discovery. Through exquisitely crafted poetry, filled with layered language and meaning, Brim unravels the breaking and mending of heart and spirit through a metaphoric engagement of nature, the Little Rock landscape, collective memory and song. Revelatory semantics skim just below the surface of these poems whose visionary narrative-arc mirrors the sunflower drawn to light as Brim explores a new morning of possibility through language. You can purchase the book here

Hot off the press, Just Like A Girl contributor Ellen Hagan (Our Women) new collection of poems CROWNED is ready for your reading pleasure. The Kentucky poet, who is known for bawdy, provocative, and sizzling work, doesn't disappoint with this slim volume. Ellen explores every crack and crevice, and leaves no truth untold. Her work is about intersections, history, accountability and tenderness. This is her debut collection and it is published by Sawyer House. You can purchase the book here

Growing Up Girl contributor Sheba Karim(Sacrifice) has a way with authenticating young, outsider girls' voices and does an extremely convincing job in SKUNK GIRL. Her debut young adult novel explores the world of Muslim culture and the life of a young woman on the verge. Sixteen-year-old Nina Khan feels like an outsider and finds herself chaffing and pushing against the mandates of her strict Muslim Pakistani-American parents. She feels more boxed in when she falls for a cute classmate (she is not allowed to date or go to parties), and in exploring her burgeoning romantic feelings she comes to appreciate her family. The novel is being released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. You can purchase the book here.

Growing Up Girl contributor Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa (Hair Inspection)infused all her beautiful talent into her first novel DAUGHTERS OF THE STONES, released by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. The novel chronicles the experiences of descendants of African slaves in Puerto Rico. It is the mid-1800s. Fela, taken from Africa, is working at her second sugar plantation in colonial Puerto Rico, where her mistress is only too happy to benefit from her impressive embroidery skills. But Fela has a secret. Before she and her husband were separated and sold into slavery, they performed a tribal ceremony in which they poured the essence of their unborn child into a very special stone. Fela keeps the stone with her, waiting for the chance to finish what she started. When the plantation owner approaches her, Fela sees a better opportunity for her child, and allows the man to act out his desire. Such is the beginning of a line of daughters connected by their intense love for one another, and the stories of a lost land. You can purchase the book here

With the health care debate playing out on the evening news nightly, Just Like A Girl contributor Colleen McKee (Libby, the Only Punk Girl), along with her co-editor Amanda Stiebel, turns the discussion toward women in their poignant anthology ARE WE FEELING BETTER YET? Women Speak About Health Care in America. In this collection of 21 essays, women from around the country recount their individual efforts to access and receive quality health care within the formidable structure of the U. S. health care system. Their many voices speak with clarity, poignancy, and humor about situations familiar to all who have entered a health care setting on behalf of themselves or their loved ones. These penetrating stories cover a spectrum of health care conditions, but they unify around the themes of strong self-advocacy and personal empowerment. The book is an enlightening read not only for health care consumers, but also for health care professionals and for health policymakers. The collection was published by Penultimate Press and can be purchased here.

I had to go all the way back to the east coast to get my review copy of Just Like A Girl contributor Andrea Nicki's (Chinese Girl) new collection of poems WELCOMING and it was well worth the wait. The 93 page book really packs a punch. The poems included in this book explore many key contemporary issues, such as the relationship between the sexes; violence against girls and women; sexuality and gender identity; the relationship between human beings, animals and the environment; religion and spirituality; mental health and psychiatry; work, meaning, and exploitation; poverty and homelessness; multiculturalism; the value of children; and social community. The book was published by Inanna Publications & Education and can be purchased here.

I was quite honored to provide a jacket blurb for Just Like A Girl contributor Jessy Randall's (The Loop) young adult novel THE WANDORA UNIT. This is a funny and dead-on story of life and friendship during those high-stakes high school years. Wanda Lowell and Dora Nussbaum are best friends. They look alike, dress alike, share the same opinions, and co-edit the school's literary magazine, Galaxy. They are so close that their friends at Brighton High School have dubbed them "The Wandora Unit." But things are shifting in their senior year of high school. What once seemed absolute and certain now are just memories. While this tight-knit group of friends discovers who they are they find themselves drifting apart. As friendships turn and relationships blossom they are held together by their love of Galaxy and their desire to be individuals in a world that doesn't always let them. The Wandora Unit is a bittersweet story about the meaning of friendship, the lessons of growing beyond one's boundaries, and the joy of being part of something that makes us bigger than who we really are. Ghost Road Press is the publisher and the book can be purchased here.

Growing Up Girl Contributor Releases New Novel

2010-01-07T16:08:00.005-05:00

The world is just a little brighter since I received word that Growing Up Girl contributor Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond (The Whinings of a Cum Laude Seven Sister College Graduate Working Bored as an Assistant)will be releasing her debut novel POWDER NECKLACE on April 6, 2010. The book will be published by Simon & Schuster. You can pre-order it now, of course :-) http://www.amazon.com/Powder-Necklace-Nana-Ekua-Brew-Hammond/dp/1439126100

Set in London, rural Ghana, and Long Island, NY, Powder Necklace tells the story of young Lila Adjei, the daughter of a working class Ghanaian immigrant and single mother who is paranoid that her daughter will be "spoiled" by bad influences in London. These "bad influences" are a euphemism for boys; "spoiled" a code word for sex--which Lila isn't having. But when her mother starts to suspect she could be, Ms. Adjei abruptly sends the girl packing to Ghana

Nana is an excellent writer and I can't wait to get my hands on this little gem (wonderful cover). Look for a review in the near future.

Michelle

A Day at the Library

2009-10-20T20:41:00.003-04:00

I know it's not like a celebrity sighting, but I was in the mood to get a library card and spend a couple hours roaming the stacks at the Glendale Central Library.

As a kid I loved the library and would walk over a mile to go hang out in the Little Falls Library. OMG! I sound like when your grandparents tell you they walked a mile in the snow, with no shoes, to school. Anyway. I've been trying to get back to the simple things in my life and I've always enjoyed a good book.

And just so you know - the Dewey decimal system is alive and well:) Check out my quick video below and go get yourself a library card if you don't have one.

Shout Out to Busboys and Poets

2009-10-13T20:38:00.007-04:00

Since I launched GirlChild Press Busboys and Poets Teaching for Change has been a huge supporter of the books. They constantly keep a stock of the anthologies on hand and seem really interested in the press continuing. So, when I got into town I was excited to stop by and soak up the energy and possibility of the place. Check out my little video as I rave about one of my favorite places in DC.

Blog Spot Radio Interview

2009-10-01T15:33:00.003-04:00

Had the opportunity to be a guest on Sippin' On Ink and chatting with host extraordinaire Kat. We talked about GirlChild Press, the future of publishing girls and women, and following your dreams!
Check it out and leave some comments.

GIRLCHILD PRESS FALL SALE

2009-09-28T13:45:00.005-04:00

BUY TWO COPIES OF JUST LIKE A GIRL: A MANIFESTA! AND RECEIVE ONE FREE!
Just Like A Girl is a rough-and-tumble, sassy, kick-ass travelogue through the bumpy, powerful, action-packed world of GIRL. A world where girls and women know how to pick themselves up and brush themselves off. These are the clever girls. The funny girls. The girls who know there is no sin in being born one.
The anthology is now being used as a textbook at Michigan State University.

My Day at the "Happiest Place on Earth"

2009-09-01T19:41:00.004-04:00

We all knew this day would come. HOMESICKNESS! I have been moping around for the last few days wishing for all things east coast: friends, Busboys and Poets, my king sized bed, and familiarity. Nothing could seem to shake me from this foul mood until I got a call this weekend that resulted in an all-expense trip to DISNEYLAND. My friends Carmen and Jacqui are in town and they have the hook up in the form of Carmen's very pregnant sister Valentina. The most awesome Disney Cast Member (that is what everyone who works for Disney is called) treated us to a day at the park and we had a frickin' blast! If you are a Facebook friend you can check out the pics from the day or check out my video below of some of the things we got into while at the "Happiest Place on Earth." If Disneyland can't help you shake the blues, maybe you need meds...lol

Five Things I learned while at Disneyland

1. No need to go to the gym that day. You will walk your ass off!
2. The Screaming roller coaster is truth in advertising.
3. The Soarin' aviation ride proves how innovative the human mind really is.
4. It is best enjoyed with friends
5. The 8:45 fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom is AWESOME!

BONUS
According to Mary Poppins - we are practically perfect in every way.

Writing Tip #59 - Create a Word List

2009-08-24T19:34:00.002-04:00

Okay, let me say up front that this tip came from a book that I am rereading. A Manual of Writer's Tricks: Essential Advice for Fiction and Nonfiction Writers by David L. Carroll is full of little tidbits that can get your through almost any writer's block or creative downturn.

I am currently digging on Chapter 1 - Finding the Right Word. Carroll is of the opinion that a thesaurus, or word finder, is more valuable to a writer than a dictionary. He cautions us to get away from the myth that great writers don't use any of these tools to produce their work. Sure Toni Morrison has a big vocabulary but I bet she also owns a thesaurus.

So before you start your next writing project consult your thesaurus to compile a list of words that you will expect to use during the writing. For example, if you are writing a piece on cars, you should be looking for synonyms for that word such as "sedan," "clunker," and "automobile." This trick will save you lots of time, maintain your flow of writing because the list is right there on hand, and bring a richness to your writing.

Let me know if this tip works for you.

Until Later
Michelle

Full Scholarship Available for Writing Workshop!

2009-08-14T12:41:00.007-04:00

GirlChild Press has always been blessed with generous and enthusiastic supporters so I wasn't totally surprised when I opened my email inbox to find an offer to provide a full scholarship to a woman writer for the DC writing workshop on October 4, 2009.

If you or someone you know is interested in securing the scholarship all you have to do is complete a one page, double space essay on why you want to attend the workshop and what you would like to accomplish as a result of your attendance. All essays should be submitted by August 28, 2009 to girlchildpress@aol.com. We'll make a final determination by September 7, 2009.

If anyone else is interested in providing a scholarship for a woman writer please feel free to contact us at girlchildpress@aol.com

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

New Writing Workshops (L.A. and DC)!

2009-08-10T16:42:00.006-04:00

I can't believe the summer is almost over, but I am looking forward to some amazing things for the fall. One of those things is the return of the Woman's Work Writing Workshop! I'm excited to announce that we will be hosting the workshop on both the west and east coast. See information below.

GirlChild Press
presents
Woman’s Work Writing Workshop
Los Angeles - Sunday, September 20, 2009 1:00pm-4:00pm
Facilitator: Michelle Sewell

D.C. - Sunday, October 4, 2009 – 12:00pm – 3:00pm
Facilitators: Yael Flusberg and Michelle Sewell

This interactive 3-hour workshop is designed to strengthen your ability to access your original voice, take creative risks, and move your writing to a deeper level. Writing exercises and feedback from your instructors and fellow writers will allow you to expand your powers of observation, imagination, and language. The workshop is perfect for writers at all stages of development.

THE WORKSHOP WILL FOCUS ON
Writing Exercises to Produce Draft Work

Discussion on:
Writing Habits and Tools
Craft Elements
Revision Techniques

EACH WRITER WILL RECEIVE:
A Workbook
A copy of Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta!
After workshop opportunity to submit up to 2 excerpts/pieces to GirlChild Press for a written critique

The final hour of the workshop will allow for discussion and review of existing projects. Writing should take no more than 10 minutes to read aloud.
Class size is limited to allow for maximum feedback and review. Registration will close when the class is full. Register Now!

The $50.00 workshop fee is due no later than the day before the class. Early registration is encouraged due to limited class size. For more information: girlchildpress@aol.com

Sonya Renee Taylor: Making Poetry Smart, Sexy and Funny

2009-08-04T11:36:00.004-04:00

(originally posted on Velvet Park)

I caught up with Sonya Renee Taylor at L.A.’s famous Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffle restaurant this week to get the low down on what has been happening in her poet's life. We have recently switched coasts (She back to east and me, newly here, on the west.) and I wanted to compare notes about living the artist's life – fulltime. Sonya is an HBO Def Poet and National Poetry SLAM winner and over the last couple of years has taken the leap to make her living as a fulltime artist on the road. Her verbal acrobatics have taken her from Texas to New Zealand and back again.

I first saw Sonya do her thing at a venue in Washington, D.C. about five years ago. D.C. is one of those places where you can literally go to a venue every night and hear some amazing work being delivered. From the moment Sonya hits the stage, you can’t take your eyes off her. She is this voluptuous, confident sister armed with take-no-prisoner poetry. That particular night she came with an over-the-top, part erotic, part public service announcement piece on using condoms. By the time it was all said and done, the audience was left begging for more. I didn’t know Sonya at the time, so count me shocked when a few months later, while attending the March for Women’s Lives on the National Mall, I heard her distinct and booming voice coming from the main stage. Her call to arms piece “What Women Deserve” energized the 1.6 million people in attendance in a way few of the other headliners were able to.

About a year later we ended up sharing the same stage at MotherTongue, a women’s open mic, and after the show we formally met. I was not surprised to discover that Sonya has a master's degree in non-profit management and has devoted a good chunk of her adult life to issues impacting a great many marginalized populations. She has lent her expertise to educating and protecting sex workers, getting the word out on HIV prevention, and protecting women’s right to choose. No wonder her poetry comes off so real. She is at ground zero on many of these important issues and knows the ramifications if we remain silent and do nothing.

But Sonya knows how to keep it fun and sexy on stage as well. She wants people to enjoy themselves and for those who come to her performance with a certain set of expectations she wants to shake them of those. “People who are new to slam/performance poetry sometimes believe it’s not as good as 'page poetry' or worse, that it is just plain bad,” she shares. Five minutes into any of her sets and they quickly abandon those notions. She says she loves to watch the looks on her audiences’ faces when she goes to some taboo place through her work. “First, they are always shocked, then self-conscious and eventually they loosen up and go along for the ride,” she says. During her performances she brings as much of herself to the stage as she can. She references her blackness, her womanness, her thickness and strength. “People know when you are faking it. They know when you are just pushing the words out and don’t care whether or how they land.”

So how does she keep her work and herself fresh when she is performing at such a constant pace? She says she has over 800 poems in her catalog to pick from (about 200 of them memorized) and tries to read her audience at the very beginning to get a sense of what they need to hear. She admits there are times that she gets bored with doing her “top 10” – she gets a lot of requests for her signature pieces – but figures there are worse ways a girl could make a living than telling her truth through her poetry.

Sonya’s recent move back to the east coast is also inspiring her to take some new risks with her work. She wants to adopt a new tone for her poetry and address subjects that she might have neglected in the past. She is also putting together a poetry book, A Little Truth on Your Shirt, that will debut in early 2010. (Her latest CD, Thick Girl, can be purchased at www.PoetCD.com.) Any trepidation she has about switching things up on her fans she keeps in check by recognizing that, as she grows, her work grows, and that’s good for everyone involved.

I recently discovered a video performance of one of her poems that I’ve never heard. I don’t know if “Slices” is in her top 10, but it should be. Enjoy!

