See you in 2008!

Our blog is on hiatus as we go through a relocation and the holiday season.

Look for us the first week of January as we gear up for an exciting new year of elastic waistband stretching, new columns and books, and speaking tours on the joys of getting comfortable in our own skins.

Have a great holiday season!
Christee

November Recap

In case you missed my virtual book tour in November, please visit the following great blogs to witness how one person can embarrass herself over and over in a single month's time...

It was a tour for my book, THREE FEET UNDER: Journal of a Midlife Crisis!

We talked about great stuff like:

• National Novel Writing Month
• Becoming an overnight success ... in only 48 years
• An author's life ... or How to live on $4 a day
• Why cheesecake can be a good substitute for Prozac
• Promotional ideas for writers ... or 101 uses for a chicken suit
• How to use your exercise bike ... as a coat rack
• Finding the humor in everyday life ... or 102 uses for a rubber chicken
• & various other topics that should not be discussed in polite society...

Here are the sites I visited:

• Thursday Nov 1 http://inspiredauthor.com/v3/current-events-and-your-book-promotion-0
• Friday Nov 2 http://www.judgebookbycover.blogspot.com/
• Tuesday Nov 6 http://blog.myspace.com/wigglewot
• Wednesday Nov 7 http://www.startatbeginning.blogspot.com/
• Friday Nov 9 http://detailwithnikkileigh.blogspot.com/
• Monday Nov 12 http://memawriter.gather.com
• Tuesday Nov 13 http://elenadorothybowmansbooks.blogspot.com/
• Wednesday Nov 14 http://mizging.blogspot.com/
• Thursday Nov 15 http://www.inspiredauthor.com/v3/author-promotional-interviews
• Monday Nov 19 http://marjo-mumswritings.blogspot.com/
• Tuesday Nov 20 http: http://elasticwaistbands.blogspot.com/
• Wednesday Nov 21 http://yvonneperry.blogspot.com
• Monday Nov 26 http://pamelakkinney.blogspot.com/
• Wednesday Nov 28 http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/
• Thursday Nov 29 http://shaunaroberts.blogspot.com/
• Friday Nov 30 http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
  

Thanks to everyone who visited with me!
Christee & her pet rubber chicken, Elvis

NaNoWriMo Shirts

Congratulations to all the members of my region of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org). Whether you reached 50k or not, you were brave (aka insane) enough to take on the challenge and that's pretty darn incredible.

Below are the two logos for our Louisiana Elsewhere Region. If you would like a jpg file sent to you so you can create your own shirt, mug, or whatever, please email me and I will send the file to you. There are a number of sites where you can do this -- I usually use cafepress.com. By having the logo, you can decide for yourself what kind of shirt you want to put it on.

Thanks for being a wonderful region!! See you in November 2008! Or April if you decide to join us for ScriptFrenzy!

The Book Tour Continues!

Thanks to my hosts for this week on the virtual book tour! If you'd like to visit the sites I've been hosted on, go to my October post archive with the tour schedule and click on any of the sites. Well, that is, if you're that much of a glutton for punishment.

And then, you might want to consider professional help. But read the interviews first...

This week:

Pamela Kinney was kind enough to allow me to visit both her Blogspot and her My Space sites. You can read the interview from Monday Nov 26 at

http://pamelakkinney.blogspot.com/

Cool site that I'll be visiting on Wednesday is:

http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/

And on Thursday Nov 29, I get to visit with an old friend I met through SOLA writers' group in New Orleans. She's in California now and we miss her, but we get to keep up with Shauna on her Blogspot site:
http://shaunaroberts.blogspot.com/

Friday, we'll end up the book tour with a visit to:

http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/

Too much fun. Too much insanity. Too much coffee. What can I say?

Christee & Elvis, the rubber chicken

The Midlife Top Ten List

Booksigning Saturday

If you're in the Baton Rouge area, come visit with me at B. Dalton in the Mall of Louisiana on Saturday, November 24th from 11 a.m. until 2 or so... They usually have a tough time getting me out of the building. Fun place. Lots of traffic.

And it will be Not-so-Black Saturday? I think there needs to be some new color for Black Friday. That just sounds so negative. I expect the stock market to crash or something.

Happy Chartreuse Friday!

Christee

Interviewing yourself is not as easy as it sounds...

As a part of my November virtual book tour, I thought I would try to interview myself today. I have enough personality splits that I thought this should be rather easy to accomplish.

However, in the middle of preparing for the interview, my humility and my ego got into a fight. Then my introverted alter-ego joined in and said that the idea of talking about myself was embarrassing. And once my A.D.H.D. side jumped in to say that it was bored, a slap-fight broke out.

