Too Many Apps

I tried to link Pinterest to this site, but no luck. I'm WAY out of my depth. Come to think of it, I remember my dad saying, way back when he was dealing with transistors: "What in the Sam Hill is next? I can't keep up with all the reading on this stuff, things are changing so fast." He would have been totally surprised at how much I was able to teach myself about computers, given my lifelong aversion to machines, but I think I've come just about to my limit of understanding, if I do in fact understand at all. My technique is generally what my husband calls: "Sending the monkeys in."

10 Day Book Club

I am, obviously, a sometime blogger, but would love to follow yours. Good for you!

Food

My article on food today on "This Mama Cooks!" might be if interest, as it deals with a subject we all confront sooner or later. If you garden, or even think about it, I hope you enjoy it.



Here's the URL: . Click on "This Mama Cooks on a Diet."

Accidental Cowgirl Appears in Person!

If you live in Sonoma County, check this out:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mary Lynn Archibald
707-395-0542 Phone
707-529-9873 Cell
marylynn@winecountrywriter.com

“Accidental Cowgirl” to Appear at Cloverdale Seniors’
Annual Spring Literary Luncheon

Healdsburg, CA March 26, 2010—Mary Lynn Archibald, long-time local resident and three-time award winner for her second book, Accidental Cowgirl: Six Cows, No Horse and No Clue, will be the guest speaker at Cloverdale Senior Center’s Spring Literary Luncheon, Saturday, April 17th.

The theme of the book, the saga of how two suburban greenhorns spent twelve years attempting to raise a herd of Polled Hereford cattle in the remote wilds of Trinity County California, has a much wider appeal than even the author expected. As one magazine columnist put it recently, “Don't we all, deep down, long to be cowgirls and cowboys?

It was, however, something that the then interior designer had never planned to do—shoveling manure being somewhat incompatible with manicured nails and chic business suits.

“In 1990, we heard the wilderness call to us, and God help us, we answered,” says Archibald. Her book, now in its second printing, is the humorous account of what happened next. Says reviewer Alice Berger: “Rarely do I find a book so enjoyable that I savor it in small nibbles, like fine chocolate. Accidental Cowgirl is such a book.”

Mary Lynn believes in the personal essay and memoir form. “People nowadays are truly interested in sharing their own history as it is made,” She also teaches the art of memoir.
Her next book contrasts her small-town idyllic childhood with her young adulthood in the big, bad city of San Francisco, learning the ropes as a chorus girl, fashion model, sales clerk and switchboard operator.

Archibald will speak about and read from her work at the Senior Center Literary Luncheon from 1-3 P.M. on the 17th. The Center is located at 311 Main Street in Cloverdale. Call 894-4826 to reserve a table for 4-6, or to make an individual reservation. A $25 donation is requested. You may also reserve online at their website: http://www.cloverdaleseniorcenter.com/?p=466.

The author will also be signing her books at the event.

Wanderlust

Off to Albuquerque to sell books and meet new family members.

I'll get the newsletter out when I return, I promise!

If you're a Sonoma County resident, Accidental Cowgirl will be available next week at Copperfield's Books. Pick up a copy, and let me know what you think.

Thanks, ML

"Problems are good, not bad. Welcome them and become the solution. When you have solved enough problems, people will thank you."
- Mark Victor Hansen

Amazing OpenSource Software!

If you are ready for some easy (well, relatively easy) web development software (which YOU control yourself, even though you are a programming virgin), then check out Joomla! I'm getting some help from an aficionado in Scotland, no less, and I'm starting to understand it, a little.

You can do an awful lot with it, and you are your own webmaster. Gotta love that.

Still speaking to fraternal organizations, etc., and selling books! (Distributor still doesn't have them in the warehouse, but I have some, and I'm selling those.) What an education in marketing I'm getting with Accidental Cowgirl. And what fun!

Rain on Sunday, they say. Fall is here. Get your pumpkins ready. Our dog always helps!

Ciao,

ML

Back In The Saddle

Got back from Yosemite last Tuesday, but hard to get back to deadlines, writing my next book, etcetera.

I had two free days before the conference, so we saw some of the park, had lunch at the Ahwanee Lodge, and checked out the wildlife (not at the lodge). Saw lots of chipmunks, but no bears. Fine with me! Yosemite is very dry this year, and that's sad, whether you believe Al Gore or not.

Met lots of nice folks, sold lots of books, and learned a bit while renewing an old acquaintance in Bonnie Hearn Hill, a former writing teacher, who started the conference four years ago.

Speaking of nice folks, check out the Spirited Woman website link above. Nancy Mills has a great newsletter. Mine (Wine Country Words) will publish again, as soon as I get caught up—promise.

I'm starting to market in earnest—I plan a book launch party for Accidental Cowgirl this month, and will do a road trip in Oct., Nov., to meet with book clubs, speak at bookstores and to other interested parties. Please let me know if you'd like me to speak to your organization.

Ciao,

ML

If Lateness is A Virtue, I am the Virtue Queen!

I've been thinking (that's why I'm late with my newsletter—I can't do two things at once), and as the galley proofs of my latest memoir have just come of the press, my thoughts of course turned to farming and ranching, both of which I've tried, and don't recommend if you enjoy leisure and money as much as I do.

But it was fun (and exhausting) while it lasted (12 very busy years).

Should your thoughts turn to something similar, check out the web page link above. I write for New Holland, but for a different branch, ACRES: Innovative Country Living Magazine (see it at your friendly neighborhood New Holland dealership). Great general and specific ranching and farming and country living articles abound in both ACRES and the New Holland News, so if you're serious—and you'd better read "Accidental Cowgirl" before you throw your cowboy hat into the ring—browse the site above. You can see a preview of "AC" at my website, .

I'll keep you posted.

Newsletter is coming soon! Meanwhile I just have one thing to say: "Yeehaw!"

—ML

New Link for Writers, Editors and Publishers

Hey, Savvy Ladies,

Check out my new blogger panel, (at bottom),featuring the Publilsher's Lunch Job Board.

Lots of new listings are created every day, so if you're jobhunting in the literary mode, it's a great place to look, and it's updated every day.

Meanwhile, I go back to writing my next newsletter, and figuring out how to market my new book, Accidental Cowgirl, in the next few months.

It's going to Book Expo America in New York City, as is Briarhopper, my first book.
I'm excited!

Question: Would you like to see decorating snippets, or gardening, or herbs or writing or small business or country living thoughts, or health, or...what? I'm open to a conversation about any or all of these topics, and if you ask a question I can't answer, I'll let you know, or try to find one.

Best,

ML