Beautifully written by her husband Art Ortenberg, Liz Claiborne: The Legend, The Woman is the story of Liz Claiborne–the building of her iconic company, her vast talents in clothing the emerging market of women entering the work force, her years of adventure after leaving the company, the conservation work she did for decades, and the nobility and dignity of her battle with cancer.  It is also a powerful and poignant love story.

In 1976 Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg created Liz Claiborne, Inc., one of the most well-known fashion companies in the world and the first Fortune 500 Company headed by a woman.  Liz had anticipated and responded to a lasting economic and cultural change in the America of the 1980s, when significant numbers of women entered the workplace and reached professional heights previously denied to them. Her clothes were professional looking and comfortable without dressing a woman up in a man’s clothing. As her business partner and soul-mate, Art Ortenberg was dedicated to doing whatever he could to assure that her vision was realized.

It was the enormous success of the company they built together that enabled Liz and Art when they departed Liz Claiborne, Inc. in 1989 to afford the next decade of adventuresome, cancer-free years. Liz Claiborne: The Legend, The Woman tells of their many travels around the world together and their dedication to the conservation of nature through The Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation.  The story is also a painstakingly detailed account of Liz’s diagnosis of peritoneal carcinoma in 1998 and her nine-year battle against an extremely rare disease that attacked the lining of her stomach.  Art courageously tells the story of how Liz came to terms with her disease, a disease she was determined to outlive, and how it inspired her and those who knew her well to live fuller, more productive lives.

LIZ Claiborne: The Legend, The Woman does not so much celebrate Liz Claiborne the designer and entrepreneur, but rather Liz the woman. “Liz left us more than her work,” Art concludes, “perhaps more than the consequences of her work; she left us herself. The making of that self, and the good she did for others, is the story I tell.”

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Just after midnight in a small town in Wisconsin, eight women begin walking together down a rural highway. Career women, housewives, mothers, divorcées, and one ex-prom queen, they are close friends who have been meeting every Thursday night for years, sharing food, wine, and their deepest secrets. But on this particular Thursday, Susan, Alice, Chris, Sandy, Gail, Mary, Joanne, and Janice decide to disappear from their own lives.

Their spontaneous pilgrimage attracts national attention and inspires other women from all across the country. As the miles fall away and the women forge ahead on their backroads odyssey — leaving small miracles in their wake–each of their histories unfolds, tales of shattered dreams and unexpected renewal, of thwarted love affairs and precious second chances. In luminous, heartwarming prose, Kris Radish deftly interweaves the women’s intimate confessions into the story of their brave, history-making walk.

Carrie’s Conversation with Kris Radish

Carrie:  What inspired you to write THE ELEGANT GATHERING OF WHITE SNOWS?
Kris:  I was a full-time journalist and had written two non-fiction books. It was time.  I had worlds of experience inside of me from my life’s work and wanted a story that was passionate, inspiring, and very real. So I asked the universe to bring me a story.  And BAM! I was reading the newspaper and there was a story about a group of women who were inspired one night to go on a walking pilgrimage.  The story I wrote absolutely flew into my heart.

Carrie:  In general, how does an idea for a book come to you ~ Does it perk slowly in your mind or does it come in a flash?
Kris: It depends.  Usually the idea drops inside of me like a hot brick and I run screaming into my office.  I’m serious! (Well, not always!)  Then it fans out from there and once the main character has a face and voice….there is no stopping me.  Really good red wine helps also!!

Carrie:  Give us an idea of the plot without giving too much away?
Kris: A group of women, all friends, all different, meet weekly to talk and share lives—each one harboring a secret, loss, love, desire, ache. When one woman shares a very serious secret the women spontaneously decide to walk out of their lives and when they do that - walking, sharing, touching other lives - miracles abound.  It is a story of friendship, love, loss, and finally liberation.

Carrie:  What is the primary message you’d like your readers to take away from THE ELEGANT GATHERING OF WHITE SNOWS?
Kris: To live, laugh, and love mightily.  To let go - sometimes we can hold onto things, events, people so tightly that we are frozen in place and we forget to move forward. There are many things and emotions going on in this book.  I think just like the women walkers - each reader will take away something he or she needs.

Carrie:  What is your favorite scene in THE ELEGANT GATHERING OF WHITE SNOWS? Why?
Kris: This is a very hard question. This is my first novel and will always have a special place in my heart. I love the older woman, I love the exchange with the daughter, I love the beginning…!!!! My favorite scene is the entire book!!!

Carrie:  What was the most difficult scene to write? Why?
Kris: Probably the scene where the woman was going to throw herself in front of the train.  I remember writing this as if it were yesterday.  I was in a very, very tough place in my own life and this part of the book, where the title is revealed, is filled with great emotion.  I also know someone who had been in this position - don’t want to give it all away - so it was very real for me.