This is the stageplay that takes place each day in my head. Is it a wonder that I write to get it all out???

So, once we all got calmed down, we agreed that perhaps the best interview would be the concepts that are at the basis of this whole Elastic Waistbands movement.

The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book,

In Celebration of Elastic Waistbands.

I am a proud member of the Elastic Waistbands Society.

Actually, the society doesn’t exist yet, but I’m working on it. Why am I trying to start this group? I’m so glad you asked.

I am starting the Elastic Waistbands Society because I’ve realized that it is important to be healthy, but it’s also important to give ourselves a little leeway for the occasional times when other things take priority. Okay, yes, I’m living in the fat end of my closet right now, but it’s a visit, not a permanent address.

All of this made me realize that we need to give ourselves permission not to be perfect all the time … and nothing does that more than elastic waistbands. They are the magic tools that allow us to be size 12, when truly a size 14 would be more appropriate. They are the tools that show us that items can be stretched as needed and then happily return to their lovely original size. And elastic allows us to make full use of our investments at all-you-can-eat buffets.

What else do I, as the founding member of the Elastic Waistband Society, believe?

I believe…

• That a single waist size is the sign of a stagnant mind.

• That, if God had wanted me to stay one size, he wouldn’t have invented elastic.

• That dark chocolate is a necessary ingredient to a balanced life.

• That seeing my feet can be done with a mirror.

• That treadmills make excellent drying racks for sweaters.

• That exercise has caused more injuries than my couch.

• That Thomas Hancock, the inventor of elastic is the most brilliant person since Alexander Graham Bell and his invention of the long distance phone bill. And I believe that Hancock’s birthday should be made a national holiday. (A side note here: He originally named the machine that created elastic the “pickle” so no one would know what it was. Brilliant, I tell you, brilliant…)

• That laughing at myself is an effective exercise.

• That being comfortable in my own skin is more important than being comfortable in a size 6.

• That supersizing can be just as much fun for me as it is for my drive-thru order.

• That a big number on the bathroom scale is a temporary condition, but a big heart is forever.

• That airbrushed model’s figures are not good goals until we also have airbrushed lenses on our glasses.

• That, if a jolly belly is good enough for Santa, who am I to knock it?

• That elastic is the perfect invention. It shows flexibility, a willingness to grow or tighten up as needed, and that giving myself a little breathing space is not necessarily a bad thing.

So there you have it. I’m proud. I’m strong. And I’m wearing elastic. Bring on the Christmas dinner…

Mrs. Claus in the Christmas Parade

I survived the Christmas Parade!!

Found some fun new friends!

Lost an old friend -- my voice...

And my husband is really enjoying the peace and quiet... I won't let him get used to that!!

Note to self: Spraying that white color on hair is just plain nasty. I think I cracked my hair...

I'm married to Santa Claus??

Under the heading of "How do I get myself into these these things?", I am going to be Mrs. Claus at the Mall of Cortana in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Don't ask me how this happened. I remember vaguely there was a mention of free chocolate chip cookies and after that some other part of my brain took over.

So, tomorrow, November 17th, I'll be in the Cortana Christmas Parade, and a couple of Saturdays in December I'll be doing story time with kids in the mall. If you're in the area, please feel free to come point and laugh.

Mrs. Christee Claus

I love this woman's blog!

Be sure to visit Ginger Simpsons's blog

http://mizging.blogspot.com/

and check out my interview today.

I just love this woman. The more I read about her on her blog, the more I think "separated at birth". This, of course, could be construed as an insult by Ginger, who is probably a very normal person...

Stop by, say hi, and get a laugh or two for the day...

Come visit!

The virtual book tour continues!

Today I'm visiting http://elenadorothybowmansbooks.blogspot.com/

In today's talk, we discuss really deep things about like:

• The time when a college boy I thought was flirting with me called me ma'am. I was so heartbroken. I thought I was going to be “Mrs. Robinson” in The Graduate. Instead I was Mrs. Kravitz in Bewitched.


• Ideas of how a person with the attention span of an over-caffeinated gnat can keep from getting distracted long enough to write a book.

• The ABCs of communication skills. Beats me how something useful actually sneaked into the interview.
  

Drop by and let's visit!

Christee & her pet rubber chicken, Elvis

The book tour continues!

Join me for another week on the virtual book tour,

kicking off on Monday, November 12th at

http://memawriter.gather.com

We'll talk about the joys of writing, elastic waistbands,

book promotion, and National Novel Writing Month.

And somewhere in between all of that,

I might accidentally say something interesting

and you certainly don't want to miss

that rare event!!

