Open Adoption Support

Hi all--
I wanted to announce the (second) launch of Open Adoption Support, a social networking site and resource site for families and individuals interested in or living open adoptions.

The site is for all triad members including those who are in closed adoptions but support openess, those who are in reunion, and those whose adoptions aren't as open as they wish. There is also room for those who are in international adoptions with some birth/first family contact.

The site has forums, live chat, user submitted links lists and newsfeeds related to open adoption. Users are encouraged to submit content but lurkers are welcome.

I created the site because over and over again I've heard adoption professionals say that what families really need is post-adoption support. I know from living our own open adoption (our daughter came to us three years ago and we maintain ongoing face-to-face contact with her first mom) that it's hard to find folks who share our values about openess and so getting advice and feedback can be challenging. I hope that this site will help us all find each other.

If you or someone you know would benefit from the site, please share the url with them: OpenAdoptionSupport.com!

A Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers

We are proud to announce the publication of 3 LM writers in A Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers (Adams Media, April 2008). The Grand-Prize Winner is LM's Editor-in-chief Amy Hudock with her essay, "Altars of Sacrifice." Columnists Rachel Sarah Single Mom Seeking and Ona Gritz Doing it Different will also have essays about single motherhood in the latest Cup of Comfort book.

Wanted: Mom Bloggers & Book Reviewers

Literary Mama Co-founder Andi Buchanan has spent the last several months building a new venture called MotherTalk, which connects publishers with bloggers who are willing to review books that appeal to women and mothers who love to read. Past blog tours have included books like Writing Motherhood, The Other Mother, and The Kids Book Club Book.

MotherTalk has lots of great books to review this summer and fall, so they're expanding their team of paid bloggers. If you'd like to sign up, go to http://mother-talk.com/wp/?page_id=5 to read the FAQs and subscribe.

Poetry Wanted for Parent Blessings book

POETRY needed for PARENT BLESSINGS (previously titled PARENT PRAYERS) is geared specifically for parents and will have the same spiritual tone as BABY BLESSINGS. The intention of the book is to provide insight, joy, and support for parents throughout their parenting journey. Parents will read PARENT BLESSINGS when they feel like celebrating the simple joys of parenting and will also turn to the book for comfort and insight when they feel discouraged in their role as a parent. The primary market will be a gift book for new moms and dads. The secondary market will be parents buying it for themselves for encouragement and inspiration.

The chapters include: Pregnancy, Babies, Toddlers, Children, Teens, Leaving Home, Adulthood, Reflections, and Inspiration. Please avoid standard "Please help me be a better parent" submissions. I particularly need submissions for chapters printed in bold. As always, I appreciate freshness and originality. The selections will reflect upon the spirituality of parenting and day-to-day family life. Parents whose children have passed beyond the first few chapters will enjoy the book for the emotional recollection of the precious early years in a child’s life and appreciate the later chapters that pertain to them.

Submission date is open.

Mama, Ph.D: Women Write About Motherhood and the Academy

LM's Caroline Grant is proud to announce the publication of her book, Mama, Ph.D: Women Write About Motherhood and the Academy (Rutgers University Press 2008), edited by Elrena Evans and Caroline Grant, will be released in the fall of 2008.

Mama, Ph.D. is a literary anthology of deeply-felt personal narratives by smart, interesting women both in and out of the academy, writing about their experiences attempting to reconcile bodies with brains. This anthology voices stories of academic women choosing to have, not have, or delay children. The essays in this anthology will speak to and offer support for any woman attempting to combine work and family, and will make recommendations on how to make the academy a more family-friendly workplace.

We decided to assemble this collection because it’s the book we needed when we entered graduate school and the academic job market. We wanted to know that blending family life with life in the ivory tower might be possible; we needed to know that other women were attempting this balancing act. Those women were invisible to us then, but as we began to seek out their stories, we discovered so many women living out this very challenge. We want their stories to be told, so that other women who face these difficult choices will know that they are not alone. We hope this book will encourage and inspire these women, as they try to decide if, when, and how to balance motherhood and academic work.

