Tomorrow is the official release date for my book Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away. Someone told me they found it in a Barnes & Noble this weekend and Amazon started shipping it days ago, so it’s already starting to trickle out. Tomorrow you should be able to purchase it from fine bookstores everywhere, and if they don’t have it, ask them to order it. Thank you to everyone who’s made this possible, including you guys. Some of you have been reading this blog for years, and I might know you better by your email addresses than by your names, but I’m grateful for all your support.

I’d like people to start spreading the word about the book. I know that most of the books I read are recommendations from friends, bloggers or people on Twitter or Facebook. I want to encourage you guys to let your friends know about Chocolate & Vicodin, so I’m launching a contest.

Visit the Chocolate & Vicodin: Spread the Word Contest page [...]

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Have you ever been out at a restaurant with friends when you unexpectedly run into a coworker? Let’s make it even more awkward and say you run into your mom too. And let’s say the waiter is from a highly, specified Internet niche you belong to, like “people who knit Smurf clothes in the style of Revolutionary War heroes.” Suddenly, your head begins to explode as your try to draw a mental Venn diagram determining what shades of your personality you’ve shown to each group. Then you realize there is utterly no overlap between all the groups. You have absolutely no idea how to act. Should you be the amusing office serf? The dutiful daughter? Or should you start a conversation about the gender dynamics in Smurf society caused by Smurfette being the only female Smurf?

This is how I’ve felt lately about social media, be it my blog, Twitter or Facebook. I’ve got people from my work sphere, friend sphere, casual-acquaintance sphere, weight-loss sphere, headache sphere and lots of other spheres watching me in all [...]

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