Carrie:  Which character do you identify with the most in THE ELEGANT GATHERING OF WHITE SNOWS? How much of yourself did you put into these characters and did you realize you showed up in the book? If so, while you were writing or only afterwards upon review?
Kris: When the book came out my daughter, Rachel, was in middle school and I was still working as a full-time journalist, writing every spare moment, and I was a single mother.  Rachel called me one  day after school and had just finished the book.  She said, “Mom, I figured it out!  There is a little bit of you in each character!”  She was correct.  Little pieces everywhere.

Carrie:  What are you reading right now?
Kris: I am like a reading nut. I am reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo, Lit by Mary Karr and the latest Patricia Cornwell novel, The Scarpetta Factor.  I know - too many but if I don’t have like five books going and three lined up I get shaky.

Carrie:  What authors, books, or ideas have influenced your writing?
Kris: Alice Munro - greatest living author….I kiss her feet.  I once had a private interview with Eudora Welty - I am still not over it - tremendous influence on me and the world. I also love and write poetry…Mary Oliver, Audre Lorde….and my biggest influence - NANCY DREW!!!!!!

Carrie:  What is your go-to book–that one you’ve read more than once, possibly over-and-over? OR Who is your go-to author?
Kris: Hardly ever read a book twice - there are too many to read….but Alice Munro…I keep her books close to me when I work and sleep. Maybe some of the ink will leak into my brain!!!!

Carrie:  Can you offer a glimpse into your “real life” and share with us a bit of your personal life—Outside of writing, what’s important to you?
Kris: My two children and my partner are the center of my life.  The thing that matters most to me is to always be a good mother…it is the hardest and most wonderful thing I have ever done.  I keep very close tabs on my aging parents and am going home in two weeks to take care of my dad so my mother can get a break.  I absolutely love to be active….when I am not writing which is pretty much every day of my life.  I go to the gym, do weights, hike a lot, kayak, canoe, love to golf, ride my bike, have a motorcycle license, love the theater and love to try something new each year.  This year it’s learning how to navigate a boat in the ocean and I am taking a boating course!  I remain a newspaper junkie and read three a day.  I adore good wine and am a vegetarian.  I love to sing and make people laugh. Life is just an adventure to me and I can’t wait to jump on it and ride it every single morning.

Carrie:  Tell us something surprising about you and/or something very few people know about you.
Kris: Let’s see…the tattoos?  I love to bake? I was a varsity fencer in college? I could go on…..Was once totally into needlepoint.  Love to sketch and draw little pencil thingbes….on and on and on…!!!

Carrie:  What has been one of your biggest struggles and/or successes (professional/personal) and what have you learned from it?
Kris: Without a doubt - patience!  Faster, more, hurry! I have really paid my dues in this business….which is very,very hard, but I have never given up and I have been in some pretty low places. Following your passion is terribly important and a main message in all of my work..even if you have to wait 35 years for it…!!

Carrie:  Have you ever had a nickname? Tell us about it.
Kris: I high school my friends called me Radass…!!! Mostly just Radish.  It’s still shocking when someone says, “Hi, Kris!”

Carrie:  Who is your biggest fan?
Kris: See, this is hard for me.  I see myself as Radish, you know?  I have tons of fans but I see them as friends and I see myself, even though I get stopped in airports and stuff, as Kris Radish, the woman who writes books. So - shoot…..you know????

Carrie:  What was the best advice you’ve ever received—do you follow it?
Kris: When I was in journalism school I had a wonderful professor who really was the first teacher who ever inspired and believed in me.  When I thought I was there - he pushed me harder and much further. “You’re close,” I remember him saying, “but I  know you can do better.” He was correct and I think about what he said every single time I sit down to right.  Mr. Jozwiak - you are gone but still here with me!

Carrie:  What is your favorite literary turn-of-phrase / quote / word picture?
Kris: How about “free beer”!!!

Carrie:  What did you learn about yourself while writing this book that you may not have expected?
Kris: That it was okay to transfer my personal emotions and insights into a novel and also this was my first novel and there were so many lessons!  The story of how it even came to be could be a book itself…..nothing has ever been easy, but I have to say, when I look back, it was worth every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears.

Carrie:  What’s next for you ~ Anything else you’d like to offer?
Kris: I’ll be singing in Vegas! No….just kidding.  My seventh novel, Hearts on a String, comes out in June.  I love it!!  And I am finishing the eighth, Tuesday Night Miracles, working on two works of non-fictions, and gathering notes for my tenth novel.  I have lots going on….never a dull moment in Radishland!!!!!

Carrie:  How do readers get in touch with you? Website Address? Email?
Kris: I have a wonderful website: www.krisradish.com.  I update it a lot and blog and share tons of stuff about my life - even poems.  I also answer all of my emails.  My work touches women in a way that often changes their lives and I honor that by responding personally.  I feel totally honored each time I get an email and a personal note….actually, the emails and notes will be a book some day!!!!