The Writing Mamas Salon in San Francisco

Each month will be a page turner at Toads restaurant on 1499 Valencia Street (between 25th and 26th streets) in the Mission, on the second Tuesday of each month from 6-8pm. (It is child friendly)

The cost is $75 per year. Wherever you are in your writing pursuits, from beginner to intermediate to published, a Writing Mamas Salon provides a time and a place to write and review your work with like minded moms.

Bring a piece of writing you'd like to share and make 4 copies ... it can be a blog, (about a page and a half, double spaced) an essay (no more than 4 pages, double spaced), a chapter from a novel or a film.

Please check out the website at http://www.writingmamas.com If you are interested in joining, please email Dawn Yun at dawnyun@writingmamas.com

W. Kamau Bell's Solo Performance Workshop.

Come see Ericka Lutz perform her short performance piece, "Me, Me, Me" as part of W. Kamau Bell's Solo Performance Workshop.

THIS Sunday, June 17th, 7:00 p.m.
The Jean Shelton Theater
533 Sutter Street (at Powell), San Francisco
Admission: $10.

PLEASE buy your tickets online in advance here (last show sold out): http://www.sheltontheater.com/nowplaying/index.html#SOLO

In The Solo Performance Workshop, performers develop and workshop stories through improvisation, journaling, and acting exercises. These pieces meet at the intersection of Art, Entertainment, Catharsis, and Glee.

Performers:
Benjamin Bossi
Ericka Lutz
Martha Rynberg
Thao Nguyen
Enzo Lombard

Motherwords, a new magazine for mothers.

Motherwords is a new regional magazine for mothers and families North of Boston. We are currently accepting stories written by moms for moms. We are open to all stories related to motherhood including but not limited to: birth stories, how children have changed your marriage, adoption, good places to take your kids,etc. You do not need to be a resident of New England to submit a story.

Motherhood: We are all in it together; why not share the journey?
Please e-mail your story as a word attachment to:
sarah.teres( at)motherwords. org--replace (at) with @

The deadline for the inaugural issue is June 25, 2007.

Please remember to include your contact information as well as a short personal bio.

For more information about Motherwords, please visit our website: www.motherwords.org

Motherwords. Every mother has a story....what' s yours?

"The Daring Book For Girls" by LM's Andi Buchanan

A companion book to “The Dangerous Book For Boys,” Miriam and Andi are thrilled to announce that HarperCollins will be publishing The Daring Book for Girls", a book for any girl with an eye for adventure and a nose for trouble.

Among the contents will be chapters on: what you need for an essential toolkit; five karate moves every girl should know; important women of the last century; ghost stories and rainy day games; famous women spies; how to change a tire; campfire songs; stocks and bonds; making a zip line in your backyard; and more! From HarperCollins: “Amid all of the success of The Dangerous Book for Boys we would occasionally hear ‘where is the Dangerous Book for Girls?” says Margot Schupf, Group SVP & Associate Publisher. “We are thrilled to be partnering with these authors to fill this obvious void in the marketplace and to encourage girls to find fun, adventure and learning in their lives as well.”

The book is due to be out just in time for Christmas — the perfect gift for daring girls of any age (if we do say so ourselves!).

Andi Buchanan on Writers Revealed Radio

Andi Buchanan, pioneer of the book blog tour and founder of MotherTalk (among other things) and three other writers will appear on this week's Writer's Revealed podcast to talk about marketing books via the Internet. Tune in live this Sunday 7PM EST/4PM PST.

Two Lines: World Writing in Translation reading

On Thursday June 14th, Two Lines: World Writing in Translation will celebrate the launch of its latest edition. Featuring readings by Matt Gonzalez and notable Bay Area writers and translators, lively Brazilian music from local group Falso Baiano, and delectable food and drink provided by some of San Francisco’s favorite restaurants and markets including SOMA stalwarts Momo’s and Tres Agaves. This event will take place in the urban ambiance of the newly restored Chronicle Books building. Festivities begin at 7:00 p.m. at 680 2nd Street in San Francisco. There is a $7 suggested donation.

