Two things to share

I confess: I'm going to the outlets today with my daughter instead of working. She needs boots for her semester in Ireland, and I need . . . well, I don't need anything, but I'm happy to give her my opinion on heel heights and synthetic linings and roundness of toes. (Shoe shopping is such a perfect social activity to do while talking with a friend. No dressing rooms to interrupt the flow of chatter. Something for everyone, from the practical to the ridiculous to the sublime.)

But before I go, I have two things to share:

The dynamic duo at A Year of Reading are hosting an online writing gallery for the NCTE's National Day on Writing Celebration. What a fabulous idea! Here's what they're looking for, but read their whole post for the full scoop.

A LIFETIME OF READING

Members of the Kidlitosphere are invited to submit stories from their reading lives. Your submission can be an anecdote from childhood, a recent experience around books or reading, a memory from school (good or bad), a vignette about learning to read, the impact of a particular book--anything about your life as a reader.

We are looking for a variety of short pieces (think blog post length) from anyone in the Kidlitosphere, including bloggers, authors, illustrators, readers of blogs, etc.

Yes, I think that means they want to hear from EVERYONE with something to say about being a reader. Get going!

Secondly, if you're an author who lives anywhere near the East Coast, MotherReader makes an eloquent case for why YOU want to come to the Kidlitosphere Conference on October 17th. (Other than to see me, of course. I'll be there, speaking on a panel and helping Pam herd author cats. I'll go shoe shopping with you, too, if you want.)

Off to find the perfect pair!

Your Name in Shoes

I think this is funny. Type in a woman's name at Zappos.com and see what shoe styles come up.

Alexis (identity issues.)

Gertrude is plainly a bootie and nothing else.

Fanny (who you might have expected to have bootie) is eccentric and fun.

Pippi isn't so Longstocking, but the clogs are cute.

Sara vs. Sarah. (hmmm. My spelling, "Sara," returns no loafers, thank goodness. But I kind of envy those "Sarah" Shane&Shawn racy numbers.)

I'm very sorry. More about writing next time.

Oh, wait! Shoes you can write on. Whew! I'm back on message.

Writing Boots

We're thinking about colleges here at our house. Which leads to talk of college majors. Which leads to talk of careers.

And here's my guilty secret: I love career counseling books. Whenever I'm feeling unsure about my own work as a writer, I break out a career book and try to find another line of work.

I used to do this quite seriously and passionately, determined to find something I could immediately channel my frustration into, but now, I do it with amusement and the same guilty pleasure that I feel trying on shoes I know I'll never buy. Yeah, those olive green oooh shiny patent leather wow those make my legs look good heels make my heart quicken, and they would work for that one dress, but really...I go barefoot most of the day. And yeah, reading about being a film editor or legal mediator is exciting, but really...just thinking about those careers is enough. I don't have to actually buy them, take them out of the store, and wear them every day to get a jolt out of it.

Not so with the writing boots. The more I read about them, talk about them, see them lined up on the floor, the more I want to stick my feet in them and tromp around.

If you want to do a little guilty career shopping, Do What You Are, based on Myers-Briggs personality type, is one of my favorite books. Guess what it says is one of the secrets to my type's success? The right shoes.

Ha! No, it actually says: "Developing realistic expectations." But that's the same thing, right?

My feet would like to ask you for a favor

Conversing in the blogosphere is an art form. Sometimes, I feel as if I'm at a huge party, and there are clusters of fascinating, nattily dressed people filling the multi-leveled hip club, with music thumping and lights flashing, and I'm running (in my sensible tennis shoes) from one cool conversation to the next. I'm running because, instead of talking about Spice Girl's baby, these people are talking books, and writing, and art. (The Eternal Conversation, right?)

At first, I tried to handle my rounds alone. Then I hired the much younger----but with such cute glasses!---Mr. Google Reader to assist me. Great! Now I could follow multiple conversations at once. The only problem was that (and here the party gets weird) if I actually spoke during one of these conversations, instead of just sagely nodding at the fringes, then I had to keep dashing back to that group of people to see if anyone had replied. Which was often days later. (How I would love to hear Dorothy Parker handle this kind of conversational time travel.)

A breakthrough occurred when I discovered I could subscribe to all comments as well as all original posts. (And just so you know, you can do that for the conversations here by clicking on the link "Subscribe to all comments" at the right.) And joy! joy! some blogs even offered to tap me on the shoulder only when a particularly scintillating conversation had new thoughts. (That would be found here by clicking on the title of a post, and then scrolling to the bottom for the link marked "Subscribe to: post comments.")

And here's where I need your help: I can't find these links for some of the wildly wonderful, totally fascinating, non-probation anklet conversations I want to follow. Is this not available in some blogging software? Or is it an option the blogger turns on or off? Please, I'm begging you, enlighten me. Because I really want to ditch my sensible tennies and slip on my three-inch bronze snakeskin heels.