Midwest Mini Book tour!

Hoo yeah!
This'll be a first.
I mean, I'm quite comfortable playing music in front of strangers, hiding behind my saxophone amid a band of more interesting others. But me all alone, reading from the book I wrote?
It's causing a bit of anxiety for sure.
A few more experienced friends have offered their 2 cents to "practice, practice, practice." But it just feels silly ... stop watch in hand, it feels like I'm talking to myself, looking out at an imaginary group of folks while reading aloud something I wrote myself. It's ridiculous because I should know these words I wrote & be able to read them, ahem, perform them, with little effort, but WRONG! I'm not even in front of anyone & my throat is already dry and my hands sweaty.
Great.
Anyhow, I'd love for you to come hear me read. I'm counting on my ears turning red at least twice.

Here's the line up:

Saturday, February 16 - Chicago - Quimby's at 7 p.m.
Sunday, February 17 - Madison - A Room Of One's Own at 2 p.m.
Monday, February 18 - Milwaukee - Broad Vocabulary at 6 p.m.

Fellow Ak-ista says...

"I'm reading your book now and it's great. I wish I had read it five years ago when my kid was born, but even now, you are full of words of wisdom and grace - congratulations on a marvellous book."
-Ramor Ryan
author of Clandestines: The Pirate Journals of an Irish Exile (AK Press 2006)

From the AK Press website (akpress.org) -
Ramor Ryan's pirate journals read like Che's Motorcycle Diaries infused with Hunter S. Thompson's wit and flair for the impossible. A shrewd political thinker and philosopher, with a knack for ingratiating himself into the thick of precarious situations, Ryan has been there and lived to tell about it.

As much an adventure story as an unofficial chronicle of modern global resistance movements, Clandestines spirits the reader into subterranean locales, carefully weaving the narrative through illicit encounters and public bacchanals. From the teeming squats of Berlin, to intrigue in the Zapatista Autonomous Zone, a Croatian Rainbow Gathering on the heels of the G8 protests in Genoa, mutiny on the high seas, the Quixotic ambitions of a Kurdish guerilla camp, the contradictions of Cuba, and the neo-liberal nightmare of post-war(s) Central America we see everywhere a world in flux, struggling to be reborn.

Ramor Ryan is a rebellious rover and Irish exile who makes his home between New York City and Chiapas.

Review at About.com

Here's a link to the review at About.com
It only got 4 out of 5 stars, but I still think it's flattering & kind :)


http://punkmusic.about.com/od/punkinprint/fr/mothercombat.htm

More feedback...

Dear Jessica ~

Your books arrived today! Yeah! Thank You!
I opened it up coincidentally to the chapter on breat feeding~
I breast fed Kyle until he was 3 years 3 months ~ not all that frequently
toward the end ~ just at nap time and bed time. Of course he was eating
food too starting around one year. But omg it brought back memories and I can't imagine feeding him any other way~the story about how I weened him I will save until we see you!

Your writing is fantastic and the book...just great! I can't wait to share it with new moms!

-Delia.

Teajay writes...

i just wanted to say that i am about a third of the way through your book
and i am really enjoying it

there was a particular section
where you were describing the reasoning behind responding to your baby's cries quickly
and not letting them "cry it out"
as a sign of respect for the baby's feelings
to build a foundation of trust

i almost cried

it put to words exactly what i had felt for myself when people would question my dedication to making my baby happy
with claims that i would spoil them

thank you

Click here to read Customer Reviews on Amazon

So far, there are 4.
You, too, can write one!

Thanks, mom, yours is sweet :)

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1904859720?filterBy=addFiveStar

From Luci Westphal's blog, back in August ...

Here, at Luci's "Good Hard Working People" blog, you can read a bit about Daddy 'Nesto and the part of his summer spent in NYC and also see the 1st cover of My Mother Wears Combat Boots that Cristy Road drew -

http://goodhardworkingpeople.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-mother-wears-combat-boots.html

And in case you didn't know, Luci flat out rocks, rules & is an amazing person by all counts!