Let's Talk About Love (Languages)

2009-07-14T15:04:00.004-04:00

(originally posted on Velvet Park Magazine on July 14, 2009)

Half way through Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, I thought to myself, “where the hell was this book three relationships ago!?” When I checked the copyright page, I discovered that this book has been in print for at least 17 years. So this review is for the other nine people in the country that have never heard of Chapman or his insightful book.

If you are lucky, you have been in love at least once in your life. That butterfly feeling in your stomach when the object of your affection walks into a room and you can’t wipe that big ass grin off your face. But at some point those butterflies turn to moths and suddenly, when your ball and chain shows up, you can’t help but roll your eyes. What happened? For many of us, we never figure it out. We just call it quits and move on to the next relationship. Well Dr. Chapman has an answer for all those interested. All the news is useful, but not always easy to hear.

Case in point: The “in love” feeling that is present in the beginning of most relationships lasts for about two years for the average couple. That’s why you hear folks saying, “The first couple of years were great, but then he/she just started to change.” According to Chapman, the euphoric “in love” feeling is a necessary function, but the way we act during that period can be confusing to our intended and set up a series of expectations that we will not be able or willing to fulfill later in the relationship. This is the time when we tend to throw caution to the wind and do things we normally wouldn’t. We eat foods we hate. We watch movies we think are stupid. We tolerate their obnoxious best friend. We are so enamored by this new love that we convince ourselves that what they like we like. And they are doing the same thing for us.

I have a friend that is married to a firefighter. When they first started to date, she would go to the firehouse and sit with him on the nights he was in charge of the “watch.” She would make him his favorite dinner, bring it and a big thermos of coffee to the station and they would sit from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. talking and getting to know each other – and keeping the inhabitants of the firehouse safe. At 7 a.m. she would go home, take a shower and go to work. She did this for a year, never missing a Thursday that he was on watch. During the second year of their relationship, she cut back to doing the watch with him maybe twice a month. By the time they moved in together during the third year of their relationship, he had to practically beg her to come down to the fire station.

According to Chapman, my friend and her husband experienced a normal shifting in their relationship. He says that after the “in love” period starts to cool, the couple starts to feel like they need to return to their individual habits and idiosyncrasies and here is where the poop hits the fan. Suddenly your partner starts to wonder who is the evil, cold, messy, inattentive, always late doppelganger that has taken your place. You are no longer on the same wavelength with your honey bunny. But if you take the time to learn your partner’s love language you have a better than average chance of moving your relationship to the more solid foundation of “mature love” and avoiding the pitfalls that plague so many relationships.

Chapman defines the five emotional love languages as Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch. During the average falling in love period, we tend to do all these things consistently and frequently. But, in reality, only one or two of these languages actually speak to the person you are with – everything else is just gravy. When the cooling off period begins and the relationship begins to settle, there is a high probability that your honey might stop doing the one thing you value the most.

Back to my friend and her firefighter husband. My friend’s primary love language is Acts of Service (so is mine). So when she was showing up to the firehouse with dinner and coffee and taking care of him, that is how she was showing him she loved him. In reality, my friend is a huge fan of sleep and it was a big sacrifice for her to spend all those Thursdays (after a full day of work) with him. On the other hand, her husband’s primary love language is Quality Time. He relished having this special alone time with her every week and missed it terribly when she stopped coming to hang out with him. The food and coffee were nice, but he wanted her time.

It is not unusual for a couple to speak completely different love languages. How we express our love is informed by our family of origin, where we grew up and cultural determinations. Because you and your one true love most likely grew up in very separate ways and places, you will express your love differently. It is like a New Yorker and a Southerner getting together. Sure, they both live in America, but they see and experience the world very differently.

Besides the assessment profile in the back of the book that is designed to help you determine your love language (Warning to my same-sex loving brothers and sisters - the profile uses the traditional terminology of husband and wife, but don’t let that distract you from answering honestly.), the other most interesting chapter in the book is entitled “Love Is a Choice.” For most of us, we think that love is something that just happens to us. We either love the person we are with or we don’t. But I think Dr. Chapman is rather radical in asserting that we have more ownership over our love lives than we act like we do. That ownership is even more necessary when betrayal or hurt comes into the relationship. So, if your love boat is heading toward the jagged rocks of break up, Chapman says you can take control of the helm and steer yourself into smoother and calmer waters.

Some romantics among us will push back against the notion of having to work at being in a loving relationship. They believe it should just happen. But these are the same people who find themselves blindsided when the natural ebb that happens in any relationship shows up and they’re left wondering where all the love went.

Is this book going to be the magic fairy dust that resurrects your relationship? Maybe. Maybe not. But it will give you some new tools to talk with your love puddin’ and get a better understanding of what they are trying to say to you.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

GirlChild Press on the Road (The Wrap Up)

2009-07-06T18:30:00.005-04:00

Amanda got on a 1:55pm Southwest flight to Baltimore Washington International Airport today. That means our week of laughs and adventures has come to a close.

We had a blast! We had more of a blast the more of L.A. we got to see. I almost thought the child wasn't going to get on the plane the way she was raving about wanting to live here. Between pedicures and Pinkberry I continued to learn tons about my "little sister." She is truly wise beyond her years and a very sweet and kind spirit (I already knew that part).

My mother called as I was dropping her off and inquired how I was going to feel now that my last tie to home was getting on a plane. I told her I would let her know tomorrow. For now - yall can check out the Michelle and Amanda Show wrap up video. Lots of food, giggling and some sweating...lol

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Michael Jackson: My Sister's First Love

2009-07-04T23:47:00.006-04:00

(originally posted at Velvet Park Magazine)

When I got the news last week that Michael Jackson had passed away at age 50, the first person that came to mind was my sister Lisa “Pebbles” James.

I immediately knew that had she lived to hear about this moment she would be devastated. Her love affair with Michael Jackson lasted well into her 20s — after he was morphing into some other version of himself, after he no longer looked like the Michael Jackson from her prized Off the Wall record.

I can’t in good conscience climb on the Michael Jackson bandwagon and call myself a true fan. Sure, he was talented and clearly had an amazing work ethic, but I liked him better when he was still a Jackson 5. However, when we were kids, my sister Lisa was a fan to beat all fans. At 10 years old she knew everything there was to know about Michael Joseph Jackson - without the aid of the Internet. A relatively “obedient” kid, she would risk a butt-whipping so that she could hang out at the local mall, past curfew, in the People’s Drug (later to be CVS) magazine aisle reading every publication that had his face on it. On other days she would torture our younger sisters for hours by making them watch her deconstruct his latest dance moves and replicate the entire routine in her tiny bedroom.

Although she was clear that I thought her crush was stupid, she still engaged me every morning as we got ready for school with a dozen Michael Jackson questions before we ran off to catch our bus. Do you think Michael Jackson has to wear deodorant? Do you think Michael Jackson gets lonely? Do you think Michael Jackson has to clean his own room? Do you think Michael Jackson goes to the bathroom? To that last question, I told her, "No. I think he pays someone else to do it for him." Even now I can’t help laughing to myself thinking about the look on her face when she actually contemplated that possibility.

There is only 16 months between me and Pebbles, but those months seemed like years as it related to our personalities. At 12, and as the oldest, I was already building sarcasm and cynicism into my personality. Not her. She was the “feeler” in the family. The quiet one who thought deeply and could cry at a moment’s notice. I think there were days that she felt like an outcast in the family, this dark-skinned girl that didn’t feel attractive, as she entered her teens, and lamented that she didn’t have anything that made her "special" in our loud and demonstrative Jamaican clan.

As the second born, she had the misfortune to have an older sister who stayed in trouble. If I wasn’t breaking curfew or stealing something, I had the bigger personality that easily dwarfed her more mild-mannered and contemplative energy. I think that’s why she was so attracted to Michael Jackson. She recognized a loneliness in him that she thought was a part of her life as well. She saw a kindred spirit in her beloved moonwalker.

Pebbles gave a lot of thought about who she thought this young man was and how this sensitive soul was making it through the world. Sometimes she would construct these elaborate stories of how she knew that his older brothers were jealous of him and that they were probably mean to him after the curtain came down on their performances. She was convinced that she would one day meet him and they would be best friends. Even at age 10 she sensed that Michael Jackson was short on those.

One distinct memory stands out as it relates to my sister’s love affair with Michael Jackson: When she was about 12 years old, she started to develop a strong relationship with God. We had been raised in an ultra-religious home and she was the first one to seriously take on the charge of “accepting Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.” One of the first things she did was to purge her record collection. This was a sign that she was relinquishing all ties with her worldly obsessions. In the dumpster went the latest Stacy Lattisaw, Prince, Anita Baker and some New Edition. From my heathen perch on the living room couch, I noticed that the only records to survive this Christian rebirth was the soundtrack from Jesus Christ Superstar and every Michael Jackson record that she owned. I questioned why he was spared. She informed me, without a hint of irony, that she thought God would not mind if she loved Michael Jackson, too.

GirlChild Press on the Road (Day 5)

2009-07-04T01:08:00.006-04:00

We decided to make another minor detour this morning and head over to see the Grand Canyon. I've actually seen the Canyon before so this trip was for Amanda. Oddly enough I didn't know she was scared of heights. The things you learn on long road trips. So you can imagine what her face looked like when she saw the Grand Canyon. Part awe, part horror. I forgot how spectacular it is. It was great to remember that through Amanda's eyes. Again, we took tons of pictures, so if you are on Facebook you can check them out over there.

NOTE: While watching the video check out the people on the rocks behind our heads. They were actually throwing a football at some point on a ledge with no guard rail. You can only see this kind of stuff if you leave home...lol.

After hanging out at one of the "Wonders of the World," we hit the road around 11:00am our time. It was more of the same. Desert, heat, wind, desert, heat, more wind. We crossed into California around 3:00pm (PST). The Mojave Desert greeted us with 107degrees! As we drove toward Los Angeles it got cooler - 88 degrees by the time we got into L.A. proper.

We arrived in Los Angeles, California at 6:42pm (PST)! I am still sort of in denial that I am here. There has been a lot of planning regarding this relocation, but I don't think I gave much thought to how I would feel once I was actually here. I am both frickin' excited and scared. Now that I am here - what now? I don't mean what now like there is nothing to do. There is plenty to do. I have a script that needs to be finished in the next week. I need to buy a new printer. I need to surrender my sister Debyann's GPS and buy my own. I need to buy a desk for my room. I need to put said room together. I need to send out rejection and acceptance notices for the next anthology. But after all the tasks are done how does one go about living and connecting in a new place like LA?

I'll let you know how I'm doing:)

Check out our latest video. I think we will keep doing them until Amanda leaves on Monday.

GirlChild Press on the Road (Day 4)

2009-07-03T01:42:00.008-04:00

We are exactly 382 miles from Los Angeles! We have stopped in Williams, AZ for the night.

We could have made it to our final destination today but we decided to do the tourist thing. Dana recommended that we visit the Acoma Sky City Pueblo in New Mexico. We took tons of pictures (if you are a Facebook friend you can go and check them out) and some footage of the land leading up to site (you are not allowed to take video of the actual space on the mesa.

I am always leery when I sign on to be a tourist, especially when I am in someone else's actual living space. There is always the possibility of someone saying or doing something stupid. The folks on the tour didn't disappointment.

Fred was a our tour guide for the 80 minute excursion. He was basically responsible for entertaining 20 adults and making sure we didn't break any traditional rules or fall off the mesa. I was surprised how many times he had to redirect grown folks. They acted like because they paid twenty bucks they could just trample all over the land and do whatever. By the end of the tour the irony of their behavior was not lost on me.

Any ol' way

The tour was fascinating. The history(the Acoma people were invaded by the Spaniards and made to accept Catholicism in very brutal ways). The ruggedness and beauty of the land (being on top of that mesa made it clear why it was called Sky City). Fred's pride in the accomplishments of his ancestors (the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680).

The minor detour was definitely worth it and driving through the desert of the Southwest is absolutely breathtaking. We ended our night at a restaurant with a singing cowboy (see end of the video) and a juicy steak.

Check out our video for the day.

Michelle
wwww.girlchildpress.com

GirlChild Press on the Road - Day 3

2009-07-01T23:56:00.006-04:00

600 more miles closer to L.A.

We are in Albuquerque, NM tonight. The ride didn't feel as brutal today. The landscape continued to get flatter and the temperature hotter, but we wouldn't trade in this experience for anything.

Everyone kept warning us about the drive through Texas, but Oklahoma was the state that just kept on giving. I swear we drove from one end to the other. We just kept saying, "are we still in Oklahoma?" For most of the 600 miles it seemed the answer was YES! We drove through the panhandle of Texas and felt like we were in the state all of five minutes. We did get to see the "biggest cross in North America" while driving through the state. It was quite the sight.

Our day ended with dinner with the lovely Dana in the equally lovely Albuquerque, NM. Dana and I have never met but are Facebook friends. She invited us to dinner when she heard we would be passing through her neck of the woods. This was our first opportunity to sight see on this trip. Albuquerque is a city with a whole lot of personality.

We are actually a day ahead of schedule and we might slow things down a little tomorrow. Dana suggested some places we can check out and we might just hang out in Arizona a little. We'll see how we feel tomorrow.

Here is our video for the day. Don't judge us too harshly on not using sunblock...lol

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

GirlChild Press on the Road (Day 2)

2009-06-30T23:48:00.004-04:00

We logged in about 600 miles today! Amanda did all the driving so that I could write my blog for Velvet Park and read the remaining short stories for the Woman's Work project (and make final decisions). I was supposed to have rejection letters out tonight but that doesn't look like it is going to happen. It doesn't help that the hotel internet is tre shakey! Hopefully I can send them out tomorrow night.

Interesting note about the submissions this time around.Not as many young writers (21 and under) as before. More speculative fiction. More women of color. More clustering of east coast submissions. More repeat submissions from writers from the previous anthologies. Equally as hard making selections:)

We are bedding down in Tulsa, OK. Another day of flat lands and high temperatures. It is 93 degrees at 10:30pm. I am sure as we continue west it will get hotter and hotter.

Tomorrow we are looking at 1200 miles. No, we will not drive them all! Our goal is to make it to New Mexico. We have a dinner invite so we hope to break bread with cool folks on the third day of our trip. At this rate we might be in California by Thursday, but I still think we are looking at a Friday arrival so we can do some sightseeing.

Thank goodness for unlimited phone and text services because we are getting calls/texts from all over checking in and wanting to chat us up. Too bad you can't put positive energy in the gas tank, 'cause we getting that in abundance.

Note: Amanda keeps referring to Marriott because she works for them and we are using her major employee discount to have a nice place to sleep at the end of these long days!

Check out our video for the day.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

GirlChild Press on the Road (Day 1)

2009-06-29T22:16:00.005-04:00

The GirlChild Press Express has pulled into Louisville, KY for the night. We did ten hours today. Actually, I drove ten hours. The kid sister talked and slept (see video below).

We started out a couple hours behind schedule but the road conditions were great so we made good time. We spent most of our day in West Virgina and Kentucky. Nothing interesting to report. Mostly rolling hills and long roads. I'm sure folks from both states will let me know there is tons to see in their respective states. It just wasn't apparent from my vantage point (going 75 miles an hour).

Tomorrow we will hit the road at 8:00am. We will be tackling St. Louis and Oklahoma. More videos and pictures to come.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

2009-06-18T08:40:00.005-04:00

Here is the cover of the new anthology Woman's Work: The Short Stories. I am working with the wonderfully talented Kendra Kuliga (again) and as always she is working her magic with this project.

