(Note: Forgive me if you've already seen this as a bulletin--I just want to get the word out in as many places as possible! Forgive me, too, for not keeping up with this blog--somehow my attempts to blog both here and at my primary blog have fallen short. I will try harder in the future--in the meanwhile, you can visit gaylebrandeis.blogspot.com to catch up with my latest adventures, although I don't blog as often as I'd like to there, either!)

Dear Friends,

My new novel Self Storage hits the shelves next Tuesday, the 23rd. I'm very excited! The book is getting some great advance buzz. You can find it in the January issues of Glamour and Redbook, and it received the most beautiful review in the San Francisco Chronicle today. I've linked to some other lovely reviews on my primary blog, as well.

Thank you for all of your support. I hope to see you on my tour! You can find the current info on my Self Storage MySpace page (please consider adding me as a friend there if you haven't already--it's the best way to stay up to date with the goings on of the book.)

xo
gayle

My segment on the Food Network has started to air in the last couple of days--I've heard from a couple of people who have seen the one minute story on tv, which is exciting. You can see the three minute version of the piece online here (click on A Single Strawberry).

I am amazed at how the producers were able to take seven hours of footage and boil them down to one and three minute stories! Such an incredible editing process.

I had so much fun the day of the shoot. My mom and my friend Stephan acted as Production Assistants, setting up snacks and moving furniture and doing whatever the producers needed them to do. I had to pull together a writing class very quickly for the shoot--it was during the summer when school wasn't in session yet, so I sent out frantic emails calling for potential students, and, with the help of friends and family, was able to assemble a class of twelve wonderful people (including my son--he's the one who says his strawberry was "buggy".) The crew was great and made me feel so at ease, even though I normally am a bit camera shy. I learned a lot from them (including the fact that voice over artists eat apples to get rid of "mouth sounds" before a recording session!) And even though I have a hard time watching myself on film, it is great fun to see the fruits of that day.

Up until now, I have kept my MySpace blog and my primary blog separate. I've realized, though, that the audience for each blog doesn't really overlap, so it makes more sense to share the same post in both places (although I'll post some special MySpace only blogs, and won't share every post from my other blog here.) Anyway, here is my most recent blog post...

I got my first real review for Self Storage, from Publisher's Weekly. When I saw an email from my editor with "first review!" as the subject line, my heart started pounding a million miles a second--I wasn't expecting a review to come in so soon. I am hesitant to post it here because it gives away more of the plot than I would like to share. If I can find a link, I'll post it here so anyone who's curious can take a look. My agent and editor assure me it is a good review (it calls my main character "endearing" and "juicy", which makes me happy) but there is one negative sentence and it's a doozy. It just about knocked the wind out of me. It calls the political musings in the book "unsatisfying and banal." Unsatisfying and banal! Yikes! I think this cut deeply because the political aspect of the book (not to mention my life) is very important to me. Ah well. My agent told me she has a friend who references all his bad reviews when he does readings, and always gets a laugh. So if I say something along the lines of "I'm reading from my politically unsatisfying and banal book" at a reading, you'll know why! It's crazy how those few negative words can burn into the brain while all the lovely ones fade away so quickly!

Salon.com is'is featuring an essay written by a first time author struggling with bad first reviews. As my editor assured me, the trade reviewers (PW, Kirus, etc.) tend to be a little cranky. I hope the author of the essay will find some more thoughtful reviews elsewhere--his book sounds wonderful. Plus, I need to keep reminding myself that my PW review is not bad; it just has that one whopper of a sentence!

The sting of that sentence was alleviated greatly by the fact that I received an amazing blurb from Barbara Kingsolver today. Barbara read an early draft of the book and was very honest with me about all of its flaws and all the work I had ahead of me. She said she would only write an endorsement for a book she truly believes in. I'm so delighted that she believes in it now. Here's what she wrote:

"With fluid skill, bold as brass, Gayle Brandeis has revised the "Song of Myself," reconfiguring "self" as an open circle. This is a novel of passion and consequence, identity and accountability. I love the narrator, her children, her wild ride, and this truly American story of getting mad and getting wise."

In other review news, Google Alert recently pointed me to this lovely review of The Book of Dead Birds, written by the fabulous author Damian McNicholl. Thanks so much, Damian!

Check it out--www.gaylebrandeis.com.

Any comments/suggestions are very welcome.

Many thanks!

My forthcoming novel, Self Storage (Ballantine, January, 2007) now has its very own MySpace page! Please consider adding it to your Friends list so I can keep you updated about readings, contests, and other fun stuff related to the book.

Many thanks!

One of my MySpace friends posted a fun bulletin, where you look up your name with the word "needs" and see what comes up. I didn't feel like passing on the bulletin to my entire Friends list, but I figured I'd share what Google found for me here (these are my favorites from the first few pages):

--Gayle needs to be able to talk to both people who are having the Telephone Reading at the same time.

--Gayle needs your full attention and doesn't want you to be distracted.

--Gayle needs to keep the closet lean

--Gayle needs 3/4 yard of green felt and 5/8 yard of blue felt

--Gayle needs no second invitation

--Gayle needs a learning object to help students visualize muscle contraction.

--Gayle needs red hair (!)

--Gayle needs supervision due to her impulsive instincts

--Gayle Needs a Nap (ain't it the truth)

--Gayle needs to cut down slowly on chocolate and not go cold turkey as she will start to imagine everything is made of chocolate

--Gayle needs you!

What do you need?

No, I'm not talking about clothing for very tall women. Amazon.com has a new feature, Amazon Shorts, where you can buy short fiction and essays for 49 cents a pop. Two of my short stories, Collateral and Cherry Cherry Cherry, are now available there. Take a gander if you like (there will be more information on the pages soon about my process writing the stories, etc...)