Epic!

I am still riding on the awesomeness of yesterday. Ahhh, it has been amazingly HOT and sunny here in typically cold and gray San Francisco. I have been love, love, loving the heat and sunshine... when I can get outside to enjoy it, that is. I've been stuck inside most of the day! But yesterday, Dave picked me up from work and we went straight to the beach for an early evening, sunset surf session - amazing! The water was great - perfect, 4-foot longboard waves, consistent sets... tons of people in the water, playing around, having a great time! Music on the beach, BBQs set up, kids and dogs - everybody in the water. It was like Hawaii or Mexico, right in my own backyard.

Got my proposal polished and finished and sent out the door yesterday, too! Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck! It's soooooo different working with this book than with my novel - so much good energy - I'm feeling really clearheaded and jazzed about it right now.

Been working full-time proofreading but it's mellow. Heading to Florida next weekend for a getaway with the girls - feeling like shopping this weekend for the trip! Summer clothes - yay. Planning Hawaii in Sept. with Dave.... Just riding the waves, staying stoked.

world book day and the memphis blues

i had no idea world book day even existed. yay for books!... and, um - copyright, too :-) i just finished reading tommyland, tommy lee's autobiography - that was fun. humorous, insightful, entertaining. thanks to his co-writer anthony bozza, tommy comes across as not quite so dopey, which is refreshing. but dopey or not, he is yummy and a kickass drummer, anyway. yay, tommy lee.

i'm heading to memphis with my mama this weekend to check out graceland and blues country - very exciting, indeed. april has been a busy, incredibly full month with full-time freelance work, teaching yoga, finishing my book proposal, a trip to vegas, my mom in town to plan her wedding, and, y'know, life - so i'm very much looking forward to a long weekend vacation in a warm (though possibly thunderstormy) place, eating bbq (bbq what? tofu? it will be interesting to see how vegan i can actually eat in memphis and beyond), enjoying ice-cold beers and groovy blues with the bride-to-be. and very much looking forward to a slower pace come mid-may. till then, it's life as usual - whatever usual is these days!

Is this for real??

U.S. Customs blocked Sebastian Horsley, this dandy writer who wears top hats all the time and used to use drugs and then wrote a book about drugs and sex and stuff, from entering the country on the grounds of "moral turpitude"?? Right. Because the United States is sooooooooo morally pure and righteous, hmm? What the fuck?? If the U.S. customs had any idea what went on right here in good ol' San Francisco, they'd kick the whole CITY out of the country! Debasement! Moral turpitude! Write a book about it! Yippee! Unfuckingbelievable. And yet, sadly, so believable.

Read the full story on CNN here! And go ahead and buy the guy's book here!

**LOVE!!**

WOWOWOW. I am blown away by these "lovely ladies of the undead" by Sylvia Ji. I want them all! Here are a few of my favorites, then be sure to visit her website to see all of her other unbelievably LOVELY and gorgeous paintings! She is for sure my new favorite. By far, far, far. Anyone wanna buy me one? My birthday's in two weeks! ;-)

So many books

In working on the proposal for this fire dancing book, I've been doing a lot of research. Yes, as we know, there are practically NO books about fire dancing as we know it. That's why I'm here! But there ARE books about other things that are, in passing, related to fire dancing, like Burning Man and raves. Some of them only mention fire dancing a li'l bit, but they are otherwise great books. These, if you want to check them out, are what I'm talking about:

• This is Not A Rave: In the Shadow of a Subculture, by Tara McCall - she really encapsulates so much of the vibe of raving in the '90s: phat pants, overalls, pigtails, and all. Focuses mostly on Canadian raves (she's Canadian), but some of the quotes/interviews are priceless.
• This is Burning Man, by Brian Doherty - if you ever wanted an in-depth history of how Burning Man got started, this is your book. Published a few years ago, it doesn't cover the growth of uber-dance-camps and the "who's the DJ?" atmosphere that's taken over in many circles, but still a compelling read.

And it's not a book, but if you haven't ever read anything about fire dancing and don't know where to start, go to Home of Poi - read the histories! If you've been to HoP and only ordered new poi toys, you're missing out. Give yourself an hour or a few and read through their documentation. Some of it is incredibly helpful!

Baby steps, this little bugger of a book, but that's how everything starts, isn't it?

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Kiss me, I'm kind of Irish!

A lovely song to celebrate the day ~ enjoy!

Fire dancing! Yes, indeed - fire dancing

That's what this blog is all about, right? ;-) It's true, I haven't posted anything about actually fire dancing in about a year six months - so long! I realized this tonight when I was online for a writing class (more about that later) and the topic of blogs came up. I thought... hmmm... it's been a while since I wrote about fire dancing. On my blog, that is! See, I've finally been getting my butt in gear with that fire dancing book that I've been talking about for so long. And I'm taking an awesome, incredible online class through mediabistro to help me gather my thoughts, my information, and - well, to help me get my shit together!

This is the second class I've taken with mediabistro and it's definitely the best of the two. The other was (well, still is) a magazine writing class, but I feel a little cheated on that one, because the one person I was counting on for both my Q&A and my human interest feature has completely flaked and disappeared. No interview for you! I'm considering taking another magazine course, but these classes are damn expensive and, well, I'd rather focus on my book for now.

On to the fire dancing book! I'm learning soooooooo much about writing a book proposal. I can't even imagine trying to do it otherwise. That is, I can't even believe I ever considered trying to write a proposal on my own. Hahahahahaha! My concept, my ideas about my book, my marketing information - everything has been turned upside-down or inside-out and wow - it's wayyyy better now. Every little bit is way better.

The novel is still out there, still floating around... No bites yet, but I can't even really think about that one yet. It's all about the new book, research and writing and letting the creative juices flow. So, that said, here's a very badly framed and where's my face? it's in the fire! picture of me playing with my hoop, and upcoming, expect to see more posts on actual FIRE dancing here - amazing! Can she be for real?