The cover model is Melani N. Douglass. She is both a striking and confident young woman. A perfect cover model for this project!

Tell us what you think about the cover.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

The End of Overeating and the Food Conspiracy

2009-06-09T13:18:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Diane Rehm had Dr. David Kessler on her NPR show promoting his new book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Dr. Kessler believes there is an active and growing conspiracy against the American people, spearheaded by the agencies that are supposed to be protecting us.

Dr. Kessler is no weirdo food crackpot. He has a million credentials, but his most notable is his tenure as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (under the first George Bush’s administration and a repeat performance during Bill Clinton’s), and he is a self-declared food-aholic. By the time the show was over, he had altered how I look at my local grocery store and I was half-way to the nearest bookstore.

Dr. Kessler’s new book touches on two very clear and hard truths. The first is not necessarily shocking, but I don’t think our egos would allow us to readily admit it. Here goes: We are fat because we eat too much. Earth-shattering, right? But most Americans, spurred on by the diet industry, believe that if you try a magic food or pill or drink we will be “cured” of our fat. But the reality is much plainer and harder than that. Fewer calories in, more calories out. If you eliminate 400 calories from your diet on a weekly basis, you would lose weight or at least stave off any additional gain.

Second truth: The food industry is aiding and abetting in the expansion of your waistline. Specifically, the folks responsible for the processed food that most of us consume on a daily basis. Three simple ingredients, utilized in consistent and amplified amounts, keep us addicted to food like your local heroine addict. Sugar, fat and salt are the building blocks for most of our diets. Even if you are not adding them to your food directly, often they are being added during the processing. Dr. Kessler likens this “adding during processing” to what the tobacco industry has been accused of in making cigarettes addictive. Tobacco smoked in its purest form would not have you chain smoking a pack a day, but the additives are what make you crave it. The same goes for processed food. The double helping of salt, fat and sugar (often in the most unlikely recipes) keeps you eating long after you should be satisfied.

Along with the three magic ingredients, the food industry has hired an army of savvy and creative folks that market food to you in such a way that it literally becomes irresistible.

Now according to Dr. Kessler, there are 15% of you out there that this all sounds ridiculous to. You are the folks who could take your food in pill form and go about your day. For whatever reason (genetic, culture, trauma), food just doesn’t get you off like us 85%-ers. For the rest of us, food is a valid way to nurture, reward, soothe and celebrate. We connect with food in a way that goes beyond our biological needs – and that’s how the food industry has engineered it.

Example: How many of us have been at a restaurant and returned a soda because it has been deemed “flat?” Technically nothing is wrong with the soda, except it hasn’t arrived at your table the way that that giant billboard that you pass every morning says it should. It is not cold and powerful and full of pop! Because a can of soda is more than a can of soda. Madison Avenue is selling you something besides those 16 ounces. It is selling you refreshing, sexy, thirst-quenching goodness. They have assigned a set of attributes to that soda that goes beyond the 200 calories in the can.

As I finished reading the book, I realized it was a great argument for going raw or, at the very least, eliminating all the things that your supermarket sells in those middle aisles completely out of your diet.

New York Times food writer Mark Bittman (during a talk at Ted 2007) has come to the same conclusion. Take a look.

7th Annual Women's Words Slam - $300.00 Prize!

2009-06-05T14:46:00.003-04:00

Sisterspace and Books and GirlChild Press
Present
The 7th Annual Women's Words Slam
$300.00 Grand Prize
Friday, June 19, 2009 - 7:00pm
Hosted by Michelle Sewell

Come out and celebrate the fiery and phenomenal women poets
of the Washington Metropolitan area!
Over the years this slam has seen the very best artist step up to
the mic and blow us away. This year will be no different.

POETS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR:
Porscha "Lyrik" Coleman, Jade Foster, Joanna Hoffman, Bassey Ikpi, Natalie Illum, Kanikki, Sarah Lawson, Dehejia Maat and more!

This will also be a farewell celebration for Michelle Sewell
as she heads off to the west coast to follow her Hollywood Dreams.

SEE YOU THERE!

Festival Center
1640 Columbia Road
Washington, DC
Cover: $10.00
Interested in performing contact us at girlchildpress@aol.com

GIRLCHILD PRESS IS MOVING TO THE WEST COAST AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!

2009-06-05T00:24:00.002-04:00

We have 300 first edition copies of Just Like A Girl left from our 1,200 copy run. It is cost prohibitive to ship them to the west coast when we relocate so we are asking that everyone buy a copy. Simple as that. They are $20.00 a piece. Go to www.girlchildpress.com/products.html to make your order. We have about 20 copies of Growing Up Girl if you are interested in that anthology. If you would like to make a bulk order of 12 copies or more please email me at girlchildpress@aol.com for a special rate!

If you can't afford to buy a copy pass this announcement to someone with deeper pockets:)

Thank you for your continued support!
Michelle Sewell
Editor/Founder of GirlChild Press

Interview: what it means to be a girl

2009-05-16T01:51:00.003-04:00

Did an interview with Rainbow Collective and had the opportunity to talk about the press, the process of developing anthologies and what it means to grow up girl.

Writing Tip #207 - Thou Shall Not Covet Other Writers' Skills

2009-05-09T11:23:00.004-04:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of co-facilitating a robust and engaging women’s writing workshop. Halfway through we started talking about what writers fear. The list was long and involved, but the fear that rang true for most, and something I’ve been thinking about for a while, was the idea that some writers just have the natural skills/talents for the vocation and the rest of us are delusional posers.

But let’s be for real, do you really think Toni Cade Bambara, or Barbara Kingsolver never had to use a dictionary or thesaurus to find those beautiful words that litter their stories. Or that Harper Lee or Toni Morrison didn’t slave over the manuscript, that shot them to fame, and it all just magically landed on the page. No matter how the story of any writer’s rise from obscurity is told, it will always be a shorten version that is lacking all the pitfalls, false starts, blank pages, and piles of rejection slips. What I think keeps the myth of “naturally talented” going is once a writer reaches their pinnacle only words like masterful, exceptional and brilliant seems to be allowed in their hemisphere.

I for one appreciate when writers come forward and share how they developed their craft and keep the stone sharpened. A few years ago, I read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and was impressed with how average he seemed and how his story ideas came from very mundane things in his life. Here was the “King of Horror” sharing “write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex and work.” From that perspective, young writers are correct when they say they could never write like Amy Tan, because they don’t share the same life experiences and would present those moments of story inspiration very differently.
Another stumbling block for aspiring writers is looking at a seasoned writer’s career and lamenting that they will not arrive at the same place. Even a mid-tier writer receives the same kind of scrutiny, but mainly in the form of scorn: I know her and I can’t figure out how she got a story in that magazine.

I say save all that coveting energy for all the work you need to do, to get your skills up to the level of when people forget to mention all the strife and rejection you went through to get where you are. As with all skills it is about time, practice, practice, time, and a little bit of luck thrown in when you are ready.

Here is an exercise to help you see how far you’ve come since that first time you dared to pick up a pen and call yourself writer.

Exercise: Put together an “Artist Resume” that records every achievement you’ve experienced in your “writer’s life.” List the poem that appeared in the school newspaper, the blog you keep, the feature you did at Mocha Hut with Drew Brokeballer Anderson, and the writing workshop you did for your Sunday School class. Anything where you put your writing skills on display and at least one person saw you do it. You will be surprised how impressive you are becoming.

Writing Tip #113 - Give Yourself Permission to Suck!

2009-05-07T16:52:00.004-04:00

That’s right, allow the first draft of whatever you are writing to stink to high heaven! Let it be cliché, improbable, ridiculous, common. Something a publisher wouldn’t release if you were the last author on the planet.

So many writers get stuck in the trap of not writing because we want the first draft to be perfect. For all the characters, stanzas, plot twists to come out perfectly whole. Or worse, we’re scared we wont finish what we started, so why even make the effort? With that kind of pressure no wonder we get stuck looking at blank pieces of paper.

Speaking of blank paper – go get a piece. I’ll wait.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
You’re back!

Okay, here is a 10-minute freewrite exercise to get those brain cells firing.

In the middle of the day Gail walks out onto her deck to find a peculiar scene. A young Asian man, dressed in ratty clothes, is passed out in the yard. A few feet away, a blond, diaper-clad baby is crawling around eating dandelions.

1. What happened right before Gail walked outside?
2. What will Gail do now?

Feel free to share what you came up with.

For more writing prompts try
www.creativity-portal.com/howto/writing/writing.prompts.html

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

The Five Items

2009-05-01T12:39:00.002-04:00

The FIVE things I always have with me
1) journal
2) pencil case (don't be a nerd hater)
3) digital camera
4) laptop
5) ruler (recent weird habit)
Bonus answer - brads for scripts.

What items make the daily trek with you?

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Writing Tip #324 - Take a Risk

2009-04-28T20:13:00.004-04:00

Not that you need the visual, but I was standing in my shower this morning and the idea to write a horror movie flooded over me. I almost said out loud, “yeah, right!” I’m a person who does not do horror movies. I haven’t seen one since my boyfriend begged me to go with him to Nightmare on Elm Street when it was in the theatres. You do the math. I did accidentally see 28 Days Later (mostly with my hands over my face), but I’m told it is not really a horror movie, but more of a social commentary on world order… blah, blah, blah. I would like my social commentary with a little less zombies and gore. But I digress.

I shouldn’t be surprised that this seemingly random thought visited me this morning. Last night at mothertongue more than a few poets, who had taken a writing workshop with HBO Def Poet Regie Cabico, stated that they were sharing a poem that they were initially afraid to write (apparently a nudge from Regie). The one that struck me the most was from a Jewish poet who wrote a letter to her hometown (that turned out to be Israel) and ultimately a critique of their actions as it related to the Gaza Strip. The poem was devastating and raw and honest. By the last line I could absolutely see that this was a poem worth being afraid of, but the poet released it anyway and pushed it out into the world.

Now I know you are wondering why am I making such a big zombie mountain out of a horror movie molehill? Because writing is about taking yourself out of your comfort zone, about taking the risk and wrapping yourself around an idea that absolutely terrifies you. Maybe it’s a taboo subject or hits too close to home or you have to slip into some character’s skin that repulses you, but you feel compelled to tell his truth. Maybe the risk-taking will be a little more public: getting up on a stage and reading that poem that has been rattling around in your heart or finally sending out that manuscript that has been preened and perfected a hundred times.

What is the worse that can happen? In the nine years I have been going to poetry venues I have never heard an audience boo a new performer. In fact they have been over-the-top supportive of some poets that should never write another poem in their life! And if you are worrying about rejection from a publisher (including GirlChild Press), it is inevitable. Some of the most successful writers share how their work was initially dismissed with little fanfare or were encouraged to take up another vocation. But they kept plugging away, eventually broke through and now their publishers sit around hoping they’ll write another book.

Grab a piece of paper and make a quick list of all the artistic things you’ve been avoiding or at the very least hoping you would build up enough courage to try. Now make the commitment to try one of them on every week. I guarantee you will not get anywhere unless you put yourself out there.

Writing Tip #44 - Build Community

2009-04-27T18:53:00.006-04:00

Claudia Jones: Black Feminist Reading Group

It is easy to let yourself get caught up in the isolation of being a writer. You spend a great deal of time by yourself (working on that next great blah blah blah) and before you know it days have gone by since you've engaged other people in any meaningful way. But I submit to you that this isolation is actually harming your writing. What can live and thrive without air, light, and stimulation? That is exactly what community provides to artists of every strip.

As you take the leap and try to find the right community, you must be clear about what exactly you are looking for. Is it feedback? Friendship? A sounding board? A great group of people to procrastinate with? You need to figure this out before you join up with artists that are not a match for you.

Join a writing group. Visit a few (you can find info on Craigslist, Facebook, library bulletin boards) to get a sense of how they operate and if the other members have the same goals and expectations as you. If you can’t find an existing group that works with your writerly quirks, start your own group. This is a perfect way to bring together a group of like-minded folks that will be helpful to each other. Now keep in mind, just because you started the group, folks may not be interested in a hierarchical system where you are the boss of everyone. Again, check in on expectations.

Get into a writing class. Almost every city offers classes. You can find free ones at the library, paid classes at community colleges or writer’s centers. Looking for a shorter commitment? Local authors and facilitators are always offering workshops in your area. Again, check out Craigslist, local libraries, and bookstores for leads. If you are in the D.C. area on May 2, 2009, I am offering a one day workshop from 10:00am – 1:00pm. Check out www.girlchildpress.com/workshops.html . We have two slots left.

Volunteer with younger writers. There is nothing like helping someone to recognize their skills and discover their voice. You would be surprised how many kids don’t consider the vocation of writer because they believe only certain kinds of people are allowed access to that world. I work in partnership with the Prince George’s County Women’s Bar Association to provide writing workshops for the young women at Waxter’s Detention Center in Laurel, MD. Every workshop is an extraordinary expedition into these young women’s lives and I am always the better for going along on the journey. Off the top of my head, here are a few organizations that would love your time and talents: Girls Write Now, New Moon Girls, Write Girl, and DC Writers Corps. If there are any other groups you think folks should know about, send over a link and I will post it on the blog.

Book clubs are still cool. They are not just for your granny anymore. There are thousands of book clubs operating all over the country. They specialize in sci-fi, Christian, mystery, erotica, African – American authors, women or whatever suites your fancy. They tend to meet once a month and spend a couple hours reviewing the selected book. Again, this is one of those communities that you need to really investigate before joining up. I’ve heard horror stories of folks who found themselves in groups where the memberships’ reading taste was so different that shouting matches and crying jags were a routine part of the book selection process.

Check out online writing groups. This route doesn’t necessarily get you from in front of your computer, but it does connect you with other writers (and sometimes in real time for a cup of coffee). A general Google search will yield literally hundreds of options. I personally belong to a screenwriter’s group, a publishing group, a local writers’ association, and a filmmaker’s resource group. Online memberships really allow you to express a lot of your writing interest and build up resources without having to run all around town.

And if all of that sounds way too stressful and formal, then drag a couple of your good writer buddies out to the park (they’ll appreciate being asked) and spend a few hours in the sun dreaming up new stories, talking each other off the “I’m not good enough” ledge or eating ice cream and getting a tan.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Woman's Work Call Extended - June 1, 2009

2009-04-25T09:59:00.006-04:00

I have extended the call for submissions for Woman's Work: The Short Stories. I am looking for quality work from women writers. The submissions do not have to be about work or women. Let your imagination fly! See the call below.

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories

Part of the problem is that I treat writing like a privilege not an obligation. It comes after everything, after all my other responsibilities.
Maegan “La Mala” Ortiz
My Writing Life

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories is a celebration of what happens when women finally get to the page. About the extraordinary stories that spill out of these extraordinary, and often ignored, storytellers during those stolen moments when she surrenders to her burning desire to write, to create.

GirlChild Press seeks the fresh and exciting voices of writers that will entice the reader with intricate tales of shapeshifters and evil doppelgangers, rock and roll princesses in twisted fairy tales, broken gunslingers in deserted western towns, and political murder mysteries that lead to sex in illicit places.

