Browsing a blog by literary agent Dana Newman, I found this unnerving picture and caption: 

"My daughter rappelling down a slot canyon in Utah, during a trip her 7th grade class took with the National Outdoor Leadership School last week. She’s so much braver than me!"

(I think mother and daughter are both seriously gutsy.)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my friend Carrie Knowles' modeling debut at the event called Redress Raleigh. This was her first run down the runway, and she was born in the same long-ago year that I was. I found the whole undertaking quite bold.

Well, the show — of local designers doing ecological collections –was a sell-out and I hadn't gotten an advance ticket. I stood around at the box office until someone kindly waved me in. I think this was the first time I'd ever attended a runway show. Very exciting, the audience full of people who seemed to have given a lot of thought to what to wear. Interesting people-watching even before the starting gun.

Then the models started their walks. Carrie turned out to be a natural, even did a queenly wave on her last turn.

Here are the pictures, she's the back left person in the group shot.

Goodness gracious!  My novel Revelation, which came out on Kindle last week, is suddenly Number 11 on the Amazon list of Bestselling Books on Mysticism and New Age Religion.  That is, as of 4:00 p.m. Friday.  These figures and lists are updated hourly. 

Here's the page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/12673/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_2_4_last  Not only was it that high on the list, but it was showcased with two other books (one on runes and one on "Fringe-ology") up in the corner of the page as a "Hot New Release."  I hope it's still there, should you pop in for a look.

This is only the second time one of my books has been near a bestseller list.  The first time was when Sister India was for one week a bestseller in the bookstores of New Delhi. 

No way is this anything like what it takes to get on The New York Times bestseller list.  Still, I'm thrilled.

How did this happen?  Well, I put it on sale.  Dropped from $4.99 to $.99.  What a difference an 80% price break makes.

I was only going to keep it at that rate for a day, but I'm enjoying the limelight so much I think I may give it another day.

Revelation, BTW, is about a minister at a liberal college town church who starts hearing the voice of God — an experience that threatens his job, his marriage, and his mental health.  When the book it first came out in hardback, The New York Times said it was "very good….You want to find out what is going to happen."

ON SALE!!!   For one day, my mystical novel REVELATION, newly a Kindle e-book, will be on sale for 99 cents.  That day begins as soon as Amazon makes the change.  Here's the link to check: http://www.amazon.com/Revelation-ebook/dp/B007X45DOO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336660926&sr=1-1   Remember: THE NEW YORK TIMES says it's "very good…You want to find out what is going to happen."

Isn't she magnificent?  Not everyone on this very cool blog is — but all are interesting.  There's some very bold style here.  Go visit Advanced Style.  There's also a hardcover spinoff by the same title coming out this very month.

It has been a tumultuous week. 

All in the course of the last several days, I've necessarily switched mental health drugs (which is always a storm at sea)  and I've released on Kindle my novel Revelation, which Simon & Schuster published in hardback back in the distant days of 1988 and Banks Channel Books put out in paperback a few years later.

It's a slightly unsettling experience to reread a book by one's younger self.  I'll give you the short version of this experience: I first went through the whole book three times making little changes.  Improvements, I hope.  Or at least bringing it  more into my current voice.  The first time I wrote this novel I was 37; this time I'm 63.  The nature of the changes?  Little language fixes, more to the taste I have now.  Removal of  few words here and there that felt to me melodramatic.  And deleting a few thoughts of the main character's that annoyed me. Obviously, it wasn't what anyone would call a real rewrite.  I wonder if someone else would even notice the changes.  But it was a stirring process for me, in part because I hadn't meant to change a word except for the dated mention of Datsun on the first page, which now reads Jeep. (The novel, BTW, is about mystical experience and liberal religion. A college town minister at a college town sort of church has begun hearing the voice of God, though neither he nor his congregation believe in such happenings.  His situation throws his church, his marriage, his faith and his mental health into some confusion.)

And then the second matter this week: the drug for my touch of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I'd developed an allergic reaction to the previous medication, and so I had to go off it cold turkey.  Lots of metaphors come to mind about this experience; they involve catapults, leaping, sinking, speeding vehicles, howler monkeys who can be heard across miles of jungle.  The short version of this story: I walked into the writers group I've met with on Thursdays for just short of 30 years and immediately burst into violent uncontrollable sobbing.  (I'm tempted to use words here that do hint of melodrama, because it was dramatic)  The group was very sympathetic and consoling — and surprised.  Wasn't like me to do that.  Afterwards, I told my doc of this on the phone.  In shocked tones, he said, "In a meeting?! That's uncharacteristic."  Yes, it was. And I found the experience somewhat relieving; something about the grand scale of it felt better than leaking a few tears or staying composed, as usual, and in control.

So now Revelation is several days old in its cyber-life and it's getting some good traffic.  On its second day, it was #44 in Kindle books dealing with mysticism.  (I don't know how many such books there are, but I did at least see the list of the Top 100.) 

And then last night, I cracked open a brand-new orange plastic pill bottle; I only take a smallish dose, but oh, what a difference a milligram makes.

Now, I'm trying to figure out what my overall point is here in this post.  Well, obviously, one of my points is: please go check out my cyber-novel Revelation and download yourself a very affordable copy and/or make a one-click gift of it to one of your metaphysically inclined friends.