To Enter to Win a Copy of The Elegant Gathering of White Snows:

• Leave a Comment below sharing a story about the importance of your friendship(s)
• U.S. & Canada residents only; No P.O. Boxes, please
• Deadline: March 15th, 2010 ~ midnight, EST

PLEASE check out my friend, Debba Haupert’s website www.GIRLFRIENDOLOGY.com  for a book club discussion on THE ELEGANT GATHERING OF WHITE SNOWS on March 1^st Girlfriendology is an amazing site that inspires women and female friendships and I encourage you to subscribe to the feed & newsletter, so you don’t miss a thing. AWESOME!!

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese, with terrible consequences for both of them, and for members of their fragile community who will betray each other in the darkest days of the war.

Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the colony’s heady social life. She soon begins an affair, only to discover that her lover’s enigmatic demeanor hides a devastating past. As the threads of this spellbinding novel intertwine and converge, a landscape of impossible choices emerges—between love and safety, courage and survival, the present and, above all, the past.

Carrie’s Conversation with Janice:

Carrie:  In general, how does an idea for a book come to you ~ does it perk slowly in your mind or does it come in a flash?
Janice: Percolation is definitely my process.  Sometimes, I feel like I am waiting for the story to rise up from the depths of my subconscious.  It can be very frustrating because I don’t feel like there’s a lot I can do to hurry the process along, that I’m not the driver of the process—that it is my subconscious.  I hear of writers who have their books mapped out before they start writing, and I cannot imagine being able to do that.  I wish I could.  It would make my life a lot easier. So I wait, and when something comes along, a sentence, an image, a particular word, and it resonates with me, I know that it has come to drive the story forward.  In this way, I accumulate the story.

Carrie:  Give us an idea of the plot/subject without giving too much away.
Janice: The Piano Teacher is a historical novel set in WWII Hong Kong about an Englishman and the affairs he has with two very different women before and after the war.

Carrie:  What is the primary message you’d like your readers to take away from this book?
Janice: I don’t write with a message in mind, when I’m in process but, upon reflection (and having been asked this question many times), I think that the book might make you think about the decisions one makes in excruciating times and how those decisions may come to define you in a way that is not at all characteristic with who one is in more normal times.

Carrie:  What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
Janice: I like the second chapter, when we are introduced to Trudy Liang and the world she lives in.  I really hope that readers are thrust into the world of privileged colonial society and can breathe the perfumed air, the clink of heavy silverware, taste the wine.

Carrie:  What was the most difficult scene to write? Why?
Janice: Which character do you identify with the most in your book? How much of yourself did you put into these characters and did you realize you showed up in the book? If so, while you were writing or only afterwards upon review?

Carrie:  What are you reading right now?
Janice: I had read Dan Chaon’s amazing first book, Among the Missing, a collection of short stories, and realized with his third book coming out, that I had missed his first novel, You Remind of Me.  So I’m reading that, and concurrently reading Await Your Reply, his second novel.

Carrie:  What authors, books, or ideas have influenced your writing?
Janice: What is your go-to book–that one you’ve read more than once, possibly over-and-over? OR Who is your go-to author? I have read Jane Eyre over and over.  I don’t know how Bronte did it, and how her work continues to do it—provide life to a character and world that must, by now, be entirely unfamiliar to modern readers but that we still identify with so strongly.  She tapped into something universal in that book.

Carrie:  Can you offer a glimpse into your “real life” and share a bit of your personal life—Outside of writing, what’s important to you?
Janice: I have four kids under the age of 7 so my life is mostly consumed with that.  If I have any time, I try to practice yoga.  But usually I am either rounding up children or chained to my desk.

Carrie:  What did you learn about yourself while writing this book that you may not have expected?
Janice: When it came time to send the book out, I had to look at the future straight in the eye and ask myself what I would do if the book did not sell.   It was really hard.  I had spent five years working on this story and there was a distinct possibility no one would want it, or that maybe twenty people in the world would read it.  At some point, I realized that if that happened, I would put it away and write another book.  And then another, if that second one didn’t sell.  That’s when I realized it was all right.  It was a journey, and the destination could keep changing and I would be ok.  I was a writer, nonetheless.

Visit Janice’s Website ~ A bit about Janice Y. K. Lee: She was born and raised in Hong Kong and went to boarding school in the United States before attending Harvard College. A graduate of Hunter College’s MFA program and a freelance writer, Lee is a former features editor at Elle and Mirabella magazines in New York. She currently lives in Hong Kong with her husband and children.