We will follow her through rabbit holes and pop up as mermaids dressed in camouflage, all while reveling in a romance that bloomed on a long-forgotten battlefield in outer space. Surprises will await us at every corner. We will discover what is passionate, and pure, and complicated and be glad for it.

Ultimately, Woman’s Work is about women as master storytellers.

Submission Requirements

• Deadline: June 1, 2009
• No more than 2 previously unpublished short stories per submission
• Simultaneous submissions okay, but notify if your work is accepted elsewhere
• 4,000 words or less
• Double spaced
• NO POETRY

All contributors will receive a copy of the anthology and will be invited to read at the book launch in 2009.

Electronic Submissions

Girlchildpress@aol.com
Title of submission should be placed in the subject line.
Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission.

Snail Mail
GirlChild Press
PO Box 93
Hyattsville, MD 20781

Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission

GirlChild Press publishes work that celebrates the triumph, defiance, and excellence of girls and women everywhere!

Writing Tip #16 - Tell the Truth

2009-04-24T07:50:00.003-04:00

I was sitting at an open mic a couple weeks ago and the poetry was red hot, bawdy and funny. The poets had the audience eating out of their hands. We were clearly being entertained by some of the most talented and quick poets in town. The stand out pieces involved a zany coming out story that included motor oil, a game of ding dong ditch by a burly 42-year-old had us gasping for air, and the 21 year-old who realized her breast weren’t ever going to get any bigger was sad and funny.

Then a poet got up on the mic and did something that got my attention for a different reason. She disclosed that she had written a piece while she was sitting in the audience and wanted to share. Now before I tell you the rest of the story, I have to disclose that I am absolutely a snob when it comes to poets who share freshly minted venue poems. I simply have never experienced one that was worth writing down and sharing as a first draft. I think the whole thing is about showing off and trying to get in on the action. That being said - back to the story.

She let us know that the ding dong ditch poem had inspired this little ditty. The next two minutes were painful. The once rowdy and receptive audience became stone cold silent. At the end she got a tepid round of applause and we moved on as if she never even showed up on our radar.

I spoke to a few folks after the reading and every one of them brought up that poet. The unanimous feedback was that we did not believe her. Even setting aside the fact that she wrote the poem at the venue, it just didn’t ring true.

Now before everyone gets ready to hit the comment button, I am quite aware that poets/writers/painter/sculptors make up things all the time. Every day writers write about something that they have never personally experienced. But in order to be a really good weaver of tales, you have to remember, every story starts with the truth then the “lies” are smoothed on top.

Case in point: I was listening to a crime story novelist talk about his career and the interviewer asked had he had any prior experience in the law (or even on the other side of the law) because his work was so vivid and realistic. He said as an only child he created a private detective alter ego (he was/is a huge comic book geek) and he spent the summer of ’73 staking out his neighbors and “solving” crimes. That summer he saw all kinds of things; the woman across the street who was visited every day by her gardener as soon as her husband left for work. The college kids home on break that were growing and selling weed. The maid who had pool parties at her employers’ house while they were away on vacation. He wrote down everything he saw in his little detective steno pad. When he started writing crime stories/thrillers as an adult he decided to reach back into that summer and pull elements from it. As a kid he didn’t have the well of knowledge to guess what was going on behind the scenes once his neighbors closed their doors, but as an adult all that changed. He had developed language to go along with his imagination that allowed him to make up the rest of the story. This interview is a perfect example that at the core there is a nugget of truth that the writer can relate to and take that thread of truth through the entire piece. If you need a visual representation of this concept, rent a copy of The Usual Suspects.

I ran into the 42-year-old ding dong ditcher at a coffee shop a couples days ago. I teased him and asked if his ex-girlfriend ever figured out it was him ringing her doorbell at 2:00 in the morning. He laughed and reluctantly let me in on the secret. The poem wasn’t true. He had not ding dong ditched anyone in over 25 years. It turns out that Ashton Kutcher threatening to ding dong ditch Ted Turner’s house if he got a million twitter followers before CNN was his inspiration. The poet simply merged his experience as a 12 year old pulling this prank and fused it onto what he imagined the 30 plus year old actor would look like pulling the same stunt and changed Ted Turner into the unsuspecting ex-girlfriend.

Remember, the best liars always start with the truth.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Writing Tip #2 - Managing Fear and Doubt

2009-04-23T08:38:00.003-04:00

Like all writers/artists (even the ones who don’t admit it) we wrestle with fear and doubt on some level through a good portion of our career. I don’t believe that fear or doubt is unique to artists, but I do believe it does a number on us that prevents us from doing some of our best work and can lead us down some self destructive paths.

The first level of fear (and probably the most legitimate): why have we chosen this often-lonely professional that you will probably starve from if you quit your day job? But then you can’t do what you need to do (to test out your writer's legs) from the exhausting and deafening self-defeating inner dialogue:
I can’t do this. I shouldn’t do this. What’s wrong with being a dentist (plug in your profession)? I don’t have to write/draw/dance/paint.

Then comes the fear of success. This is a complicated stew. When you have finally finished that poetry book, manuscript, painting, screenplay, you worry how the world will receive you and it. How dare you believe you are talented enough to spend hours perfecting your craft and that you have something to offer that no one has ever seen before? I think we get so caught up in what other people think about our work that we sometimes overlook the fact that we are our own worst critics and as Patti LaBelle likes to say, “blocking our blessings.” Or worst yet, that we have surrounded ourselves with people who we’ve unconsciously given permission to tear us down and are legitimately trying to sabotage us, and it is not the fear or doubt that is sitting on our chest.

And how can we forget about the quest for perfection. Trying to capture lightening in a bottle. Your first project took the world by storm, but how in the hell are you going to replicate that? You are a fraud, a one-trick-pony, or worse, a one-hit wonder.

What if all or none of that is true? Would it stop that burning desire in you to create? I think if you don’t attend to the fear, put it in its place, that ember will lose some of its heat. Ultimately, it is up to the artists to pull themselves out of this downward spiral. Reassess why you do what you do. If it is purely for the public accolades then there is something to be afraid of.

A few years ago someone introduced me to the quote “Do it like no one is watching.” The reality is that most of the time that we are creating and perfecting no one is watching. We are our only critics. We know when we have gotten it right. When we’ve put everything we have into it and done our best work. If we can live with that then what else is there to fret?

I’m not trying to be a Pollyanna here, I understand if you have decided to make this a vocation at some point you have to make a living. At some point the outside world will have to make a judgment whether they like your work enough to buy it, commission you, or write a glowing review. But why beat them to the punch, by beating yourself up before your work has even gotten the chance to see the light of day.

Remember when you first fell in love with your craft? When you couldn’t wait to get to it? Start your day with that passion, with that joy. I believe that light will help guide your work. Satisfy yourself first and the rest will come.

Today I’ve included a video of a wonderful talk given by the best-selling author of Eat. Love. Pray, Elizabeth Gilbert that speaks to the issue of artist fear and doubt (and a few other juicy tidbits).

Malcolm Gladwell: Making a Case for Outliers

2009-04-22T20:24:00.004-04:00

Since the first time I picked up Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, I’ve been a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for The New Yorker. Gladwell is one of those big brain guys who has a knack for storytelling. He makes computer programming, plane crashes and educating urban youth not only interesting, but compelling. I’ve gone on to read his first bestseller, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference and recently finished up his newest book, Outliers: The Story of Success.

Outlier is a term used in the field of science to describe something that lies outside of a normal experience. Gladwell uses it to describe people (mostly men in his book) that are so accomplished and so successful they are considered outliers. Gladwell believes that it is not enough to be smart or driven, there must be a series of events that line up in such a way that makes success a possibility in these outliers’ lives.

Gladwell doesn’t go so far as to say that the individual plays no part in their own success; after all, preparation is critical in the face of opportunity. But he does make the reader consider the culture, community and generation that outliers are raised in in a more critical way.

The most fascinating “outlier” in the book is Bill Gates. Not because he is one of the richest men in the world, or that he has one of the most successful companies, but because of the way the stars aligned in his life to make it possible for him to become “Bill Gates.” I won’t ruin the chapter for you by laying out all the elements, but the fact that Bill Gates walked into his eighth grade class in 1968 and found a computer sitting there (when no other high school, including some colleges, had one) literally changed the course of history.

Another interesting element in the book is Gladwell’s fascination with the 10,000-Hour Rule: a concept that he returns to often throughout. In this extensive chapter, Gladwell provides page after page of research and examples that says simply: “10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert – in anything.” So any “expert” that you can think of, if you were to interview them and find out exactly when they started on their path, without fail they would site the 10-year mark (10,000 hours) that they got really good at what they do. That goes for Michael Jordan, Mozart or Rachel Maddow. They each worked purposefully and single-mindedly in reaching those 10,000 hours of mastery and ultimately the top of their field.

One of the things that was the most difficult to accept in the 10,000 hours chapter was the idea that there are no “natural talents.” That being innately gifted in a particular task, sport, skill had very little to do with whether you would become a leader in that field. If you did not work toward those 10,000 hours, it would be quite easy for another individual, with average ability, to pass you, leaving you stunted with your “natural talents.” I’m still mulling that over.

As with all his books, Gladwell is trying to make us look at the world and each other in very different ways. To consider the impact we have on each other and how much control we really have to craft the kind of life that we want for ourselves and others.

Writing Tip #82 - Keep a Journal

2009-04-22T08:41:00.005-04:00

The picture to the left is of all my journals I've been keeping since 2001. I favor blank journals (no lines), that aren't too weighty and that can be easily slipped into a backpack or tote. I use my journals for both personal recordings and projects. I've found over the years that my personal thoughts are great fertilizer for my writing projects, besides my life is too hectic to try and juggle and keep up with two journals.

Folks are sometimes reluctant to keep journals for fear that they will fall into the wrong hands, but I encourage you to at least consider keeping some sort of project/idea journal as you endeavor to give your writing life more structure and order. This journal is where you jot down story ideas, pieces of an overheard conversation, character names, peculiar sightings or pictures/drawings. I know it feels all Sylvia Plath to jot something down on the back of a matchbook, but trust me, you will eventually lose it and you won’t be able to recreate that genius moment.

Commit to taking the journal with you everywhere you go, you never know when inspiration or a wonderful meltdown by a five year old at the DMV will hit and you want to be able to record every vivid moment. My friends have gotten so use to me whipping out my journal to record funny conversations or bizarre people that they will sometimes email me funny notes of things they saw during their day. Cultivating the habit of journaling makes you very aware of your surroundings. Everything in your day becomes rich material for stories, poems, blogs, painting – or making a zesty pot of curried chicken.

For my techie people who consider pen and paper so yesterday; whip out those Blackberries (or whatever your poison) and tap out those moments of inspiration. You are already sending them to Twitter, but imagine how much more there is to say when you don’t restrict yourself to 140 characters.

Don’t feel like writing an electronic dissertation? Pull out those digital cameras, Flip Video Cameras, cell phone cameras and record away. Of course there is a higher chance of someone thinking your some crazy, paparazzi pervert, but do you.

And if you want to manifest that 1950’s private detective in you, get a voice recorder. There are some jazzy, digital models out there that are lightweight and allow you to plug into your laptop and transcribe away.

Don’t say I didn’t offer options.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Writing Tip #103 – ‘Cause Sometimes You Can’t Find the Words

2009-04-21T09:27:00.002-04:00

This little tip comes courtesy of a note session I was involved in with a producer. He was not happy with the visuals (or lack thereof) I was using for the script we were developing. He asked me to spend a couple hours coming up with a picture portfolio for all my characters. I could put whatever I wanted in the portfolio – except words!

The portfolio had actors/models/every day people who I thought looked like my characters. There were pictures of cars and houses that they might live in. One had a Pomeranian. Another slept in his parents’ backyard in a green Army tent. Another had a thing for Mary Janes in various colors. By the time I was finished I had 20 solid pages of images that represented the lives of my characters.

The second half of the assignment was to integrate those images into the script using language that would pop and best describe what I had collected in the portfolio. I was surprised how much easier it was to write about an item once I had a visual representation right in front of me. My word choices were more vivid and spot on and improved the storytelling aspect of the script exponentially.

So go find those old magazines you have stacked up around the house and start tearing.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Writing Tip #653 - Dive Into a Hard Read

2009-04-20T09:33:00.004-04:00

The old adage goes - Writers Write. Well good writers also read.
The more you read the more you open yourself up to other writing styles, concepts, and worldviews.

When looking for inspiration - try something out of your comfort zone. If you are into Zane take it up a couple levels and try on some Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude is sure to get those brain cells surging.

I attended a writing workshop a few years ago and the instructor offered a tip that she says really helped her improve her vocabulary when she was a young writer. She would get a copy of the New York Times, a highlighter, a pen and a note pad. She would spend a couple hours reading the various sections of the paper, highlighting and recording the $20.00 words that the NYT is known for, then look them up. She challenged herself to include the newly acquired vocabulary somewhere in her writing on a daily basis.

If you are feeling a little radical - dig into some reading from an author that you don't agree with. See how their mind works around the subject and how they've connected the dots and arrived at their position. There is always something to learn, even when you believe your positions are polar opposites.

I've recently taken up reading the Financial Times. Yes, I'm obsessed with the humungous financial crisis, but I also discovered that trying to keep up with the unfamiliar jargon, why "credit default swaps" are the work of the devil, and beginning to understand how the stock market works helped me work out the bugs for a complicated murder mystery that I had been struggling to write.

Reading work from an unfamiliar author or on a subject that you have no clue about can help you to think in new ways and absolutely improve your writing.

So go ahead, dive in!

Michelle

Bullying: Not Child's Play

2009-04-15T20:00:00.004-04:00

I am still trying to internalize the idea that an 11-year-old boy hung himself in his home due to chronic bullying and gay slurs. Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover’s mother found him hanging by an electrical cord from a beam in their home.His mother, Sirdeaner L. Walker, reports that on the day of her son’s death, Carl reported that he was being suspended for five days for an altercation with a girl at his school.

His mother also reports that for the last six months she had been calling officials at New Leadership Charter School to report that Carl was enduring daily bullying and threats of violence. Some of his classmates believed he was gay and taunted him mercilessly for that. Ms. Walker says she never received appropriate support from the school and her child ultimately suffered due to their lack of responsiveness.

I’ve read various newspapers, blogs and online journals about this tragic incident, and what has been as upsetting as Carl’s death is the response by those who comment on the story. I am appalled by the number of people who see bullying as a rite of passage or that somehow Carl brought on the bullying because of his perceived sexual orientation. One commenter was especially perturbed because “those people who want to teach our kids about being gay are now using this situation to promote their agenda.”

Are people on crack?! Are you telling me that folks are only willing to protect kids from bullying as long as they are not gay? Or that being shoved around or kicked or embarrassed by a peer in math class is just what some of the “weaker kids” have to put up with?

That is unacceptable! That is crazy! That is irresponsible!

There are very few people who can report a pristine educational experience, but I believe it is more than reasonable that each child that attends school (charter, public, private) should have the expectation that their school day be free from violence. That the people put in charge of their education and safety do their jobs! That whatever your baggage is you leave it at the school house door and do your job! No child should feel sick to their stomach at the thought of having to go to school because that is where they can guarantee they will be harassed and threatened for whatever differences they bring to the school yard.