TWO LINES XIV includes work from 20 languages and 21 countries. As readers leaf through the pages, they follow in the footsteps of nomadic Laplanders, stroll through the suburbs of multicultural Paris, shake off the dust in a Hmong refugee camp, and fall from the skies with Lithuanian paratroopers. This edition also features works by former Poet Laureate Robert Hass and acclaimed Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali. The electric writing in the pages of the latest edition makes it clear why SF Weekly’s Best of San Francisco issue calls us the Bay Area’s “tireless champion of translated literature.”

TWO LINES is a program of Center for the Art of Translation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that promotes international literature and translation through programs in the arts, education, and community outreach. For more information call 415 512-8812 or visit our website at http://www.catranslation.org

Caught in the Creative Act: Writers Talk about their Writing

Nobel Prize recipient Salman Rushdie and National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates are among the featured writers who will participate in the popular series of free community readings and lectures at the University of South Carolina.

Caught in the Creative Act will take place 5:45-7pm Mondays and Wednesdays in Gambrell Hall auditorium. This year's course has two sessions: Sept.17th-Oct.3rd and March 17th-April 9th. Classes are free and open to the public but registration is required.

For more information, go online at www.cas.sc.edu/CICA/.

"Pencils and Whatnot: A Fiction Writing Workshop" with Ericka Lutz

Think ahead!

Now enrolling for Literary Mama Senior Editor Ericka Lutz's private Fall workshop in Oakland, California. "Pencils and Whatnot: A Fiction Writing Workshop" meets for eight sessions, and includes writing exercises, process work, critique sessions, and one private manuscript consultation with the instructor. Appropriate for intermediate and advanced fiction writers. Limited enrollment, by interview. Contact Ericka for more details.

8 meetings
Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30 pm
September 5 to November 14
(No meeting on 9/26, 10/31, and one other date TBA.)
Located in a private home in Oakland, CA

Ericka's teaching style is one of the most effective I've ever encountered. I would highly recommend her to anyone who is trying to become the best writer they can be. She is one of the sharpest teachers out there. -- Max Delgado

Ericka is truly a writer's teacher, insightful, perceptive, and -- perhaps most important -- deeply caring. She deftly guides writers in unlocking their own creativity. -- Camille J. Cusumano

More Martinis...

Before Daddy needed a drink and Mommy discovered that sippy cups were not for chardonnay, Christie Mellor published her wildly popular The Three-Martini Playdate: A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting (Chronicle Books, 2004). In her hilarious debut, Mellor instructed beleaguered parents to stop pandering to their kids, find their disciplinarian mojo, and take back their grown-up time.

I reviewed The Three-Martini Playdate three years ago, and I (along with thousands of other parents) have been hoping for a sequel ever since. Good news, my cocktail-loving compadres: that sequel is finally here. It’s called The Three-Martini Family Vacation: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting (Chronicle Books, 2007).

The Three-Martini Family Vacation is very similar to the Three-Martini Playdate in terms of message, tone, and style, but this time around Mellor takes aim at overdone family vacations (no, you don’t have to go to a massively crowded theme park—try camping in the back yard!) and overdone major holidays (no, you don’t have to buy your kid a $300 iPod—bubble wrap makes a great gift instead!). This Three-Martini book is just as snarky as the original; if anything, Mellor sounds even more irritated with today’s wussy parenting —and that’s a good thing. An irritated Mellor is a funny Mellor. God forbid the woman should go all Zen or empathetic or something.

-- Jennifer Eyre White

Catch Christie Mellor on her book tour (check www.christiemellor.com for updates):

San Francisco Area Events

When: Wednesday, June 13
Where: Books Inc., Alameda 1344 Park Street, Alameda, CA
What: Reading & Signing Time: 7:30 p.m.

When: Thursday, June 14
Where: Bookshop West Portal 80 West Portal Avenue, San Francisco, CA
What: Reading & Signing Time: 7:00 p.m.

When: Saturday, June 16 Where: Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, CA
What: Reading, Signing & Martinis! Time: 6:00 p.m.