And….here's another thing: uncharacteristically pitching a fit in a meeting was, for me, bold.  Or would have been had I felt the choice was at all under my control.

The model in question is not me.

It's my office partner and friend, Carrie Knowles, who will take a turn on the runway tonight in the third annual Redress Raleigh fashion show.   I call this bold — and a lot of fun. 

What she and the other models will be wearing is clothes by local Raleigh designers that are ecologically sound, that are made with social and environmental awareness. "Eco-friendly can be in the form of recycled or remanufactured garments, as well as using eco-friendly fabrics and production processes."

I couldn't manage to embed the video piece on last year's show, but if you click on this link you'll see that it's pretty much like Fashion Week in Paris.   I've also just discovered that the show is sold out.  Probably Vogue's Anna Wintour got my seat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wcfnCf0K3o&feature=channel&list=UL

Brava, Carrie!

Novelist Herman Wouk — age 96! — has a new novel coming out in the fall.  And it's not the least bit posthumous. In the picture in The Washington Post, he looks like a fully operational 78. 

His new book, The Lawgiver, is  a story of characters who are making a movie about Moses.  It is totally au courant: an updated epistolary novel, it includes tweets, Skype conversations, email and text message, according to Publishers Marketplace.

Simon & Schuster, who published his first novel in 1947, will bring it out in the fall. 

Wouk is also the author of, among others, The Caine Mutiny.  I read it as a young teenager in the very early 60s and have never forgotten the story's Captain Queeg, one of the all-time great intriguing characters.

Writer Wouk now starts to seem a pretty intriguing character.  I want to know how he has managed to get a second wind as he cruises toward the ripe round age of 100. 

A late-breaking added thought:  Simon & Schuster also published my first novel, Revelation, in 88.  You reckon they'll get another one of mine out at a similar interval? That would be around the year 2052, which would make me 101.  I see no reason why not.

I haven't had a Coke since mid-morning yesterday — and I poured the last two-thirds of that one out in the bathroom sink.

Nor have I had a tall 20 ounces of McDonald's sweet tea.

Or settled down with a half-gallon of frozen yogurt. 

Having a little change of diet here, dropping some of my long-time daily bad habits.  I'm highly motivated and stirred to do so: First there was my beloved brother Franc having a mild stroke a couple of weeks ago.  Then there was my first truly bad report card from the annual physical bloodwork lab. Then there was the dreadfully persuasive article I read yesterday morning that told me how I'm going to pay if I continue to sin as I so enjoy doing.

Franc is doing well–I am grateful–after giving us a serious scare.

And I'm working on doing better myself, which I never aspired to do.  

All these 63 years, I thought I'd dodged a particular genetic combo bullet:  heart trouble, strokes, and diabetes.  I always thought if I did enough jumprope and kept my weight down, I'd always be able to eat pretty much what I wanted.  Not so.  The days of dodging seem to be over.

Enter: The Days of Water and Sardines and Kale.  (When I spoke with Franc this weekend, he said: "If there's one thing I hate, it's water and chicken and lettuce.")  I made long lists of the possible advantages of eating right: of digging into oily fish and dark-green vegs.  Telling myself to revel in the excitement of "newness of life."  Or greater potential length of life. 

It's working to some degree, I suppose.   I had tuna fish and slaw for lunch — and a modest amount of non-McD. sweet tea.  Very balanced. 

I'm telling myself this is a bold and radical move.  Not sure how long I can keep myself convinced; I had peanut butter out of the jar for dinner (pure peanuts, no sugar added) and the night is still young.

Tonight I came home tired and sleepy, with work that still needed to be done.  Didn't even have the energy it takes to enjoyably procrastinate.  No weeding, reading, or frittering. 

Then I remembered a tidbit of wisdom I'd been saving to post here: about a strategy for shaking an undesirable mood by behaving in opposition to the emotion.  Here's the item from Deborah Barrett, based on ideas developed by Marsha Linehan, founder of dialectical behavioral therapy or DBT.

 "The idea is that often what we 'feel like doing' when we are sad, angry, anxious, or experiencing shame, guilt or other negative emotions tends to make things worse.

When we are depressed, for example, we don't feel like getting out of bed or doing much else, which tends to increase misery. By acting opposite, you might engage in exercise, take a walk in the sunshine, or other active behaviors that go against how you feel — and by doing this, you can lift your spirits.

 Throughout, try to be kind and nonjudgmental to yourself. Do not berate yourself for feeling as you do or for your response; and remind yourself that every emotion is valid. The idea is not to 'talk yourself out of the emotion.' Rather, it is to acknowledge to yourself how you do feel and then seek to engage in something deliberately to improve your experience."

 Remembering this notion vaguely earlier tonight, I decided to try it  — and pushed myself into  doing my half-hour workout: 15 minutes of jumprope and 15 of floor exercises. I got through it.  And it did help: exercise is usually pretty energizing and so is the accompanying self-congratulation. 

Then I dug out the above piece of copy to post here and realized that:  sleepy is not an emotion.  But too late:  the strategy had already worked. Even so, I may go to bed a little early.