School officials should take a “zero tolerance” approach to ALL forms of bullying. If hurtful or disparaging language is used, it is to be stopped in its tracks. It should not be allowed to escalate or become a burden for the child who is being victimized.

We have no idea if Carl Joseph Walker–Hoover was gay, but we do know that he is dead and that is unacceptable.

Visionware: Poetry as Testimony

2009-04-07T17:24:00.007-04:00

In celebration of April as National Poetry Month, this is a perfect opportunity to spotlight the work of the gloriously talented Cuban-American poet Caridad Moro McCormick. Her newest collection Visionware (Finishing Line Press), is simultaneously heartbreaking and devious. The work is exquisite, but not so fragile that it cannot stand up to the rough-and-tumble of the reader’s inspection. Her narrative poetry is a trip through time and history. Once you agree upon the voyage, you will discover universal truths on every page, challenging and pushing you along. The collection has a generous and cohesive selection, intertwining English and Spanish in its provocative verses.

My Papi was too cheap
and my Mami too weak
to celebrate my quinces

The themes of family, separation and sacrifice show up throughout and are tripping points and anchors for poet and reader. In the first few poems it is clear that this is McCormick’s personal testimony of a life that has been riddled with disappointments and hard-won victories.

First night of our honeymoon
fists swirled around your head
like wasps in a paper nest.
You pulled me from my sleep
blow by blow

Food is also a starring player in this revealing collection. It is both love and prison. In the brave “Compulsion: A Chronology,” food is all a 3-year-old is able to mark as a sign of her grandmother’s love, by the time she is 15 she eats because I cannot cry with a Whopper in my mouth. And 30 offers nothing but canary yellow Phentermine and nose bleeds as a way of life.

In “Grilled,” McCormick’s diligence in describing the making of a grilled cheese sandwich allows the reader to fully understand and digest the larger stake at hand.

white-bread braving direct heat
for the sake of cheese
dependent on a
framework of flour
to keep from burning
on the unforgiving surface
of a wounded frying pan.

My favorite piece, “Coming out to Miami,” reveals her ability to deliver her work with precision and hope. The remaking of a life is never smooth, even when it feels so necessary.

She taught me to conceal irregularities
to pin them down
beneath the sting of a staple gun,
smooth skin over battered innards

What is most impressive about the collection is its ability to deliver on the promise of resilience. Doing the necessary work of pushing everything to the surface, despite the pain or circumstance, and standing in it to exam and determine what is worth keeping.

her pale sinking
into my weight
in that borrowed room
where bliss broke
into minutes

For those who distance themselves from poetry, I am happy to report that McCormick’s collection is accessible in a way that does not require an MFA to truly appreciate the stellar and truthful work that she has done here. At the center of it all Visionware is about love — recognizing it and finding a way to keep it.

Caridad Moro McCormick is a 2007 recipient of a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship from the state of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. She was a finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Award in 2006 and 2008. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as The Sun, The Pedestal, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Crab Orchard Review, MiPOesias, The Seattle Review, CALYX, Slipstream, Spillway, Tigertail, A South Florida Poetry Annual IV, Her Mark 2009, Appleseeds, Or, How We Got Here, An Anthology of Americana Poems, Susan B. and Me, Just Like a Girl: A Manifesta and others. McCormick teaches English for Dade County Public Schools and is a Professor of English at Miami Dade College in Miami. She resides with her son and partner in Miami.

Anorexia 2.0

2009-04-01T00:05:00.005-04:00

While indulging in a nonspecific visit on YouTube, I stumbled across an alternate universe named Thininspiration aka thinspo. Here is where the 2009 version of Paris Hilton “could stand to lose a few pounds” and Mary Kate Olsen and Nicole Richie are gods!

Encapsulated in these 4-minute videos, which number in the hundreds, are beautifully lit images of the emaciated women that the viewers there aspire to be. They are clad in bikinis, or short shorts, or nothing but a demure hand over almost nonexistent breasts. These are the role models for girls and women who want to achieve the “perfect body.” This universe goes beyond, “oh, I wish I looked like Halle Berry” (whose banging post-baby body is considered by one commenter as “chunky”), but where protruding hipbones and skeletal arms are the must haves. I was on Planet Ana (short for anorexia). Where one video proclaims, “this is a lifestyle not a mental disease.”

This is a self-designed, if not self-indulgent, space. You come here to commune and share tips with other girls who have seemingly embraced the disease with open bony arms. The videos, with soundtracks of the latest pop tunes or emo flavor of the month, dole out advice like “bones are beautiful” or “take control” or “don’t let the calories kill you!” As I made my way (or weigh) further down the rabbit hole, it got stranger and stranger indeed.

The most fascinating videos were the “real girl thinspo.” Here is where we get a true glimpse of how everyday girls are translating the images of celebrities (dubbed by some as professional Anas) onto their own bodies. Flat almost concave stomachs are the prize. Multiple shots of girls looking down at their feet without their stomachs interrupting the plane of vision appears to be the glamour shot de jour. Where low-slung jeans hang off of what is left of hips, and thighs absolutely never touch. There are tons of shots of girls standing on scales, throwing scales, scales randomly in the background as the girls put make up on their ultra thin faces; all of them striving for the agreed upon perfect weight of 74 pounds. Obsessed with how close they are getting to their goal, they constantly inspect their little bodies, paper-thin skin stretched over exposed ribcages, in front of full-length mirrors, digitally recording from every angle.

For those who need tough love to stay on the thinspo wagon there are plenty of videos that threaten if you allow yourself to let food “win” you might look like this – a grotesquely distorted image of a overweight woman eating a cheeseburger flashes on the screen. Or worse yet, “do you want to be the fat friend?” A serene picture of two girls walking along the beach, one skinnier than the other, serves as exhibit B. There is even an Ana list of 57 good reasons not to eat: #3 – Guys can pick you up without struggling. #6 – People will remember you as the “beautiful thin one.” # 11 – Bones are pure and clean. Fat is dirty and hangs on your bones like parasites. To the right lost soul, who is looking for an Ana buddy, all perfectly logical arguments.

After about an hour of consuming jutting collarbones and toothpick thighs I wondered aloud why YouTube had not shut down this sideshow. It wasn’t hard to get to. Start by looking for how to do the perfect sit up, turn left at juice fasting and viola - thinspo! Wasn’t letting these channels exist like putting a baby in a crib on its stomach, surrounded by stuffed animals – a recipe for disaster?

Occasional a do-gooder/interloper comes along and tries to convince the thinspo followers that they are crazy, or wrong, or delusional, but they are summarily drowned out by testimonials of how being thin saved user tbonee’s life or that user minime was once in denial like the “fat pig” party crasher. And just like that they return to regular programming. Swapping links and websites, and pats on bony, fragile backs.

Woman's Work: The Extension and Point of Clarification

2009-03-03T14:11:00.004-05:00

April 10th is the new deadline for the call for submissions. Although I have received some amazing stories, I am still a long way from my goal of 30 solid, amazing stories (I've received about 200 submissions at this point). Also if one more person writes me and tells me they are just finding out about the call I am going to poke my own eye out...lol

Point of Clarification: the stories that I am looking for do not have to be about women. I am looking for talented women writers who can write about ANYTHING. So don't feel stuck because you have a great WWII story but your protagonist is male. SEND IT! Woman's Work is about highlighting women as writers - whatever the story.

Okay, get to writing and pass the word!!
*The full call is right below this entry.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

The Clock is Ticking on the Call for Submissions

2009-02-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories

Part of the problem is that I treat writing like a privilege not an obligation. It comes after everything, after all my other responsibilities.
Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz
My Writing Life

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories is a celebration of what happens when women finally get to the page. About the extraordinary stories that spill out of these extraordinary, and often ignored, storytellers during those stolen moments when she surrenders to her burning desire to write, to create.

GirlChild Press seeks the fresh and exciting voices of writers that can entice the reader with intricate tales of shapeshifters and evil doppelgangers, rock and roll princesses in twisted fairy tales, broken gunslingers in deserted western towns, and political murder mysteries that lead to sex in illicit places.

We will follow her through rabbit holes and pop up as mermaids dressed in camouflage, all while reveling in a romance that bloomed on a long-forgotten battlefield in outer space. Surprises will await us at every corner. We will discover what is passionate, and pure, and complicated and be glad for it.

Ultimately, Woman’s Work is about women as master storytellers.

Submission Requirements

• Deadline: March 1, 2009
• No more than 2 previously unpublished short stories per submission
• Simultaneous submissions okay, but notify if your work is accepted elsewhere
• 4,000 words or less
• Double spaced
• NO POETRY

All contributors will receive a copy of the anthology and will be invited to read at the book launch in 2009.

Electronic Submissions

Girlchildpress@aol.com
Title of submission should be placed in the subject line.
Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission.

Snail Mail
GirlChild Press
PO Box 93
Hyattsville, MD 20781

Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission

GirlChild Press publishes work that celebrates the triumph, defiance, and excellence of girls and women everywhere!

For more information about GirlChild Press visit www.girlchildpress.com

HELP SAVE IN OTHER WORDS BOOKS!

2008-12-17T09:24:00.003-05:00

The recent economic crisis has been tough on a lot of individuals and businesses, but is seems that independent bookstores are especially vulnerable at this time. A couple weeks ago I received an email from the folks over at Robin's Bookstore (Philadelphia) saying they were closing at the end of this month. Now this morning, I received an email from In Other Words Books (Portland) asking for help. They need to raise $11,000.00 by the end of the month or they will have to close their doors. I am sending off a donation now. Please read below and do what you can.

We can't afford to lose another independent bookstore!

From the In Other Words Board

Please help us save In Other Words: Women's Books & Resources, the last
remaining non-profit feminist bookstore in the country!

In Other Words, like so many bookstores, has fallen upon incredibly hard
financial times. With the decline in our current economy, we have
experienced severely decreased revenue. *If we are unable to raise
$11,000 by the end of December, In Other Words will have to close its
doors.*

We desperately need your help. *We are confident that if everyone who
cares about In Other Words makes a contribution, large or small, we will
meet our goal. * Please give as generously as you can to save the last
remaining non-profit, feminist bookstore in the country: the place where
so many Portland artists, activists, organizers, readers, writers,
political thinkers, musicians and poets find their voice, their power,
their community, and their political home.

*Our community cannot afford to lose In Other Words, please help us save
her!
*
You can make your tax-deductible donations on the In Other Words website
or by stopping into the store (8 NE Killingsworth). To donate on our
secure donation page on the website: www.inotherwords.org
and then click on ?Support In Other Words?

*Please forward this widely to your community, we need all the help we
can get!*

Charis Books: Last Stop on the Tour Train

2008-12-13T21:53:00.006-05:00

That's it! Last night was the final Just Like A Girl reading for 2008. Charis Books and Zami(in the ATL) were our hosts for the evening. Contributors Julie Senger (Just Like A Girl) and Tashamee Dorsey (Growing Up Girl) joined me to bring the tour to a close. I was very grateful to have them there. They are both wonderful writers and beautiful spirits.

I absolutely limped into this reading. I was exhausted. For a reason, I'm still not sure of, I scheduled this tour to be pulled off in 5 months. Almost every weekend (and a couple weekdays) I was on the road. Fourteen cities and several hundred miles were covered in that time. With Growing Up Girl it took me over a year to cover that kind of territory. I'm not sure what the hurry was about but I wont do that again!

For those who read this blog for tips on running your own press or self-publishing and promoting your work - here are a few concrete ones.

Pace yourself - especially if you are a one person show. When you are responsible for booking the readings, shipping the books, filling the orders, reserving the flights, cars, hotel rooms, AND being present at the readings - that is a lot to handle. You will start to feel the fatigue and the sense you are operating in a divided mind (which is not great if you have to make significant business decisions).

Ask for help! I can't tell you how much I suck at this. Part of it is about my personality, but the other part is that doing something like this really can be an isolating endeavor. You spend a lot of time by yourself and you get in the headset that you have to do everything. Not true. Especially when it becomes clear that you are not going to be good at everything or have the resources to pull everything off.

At the end of the tour I started to run out of money and energy. Because I depend on the sale of the books (Hey! have you bought a couple copies for the holidays?) to pay for every aspect of the tour it can get a little sketchy. This tour required more flying and as we all know - airfare has been out of this world! My starting budget for the tour did not factor in four dollar gas and $15 first bag check-in fees. In the end, after much fretting, I had to ask my sister to put my ticket to Atlanta on her credit card. She was more than happy to. For some reason I thought it was going to be an imposition. In all the worrying I forgot that my family and friends want me to succeed and are more than willing to do what they can to get me where I am trying to go.

Write Everything Down!! Besides having your master marketing plan, you have to keep a list of "stuff" you will need while you are on the road or just traveling to your local bookstore for a reading. I make a "pack list" every time I have a reading. From my toiletries to how many books I need to have on hand, I write it down. I know you think your mind is a steel trap, but you WILL forget something. Trust me, it sucks to get somewhere and realize that you forgot the camera or your slacks or the address to the hotel where you are staying.

Pack Light. Leave your favorite pillow at home. Take only what you need. It is easier to keep track of your stuff and get through airport security this way. At this point, I got this process down to a science. Yesterday I only took a backpack with me. I squeezed my laptop, change of clothes and shoes, toiletries, cameras, and books in that puppy. I sailed through the airport. It was a very efficient trip (not counting the three hour layover)!

Be Flexible! No matter how much you plan or try to anticipate - something is going to go wrong. That's just how the Universe is. US Airway is going to cancel your flight and saddle you with a three hour layover (putting you at your destination with just an hour to get ready for your reading). Jerome at Alamo is going to say something crazy to you and forget the power cord to the $11.95 a day GPS that you desperately need to get around. While away from your home base (in a totally different city) you will get an email from the bookstore saying they never got their shipment and you have to pay an extra 50 bucks to overnight them another batch before the reading. All of this is annoying, but not earth shattering. Your problem solving skills will kick in and everything will work out -one way or another. Promise.

The rest of 2008 will consist of me filling holiday orders, sleeping,and mapping out what 2009 needs to look like. When the tour starts back up I will be focused on mostly universities,colleges, and book clubs. And,oh yeah, reading the submissions for the new anthology Woman's Work!.

I want to thank everyone for the continued support of GirlChild Press. I really appreciate all the support and love. I look forward to your submissions, feedback, and positive energy.

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

From Snowy Wisconsin

2008-12-05T23:45:00.003-05:00

Lacey Louwagie and I held down the reading at A Room of One's Own. Thanks to everyone who came through, asked questions, and took pictures:)

Besides me whining about how frickin' cold Wisconsin is (why does anyone live in this state after September?), we had a nice talk about creating a space for writers, upcoming projects and why women don't write more sci-fi.

The bookstore staff was super great. Thanks Amanda for scheduling the reading and finding me a cool new journal and a copy of Junot Diaz's Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. If one more person tells me "you have to read this book!" Hopefully over the holidays I will be able to cuddle up with this work of genius.

Until then I am heading off to L.A for some fun and hopefully a new writing gig. Then next Friday, we wrap up this five month adventure at Charis Books in Atlanta,GA.

I look forward to seeing everyone there:)

Until Later
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

On the Road Again!