Carrie:  What inspired you to write this book?
Emma & Nicola: For years readers would ask us what happened to the characters from our first novel, but we had kind of drawn a hazy veil over them in our minds. We pictured a vague happy sunset for Nan, but didn’t let ourselves think about the little boy, Grayer, too much because we weren’t optimistic about his chances.  Then last Spring we had a series of A-ha moments back-to-back and before we knew it a story had unspooled before us.  We were inspired by articles we read about New York City private schools being taken over by parents who wanted to buy their children a world without consequences.  Then we read about the Astor trial and something about a son turning his father in for embezzling from his mother really struck us.  Of course the Madoff story was rife with gripping family dynamics, from the sons turning in their father to the father/son accounting firm that had enabled the fraud in the first place.  It all got our minds churning about pulling back to look at the larger societal impact of the Upper East Side community we satirized in the first book.

Carrie:  In general, how does an idea for a book come to you ~ does it perk slowly in your mind or does it come in a flash?
Emma & Nicola: We have lunch together every day before we start working and we chew over the topics of the day, paying special attention to angles of stories that aren’t being addressed. For example in 2000 we were obsessed that endless stories were running in New York City media about how hard it was for the newly rich to find decent household help, but the help was never interviewed.  So if there’s a side of the story that is being underserved we’ll puzzle over that.  Then we have a-ha moments when one of us will crystallize one of these topics we’ve been mulling over into a fictional story.  Then Nicki gets teary and the hair on Emma’s neck stands on end and we know we’ve found our next book.

Carrie:  Give us an idea of the plot/subject without giving too much away.
Emma & Nicola: In Nanny Returns we are revisiting ALL the characters from the Diaries twelve years later and re-embroiling Nan back in the lives of the Xes.

Carrie:  What is the primary message you’d like your readers to take away from this book?
Emma & Nicola: Money can’t buy it.

Carrie: What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
Emma & Nicola: I think we have two.  The first is when Nan re-encounters Grayer after all these years.  The second is when she re-encounters Mrs. X.  They were wildly intimidating, but ultimately incredibly fun scenes to write.

Carrie:  What was the most difficult scene to write? Why?
Emma & Nicola: Endings are ALWAYS hard.  But in this case it was really five hundred pages (including the first novel) and ten years in the making and we had to make sure that if we asked readers to come along for another installment that this was a satisfying conclusion to the story we started with the first novel.

Carrie:  What are you reading right now?
Emma & Nicola: We are both reading Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson right now, which we love.  Nicki just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife, which was transporting.  And Emma just finished Brideshead Revisited.  We like sweeping stories that take place in beautiful places.  That said, Nicki also just squeezed in The Road, which was beautiful, if apocalyptic.

Carrie:  What authors, books, or ideas have influenced your writing?
Emma & Nicola: David Sedaris’ Santaland Diaries was a HUGE influence on us because it was fresh way of talking about the workplace, with a blend of biting sardonic humor and pathos that resonated with us and helped to inform the voice of Nan.

Carrie:  What was the best advice you’ve ever received—do you follow it?
Emma & Nicola: From Harvey Fierstein: “Keep your heart and ears open always—the rest is easy.”  We live by it.

Carrie:  How do readers get in touch with you?
Emma & Nicola: emmaandnicola.com and they can contact us through Facebook and Twitter!

About the Authors:
EMMA MCLAUGHLIN and NICOLA KRAUS, the authors of three New York Times bestselling novels: The Nanny Diaries, Citizen Girl, and Dedication. Aside from their ongoing collaboration on novels, they also write for magazines, and are working on a romantic comedy for Paramount Pictures. Emma and Nicola have appeared numerous times on CNN, Today, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and the View, among other major media outlets. They live and work in New York City.

NANNY RETURNS Description:

Readers first fell in love with “Nanny” in 2002’s runaway New York Times bestseller, THE NANNY DIARIES. Her wry, humorous recounting of her time as a nanny for the insanely wealthy X family—and of the bizarre world that the Xes and their privileged, powerful friends live in—instantly made her a favorite heroine of readers, who bought over two million copies of the book. In 2007, fans saw Nan’s adventures with her troublesome charge, Grayer, and her burgeoning romance with her elevator crush, Harvard Hottie, come to life on the big screen in the Nanny Diaries movie featuring Scarlett Johansson.

Now, in NANNY RETURNS (Atria Books; $25.00; On-sale: December 15, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-4165-8567-1), it’s almost ten years later, and Nan has just come back from abroad with her husband—H.H., now known just as Ryan. Mrs. X was a scary lady, but now Nan can be one too: she’s thirty-three, confident and successful, speaks three languages, and runs her own business … but when Grayer, now sixteen and more messed-up than ever, makes a drunken late-night visit to her apartment, Nan is sucked right back into the world of power, wealth, and dysfunction of the Upper East Side. Awash with guilt for “abandoning” Grayer after the Xes kicked her out of their life when he was still a little boy, Nan agrees to do a simple favor for her grown-up charge and his smart, sweet little brother, Stilton. But the Xes are in the middle of a brutal, high-profile divorce; Mr. X is consumed by money troubles and his new actress fiancée, and Mrs. X is M.I.A. and possibly faking cancer for sympathy—and soon “one little favor” snowballs into an ever-more-bizarre series of events as Nan fights to make sure that someone is taking care of Grayer and Stilton … and to win back her beloved Grayer’s fractured trust.

