Tour Dates: September 7, 2009 - October 7, 2009

Title: You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning

Author: Celia Rivenbark

Genre: Collection of humorous Southern essays

Synopsis:

Celia Rivenbark is an award-winning newspaper columnist and freelance journalist whose work has been compared to a cross between Erma Bombeck and Hunter S. Thompson.

Celia has won national and state press awards and is the author of four humor collections: Bless Your Heart, Tramp (2000, reprinted in 2006), We're Just Like You, Only Prettier (2004), Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank (2006) and Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny With a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits.

Her latest collection, You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning, is due out in September 2009 (St. Martin's Press).

Celia lives in Wilmington, NC, with her husband and daughter. 

Tour Dates: September 14, 2009 - October 14, 2009

Title: Original Faith: What Your Life is Trying to Tell You

Author: Paul Maurice Martin

Genre: Nonfiction/Self-Help/Spirituality/Disabilities

Synopsis: Original Faith

With an Original Faith...

• There is a love that can be known and understood - if not fully, then in part.
• There is faith that can be experienced - with or without belief.
• There is work - and even dedication.
• There is the discovery that every one of us is more than a self alone.
• There is coming alive to the fact that we are here not to be served, but to serve.
• There is the possibility of true joy and a viable future for our children.
• There is the certainty of personal peace and integrity.

About the Author:

The manuscript for Original Faith took shape as a series of experiences and insights that arose spontaneously over a period of fifteen years. Instead of the proverbial 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration, the figures for Paul may have been about 50 percent each. Although he had to work hard to organize his material and articulate it clearly, his experiences, concepts and even his best language would arrive unexpectedly. Paul learned to keep a notepad in his car and by his bed. Much of the text was composed and committed to memory literally on the run, while jogging. Often he would be inspired by the words or actions of children and quickly jot down a few notes for reference the next morning - early morning. Paul rose at 2 or 3 AM to write before heading for work, having found that after work was not a creative time of day for him.

By 1994 Original Faith was nearly finished - and so was Paul's good health. The sudden onset of an unknown autoimmune disease initiated an unsuccessful struggle to obtain a diagnosis and treatment that lasted over a decade. During this period Paul continued working as an elementary school counselor but had to put his manuscript aside to make time for medical travel, research, ongoing treatment attempts, and ongoing problems posed by his health insurance.

After becoming too disabled to continue his career, Paul resumed work on Original Faith, completing the manuscript in December, 2004. Since then, he has completed two additional manuscripts and is working on a third. Housebound and semi-bedridden, Paul remains centered in a faith perspective that he offers to readers as a source of tremendous joy under favorable circumstances and tremendous strength under adversity.

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Tour Dates: September 21, 2009 - October 21, 2009

Title: The Sky Begins at Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body

Author: Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Genre: Memoir

Synopsis: This tender but humorous memoir chronicles Caryn's tale of resiliency and love in the face of breast cancer. She braves breast cancer, the breast cancer genetic mutation and the loss of a parent by connecting with an eclectic Midwest community, the land and sky, and a body undergoing vast renovation. Along the way, she swims with stingrays in the Gulf of Mexico, searches for cream puffs for a Pennsylvania funeral, leads a group fighting to protect ecologically-essential land in Kansas, and helps students find their own voice in Vermont. In searching for a new definition of the erotic through our awareness of nature, this memoir illuminates how our bodies are our most local address on the earth.

Just Thought You Should Know:

According the American Cancer Society, a woman has a 1 in 8 chance of getting breast cancer sometime during her life. Caryn's WOW Blog Tour is taking place mainly during October--National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since 2006 the website http://pinkforoctober.org/ has encouraged websites and blogs to "Go Pink" for October to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Caryn's book would be a great way to tell your readers that your site is "Going Pink" for October.


About the Author:

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg received her doctorate from the University of Kansas and was recently appointed the Poet Laureate of Kansas. The author of four poetry collections she is certified in poetry therapy and has led workshops for many groups, including people living with physical and mental illness. In 2000, Caryn founded the Master's level program in Transformative Language Arts, that focuses on the effect of written and verbal language on the community, at Goddard College where she teaches. Her writer's guide Write Where You Are is unique in that it is directed to teenage writers.

Caryn co-founded Brave Voices with singer/songwriter Kelley Hunt to provide singing and writing workshops. Song written by Caryn have been performed by the Kelley Hunt band both in the United States and Europe. Caryn's musical talents also include playing the cello.

Along with her husband, writer Ken Lassman, and children, Caryn calls the countryside south of Lawrence, Kansas home.


Author's Websites:

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg's website: http://www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg's Blog: http://carynmirriamgoldberg.wordpress.com  


Goodies:

You will receive a signed copy of Caryn's forthcoming book The Sky Begins at Your Feet (September '09).

Participate! Please email us with "Blog Tour Partnership" in the subject line and your available dates. We schedule 2-3 stops per week from September 21 - October 21. We look forward to hearing from you!