2008-12-04T23:02:00.003-05:00

Nearing the finish line of the 2008 Just Like A Girl Book Tour. On Friday,December 5th I'll be reading at A Room of One's Own in Madison, WI at 6:30pm. Contributors will be in the house and I anticipate a good reading. If you are in the area please come by and check us out.

Then after a layover in L.A. for a few days, I'll head to the ATL on December 12th for the VERY LAST READING OF THE YEAR!
Cue the fireworks!!!

We are reading at Charis Books at 8:00pm. The super fabulous contributor Julie Senger will be joining me. I would love to go out with a bang so please come through and show us some love AND buy books:)

Until Later
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Holiday Savings from GirlChild Press

2008-11-28T16:28:00.009-05:00

Looking for the perfect holiday gift? Then you've come to the right place. Get your copy of Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta! and save $5.00 plus get free shipping. You can also get free shipping on Growing Up Girl: An Anthology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces

If you are interested in a bulk purchase(12 copies or more) you can email us at girlchildpress@aol.com for a special rate. Please place "Special Bulk Rate" in the subject header.

The holiday special ends on January 2, 2009. PURCHASE HERE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2008-11-27T10:53:00.003-05:00

I make it habit to say my "thank yous" throughout the year, but I am totally aware that this year has been full of an extraordinary amount of abundance. There is so much to be grateful for. So many wonderful people who have supported the press, the writers, and me. I can absolutely confirm that that unfailing supportive energy is all you really need to take most of the big steps in your life. I am lucky to constantly have that energy around me and pushing me forward.

I hope you all have the same.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Until Later
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

NEW CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

2008-11-16T00:53:00.003-05:00

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories

Part of the problem is that I treat writing like a privilege not an obligation. It comes after everything, after all my other responsibilities.
Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz
My Writing Life

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories is a celebration of what happens when women finally get to the page. About the extraordinary stories that spill out of these extraordinary, and often ignored, storytellers during those stolen moments when she surrenders to her burning desire to write, to create.

GirlChild Press seeks the fresh and exciting voices of writers that can entice the reader with intricate tales of shapeshifters and evil doppelgangers, rock and roll princesses in twisted fairy tales, broken gunslingers in deserted western towns, and political murder mysteries that lead to sex in illicit places.

We will follow her through rabbit holes and pop up as mermaids dressed in camouflage, all while reveling in a romance that bloomed on a long-forgotten battlefield in outer space. Surprises will await us at every corner. We will discover what is passionate, and pure, and complicated and be glad for it.

Ultimately, Woman’s Work is about women as master storytellers.

Submission Requirements

• Deadline: March 1, 2009
• No more than 2 previously unpublished short stories per submission
• Simultaneous submissions okay, but notify if your work is accepted elsewhere
• 4,000 words or less
• Double spaced
• NO POETRY

All contributors will receive a copy of the anthology and will be invited to read at the book launch in 2009.

Electronic Submissions

Girlchildpress@aol.com
Title of submission should be placed in the subject line.
Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission.

Snail Mail
GirlChild Press
PO Box 93
Hyattsville, MD 20781

Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission

GirlChild Press publishes work that celebrates the triumph, defiance, and excellence of girls and women everywhere!

For more information about GirlChild Press visit www.girlchildpress.com

Quote of the Day

2008-11-13T16:10:00.002-05:00

There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.
-Madeline K. Albright

Just Like A Girl Goes to Chicago

2008-11-08T21:53:00.006-05:00

And no I didn't catch a glimpse of our new president or Oprah.

I did get a chance to meet contributors Kimberly Dixon, Sage Morgan-Hubbard and Latiffany Wright at Women and Children First Books. Meeting the contributors and hearing them read their work NEVER gets old.
You have not heard a persona poem until Sage lets loose on "If I were a Male" or Big Balls as I like to call it. Latiffany broke our hearts with "Still Breathing". And I personally have a thing for writers that can construct and pull off a convincing kid voice, and Kimberly did just that with "Narcissus" - the best little, self-centered 7 year-old I've heard in a longtime.

As I was getting on the plane this morning, I realized we only have two more readings for 2008. Our next stop is A Room of One's Own in Madison, Wisconsin on December 5th and then we wrap it up in Atlanta on December 12th at Charis Books.

If we are heading to your neck of the woods, don't miss the chance to come out and hear some wonderful writers!

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

BE THE CHANGE!

2008-11-04T02:51:00.007-05:00

GO VOTE!
No matter how long the lines are, stay until you cast your ballot. No matter how imperfect you might think our country or political process is, cast that ballot! We are all due for a change:) And I know we have all been caught up in the presidential race but there are plenty of important local and state initiatives that also need your thoughtful attention.

I'm curious if we are going to get the mega lines I've seen on the news. I plan to be at my polling place when it opens, but just in case all my neighbors have the same idea, I'm going to take my journal with me (I'm sure there's going to be some great people watching opportunities) and my camera to document this historic election. Please let me know if anything interesting, crazy, or voter suppressiony (I know that is not a word) happens in your neck of the woods. HAPPY VOTING!

A Weekend of Just Like A Girl

2008-11-02T08:20:00.006-05:00

It has been a full weekend!
Friday night started with contributor Lynnette Mawhinney and I hosting a reading at Wooden Shoe Books. This Philly reading was better attended than the previous weekend, but I couldn't help teasing Lynnette with "Philly don't read!" To be fair, we were competing with Halloween and the fact that the Phillies were being feted with a parade at the stadium. In case you didn't read your memo - they won the world series. So the fact that anyone showed up is actually impressive.

Saturday afternoon I was joined by contributors Charneice Fox, Lisa Joyner, Tanisha Christie, Deesha Philyaw, Natalie Illum, JScales, Turquoise, and Lynnette (she made her way from Philly) on my home turf of Washington, DC. The cover girl for Just Like A Girl Katie Seitz and GirlChild's graphic designer Kendra Kuliga was also in the house. We took over the Langston Room of Busboys and Poets and had a fabulous reading. A very nice blend of poetry and storytelling.

I am touched by all the support and the wonderful things that were said about GirlChild Press. Faye Williams (Sisterspace and Books) was especially eloquent and generous. She has always been one of my number one cheerleaders, encouraging me to push harder and go farther than I think I can. Her encouragement didn't stop with me, she demanded that folks in attendance continue to support independent presses and artists. Folks, that's the only way that we will flourish.

Today, I am preparing for my trip to Chicago, where we will read at Women and Children First Books on November 7th at 7:30. I am also spending time finishing up the call for submissions for the 2009 anthology Woman's Work: The Short Stories. I'll post it tomorrow.

Toss in the time change (an extra hour to sleep!) and it has been a wonderful weekend.

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

On the Air with Joe's Place

2008-10-30T01:23:00.005-04:00

Always a pleasure to swing by Joe's Place and talk poetry and the world. Joe Gorham is a very cool guy and likes to take you on a cerebral adventure on every show. About ten minutes into the show I felt like we should have opened the phone lines and gave folks some free therapy.

We covered some real deep topics (incest, domestic violence, body image, and parental involvement). If you got a chance to catch the show please comment on the blog and let me know what you thought.

Thanks to Joe and his producer Kimberly Washington for always finding time for me to come by and talk about the newest GirlChild Press project.

To catch me handing out therapy live - we have two readings this week.

Friday, October 31, 2008 - 8:00pm
Wooden Shoe Books
Philadelphia, PA

OR

Saturday, November 1, 2008 - 4:00pm
Busboys and Poets
Washington, DC

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

What would you do if you had a Just Like A Girl reading and (almost) nobody came?

2008-10-25T23:57:00.011-04:00

You talk about raising boys.

I was half way to Philly (in a surprisingly heavy rainstorm) when it occurred to me that folks might not be willing to brave the rain to come out to a reading. Count me psychic...'cause not one person came to the reading at Big Blue Marble Books.

I love this bookstore. They were one of the first bookstores to setup a reading for Growing Up Girl ,where we had a packed house. But clearly today was not going to be a repeat performance.

At 3:30, when it was clear there would be no reading, a Mom came into the store. She was not looking for the reading. She was killing time until her teenage son was finished with his community services hours next door at the local coop. She asked what the book was about. I told her. For some reason that encouraged her to talk about her son.

She was chatty and funny and realistic. It seems that the last four years had been crazy challenging with her son and she was clear that no book she had every read (and there seemed to be a ready list floating around in her head) helped her get control of her kid. Mom was a self described control freak who had her whole life mapped out when it came to how she would parent her kids (she has a daughter who is "easy as pie"), but eventually had to "put my personality in a blender and push puree." Her advice to parents, "put your expectations down when comes to raising kids." With that decisive edict, she zipped out of the store to go check that her kid was where he was supposed to be.
As soon as the door slammed I had to laugh. Not at her, but at myself. 29 minutes before she had walked in, I had been trying to talk myself out of a mood that was steadily creeping up on me. I was annoyed that I had driven two and half hours, in the rain, to be at the reading that no one showed up to - or so I thought.

Actually, I was sitting in the very empty loft reading room for a very different reason. Before I left home today, I was sketching out the call for submissions for the Woman's Work short story project (look for the call on November 1st) and also jotting down some ideas for the parenting handbook that is also slated to come out in 2009. I had already broken down the chapters and was trying to figure which "expert" I was going to assign to each. I was also asking myself what tone I wanted for the book. But after listening to this mom it was clear I was coming at this project from all the wrong directions. By the time a parent picks up How to Grow a Girl (tentative title), they are probably far down the path of parenting and looking for some concrete and sanity-saving information. I need to go back to the drawing board on this one. And regarding the tone - I think chatty, funny, and realistic is probably going to be the best choice.

Sometimes you really do have to go on a journey to find what you are looking for.

We will have a "do over" opportunity for Philly on Friday, October 31st at 8:00pm. Come check us out at Wooden Shoe Books. Don't leave me sittin' up in there by myself this time:) I don't think I can be Zen twice in the same month.

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Just Like A Girl Does Baltimore

2008-10-18T01:51:00.008-04:00

After a string of readings over the last few days, we ended the week at Red Emma's Bookstore. A surprising number of folks showed up for the 6:00pm reading. I didn't have high expectations because the reading was smack dab in the middle of rush hour traffic and I don't have any Baltimore contributors. But folks (with credit cards) made the effort to get there. They squeezed into the small reading space and spent an hour experiencing all things Just Like A Girl.

The highlight of the evening was getting to meet contributors Melissa McEwen(left) and Trish Ayers (right). Melissa actually traveled from Connecticut to be at the reading (very cool), and Trish was visiting her daughter in Baltimore - who happens to live down the street from Red Emma's (perfect). They are both very talented and lovely women. Also in attendance was Trish's infant grandson Jack Henry who experienced his first poetry reading. You're never too young for poetry.

All in all, a good reading. I have about a week off before heading to the City of Brotherly Love - Philly. Big Blue Marble Books is hosting us on Saturday, October 25 at 3:00pm. Come by and check us out.

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Ten Years of Mothertongue

2008-10-16T23:48:00.009-04:00

I was at Keene State College earlier this week and one of the students asked why I had chosen to establish a press specifically for the work of girls and women. I gave some superficial, not well thought out answer. Something about being a girl, blah, blah, blah.

What I should have said was mothertongue. mothertongue is DC's longest running women's only spoken word open mic. This organization has been a part of my life for the last 8 years. I stumbled into the venue on a cold, rainy April night and never stopped coming back. Our website says "mothertongue is a community-based organization that works to create a safe space where all women may speak freely and powerfully and have their creative and artistic voices heard." But mothertongue has evolved into far more than that. Over the last ten years, national and local artist have used the stage to hone their skills, grow their fan base, and totally rock DC!

My first time on the mothertongue stage was after a couple months of attending the shows. I had been grinding out some poetry as a result of a messy break up and was contemplating signing up to read. When I got to the show, with my friend Tessa in tow, who totally hates poetry of all kind, I chickened out. In 2000, over 250 people (women and men) where attending the mothertongue shows on a regular basis, and I couldn't imagine getting up in front of them, offering up what I thought was anemic love poetry. But my friend Tessa thought differently. For whatever reason the poetry was a little off that night (nice way of saying bad) and she was convinced that anything that I had to share had to be way better than what we were being subjected to (her words, not mine).

Out of nowhere I heard my name as "the next poet up to the mic." When did I become a poet? Why did Tessa sign me up? How many people had thrown up on the stage from being petrified? But when my turn came, I got up there. I immediately lowered the bar of expectation (sorta like what they did with Sarah Palin and the debates) and declared that my friend had put me up to this and if I sucked they could blame her.

Then something completely unfamiliar and amazing happened. I opened my mouth and I was good! Through my poetry I shared, with this charged and rowdy crowd, how my love affair with the crazy, southern lawyer had gone south (pun intended). On that stage, I could be funny and pathetic and mad and good. As the last verse rang out into the large performance space of the Black Cat the crowd went CRAZY. They clapped and stomped and whistled. They affirmed me in a huge way.

Eight years later and I can absolutely claim that moment as life changing. The moment that I embraced my identity as a poet and writer. In gratitude for that affirmation, over the years I have served as the organization's Poet Liaison, sat on the board, and taught workshops. Even now I am still amazed by the power that this venue has to enrich and buoy women's lives. I don't perform as much as I use to because life has gotten super hectic, but I always leave the second Wednesday of the month open to attend the monthly show. As we celebrate our tenth year we are going through some transitions. Natalie Illum is stepping down as the longtime Board President (the enthusiastic Danielle is taking over), the shows are moving to an every other month format, and the crowds are not as big as they once were.

But what does remain - the enthusiasm and support for women as artists and writers and that much needed safe space.

Until Later
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

GirlChild Press Goes to School

2008-10-15T23:28:00.008-04:00

Spent the last two days in Keene, New Hampshire.
Both Keene State and Antioch University adopted Growing Up Girl:An Anthology as a textbook and invited me up to talk about the book, what it takes to publish women's work, and introduce the newest anthology.

My first stop was Keene State. The book is being used in their Women and Psychology class. Professor Morris (that's her to the left) is using the book to explore the various population of women (of color, queer, incarcerated, lower income, pregnant, overcoming mental health challenges) that her students will be assisting as they move into their careers as school counselors and clinicians. Professor Morris was the first person to suggest that the anthology would be a perfect addition to counseling and social work classes. I am grateful that she had that brainstorm and continues to utilize the book in this manner. This is her third semester using the anthology!

The second stop was Antioch University. Their Human Development class is using the anthology. Contributor Elizabeth Farrell (and her hubby Peter) joined me for the midday reading and discussion. I love meeting the contributors! Finally putting the voice and face with the piece is so wonderful.

The Antioch students were a great group. They were really excited about getting to know the kinds of clients they will encounter in their practice and they really seemed to get that they will have to be imaginative risk takers if they mean to effect change.

During the discussion they suggested that I explore transforming some of the works from the anthology into a Vagina Monologue-style reading. I've been told this before, it's just a matter of figuring out how and making time. For now it's just on my long "to do" list.

I have about 24 hours to rest up before the next reading. We are heading to Red Emma's Books in Baltimore, MD on Friday, October 17, 2008 at 6:00pm. I hope you can join us.

Until Later
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

I HEART NYC!