Meanwhile, the rest of Nan’s life starts nose-diving like the economy. Ryan is working out of the country and practically unreachable, but still putting unexpected pressure on Nan to “start a family” of their own. Their “fixer-upper” house in Harlem is infested with toxic mold and other costly little renovation surprises. And, most of all, Nan’s experiences with the first major client in her consulting business—the Board of the ultra-elite Jarndyce prep school—are turning out to be sickeningly familiar: the Board is just as unreasonable and demanding as the UES parents she used to nanny for. Teachers—and Nan—are the new hired help, picking up where the nannies left off in the war for the well-being of the children of privilege.

To enter to win a free copy of NANNY RETURNS:

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• Deadline: December 31st, 2009 ~ midnight, EST

Enter to Win a FREE Copy of Alice Sebold’s THE LOVELY BONES (Soon to be a major motion picture)

• Before Halloween Eve (10/31st) at MIDNIGHT (EDT)
  
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From Hachette’s Website:
Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. THE LOVELY BONES is such a book — a #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and for its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her — her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, THE LOVELY BONES succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

The major motion picture version of THE LOVELY BONES, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, and Saoirse Ronan is scheduled for release on December 11, 2009.

In her new book, HOW TO RULE THE WORLD FROM YOUR COUCH, Laura Day teaches you or your company how to create success in any area by using your brain in unique and compel-ling ways so that your innate intuition can propel you ahead to successful solutions. Laura’s work has helped demystify intuition and demonstrate its practical, verifiable uses in the fields of business, science, medicine, and personal growth.  Her list of clients and students includes doctors, financial investors, scientists, engineers, and celebrities.  Day has shown that 98% of success is planning and that you, therefore, have the power to transform your life.

Carrie’s Chat with Laura

Carrie:  What inspired you to write HOW TO RULE THE WORLD FROM YOUR COUCH?
Laura: Intuition is non-linear, out-of-the-blue, accurate insight. It has given me the means to have a successful life or save my hide, in my particularly self destructive phases, a thousand times. It is an ability that everyone has and accessing it can be taught easily. My students have been begging me for years to write a linear guide to the various intuitive abilities. I compromised. The beginning of every chapter gives the reader/student the true intuitive experience and then I make the text linear for the rest of the chapter. I also wanted a book that teachers, company’s and institutions could apply to their goals and projects without me. Here it is.

Carrie:  What is the primary message you’d like your readers to take away from HOW TO RULE THE WORLD FROM YOUR COUCH?
Laura: You are skilled. Whether you know it or not you have the ability to do whatever you want in your life, bring in who and what you need, and be abundant in whatever way you choose, but it takes work and discipline. Clicking your heels three times to be in Kansas only works in The Wizard of Oz. You make your own magic. Luck doesn’t exist. We put those coincidences in place and everyone can learn how to do that. No matter where you are right now in your life, how low you feel, who you are now can change in a moment. Also, we live in an interconnected universe. What does that mean on a practical level? We are aware of what is going on all around us, all around the world. We have antennae which send and receive information and each of us can receive the information we need, whether it is to make better investment choices or to prepare our children or our family for the future, build successful, globally conscious businesses or simply to have more joy in our lives. We also have a measurable, verifiable effect, even at a distance on other people and situations and we can learn to direct that effect for positive outcomes in our lives. The reality is, we often don’t see what is in our blind spot. How to Rule the World from you Couch gives you the option to remove many of your blind spots. Your subconscious will not allow you to perceive more than you can bear. This is why The Circle and Welcome to your Crisis, friends and learning to be kind to yourself will help you to see more. This is really crucial so that you can allow yourself to break through fantasy and replace it by a reality better than anything you have the capacity to imagine in the present.

