Bottoms Up!

So I started drinking at about 1 pm yesterday.  This would be worrisome except for the fact that I average about 6 glasses of alcohol a year, so I'm hoping the fact that I had 1/2 a glass of wine in the early afternoon is not a forbearance of terrible habits to come.

I decided early yesterday, probably about 10:30 AM, that I was taking a mental health day.  I still accomplished a number of things, most of them decorating and errand-running related (my dry cleaners was very happy to see me.  Our clothes were starting to overtake the place), but gave myself permission to just chill out and spend my day as needed.  So I be-bopped down to the fridge about 1:30, ostensibly for some blueberry yogurt, and that's when I saw the open wine bottle and thought, "Hmmm.  Wine in the afternoon.  Decadent.  Yes, definitely me," and poured myself a glass.

I've discovered that drinking puts me in a cleaning mood.  I was sipping the wine while working on the computer when all of a sudden the dust along the keyboard just seemed to POP out at me.  "Shameful," I thought.  So I set the wine down and went and grabbed Pledge, Windex, and toilet bowl cleaner and had myself a little upstairs cleaning party for the next 40 minutes.  Cleaning is also a cure to stop drinking, b/c the last thing I wanted after cleaning was wine, so the rest of the glass went down the drain.

No booze today though.  Back to work.  I'm going to try and slam out rough drafts on two new article and maybe pull together a query letter.  Also need to make a few new auto appointments for my column.

It's chilly here this morning.  Fall is making its early rumblings.  I opened the back door so the cats could get some air and their little noses were just twitching like mad as they tried to take in all the scents on the wind.  I spent some much needed one-on-one time with each cat yesterday, so I think we're all good now.  They're both in front of the computer desk, staring at me with hopeful, "come pet me!" eyes and glaring at one another as I type this. 

Of course Mommy will come pet!  Work can surely wait until later....

Dena

A Day at Home

I don't have any place I have to be today for the first time in what feels like months and I'm milking it for all it's worth.  I had a writers critique group meeting last night and didn't get home until about 10:30 and made it into bed by 11.  I promised myself I could sleep in as late as I wanted to this morning so was disappointed when I found myself pretty much wide awake at 5:30 AM.  I'm like a child.  If I know I have to get up, I don't want to.  If I know I can sleep in, I'll be up before dawn, waiting for Saturday morning cartoons to come on. 

I have a list of 8 calls I must make today.  I always do that to myself.  I loathe the phone and put calls off for as long as humanly possible and then literally, like today, have to devote a day to them.  Luckily, most of them are under 10-minute calls.

Also going to spend today doing some book promo on the web.  I'll turn on some music and spend the day hopping from cat site to cat site, seeing if I can do an announcement for my book.

Checked my e-mail this morning and no new orders for the book have come in.  C'mon all you listeners in radio land...where are you?? =)

On The Radio

Note to self: Ask radio host to record interview before the show starts, not after.

Had my 15 minutes of fame and then some today. 
Dena ready to burst into song...(not!)I went in for what I thought would be a 10-minute radio interview with host Dusty Dunn at WGOS 1070 AM in Greensboro , and ended up getting almost an hour's play time.  Thumbs up to the DJ!

As I was driving into Greensboro, I tuned my radio into the station.  Literally, just as turned on the station I heard Dusty's voice: "We've given air time in the past to dogs lovers and this morning we're going to have a local woman who's an expert on cats join us.  Her name is Dena Harris and she's written a book, Lessons In Stalking, and she's also got some stories in the Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul book, so we'll look forward to speaking with Dena about 9 o'clock today."

Drivers in the lane next to me may have wondered why I was pumping my arms and cheering, but who cares?

I got to the studio which was a tiny little room upstairs in this old but very cool downtown building.  We started the interview and about 3 minutes in Dusty's producer signalled that another Chicken Soup writer was on the line.  Since she was calling from San Francisco at 6am, Dusty gave her the first 10 minutes of the interview.  Then, since he had a vacant slot and time to fill, I got the rest of the time up until the show's close at 10 AM.  I got in numerous plugs for the book and we even had 3-4 people call in, which was cool.

One guy wanted to know what he should do with the all kittens his cat had - the shelters were full.  I had no real answer for that one other than family and friends, but I did get a plea in to please spay/neuter your pets and there are so many great cats waiting to be adopted at shelters, please check them out.

Another woman just wanted to know how to order my book (a big hello and shout-out to you, ma'am, whereever you may be), and another was just calling in to say how great cats are.

It's hard to evaluate yourself, especially while speaking.  My friend Pam listened in and said I talked a little fast, but otherwise came across as funny and interesting. 

Blair's workplace didn't pick up the signal (although I found out later he and all my out-of-state friends/relatives could have listened to the show via the web) so he can't comment.  And, as stated in my opening, I didn't realize the show wasn't being taped.

All in all, I feel positive about the experience.  I'm glad my first time on radio being interviewed was with such a kind and pleasant person. He also welcomed me back when the book is out.  So once I get my book launch set, I may try to get another few minutes back on air.

The pictures here are of Dusty Dunn, the host, and me sitting in Dusty's chair.  My chair was across from him with a mike, but he thought the better shot woud be of me with more of the equipment.  We took the photos right after the interview concluded.

We Are Experiencing Technical Problems, Please Hold...

There's been a delay from the printer with Lessons In Stalking.  The book was supposed to be in this week but they have 2 huge book runs of 20,000 and 22,000 copies to run, so my itty-bitty book run of 2,000 has been pushed back. 

I sent not a nasty e-mail but a "I am not pleased with the situation" e-mail to my contact at the printer.  She wrote back that she was trying to sneak my book in between the two print runs and hoped to have it to me by next Thursday, which would be October 6th.

I was disappointed but then got a grip.  People are in crisis the world over.  The fact that I have to wait an extra week or two for my book is pretty damn minor in comparison.  I always like to ask myself, when I feel blood temperature rising, is this a problem or an inconvenience?   99% of the time, it's an inconvenience.

I have my first radio interview tomorrow - WGOS AM radio at 9:05 am.  The station is in Greensboro so I'm actually going into the station to do the interview live instead of over the phone.  It's a small world - the D.J. who's interviewing me has an office next to a man whose newspaper I used to write for.  They are good friends and have known each other for years.  So maybe he'll be extra nice to me since I'm friends with a friend.

I'm a little nervous as this is my first radio interview and I have no idea what will be asked.  The interview is for the Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul book but I'm hoping to plug my book as well. I'll post tomorrow how the interview went.