2008-10-12T16:28:00.010-04:00

We had the fourth Just Like A Girl reading at one of my favorite radical, independent book stores - Bluestockings. We had a great turn out and an amazing blend of contributors (nine in all). It was a perfect night. The reading was sassy and funny (line of the night belongs to contributor Trina Porte), and good - just like the anthology.

Special thanks to contributors Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, Maegan Ortiz, Penelope Laurence (who came in from Canada), Sarah Herrington, Ellen Hagan, Trina Porte, Lisa Joyner, K. Coleman Foote, and Lezlie Frye who came out and shared their work. Check out our pictures on facebook and see who else was there.

Next stop - New Hampshire.

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-10-03T13:21:00.005-04:00

With the talk of financial institutions closing left and right over the last few weeks, the news of a D.C. institution closing might have gotten lost in the fray. After 36 years of being Washington's oldest independent bookstore - Olsson Books and Records closed on Tuesday. They succumbed to the financial pressure facing many business, especially independent bookstore.

On the bookstore's website Olsson's general manager Stephen Wallace-Haines stated: "In the end, all the roads towards reorganization led to this dead end: we did not have the money required to pay for product in advance, to collect reserves to buy for Christmas, and satisfy the demands of rent and operational costs. We were losing money just by staying open."

Are there bailouts for book stores?

Bailouts and Book Buying

2008-09-27T00:26:00.009-04:00

Like most folks I am worried about the economy and curious (and slightly annoyed) about the potential...who are we kidding...inevitable bailout of Wall Street (I think the House votes on the plan on Monday).

700 billion dollars! Really?

What is clear is that the bailout will be financed by the taxpayers. There is no magic pot of money sitting somewhere ready to be tapped into to fund this financial catastrophe. Why was this allowed to get so far out of hand? Why does Wall Street believe that the government should help them out of the hole they have dug for themselves? What happened to "the market will correct itself" and personal responsibility? I know all the talking heads are saying we don't have a choice at this point, and the bailout MUST happen or our economy is going to spiral even deeper into chaos. According to the Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, we are moments from a depression. If what they are saying is true, and the mismanagement by the folks on Wall Street is inextricably tied to the financial well-being of the people of America (if not the world), then why weren't they keeping an eye on our financial cousins all along? Aren't there people, paid good ass money, in charge of keeping track of all this. Didn't they see this coming?

Every day there appears to be a new casualty. On Thursday, WaMu Bank (biggest bank to fail in US history) went down the toilet (assets sold to JP Morgan Chase for 1.9 billion dollars). The week before, Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy, and AIG received some sort of "favorite nation" status when they received a $85 billion bailout from the feds. This after we threw out life preservers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier in the month. And let's not forget that the dollar is as weak as atrophied legs on a coma patient. As the folks on the Hill try and come up with a plan that takes care of "Wall Street and Main Street," I have to ask - why were these banks allowed to dispense all these risky loans to people and businesses that they knew couldn't repay them?

When I was buying my house five years ago, just before the market became so inflated that the same house I purchased for less than $200,000, could be sold "as is" for $350.000; I was informed by my financial officer that according his calculations that I could actually afford to borrow $300,000. On what planet? He informed me that although my house was relatively cheap, I could borrow the rest of the money to make major renovations on the house and increase its value. Okay...but I can't afford a $2,000 house note. Again, he assured me that he could "work a deal" and the note wouldn't be that high - initially. That's right- an ARM. He told me I was smart and talented and he just knew that I would be making an additional $10,000 before the ARM went into affect. Seriously? I told him I worked for a nonprofit. End of story. But clearly a lot of folks let these financial wizards talk them into homes (cars, credit cards, investments) they couldn't afford in the long run, and when the bill came due, they were screwed royally.

So what does the the failing economy and looming bailouts have to do with book buying? Everything. In fact it is impacting every area of our society. When you are paying $4.00 for gas, barely keeping up with your mortgage, and trying to keep food on your family's table, you suddenly have to start making choices, and a book comes off the must have item list, very quickly. Unless of course you are selling how to make money and survive financial meltdowns -then those might be bestsellers.

When I started the production of Just Like A Girl I was unaware, that in a year, we (as in the US) would be in such deep doodie - economically. Now that I am selling and marketing the book it is absolutely apparent. With this new information I've had to make adjustments, rethink how I book readings (especially on the west coast - since the price to fly has doubled),and how many review copies of the anthology I can send out. I've had to step up my marketing of the book with an emphasis on sales through the GirlChild Press website (Amazon.com makes 55% on each sale of the book through their site) and crunching the numbers on what bulk sales vs individual sales will look like over the next 6 months. Since I know that Uncle Sam will not be coming by GirlChild Press anytime soon, and writing me a bailout check to keep it afloat, I will have to be a good fiscal manager and make realistic and responsible decisions to insure that the Press will be around for many more years. What a novel concept.

Until later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Pacific Northwest. Check.

2008-09-25T09:38:00.004-04:00

In a couple hours I'll be boarding a plane back to DC and I can count my trip to Oregon a success. Shaindel (rhymes with candle) and I made the four hour trek to Portland from Pendleton yesterday to read at In Other Words Bookstore. If you are in the Portland area and have never been to the store, please check them out. They are a marvelous, eclectic feminist bookstore, and unfortunately there are very few left in the country.

This was actually a much smaller reading than the first night. I haven't quite figured out the formula for how these things should work. You would think that being in a larger city would yield more people, but Shaindel reminded me that in smaller towns people have far less entertainment choices, so when something different or interesting is an option they will definitely check it out. Good point. For what the reading lacked in size, they made up for it by buying books. Every sale brings the Press closer to meeting the goal of selling 5,000 books in a year.

Our next reading is October 5, 2008 @ 2:00pm at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland. If you are in the area come by.

Until later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Pendleton. It Kicks!

2008-09-24T09:18:00.007-04:00

That's the town motto! I love it! Pendleton is definitely a cowboy town. In fact, I missed the annual "Round-Up" by a week. I'm told the entire social calendar for September factors in the influx of cowboys and rodeo people in to Pendleton. My first impression of the city - it is a beautiful, but eerily quiet, place.

I'm glad folks weren't too worn out from the rodeo to come out and attend the first official reading for the book. I'm sure contributor Shaindel Beers (that's her above) had something to do with that. We had a full house - in library terms - and it was a fun and relaxed reading. Shout out to Mary Finney (librarian extraordinaire) for the juice and cookies, and the very sweet certificate.

We had a robust discussion about women writers, how to encourage young writers, writing and trauma, and what it takes to operate and keep a press on track - while working a "good government job".

What it sometimes takes, is bringing a heavy-ass shipment of anthologies across the country to readings. I had originally booked the Portland reading first, so their books were shipped well in advance. By the time the Pendleton reading was set up, I decided to bring the books with me to make sure they got here on time. I was definitely not looking forward to lugging them back to D.C.

Well, the Pendleton folks did not disappoint. During the book signing portion of the program, they bought everything in sight! It is always great to see the anthologies being purchased in twos and threes and fours! It was also wonderful to hear why folks were purchasing the books: to encourage a young writer in their life, to help someone get through a traumatic period, to introduce themselves to new voices.

I am sort of bummed that I don't have any Growing Up Girl copies left to take to the Portland reading tonight, but it's a nice problem to have.

Shaindel and I head off to Portland later this afternoon - it is about four hours away from Pendleton - and I look forward to a great reading there as well. I'll report back tomorrow.

Until then!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Milestones and High Expectations

2008-09-17T23:56:00.008-04:00

As of today, GirlChild Press has sold 2,500 copies of Growing Up Girl: An Anthology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces! For an independently published book that is pretty damn good. A lot of hard work has gone into this anthology over the last two years and I am glad folks are still interested in the book. Now with the release of the new anthology Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta! I am setting some really high expectations.

Over the next 12 months, my goal is to sell 5,000 copies of Just Like A Girl. Don't make that face. It is totally doable. It is all about getting the word out on this wonderful, funny, and powerful anthology. I'm not overstating when I tell you that the JLAG contributors have put their foot in it (go find a southern friend and ask them what the hell that means). They have crafted some amazing and unique work and you will be blown away by the wonderful and resilient world of GIRL that they have created.

Every day I feel honored that I have been given the resources to create a space where women and girls can construct and tell their stories. The mission is simple and straightforward: publish work that celebrates the triumph and defiance of girls and women, and provide a quality forum to bring their diverse voices to the foreground.

Here is a few ways you can help the press reach the "5,000 copies sold" goal:

1. Buy a copy of the book - www.girlchildpress.com/products.html

2. Buy your mama a copy of the book - www.girlchildpress.com/products.html

3. Tell your friends to buy the book - www.girlchildpress.com/products.html

4. If you work for an organization with a budget, buy a bunch of books (bulk orders of 10 copies or more will receive a discount) www.girlchildpress.com/products.html

5. Pass the word and encourage everyone you know (and even a couple strangers) to buy the book www.girlchildpress.com/products.html

6. Set up a Just Like A Girl reading at your school, bookstore, church, office, book club, sorority, or any place you want us to come.

And if you want to meet some of the fabulous writers, in the amazing book you have purchased, check out the tour schedule below and see if we are coming to your neck of the woods.

Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta! 2008 Tour Schedule

Friday, December 12, 2008 - 8:00pm
Charis Books
1189 Euclid Avenue
Atlanta, GA
www.charis.booksense.com

Friday, December 5, 2008 - 6:30pm
A Room of One's Own Feminist Bookstore
307 W. Johnson Street
Madison, WI 53703
www.roomofonesown.com

Friday, November 7, 2008 - 7:00pm
Women and Children First
5233 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL
www.womenandchildrenfirst.com

Saturday, November 1, 2008 - 4:00pm
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC
www.busboysandpoets.com

Friday, October 31, 2008 -
Wooden Shoe Books
508 S. 5th Street
Philadelphia, PA
www.woodenshoebooks.com

Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 3:00pm
Big Blue Marble Books
551 Carpenter Street
Philadelphia, PA
www.bigbluemarblebooks.com

Friday, October 17, 2008 - 6:00pm
Red Emma's Bookstore
800 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
www.redemmas.com

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 12:00pm
Antioch University
Keene, NH

Monday, October 13, 2008 -11:00pm
Diana Cage Show
Sirius Radio (channel 109)
New York, NY
*in studio interview

Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 7:00pm
Bluestockings Books
172 Allen Street
(between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, NY
www.bluestockings.com

Sunday, October 5, 2008 - 2:00pm
Writer's Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD
www.writer.org

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 6:30pm
In Other Words Books
8 NE Killingsworth Street
Portland, OR
www.inotherwords.org

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 7:00pm
Pendleton Library
502 S.W. Dorion Ave.
Pendleton, OR
www.pendleton.or.us/library.htm

Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears

2008-09-04T14:05:00.009-04:00

Besides battling this heinous, unexpected summer cold, I’ve found myself oddly fixated on the Republicans this morning. Sarah Palin made her VP nomination acceptance speech last night. I didn’t watch (couldn’t keep my head up). I am sure I can catch it on youtube before the day is out. I did read about it this morning and like most folks this week I am fascinated by this “gun tottin’, hottie, hockey mom.” Of course I am wondering how is she qualified to be the VP with such limited experience, but more so I am wondering how she and her family are holding up under the glare and public scrutiny. How is she reconciling her feelings around her pregnant daughter with her abstinence-only and no sex education in schools stance? Does it hold up under this unexpected life situation? Should we judge her because her daughter did what thousands of teens do every day? Is the bar higher because Sarah Palin is a Christian, or anti-choice, or pro-guns, or the governor of Alaska – that she should have had her daughter “under control.” Is she any different from any parent that is trying to do their best, but can’t control every second that their child is out of their sight? I guess it is easy to judge her because she’s taken on such an absolute stance on some vital women’s issues. Maybe, like a few blogger have pointed out, it’s karma. So busy trying to police everyone else’s life, you’re not policing your own – sort of thing. I think it’s more ironic. Or maybe it’s just life.

Does any of this seem weird to all the folks who were cheering her on last night?

I don’t know if I would advise (or pressure) my 17 year old daughter to marry her 18 year old boyfriend. Having that baby is going to be hard enough without the added stress of a marriage under ill-timed circumstances, played out in front of the country. I saw a picture of Bristol Palin’s boyfriend Levi in the receiving line at some Republican event and he looked like a deer in headlights. I wonder what his parents think of all this? At 18, he has to be fighting the urge to bolt. Especially now that his “manning up” is being played out for the Republican Party and the rest of us. What pressure.

I do find it interesting, besides the “leave our children out of this campaign” stance that both sides have endorsed but the kids are in every family photo-op, that when you try to compare Bristol Palin with Jamie Lynn Spears folks bristle up. How are they different? I remember when it came out that Jamie Lynn was preggers folks really tried to come for her mother Lynn Spears. She had allowed Hollywood to corrupt her child and Jamie Lynn’s teen pregnancy was a result of her careless parenting. For Bristol we have heard that no one is perfect. That in the face of a difficult situation Bristol (and her mother) had stuck to her faith and belief that each child deserves life and she was keeping her baby. And best yet, she was marrying the soon-to-be baby daddy.

Line them up side by side and both these young women sound very much a like. They were both having unprotected sex. They both chose to keep their babies (Jamie Lynn clearly has enough money that she could have had an abortion and no one would have had a clue), both their families have professed their love and support for their daughters, and both their baby daddies have promised to marry them (and no I don’t think either one of them has any business rushing into to a marriage to placate anyone who is judging them for getting pregnant, either).

How are they different? I guess because some people sees Bristol’s mom as an upstanding governor with aspirations of the White House, while Jamie Lynn’s mom is a Louisiana hillbilly stage mother.

I’m going to go blow my nose and take some Robitussin.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Just Like A Girl is Officially on Tour!

2008-09-02T11:16:00.007-04:00

Check out our current readings and keep checking back here or on the website www.girlchildpress.com for more dates. If you don't see your city on the list let us know what bookstore, university, or book club we should contact and we'll make it happen. There are a lot of exciting things in store for this book! Our goal is to make Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta! a bestseller. You can help us by telling everyone you know about the anthology and coming out to see us at the various readings. We are looking forward to meeting you all!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 12:00pm
Antioche University
Keene, NH

Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 7:00pm
Bluestockings Books
172 Allen Street
(between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, NY
www.bluestockings.com

October 5, 2008 - 2:00pm
Writer's Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD
www.writer.org

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 7:00pm
Pendleton Library
502 S.W. Dorion Ave.
Pendleton, OR
www.pendleton.or.us/library.htm

Saturday, August 30, 2008 - 6:00pm
UNOBSTRUCTED radio interview
(click link to listen)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/2008/08/30/UNOBSTRUCTED-hosted-by-Alaina-RAlexander

We're on the Air!

2008-08-31T00:17:00.007-04:00

Had the great honor of being on Alaina Alexander's radio show UNOBSTRUCTED. Thirty minutes of me talking about GirlChild Press and the new anthology Just Like A Girl.

This is the jumping off point for the book tour so keep checking back for tour dates and special appearances. I am looking forward to meeting you all!
Click the link below and give it a listen.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/2008/08/30/UNOBSTRUCTED-hosted-by-Alaina-RAlexander

Also check out Alaina's site at www.alainaralexander.com

What's in a Name?