Carrie:  In general, how does an idea for a book come to you ~ does it perk slowly in your mind or does it come in a flash?
Laura: The ideas for my first three books, starting with Practical Intuition, came to me when I was tested by various universities and scientists. I adapted them into teaching tools for others to use their intuition in practical ways. The Circle was my own intuition, in a flash and in an emergency, giving me the tools to reach an seemingly impossible goal. I love The Circle. Welcome to your Crisis was a combined effort between me and many of the doctors that I do non-profit work for. I felt that there a was a need for a book that helped people identify how they sabotage themselves and a process to stop the self-harm: whether it be physical, financial, emotional, interpersonal or spiritual. I noticed, with The Circle , that often when people actually got exactly what they wished for they would create a crisis and sabotage themselves. It hit home for me that change, even good change is stressful and takes an enormous among of restructuring and courage to accept. I use the material in The Circle and Welcome to Your Crisis all of the time in my own life to keep myself on track and to create my goals in the world. I am having so much fun with How to Rule the World from you Couch already because it teaches everyone to use their brain the way I do, to get instant answers, even to future questions or about others by shifting their attention in a certain way. It is what I do naturally, having had the benefit of repetitive early childhood trauma followed by good psychiatry as a young adult. Without the trauma I wouldn’t have needed intuition and without the psychiatry  (and really good friends and a loving world) I wouldn’t have been able to use it functionally.

Carrie:  What are you reading right now?
Laura: College guides for my son who is a senior in high school. I am also reading easy to cook recipes and food advice from Karen Page and Andrew Dornberg (Becoming a Chef) as I am about to leave my son on his own for days at a time to go on tour.

Carrie:  What is your go-to book–that one you’ve read more than once, possibly over-and-over? OR Who is your go-to author?
Laura: I never read a book twice. I actually tend toward medical journals (New England Journal of Medicine) and science that no one else wants to read. I have ADD so my memory is very poor. I come from a family of doctors, generations of them, so what was around when I was little were medical journals and fairy tales (my mother was very fanciful and creative). I was always too pragmatic to believe the fairy tales so medical journals won by default. I cannot read anything badly written though. My attention wanders.

Carrie:  Can you offer a glimpse into your “real life” and share with us a bit of your personal life—What’s important to you?
Laura: My real life. I wanted three things as a child. A home, a child, and to be a writer. I am blessed. I have struggled, mostly because I make my own problems, I am hyper-vigilant and overly involved in all of my friends’ and students’ lives and training but this also gives me many blessings. I have a really supportive community around me. I am not good at asking for help but one good thing about being circled by intuitives is that they hear me even when I don’t call! I work with clients by phone on my couch while cooking dinner, which I start in the morning. I cook slow stuff like sauces. When people are around they pop in and help me procrastinate. My dad Skypes me every day to say hi and he lives nearby. At night I cook dinner, supervise homework which is now too sophisticated for me to help with. We often have house guests, old students, friends, clients from our travels. I like to go out once I am out but it takes a crowbar to get me out. My house is the hangout house for my 17 year old Samson’s, friends, so weekends are spent with a house full of kids requiring vast amounts of cooking and organizing and my friends join in. We have open Sundays where anyone drops by for food and so on. We have two rules: No blood on the floor (my dad, a doctor, hates being called to the emergency room) and we share I give money to City Meals on Wheels, which feeds New York’s home bound elderly, Habitat for Humanity, The Public Library and other causes my students bring me. We tend to share as a family so that our causes are often close to home, a neighbor or student in trouble, a local store that needs support to stay open. I do free healing (by laying on of hands by e mail) every morning as my form of prayer and I offer free workshops every month.

Carrie:  What has been one of your biggest struggles and/or successes and what have you learned from it?
Laura: I like control… a lot and I have picked partners who give me the illusion of control. My favorite tag line is: You have him exactly where he wants you! Although I have learned wonderful things from the love relationships I have had I have never really given up control and allowed myself to be guided or supported in a significant way. I love devotionally when I love and I am always functioning as the healer, which, of course, gives me the illusion of usefulness and control. I am realizing, as my son goes out into the world, that to love fully and to receive love fully, I have to give up my need to control, which as an intuitive I do so well. That I can survive loss, and have, since the age of 14 when my mother committed suicide and the memo I didn’t get is that we need to mourn! I tend to hold on to people years longer than I should. It is hard for me to let go (see the mediumship chapter in How to Rule the World from you Couch) and I often don’t have to, so making the choice to let go and let loss happen and let go of control is so,so (did I say so?) hard. I am not good at throwing in the towel! It is humbling to realize that my amazing gift is also my greatest obstacle. This is the first year of my life since the age of 16 when I am not in a romantic relationship. I am moving slowly to not repeat a pattern I have held onto for thirty four years. I am also very naive in certain ways about the world. I just learned to drive a car, narrowly beating my son to the punch by a year although I will never be as good a driver.

Carrie:  What was the best advice you’ve ever received—do you follow it?
Laura: No New Damage. Even if something looks good on the outside, if it has a potential for harm, proceed with caution if at all!

Carrie:  What did you learn about yourself while writing this book that you may not have expected?
Laura: While writing this book I had to put in words much of what I consider my secret powers in the world. It was at a time when I was, and continue to be, working on letting go of control. Giving away the goods was both liberating and terrifying. Many of my students who have read the book before publication were really enthusiastic and grateful that I laid the skills out so clearly. This has been a wonderful reward.

