Seven Wheelchairs available at Amazon!!!

Whenever a bell rings, an angel gets his wings AND an author gets published. Do you hear that bell dinging? Gary Presley's memoir is listed at Amazon and we can pre-order his books for delivery in October. Tra-la- tra-la. The angels are singing and waiting for their books to arrive.

I've placed my order. Have you?

Why would I, you ask? Well, evidently you don't know Gary if you must ask. He's unique, and his life's story is a delightful blend of humor, anger, frustration and unvarnished truth with a touch of romance. You think life has been rough for you? Think about turning 17, anxious to step into manhood, ready to grab the world by the tail and make your mark. He was so ready to take that step and then polio made it impossible for him to ever take another step. For the past almost 50 years, Gary has fought for every minute of quality of life. First entombed in an iron lung he helplessly lived at the mercy of white hatted nurses, orderlies, doctors and that unfeeling machine that pumped air in and out of him when his own body refused.

His book "Seven Wheelchairs" tells about his journey 'boob high' to the world. He doesn't cover up, draw back or sugar coat anything.

The book, beautifully written, honestly told, is enough reason to put out $17 for a copy. But for us there is more to the story. Gary has been a friend for almost a decade, beginning as a fellow writer at the Internet Writing Workshop and then becoming my strength when my husband was diagnosed with ALS and we had to quickly learn about living with a disability.

Gary shared tips and contacts concerning wheelchairs, navigating in one, and where not to go. He mentioned opening doors -- who knew it could be so difficult to get into and out of a building or room based solely on the type of door handle and hinges? Who thought about taking along a urinal for those times when a handicapped accessible bathroom doesn't present itself.

Who knew how much anger we would feel when someone parked in a handicapped space, leaving my husband to try to walk across the parking lot. Then find out they were making a delivery -- no handicap sticker, just a big old Mercedes and a lot of ego, and the temerity to tell my husband that it wasn't a big deal.

Gary knew everything, including the anger. It took him alot of years to laugh it off. He's helping us to do it in a much shorter time.

If anyone wants a clearer understanding of living with disabilities, how to socialize and interact and understand a person who must go through so many more hoops just to get his pants on in the morning, then read Gary's book.

Birthing a book

The joy of bringing a new book into the world sets my blood swirling and my lips spreading into a big old grin. I love being privy to the back story, to the formation, to the creator's frustrations and triumphs when writing a book. I've been allowed to view this grand event several times and each time I get giddy with joy at their triumph. The fact that I may have contributed in some small way makes me content that I've not lived this life in vain.

Once again I've been watching a gifted writer put his words together into a new book. Today I read a piece he's compiling from his memoir to offer to literary magazines. He has the heart of a poet with a touch of bawdy humor here and there. My kind of writing.

And yet, the subject of his memoir, it could be so maudlin and oh woe is me or he could bluster his way through and say 'it ain't so tough.' But he does none of those things, he gives the reader total honesty. Sometimes more than perhaps you'd want because the subject does make us face our own mortality. The author was stricken with polio at the peak of his young life, as he was stepping from childhood sandals into adult dancing shoes. Well, he could say it better. But by the age of 20 he had spent time in an iron lung, gave up his hard fought, almost achieved independence, and became totally dependent, even more so than old Blanche Duboise, on the kindness of strangers. His memoir takes us into a world where he travels by wheelchair 'boob high' to the world. I think that should be his title, by the way.

He's been struggling with rewrites for the past few months. Next he will face marketing and book signings and all of the things in between that writers rarely think of when trying to get one book sold. I hope he sells tons of books, makes the best seller's list, and sits down to write several more books. He is a voice that will add greatly to those already shouting from the bookshelves.

