IN THE NEWS

Saturdays are the designated “newsy” day at a GOOD BLOG IS HARD TO FIND, but I failed to schedule anyone for Friday during our launch week (Growing pains and inability to count) so this week only it will be posted on Friday. Should you have any Southern-fried news, please email me at Kgillespie@knology.net. Sundays will be “open blog” day so if you want to be a guest blogger here, let me know.

Soon to Be Released!

SOUTHERN FATALITY, a novel by T Lynn Ocean, is out September 20th! The first in a new mystery adventure series featuring sexy and savvy security specialist Jersey Barnes, the book got a rave review from Publisher's Weekly... "Ocean's tightly woven, fast-moving plot keeps readers entertained right up to the explosive ending."

The Slippery Map by N.E. Bode is being released on Sept. 18. It stars Oyster R. Motel, a ten-year-old boy being raised in a nunnery (leaping over chapel pews, raising tadpoles in the holy water...), who falls through a slippery map into an Imagined Other World. This novel promises breathing rivers, snapping dirt clams, spider wolves, villains, love, adventure, (and lots of nuns)!

Contest News

Wordsmiths Books, the largest independent bookstore in the state of Georgia, operating in the flourishing literary community of Decatur, is excited to announce its’ essay contest “No, It’s Just Me, Thanks”, constructed to coincide with the appearance of ALONE IN THE KITCHEN WITH AN EGGPLANT editor Jenni Ferrari-Nobles as well as collection essayist and Atlanta native Phoebe Nobles.

On September 20th, at 7:30PM, Wordsmiths Books will present a reading and book signing with Jenni Ferrari-Adler and Phoebe Nobles, two food critics and writers whose recent collection, Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant (Riverhead Books, Hardcover, 2007), explores the terror, excitement, trials and tribulations that accompany cook for one and/or dining alone.

Says Wordsmiths Books Marketing and Publicity Director Russ Marshalek: “I read the collection and was immediately taken. There's an essay where [beloved Japanese author Huraki] Murakami discusses how spaghetti for one always signals relationship trouble, and another, the title essay, regarding cooking gross foods that only one person could ever enjoy.”
To celebrate this event, Wordsmiths Books has launched, with their weekly newsletter, “No, It’s Just Me, Thanks”- a thematic essay contest, in which Wordsmiths Books staff and customers, as well as local bloggers, writers and other various individuals have been asked to participate.

Russ Marshalek gives the details of the contest: “The contest’s rules are both simple and spectacularly fun: craft a very SHORT (no more than 800 words) essay on eating/dining alone. We're asking that it be Atlanta specific, Decatur-based if possible, but that's the only limit, and the city can be the starting point, the focus, or just barely a mention. One staff member wrote her essay on how she refuses to dine alone from fear of embarrassment.

The deadline to submit pieces is Sept 14th, and essays should be sent to my attention, via email at russ@wordsmithsbooks.com . Questions, also, should be directed my way.”

Judges will include Alone In The Kitchen With an Eggplant editor Jenni Ferrari-Nobles, and prizes thus far include hand-selected truffles from Decatur dessertery The Chocolate Bar, a One Year membership to Working Title Playwrights, a hand-selected assortment of thematic books-with more to be announced. Selection and announcement of winners will occur during the Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant event at Wordsmiths Books, 7:30 PM on September 20th.

Throughout the week leading up to the contest, selected essays will also be published on Wordsmiths Books blog, at blog.wordsmithsbooks.com
For more information on the “No, It’s Just Me, Thanks” essay contest, the Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant author event (which, like all Wordsmiths Books events, is free), or Wordsmiths Books in general, contact Wordsmiths Marketing and Publicity Director Russ Marshalek at (404)378-7166 or russ@wordsmithsbooks.com .