To Enter to Win a FREE Copy of HOW TO RULE THE WORLD FROM YOUR COUCH:

• Simply leave a comment below
• U.S. & Canada residents only; No P.O. Boxes, please
• Deadline: Oct. 30^th 2009 ~ midnight, EDT

• For More, be sure to visit Laura Day’s WEBSITE
• Visit Laura Day’s You Tube Channel

So sorry that our conversation couldn’t transpire, but as a conciliation prize Sue’s publicist is providing FIVE copies of the wonderful mother-daughter memoir, Traveling with Pomegranates for five lucky winners.

Here’s a great written interview for you.

To Enter to Win:

• Subscribe to the Words To Mouth e-newsletter
• Leave a comment below sharing something about motherhood, being a daughter, the complicated relationship dynamics, etc.
• U.S. & Canada residents only; No P.O. Boxes, please
• Deadline: October 15th, 2009 ~ midnight, EDT

If you’re searching for the next best book, why not enter to win FOUR?!

Our friends at Hachette Book Group are offering the following four books. Enter to win, simply by leaving a comment below sharing your favorite book of all time, why it’s your favorite, and how it touched your life. We want to hear from you!

1. How to Be a Hepburn in a Hilton World: The Art of Living with Style, Class, and Grace By Jordan Christy
2. The Love Revolution By Joyce Meyer
3. Role of a Lifetime: Reflections on Faith, Family, and Significant Living By James Brown , Nathan Whitaker , Tony Dungy
4. Loved: Stories of Forgiveness By Rebecca St. James

Contest Guidelines:

• Deadline-October15th, 2009, midnight, EDT
• Canada & US Residents Only: No P.O. Boxes please
• Make sure you’re subscribed to the Words To Mouth newsletter to receive winner announcement (not posted on website)
  

When I started Words To Mouth, one of my earliest blog posts talked about the excitement of one of my favorite authors/books coming to the big screen—Sue Monk Kidd’s THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES.  Well, now that same author and her daughter, Anna Kidd Taylor, are coming to Words To Mouth. Sue and Anna, wrote a mother-daugher memoir called TRAVELING WITH POMEGRANATES and have agreed to take a few moments out of their busy book tour to chat with me on SEPTEMBER 10th. I’m beyond thrilled ~ what an honor!

From a conversation with Sue on Reading Group Choices:

My next book (due out next September) is a memoir that I just finished. It’s co-authored with my daughter, Ann Kidd-Taylor, Traveling with Pomegranates. It’s a mother-daughter story, but it’s also a story of two women; we’re telling stories from two ends of life. It was written when I turned 50 and my daughter graduated from college, and we traveled together to Greece. It became an extraordinary time in our lives. It’s a multi-layered memoir of both of us trying to find our place.

Leave a comment below, email me, or call in and submit your question to Sue and/or Anna and I’ll be happy to pass it along and ask them for you. If you’ve been lucky enough to have read an advance copy of TRAVELING WITH POMEGRANATES, let us know what you think—without giving too much away…I’m still awaiting my copy to arrive in the mail.

The following clip from a commencement speech given by Sue and Anna at Columbia College, SC is a wonderful dose of inspiration, especially around the 4–minute mark—Give it a listen and check back for the full Words To Mouth audio interview mid-September:

Carrie’s Conversation with Seanan McGuire

Carrie:  What inspired you to write ROSEMARY AND RUE?
Seanan: I’ve always loved folklore and the old fairy tales — the ones that were around before Grimm came along and “cleaned them up” to turn them into children’s stories.  I was visiting the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park one day, and suddenly everything clicked together.  I knew who Toby was, I knew what her problem was, and I really, really wanted to know how she was going to get out of it.  Everything followed from there.

Carrie:  In general, how does an idea for a book come to you? Does it perk slowly in your mind or does it come in a flash?
Seanan: It depends on the book, really.  ROSEMARY AND RUE came slowly.  The second book in the series, A LOCAL HABITATION, came to me all at once, and just had to be refined from there. It’s very situational for me.

Carrie: Give us an idea of the plot without giving too much away.
Seanan: October “Toby” Daye is standing on the outside of everything.  She’s a changeling — half-human, half-fae — and she’s been cut off from the life she spent years trying to build for herself.  She’s doing her best to deny Faerie completely, and she really has no support structure left.  Then someone who was always close to her dies, and she gets drawn back into the world she left behind.  Can she get in and solve the mystery of Evening’s murder without getting herself permanently re-involved in Faerie?  Does she really want to?  It’s very fairy tale noir.

Carrie:  Is there an underlying theme you’d like your readers to take away from ROSEMARY AND RUE?
Seanan: If there’s really an underlying message, it’s probably “don’t judge a book by its cover.”  Or maybe “don’t piss off the fae.”  Personally, I favor “don’t piss off the fae.”