Join Me This Friday, November 9, 2007

Join me this Friday, November 9th,

as I continue humiliating myself publicly

on my virtual book tour.

Friday I'll be visiting

http://detailwithnikkileigh.blogspot.com/

Come by and visit with us!

• We'll be talking about my secret to writing a great novel (which is basically to look at what I do and do the opposite).
• We'll discuss the way to become an overnight success (in only 48 years).
• We'll talk about an activity that over 70 thousands writers worldwide are doing this month ... besides starving, begging for spare change, and surfing the internet instead of typing.
• We'll discover how writing can replace your psychiatrist.
• And we'll talk about how to use a full body chicken suit to achieve fame and a restraining order.

Intrigued? Great! We'll see you Friday on the blog tour!

Christee

Tuesday Nov 6 Virtual Book Tour Site

Today, Tuesday Nov 6, I am graciously being hosted by the site

http://blog.myspace.com/wigglewot

on my Virtual Book Tour.

It's a chance for you to discover the background of my book, hear some of my pitiful insights into the publishing world and how I became an Overnight Success in only 48 years, and to talk about how to survive on 45 cents and 3 box tops a day...

Come by, take off your shoes, sit for a while ... wait, what is that smell?

Okay, put your shoes back on... But sit for a while. Leave a comment too!

Christee

Virtual Book Tour

Hope you'll join me for my virtual book tour in November!

I'll be talking about:

• My book, THREE FEET UNDER: Journal of a Midlife Crisis
• National Novel Writing Month
• Becoming an overnight success ... in only 48 years
• An author's life ... or How to live on $4 a day
• Why cheesecake can be a good substitute for Prozac
• Promotional ideas for writers ... or 101 uses for a chicken suit
• How to use your exercise bike ... as a coat rack
• Finding the humor in everyday life ... or 102 uses for a rubber chicken
• & anything else we can think of!!

I'll be visiting the following great websites:

• Thursday Nov 1
  http://inspiredauthor.com/v3/current-events-and-your-book-promotion-0
• Friday Nov 2
  http://www.judgebookbycover.blogspot.com/
• Tuesday Nov 6
  http://blog.myspace.com/wigglewot
• Wednesday Nov 7
  http://www.startatbeginning.blogspot.com/
• Friday Nov 9
  http://detailwithnikkileigh.blogspot.com/
• Monday Nov 12
  http://memawriter.gather.com
• Tuesday Nov 13
  http://elenadorothybowmansbooks.blogspot.com/
• Wednesday Nov 14
• http://mizging.blogspot.com/
• Thursday Nov 15
  http://www.inspiredauthor.com/v3/author-promotional-interviews
• Monday Nov 19
  http://marjo-mumswritings.blogspot.com/
• Tuesday Nov 20
  http: http://elasticwaistbands.blogspot.com/
• Wednesday Nov 21
  http://yvonneperry.blogspot.com
• Monday Nov 26
  http://pamelakkinney.blogspot.com/
• Wednesday Nov 28
  http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/
• Thursday Nov 29
• http://shaunaroberts.blogspot.com/
• Friday Nov 30
• http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com

Join me for some laughs ... Ask some questions ... Make some comments ...

Hope to see you there!

Christee & her pet rubber chicken, Elvis

Virtual Book Tour

In November I'll be on a virtual book tour, visiting blogs and talking about Elastic Waistbands, getting published, being an overnight success in only 48 years, and how to entertain people in the unemployment line!

If you'd like me to visit your blog for interviews and question & answer sessions, please post here and we'll schedule a visit!

And remember, if God had intended for us to stay one size, he wouldn't have invented elastic...

Is this blog for you?


Here are a few questions to help you decide if you're a member of the Elastic Waistbands Society.

• Do you use your exercise bike as a coat rack?

• Do you count on the slimming effect of wearing black so much that people often ask if you’re headed to a funeral?

• Have you ever spent an afternoon trying to look “cool” as you search for your car in the mall parking lot?

• Do you believe that cheesecake and Prozac share many of the same healing qualities?

• When a form asks for your hair color, do you write Number 186?

• Have you gotten to that point in life where you realize you’re being nice to people just to be sure you’ve got a crowd at your funeral?

• Do you think that The Night of the Living Dead is a movie about your job?

• Have you ever been called “ma’am” by a young man whom you think is “checking you out”?
  
  
  Scoring: If you took the time to read this quiz, you're one of us -- a member of the Elastic Waistbands Society!
  

And that’s okay. Because we’re all in this together…

Adapted from the book, THREE FEET UNDER: Journal of a Midlife Crisis by Christee Gabour Atwood.