Watch for the name: Gary Presley. He has several items available to read online, his website and his blog site and his offerings to the Internet Writing Workshop blog as well as their book review site. Here are a few urls to consider:

http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/su2007/presley.html
http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/su2004/presley.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2002/03/07/eating_ants/index.html

Gary isn't my first encounter up close and personal with the pains of birthing a book. I worked for a year with Peggy Vincent as she labored over her memoir Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. Another voice that needs to be heard. And her sense of humor. I snorted my way through that book. Spit coffee on my keyboard, laughed out loud and scared the cat. And then so poignant. A life well lived. But oh, the book she could write NOW about the life she's living AFTER Baby Catcher.

And Linda Swink, a dear friend, and lifelong member of Toastmaster's and the book "Speak With Power and Grace" that she wrote about public speaking. One of the best and most helpful books I've read on the subject. It would have been longer, but she allowed me to do a bit of editing for her. "She's currently finishing up a much needed reference on men who have had a military installation named in their honor, titled Lest We Forget: The Naming of Our Military Installations." It should be published in 2008. The heroes she uncovered in her research -- it is a litany of bravery that has for the most part been long forgotten. A must read even if you aren't into military history and research.

I've reviewed a number of books through the years for various venues from Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus to Crescent Blues E'magazine and Gumshoe Review. I like to think that my reviews may have contributed a bit to the authors successes. Well, there might have been a few that I might have been a bit detrimental.... But several quote my reviews on their websites and on the back cover of their books -- those help me feel, again, as if I'm contributing something good and worthwhile.

And maybe, just maybe, after having reached my Nanowrimo goal ahead of schedule, maybe someday I'll get to go through this process with my own book. Keep your fingers crossed.

So many books!

The summer reading habit remains strong and vibrant. In a perpetual summer, it is difficult not to set work aside and read year around. Temperatures are reaching into the 90s, the true Florida summer has arrived, and most of us are beginning our hibernation until the temperatures cool. It is the perfect time to read. Well, when isn't the perfect time?

Maybe perfect because people are introducing me to such exquisite books. I previously mentioned Diane Ackerman's Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden. That one is a keeper. I'm checking out Amazon and buying a copy that I can revisit again and again.

Amazon is my new best friend and worst enemy to my budget, I fear. For in addition to Ackerman's delight, a friend turned me on to the Outlander series by another Diane -- UK author Diana Gabaldon. I zipped through the first book Outlander and its 627 pages finishing up at 2 a.m. Friday night. It was that bittersweet moment when you've reached a satisfying ending and at the same time realize you've finished the book and must say good-bye to the land, time, and characters. Thankfully this is the first of five or maybe it is six books in the series and I'm heartened to hear that the author does not disappoint. So I'm impatiently waiting for book two to arrive: Dragonfly in Amber.

I'm not normally a staunch sci-fi or fantasy reader. Yes, yes, I enjoyed Harry Potter, and of course Charles de Lint's novels, as well as Alice Hoffmann which may or may not be sci-fi/fantasy but includes a bit of woo-woo in her writings (think Practical Magic) and of course Madeline L'Engle and Ursula K. Le Guin. Maybe Gabaldon's series is not strictly classified sci-fi or fantasty. It smacks of bodice ripper romance, time travel, historic Scotland (1700s) and a touch of sadistic homosexuality, but mostly it exemplifies rare fine story telling.

In the meantime I may hang around Gabaldon's website or Google interviews online. I always like to know more about the author and the process and what else she's working on. Speaking of websites, check out Marisha Pessl's site for her first novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics published by the Penguin Group for a six figure advance. This novel has best seller, movie, and success written all over it. The writing is exquisite, the voice, the creativity, the plotting, the mystery....well done. Quite a departure from Gabaldon's setting, this novel takes place in contemporary U.S. and tells of a daughter and her father, a professor on the edge of academia. The heart of the book is actually a murder mystery, but this is so much more and so finely written that I expect to savor it for awhile.

A writing friend's reading list has me scrambling to line up copies to read next:

Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - David Eggers

Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Bangkok 8 - John Burdett

Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield

Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner

The Mercy of Thin Air - Ronlyn Domingue (I know nothing about this book, but the title intrigues me).

So there is much to do. Much to read. I love to hear what others are reading. Please feel free to post your favorite reading lists.