Photo by Jeffrey Beall / by CC BY-ND 2.0

The CHOCOLATE & VICODIN blog book tour reaches the end of the line today with its last stop. Check out the interview and review at Sheesh with The Merry, who you might remember better from Cranky Fitness. Big thanks to everyone who took part in the tour!

The blog tour has been lots of fun, and their are still a few opportunities to win a free book if you visit the posts listed in the full blog tour itinerary here. In addition to the blog tour, several other blogs have been kind enough to post reviews and host their own giveaways. You can find out more about them on this post and this post on my news blog.

Don’t forget, you might win an iPod or gift certificates to Amazon or iTunes simply by spreading the word about the book here!

I’ve got one last radio interview scheduled for tomorrow on LA’s public radio station KPCC during the Patt Morrison Program at 5:40pm EST or 2:40pm PST local time. Please [...]

• Continue reading "The CHOCOLATE & VICODIN blog book tour reaches the end of the line. (But you might still win a book!)"

Anyone who said “the pastry case in the coffeeshop,” please leave now (and pick up a cinnamon roll for me while you’re at it). I am of course referring to this:

Chocolate & Vicodin is featured on the “New in Paperback” table of Barnes & Noble, right at the front of the store. This pretty much made my year.

• Continue reading "Can you spot the most awesome thing in this photo?"

Instead of touring around the country, I’ve decided to stay inside my apartment and tour several blogs instead. From today until early March I’ll be making weekday stops at different blogs to discuss my book, Chocolate & Vicodin. We’ll be talking about how to cope with chronic pain, what makes a good author photo, how to stay fit and healthy when your unwell, how the publishing process works, and lots more.

I’ll be updating this list with links to the specific posts as we go along. I hope you’ll check them out! Big thanks to everyone who’s hosting me on this tour.

Feb 17: A Chronic Dose

Feb 18: This Mama Cooks

Feb 21: Roni Noone

Feb 22: Manic Mommy

Feb 23: Somebody Heal Me

Feb 24: Stephanie O’Dea

Feb 25: Kyle Hepp

Feb 28: Princess Nebraska

Mar 1: Shauna’s Life in Pain

Mar 2: Drummer Heather

Mar 3: Emergiblog

Mar 4: Jenny Ryan

Mar 7: Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone

Mar 8: Blog, Sheesh

• Continue reading "Follow the blog book tour for CHOCOLATE & VICODIN"

Photo by Caro Wallis / by NCND 2.0 CC

Although copyediting is my least favorite part of the publication process, soliciting blurbs is the part that makes me the most uncomfortable. Blurbs are the short, positive endorsements from other authors, experts and people-more-famous-than-you which are printed on the back of the book. They’re part of the overall strategy to convince the average book buyer to purchase your book.

This is how it goes: First, I have to lure you in with a clever title and/or an intriguing cover. That gets you to pick up the book and read the back, which contains a snappy synopsis that tells you enough about the book to pique your interest, but doesn’t give away the whole thing. Then you read the blurbs, which are meant to give you a final push toward the cash register, reassuring you that well-respected, accomplished people who know what they’re talking about think you should definitely buy this book.

The part that makes me feel awkward is that I have to contact well-respected, accomplished people who know [...]

• Continue reading "Chocolate & Vicodin: Blurbs a.k.a. begging for compliments"

I finally got my hands on a copy of the November edition of Runner’s World, so now I can scan page 80 and tell you all how and grateful and honored I am to be in it (though I’d be just a teensy bit more grateful if they’d mentioned my book or my blog). I was interviewed for the “How it Feels…” article back in July to tell people what it feels like to run off half your weight. I am pretty much over myself, so I don’t usually mention these things, but I’m really flattered to be included in the same article as people who have run in outer space, broken world records, and run dressed as a Porta Potty. (There’s an idea for my Run Like Hell costume.) Does this mean I’m real runner? I must be! I was in Runner’s World! (The full article can be seen after the jump, at the bottom of this post, by clicking “Continue reading” below.)

When the copy editors were fact checking the article, they sent me [...]

• Continue reading "It’s a small Runner’s World"