The Top Ten Misconceptions About Anointed

One of the things I enjoy most about Anointed: The Passion of Timmy Christ, CEO, which we launched last night at Wordsmiths, is hearing all the crazy misconceived ideas people have about the book. As one small part of all the silliness that went on there, I presented our Top Ten Misconceptions About Anointed list, which I thought I'd share with you here. (Mostly because I don't have a recording of the AWESOME debate event, "I'm Right. You're Stupid." presented by Russ Marshalek, publicist extraordinaire, and Joe Davich, Assistant Director for the Georgia Center for the Book (Hey, Joe, you've got to look at a blog now!!)--and moderated by the Impartial and Supremely Talented Zach Steele.)

1. Anointed has not been banned in Boston—but we’re working on it.
2. Zach did not pay me to publish it.
3. In fact, as you may have read in Baby Got Books, he thinks I’m going to pay *him*.
4. The character of Kelly is not based on Zach’s wife. To my knowledge Alice has never had roundtable discussions with the voices in her head. Her voices are much more interesting than Kelly’s anyway.
5. Zach is not an atheist. He just thinks God is funnier than Morgan Freeman.
6. Jesus did not pose for the cover art, but we do have a release to use his likeness.
7. Zach was not stoned when he wrote Billy Christ, but Billy has refused to comment on his state of mind during those scenes.
8. Reading this book will not send you straight to hell, but it may make you think.
9. My husband did not try to have me committed when I picked up this book--but he did take over Mercury Retrograde's finances.
10. We have not been sued by any church organizations, but we did receive a letter of support from the Church of Scientology.

Feelin' the Love

This week the lit blog Baby Got Books is, as BGB host Tim Frederick puts it, "throwing objectivity to the wind and having a love fest" in honor of Zachary Steele's Anointed, which we're launching this weekend at Wordsmiths in Decatur. He graciously invited me to write today's post, so I wrote a little love letter to small press publishing.

Scroll right down after you finish reading my post for Russ Marshalek's hilarious interview with Zach, which is the post following mine. Tim says it best: those two should have their own reality show.

The funniest thing I've read all day

Russ Marshalek interviews Zachary Steele about Anointed on Baby Got Books.

There is no point in my trying to describe. Go read.

You don't need celestial charts; you've got me

It's uncanny. I have no explanation for it that fits within the paradigm occupied by those who deny the possibility of any sort of validity to astrological theory. All I know is that as soon as Mercury turns retrograde, I am summoned as by some invisible force to the study, where I must work on my own fiction for hours each day.

I'm not telling you I'm an astrological believer. But I think I'd better start putting Mercury's retrograde periods on my calendar, so I can plan for these slowdowns in the office.

Ah, things are lovely in the study. I am deep in the early-development stages of the final draft of The Shadow of the Sun, the novel I was afraid to bring to press first but secretly wished I could--which, I realized earlier this year, really does need to be the first out the door. I think I'll be writing the whole thing in first, with only one PoV: because if I allow myself to explore the journeys of other important characters in the way I wish I could, there's no way I'll bring this in at a length I can afford to produce. In fact I realized this morning that I'm going to have to be very disciplined about what goes in and what goes back into the hopper for later, even with the single PoV, if I am to keep it to a manageable length.

But that single PoV is my favorite character, bar none, so I don't mind too too much.

Meanwhile back in the office, I'm waiting for printer's proofs of the FINAL version of the Shorn trade paperback and (with Wynette's help, of course) developing the e-book version. Gotta get Shorn off the front burner so I can dig into Anointed: Zach delivered revisions to that beauty a few days ago, and now he, Brett, and I will zip through final reads and final tweaks...and then plunge into pre-production.

During the parts of the day when I can tear myself away from the study, of course. :)