2008-08-21T20:11:00.004-04:00

A rose by any other name...blah blah blah.
My friend Charneice can't move forward in any writing assignment unless she picks the perfect title for the project. I usually mock her for this OCD quality of hers, but I've found myself sweating over a title for a new writing project for the last couple days. I am stuck, stuck, stuck, and can't move on until I nail a really good one.

Maybe you can help me out. Which of these titles would make you feel compelled to read more?

1. The Hudsons
2. And Baby Makes Two
3. Second Chances
4. Soul Mates (I hate this one - just so you know)
5. Here We Are
6. Sushi and Sake
7. A Perfect Life
8. None of the above

Let me know your thoughts.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

What I'm Reading

2008-08-13T23:41:00.009-04:00

Every time I finish a writing assignment I find myself craving new reading material. Probably because I need to refill the well. Here is what I'm reading.

Get thy to a bookstore and get a copy of I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley. This New York Times Bestselling author is frickin' hysterical. The book contains about ten essays that cover being a reluctant maid of honor, what to do with ones pony collection before you parents find it, and the boss from hell. Sloane Crosley is totally laugh out loud funny. I will never again hear the word pony and not want to giggle.
I am just starting on Miranda July's book of stories No One Belongs Here More Than You and it is clear this is going to be excellent! I was introduce to the way Miranda's mind works when I rented her movie Me and You and Everyone We Know. Trippy stuff. Clearly an exceptional writer.
Just picked up Chelsy Handler's book My Horizontal Life. It's a collection of stories about her sex life (mostly one night stands). I can't say I am a huge fan of her comedy show, but she did get this great write up in Entertainment Weekly so I figured I would use my recently acquired Borders gift card and see what all the fuss is about. I read the first couple pages and she definitely has a way of telling a story. And can you go wrong when sex is the main subject?

And to round things off, I have the recent issues of Entertainment Weekly, Script Magazine, and Filmmaker for when I need inspiration around the business and technique of screenwriting and filmmaking.

What are you reading?

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Wouldn't It Just Be Easier to be Fat?!

2008-08-10T22:22:00.011-04:00

For our annual two week beach vacation to Outer Banks, NC my girlfriend and I vowed to be more active. We were going to rent bikes, take walks, and run on the beach. This vow would challenge our notion that drinking a six pack of beer while putting on sunscreen does indeed qualify as cardio. This year we were not going to sit on the beach and get fat(ter)!

So when she suggested we go hiking at the Nags Head Woods Preserve, our first week there, I was game. We got to the preserve bright and early Saturday morning and was as prepared as you think you need to be when hiking at the beach: shorts, sunscreen, water, and a cute hat. The minute we got out of the car we were attacked by mosquitoes the size of newborns. So we did what any city girl would do; we got back in the car and headed off to Walgreens for an economy size of Deep Woods Off!

Dripping in Off, and like Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day, we returned to the scene of the crime to start over. Our first trail was an easy quarter mile stoll that we completed in five minutes. I was feeling proud of myself and ready to celebrate with some steaming pancakes at Stack'em High. But then some body started feeling like Ms. Adventure.

What you need to know about my traveling companion. She reports that she is part Native American. Specifically, the Lumbee Tribe. I'll wait while you go look it up. I didn't believe they existed either. You're back? You learn something new every day, right?

Anyway, Sacajawea, who considers herself a natural when it comes to directions, suggested that we take the Sweet Gum Trail, a half mile loop that would take you "deeper into the forest." As I adjusted my cute hat, I couldn’t help but think was I going to see anything different in the “deeper” part than I did in the nice easy part. Woods can’t be that dramatically different, can they? But I decided not to be a killjoy and go along with the program. Just because I couldn't find my way to the grocery store without activating the GPS, wasn't a reflection on her skills. Sweet Gum Trail it was.

What you need to know about me. If it doesn’t involve my computer, journal, or having cocktails with friends, I am scared of everything. So believe me, going along on this little vision quest, was me being a brave girl.

The first five minutes of the hike was relatively uneventful. Then we arrived at the first fork in the road and our first disagreement of the trip. I, the GPS dependent one, wanted to go straight(ish) while Pocahontas wanted to go left. We went left. I will save the cliff hanger for another story and let you know now that she was absolutely wrong!

For the next ten minutes we crawled up some steep embankment. Waded through a sea of spider webs. Got hit upside the head by a bunch of branches (from the famed sweet gum trees, I assume), and ended up in a leafy clearing that looked ripe for a bunch of crazy-ass militia people to come storming out of and killing us. Then the path just ended. I tried not to panic. Nothing just ends. Not even bad relationships. So we rooted around looking for where the path might pick back up. Now for all of you sitting there looking perplexed and wondering out loud why we didn’t just turn around and walk back out the way we came in, how do you think scary movies are made? You have to ignore the obvious answer or the story would be over in ten minutes.

After a couple half joking “where do we go from here, Pocahontas?” we saw the sandy trail on the other side of the trees. Surely we would be back at the visitor’s center in no time. As we trudged along, a thought, that I had been trying to suppress, broke free: We are lost! When I shared this little tidbit with my Indian Scout she immediately shot me down. According to Little Know It All Feather, “you can’t really get lost in a preserve.” It seems that because the Nature Conservancy oversees the woods that we were trudging around in this shielded us from getting lost in the over 420 acre maritime forest (one of three in the world).

Anyone want to guess what she got on the logic portion of the GRE?

I took a big breath and kept walking. After about ten more minutes we came upon a trail marker. The markers are used as sign post to let hikers know where they are on the trail and provide some fascinating fact about the spot that they are standing on. Sweet Gum Trail allegedly has 8 markers. The fascinating and concerning fact about this marker was that it had a number one on it. This should be impossible since we had been walking long enough that we should have seen at least five of these markers already. But not to be deterred or convinced we were lost - Ms. Adventure continued on. By the time we got to marker five I was convince we weren’t even on the Sweet Gum Trail anymore and started to envision what the evening news was going to say about us. Two Washington, DC black girls went missing at 8:30am at Nags Head Woods Preserve. One is believed to be wearing a cute hat. By the time CNN picked up the story, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper would be rattling off the previous years statistics of the number of people who got lost in nature preserves, and questioning the authenticity of the Lumbee tribe.

At marker eight we saw a set of man-made steps that seemed to come out of nowhere. They were anachronistic to say the least, but we climbed them. Convinced that the visitor’s center would be at the top. It wasn’t. What was at the top was a sandy trail. The SAME sandy trail that we saw back at marker one. I had to resist the urge not to push Ms. Adventure back down the stairs. To her credit, she never caved in to me whining that we were lost. This of course annoyed me more.

By the time we got to another fork in the road, and I was sweating like a lost pig, I had had enough. I was not taking another step until she could guarantee that around the bend was the parking lot and our air condition equipped car. With a straight face she suggested that she could leave me there and hopefully come back when she found the visitor's center. The Jedi Mind Trick worked. I kept walking.

A couple of minutes later, like an oasis in the desert, the visitor’s center appeared through the tree line. I damn near ran over Ms. Adventure to get to the car. I ignored the sound of her laughter as I plopped down in the front seat and jacked up the air. She laughed even harder when she realized I was not talking to her.

What was supposed to be a twenty minute hike turned into 70 plus minutes of sheer terror! Okay, I might be overstating just a tad, but she better count herself lucky that I don't believe in violence.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Yoga and Writing

2008-07-20T14:30:00.006-04:00

Learning Yoga has been hard for me. As a tall, big woman I don't find it easy to manage my body in all those frickin' poses that seems to be a part of this yoga thing! This morning during yoga class, I was reminded of the level of difficulty. As I was attempting to switch out of a diving dolphin (designed to strengthen your core)I actually fell over. No, not stumbled, or gently tripped. FELL OVER! Right before I hit the wood floor (with the loudest thud ever heard by man), I thought to myself -this is my last class!' Thankfully, no one laughed and everyone seemed to keep their eyes on their own pose. The instructor gently gave me some tips on how to "create a stronger foundation" and continued on like I hadn't just made it crystal clear why some people should never step foot into a yoga studio.

Toward the end of the class the instructor gave us a series of complicated instructions that took us through a triangle pose ending with a one-legged pose. Her objective, for most of the class, was to get us to be mindful how light we could make our bodies if we just connected to it and focused our energies on making it do what we wanted it to. As I stood there with sweat pouring down my back, I distinctly remember thinking this chick is full of shit! But because I have home training, I decided it was rude to walk out so close to the end of the class and I complied.

Surprisingly, before it was all over, I did find my leg "lightly gliding" up into the one-legged pose. I was so pleased with myself that I couldn't hide the big smile that spread across my face. That one little accomplishment made the entire 75 minutes class a success for me.

During the closing meditation it crossed my mind how similar yoga and writing is in my life. Both activities I've entered into with complete free will. Shouldn't that make them easier than they are?

Namaste,
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

A Place to Live - Amazing Documentary!

2008-07-15T19:20:00.006-04:00

I've been in LA for the last week and boy is my head full(more on that in tomorrow's blog). One of the things I'm out here doing is supporting my friend Carolyn Coal whose documentary A Place to Live premiered this week, to a sold out crowd, at the
26th Annual Outfest Film Festival. The documentary follows 7 individuals as they attempt to secure a home in Triangle Square, Hollywood, the nation's first affordable housing project for LGBT seniors. This film will take you through a roller coaster of emotions. I pride myself on not being a big crier but even I bawled like a baby. For those in the LA area, Outfest has added a second showing of the documentary: Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 12:00 noon at the Regency Fairfax Theatre. If you are not in the LA area I'm sure the film will also make appearances in other film festivals around the country. For more info check out the website www.aplacetolivemovie.com and the trailer below.

The Tao of Will Smith

2008-07-07T01:59:00.003-04:00

I've always been a moderate fan of Will Smith. Definitely dug him during his Fresh Prince (of Bel Air) days and I've seen a good number of his feature films since he's become a major movie star. Went to see "Hancock" this weekend - I give it a C. Entertaining, but too many "logic holes" that kept me picking the story apart a full day after I saw it.

After seeing the movie (not because of its quality), I started to think how has this black man become an INTERNATIONAL movie star. That's what he is considered. Any article or interview done on him, the fact that he "translates" all over the world will be discussed. So how does that happen? I've heard on more than a few occasions that films starring black folks just don't do that great beyond North America. The quest for the answer led me through this extensive information portal that landed me on youtube. I came across a few interviews with the international movie star himself, where he specifically talks about the translation issue.

His success formula come down to two things: research and hard work. When he started his transition to film, Will and his manager looked at the top ten all time grossing films and they discovered they were all action films. Action films with special effects. Action films with special effects and monsters. Action films with special effects and a love story. So Will decided that is what he would specialize in - action films (with any of those variations). This twelve year specialization now allows him to do any film that he wants (Hitch, Ali, Pursuit of Happyness) and because of his film choices he is by far the most bankable star on the planet. He says in Hollywood it is all about can you make the powers-that-be money. They don't care about your race as long as they get a return on their investment.

Will's stance on hard work is equally straightforward. For him, if he wants something he simply goes after it. He puts all his energy, focus and time on achieving his desired goal. He acknowledges that it seems like a pretty simple premise, but he says a lot of folks that he has seen come up short in his business is because they stopped short of giving it all they had. In the end someone else swoops in and takes that plum role or project. In being clear about his work ethic he says he never spends time "getting ready" because he is "always ready." He is always doing his homework and he is watching the trends as it pertains to his business. He freely admits he is a workaholic and more than has something to show for it.

After spending a couple hours on this informal research project I couldn't help but reflect on where I stood as it relates to Will's success formula. The hard work was definitely in place. I know how to log in the hours necessary to pull off a myriad of miracle projects. But the research piece has to get stronger. I need to feel more comfortable about knowing what I know. Where I come up short is not giving myself enough time to do the exhaustive research (not counting this pop culture moment)and applying it.

Hmmm, all this from a two hour, relatively okay movie. I guess lessons can come from all kinds of unexpected places.

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Right On!

2008-06-27T09:42:00.003-04:00

I guess the Universe got tired of my whining.
I just received word from the editor at Right On! magazine that Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta! will be highlighted in their October edition (will hit the newsstands in early September). YIPPEE!

Until Later!
Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com

Blockage

2008-06-23T01:07:00.009-04:00

No, I am not talking about the kind that has you running for a laxative or scheduling a high colonic (but a good metaphor is in there somewhere). I am talking about the kind of blockage that stops you from producing as an artist.

Over the last 6 weeks I've been on treadmill to nowhere or at least that's what it feels like. I've had tons of projects on my plate, but more than a few haven't gone exactly as I planned. The screenplay I was hired to write and that was slated to go into production this summer has stalled out, the comedy script I'm trying to write, in preparation for a prestigous fellowship, is feeling terribly unfunny, and I've sent out dozens of review copies of the most recent anthology and have not heard a peep back from any of the reviewers.

With all this lack of movement, I've gotten into this serious funk. I can't even keep up with my obligation to this blog. Mostly I've been questioning what the hell am I doing. Who told me I could be a screenwriter, an editor, a publisher, a poet, or an activist? All the things I love to do, but all of them feel like a chore right now.

I've been journaling about my anemic artist state for weeks, but it wasn't until I picked up my old copy of the Artist's Way this afternoon was I able to name what is going on with me. FEAR! Fear is the undoing of many an artist - most more talented than me. After reading through a couple of chapters I'm slowly coming to terms with what has been going on.

I'm in this stage of my artist's life where more than a few people have deemed me "good". Good enough to pay me for a product, good enough to book me for a gig, or good enought to pitch me an idea. Somewhere along the way "good" has been translated to "expectation" and that is freakin' me the hell out. What if they don't like what I've written and want their money back? What if they hate my reading or performance? What if they tell other people that I'm not that talented and they believe them. "What if" is driving me around the bend. In some ways it has frozen me - allowing the self-doubt to burrow deeper.

A lot of the things that I used to do, when there was no expectation, suddenly feel foreign and awkward. I'm feeling very self-aware - which in this case is not a good thing. I normally don't publicly write about my artistic struggles, but one of the things that The Artist's Way recommends is to speak the truth and free yourself of the myths that you are burdening yourself with. So I figured a public unburdening would do me good. My myth - that I must be perfect at everything I do - is stopping me from getting on with my current projects and discovering new projects.

What I like about The Artist's Way is that it is an action guide. Every chapter requires you to do something. Actually, a bunch of somethings. I read and completed The Artist's Way back in 2001 and one of the habits I've held on to are the morning pages. I journal every day! Journaling helps to get things out of your head and also helps you record patterns and trends. I took the time to read a couple of my journals this weekend and I discovered something very interesting - I've been on the way to an "artist crisis" for more than a few months now. Because I don't make a habit of reading my journals (when I'm finished with one I just stack it on my altar with the others and move on to another one)I wasn't able to see this coming. I've been lamenting in various ways that I feel like I need to make a major decision about how I am using my time (to create) and I've not been able to come up with a suitable solution. Mostly I've been trying to avoid the discomfort associated with a solution, but you can't hide from the inevitable and the Universe will keep bring "it" back to your attention.

I guess the only real way to free myself from this current state is to finally make that damn decision.

Stay tuned!

Michelle
www.girlchildpress.com