silly for special treatment

if only it read, AdvanceD Reader's...

A few weeks ago, I was invited to join to the From Left to Write book club as a contributor. By "invited to join" I mean that they accepted my application -- it's not as though I was discovered...  That would be sweet, but instead the truth is that I heard about them via a Martha Beck post on Facebook and, intrigued by what I read on their site, applied.  

Of course I applied: they are -- I mean, we are -- an online book club of over 100 bloggers who read books together and then, inspired by our reading, write and share our own stories on our own blogs.  Many of the titles we read are available to us before they appear in bookstores -- we get them in galley-form, something which thrills me.

Looking back as is my habit at year-end, it seems I've been trying on venues, trying to find a place to associate with writing-wise, to write for. It started with applying to be a blogger on YogaJournal (I was not selected, such a good thing).  Since then I've written for Elephant Journal, a local Anusara Yoga-focused site called Bay Shakti, had a piece on the More magazine website, and several pieces as a Local Voice on the San Rafael Patch news site.  In a weird way, somehow I've been looking for a home for my writing, someplace besides this-here my own blog.  It has been an interesting process at the end of which I had my Come-to-Kansas moment: there's no place like home.  It's enough, and probably better, to write my own blog.

And at precisely that moment, I discovered From Left to Write.

Yesterday I received my very first selection, which will be published on January 24, 2012.  Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking is already right up my alley.  I'm only on page 12 but am already super-inspired by the content, taking notes, getting ready for our club session with the author in January.  So great! 

Naturally, because I'm silly for special treatment -- for getting to stand in the VIP line, having the backstage pass, knowing the author -- I am delighted that this book is an Advance Reader's Edition, uncorrected proof.  I love the feel of its rough gray cover in my hands and knowing that I'm reading it first, before everyone else.

Except the other 100 bloggers in my book club.

Stay tuned: I'm feeling as though this match-up will work better than my other recent attempts to branch out and write for other venues.  This will still be my own blog, my own stories written for my own people, but connected to this larger group of passionate readers and writers.  I'm so looking forward to it.  

Meanwhile, I'm excited to dig into this first book, my first opportunity as a contributor to From Left to Write.  How not to love a book about introverts -- about people who'd rather skip the dinner party in favor of curling up with a book?  I'm feeling like I'm in the right place, reading those particular words, at exactly the right time.

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