Carrie:  What is your favorite scene in ROSEMARY AND RUE? Why?
Seanan: I can’t tell you, because it’s spoilery like whoa.  But I promise, it’s a doozy.

Carrie:  What was the most difficult scene to write? Why?
Seanan: The scene where Toby has to deal with the body of the friend who died.  It’s really hard on the character, and it was really hard on me as the author, since I work with her as my point of view.

Carrie:  Which character do you identify with the most in your book? How much of yourself did you put into these characters and did you realize you showed up in the book? If so, while you were writing or only afterwards upon review?
Seanan: I don’t so much identify with anyone in the book.  You’ll meet my “wow, we’re similar” character in book three.  There are aspects of me in every character I write, because I think that’s natural and normal, but I try to keep it from being defining.

Carrie:  What are you reading right now?
Seanan: My book comes out in under a month, so I’m going for my comfort reading — Stephen King’s THE STAND, and the new Robert Englund autobiography, HOLLYWOOD MONSTER, which is just fantastic.

Carrie:  What authors, books, or ideas have influenced your writing?
Seanan: Oh, I’d say every author I’ve ever encountered has influenced me one way or another.  My big influences are probably Shakespeare (seriously), the Brothers Grimm, Stephen King, Tonya Huff, and all the fabulous writers who worked on the old Warren Comics (CREEPY and EERIE).  King’s ON WRITING was like an epiphany for me, and so was Tanya Huff’s SUMMON THE KEEPER –somehow, that book gave me permission to do a lot of things I hadn’t realized I could do before.

Carrie:  What is your go-to book–that one you’ve read more than once, possibly over-and-over? OR Who is your go-go author?
Seanan: As you’ve probably noticed by now, Stephen King is a real favorite of mine.  I do a semi-annual re-read of almost everything he’s ever written, and I’ve read IT something around fifty times. That’s the book I go to when I’m low.

Carrie:  Can you offer a glimpse into your “real life” and share with us a bit of your personal life — outside of writing, what’s important to you (i.e., hobbies, passions, causes, family)?
Seanan: Oh, wow.  Well, I have two cats — a Siamese and a Maine Coon — who require a lot of time and attention, because they’re incredibly smart, and really want a lot of interaction. I collect comic books, and attend something on the order of eight or nine conventions a year.  I admit, I’m a big TV junkie, and I watch a lot of television.  I draw an irregularly posted comic strip, and really enjoy marathon walking.  My latest “big walk” was thirty-five miles overland through the San Francisco Bay Area!  It was awesome. I’m also a member of the filk community, and I’ve recorded three CDs to date of my original geeky music.

Carrie:  Tell us something surprising about you and/or something very few people know about you.
Seanan: I’m actually a very, very shy person, and I spend a lot of time really worried about how I’m coming off.  I mask insecurity with perky pleasantness, rather than hiding under my bed.

Carrie:  What has been one of your biggest struggles and/or successes (professional/personal) and what have you learned from it?
Seanan: It was really difficult for me to learn how to actually FINISH a book, rather than just starting it, getting two hundred pages, and wandering off.  Figuring out how to organize myself in the long-term really took a lot, and taught me a lot about myself.

Carrie:  Who is your biggest fan?
Seanan: The stereotypical answer is definitely true in my case: my mother.  Beyond that, probably my friend Vixy, who is totally fantastic and eternally encouraging.

Carrie:  What was the best advice you’ve ever received — do you follow it?
Seanan: Kill your darlings.”  As long as I can do that, I think I’ll be okay.

Carrie:  What is your favorite literary turn-of-phrase / quote / word picture?
Seanan: “The turtle couldn’t help us.”  Don’t ask me why (”Behold! For now I wear the human pants!” is a close second).

Carrie:  What did you learn about yourself while writing this book that you may not have expected?
Seanan: I learned that I really, really, REALLY like building continuity guides.  Also that without one, I sort of flail madly.

Carrie:  What’s next for you ~ Anything else you’d like to offer?
Seanan: Well, next, I plan to take a nap, and then get back to working on the projects currently in the pipeline — the second Mira Grant book (my alter-ego), the next Toby book, and a fun new urban fantasy project with ballroom dancing and asbestos blondes.

Carrie:  How do readers get in touch with you?
Seanan: The best way is my website www.seananmcguire.com.  I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads, but the website contact form feeds straight to me.

To enter to win a free copy of ROSEMARY AND RUE:
Subscribe to Words To Mouth e-newsletter (how winners are announced)
Leave a Comment Below on why you’d be interested in winning this book
Call 206-309-7318 and leave a voice mail message I can play on-air
U.S. & Canada residents only; No P.O. Boxes, please
Deadline: August 31st, 2009 ~ midnight, EST