5 Things You Can Do to be a Part of the “50/40” Book Launch

1. Tell everyone about 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR 40s! Stay “in the know” about our tour schedule and media appearances, by getting on the list to receive our “Hot Flash” emails. (To do so, just email Sheila.)

2. Ask for the book at your library and favorite bookstore(s). If they don't have it, ask them to order it. It's available through the following distributors (and chances are very good your library and bookstores use one of these): Publishers Group West, New Leaf, The Ingram Book Company, Partners West, Baker & Taylor, and Dempsey (Canada).

3. Post customer reviews. (YOU get 5 stars for this!) amazon.com and barnes and noble.com are the biggies, of course, but GOOGLE THE TITLE! You'll find that the book is available at lots and lots of obscure little online shops. We're betting they'd appreciate your customer review, too! Heck yeah. Play your cards (er, reviews) right, and you could end up with FIFTY stars!

4. Blog with us at www.50waystoleaveyour40s.blogspot.com. OH! Here you ARE! Well, thanks for coming. Click by often, would you? Post LOTS of comments (or at least one -- please?). Watch for contests and prizes. And send the link to everyone you know, so they can blog with us, too!

5. Come to a book-signing event. And bring your friends! Or, hey! Help us book an event in your area. Email us, if you have any "ins" anywhere.

Thanks & Love from SK & PS

Scenes from a Book Launch

Garcia Street Books, Santa Fe, NM
March 19, 2008

Garcia Street's announcement board.

(Many thanks to Peg's dad, Dr. Steven Spencer, for taking all but the last of these photographs. The last one's by Sheila -- who's always on the look-out for a metaphor come true!) Enjoy! Wish you could'a been there!

Do we look excited or what?

We were excited, alright -- not least because we found the place only minutes before "show time." Thanks for driving, Peg! The fault was all mine. I just had to make 50 different bookmarks for the occasion!
Peg here: Notice how full this bookstore is. They don't waste a shred of space! Our attendees sat on chairs tucked in between the islands of books you see here and shelf-covered walls. Very cozy!


This is us (Sheila, L, Peggy, center) with Andrea, one of the bookstore workers. So lovely of her to greet us with such a warm smile --- and wine to calm our nerves!
My Dad noted that Andrea and her colleague, Aaron, were smiling throughout the event. And that in spite of us staying an hour past closing time! They were very gracious and generous. And they sold a bunch of our books, too!

While the two of us signed books, audience members enjoyed some of our toys. The woman in the foreground is looking at the "twin scales" she's weighing in on -- to see if she's literally balanced.
To the right is Peggy's sister Sally, trying out our Loofah-on-a-Stick. (You whack yourself with it --- feeeeels sooooooooo gooooooood!) And her son, Peggy's nephew Jaden is there in the middle, putting the Hoberman sphere through its paces. Yes, we had a grand old time, authors and audience alike. Didn't break out my guitar pillow, but.... next time!
We passed out Sheila's beautiful home-made bookmarks, each of which has a Way (chapter) title and brief description, then the audience members enjoyed reading their pick out loud. We also used these nifty souvenirs to help us randomly pick sections of the book to read aloud. The folks were very game, even getting up from their chairs to try out one of our "cool moves," a Key favorite called "Lasagne Loca!"

And finally, here's that "metaphor come true" -- Peg's and my BIG WISH to finish the doggone manuscript... so New World Library could make it into a book... so stores like Garcia Street Books could sell it... and so we could actually go there and "meet our public" (even if they were mostly Peg's family that night!). Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making our BIG WISH come true!

Media Whirl!

Heavens to Betsy, where have we been these past three weeks, Peg and I? Well, I'll tell you. We've been to Garcia Street Books, in Santa Fe, to launch our book tour. We've been to KCHF TV-11, also in Santa Fe, to tape our first television interview. (Watch for it on YouTube -- seriously! As soon as our publicist gets a hold of the tape, she'll be uploading it.) We've been to Classical KHFM 95.5 FM, right here in Albuquerque, to tape our first radio interview (with the charming Kip Allen). And we've been "live" in Ventura, CA, during afternoon drive-time, no less, on "The Maria Sanchez Show," on KVTU 1520 AM.

Those appearances involved the two of us together. Plus, I (Sheila) have been on the air, mostly live, and mostly on the AM band, on the following stations---since launching our media campaign on St. Pat's Day a couple Mondays back. (Major thanks to Peg Booth and Brittany Cohen, of Booth Media, for lining up this radio campaign -- and to New World Library, and especially our publicist Kim Corbin, for making ALL our media coverage possible!)

KRDO- 105.5 FM- Kansas City, MO (Host: Charlie Thomas)

WCMY 1430 AM, Ottawa, IL (Host: Karen Rhodes)

KSFR- 90.7 FM - Santa Fe, NM (Host: Diego Mulligan)

CKLW- AM 800- Bingham Farms, MI (Host: Mike & Lisa)

KLYC- AM 1260 - McMinnville, OR (Host: Eve Fuller)

WMMM- 105.5 FM Madison, WI (Host: Kitty Dunn)

KLPW- AM 1220 - Washington, MO. (Host: Diane Jones)

KJAN- AM 1220 - Atlantic, Iowa. (Host: LaVon Eblen)

WGAU AM 1340- Athens, GA (Host: Liz Dalton)

KBUR- AM 1490- Burlington, IA (Host: Steve Hexom)

WBZ - AM 1030- Boston, MA (Host: Laurie Kirby; Interviewer: Carolyn Firestone)

.... And there are a whole bunch more coming up.
NOT LEAST! This weekend... Peg and I will be heard live in as many as 38 states, all in one fell swoop of an hour, on "The Brad Walton Show," out of WCCO in Minneapolis, a.k.a. CBS Radio/ Twin Cities. We'll be talking to the Night Owls ( "Call me Bird of a Feather!"*), as we're scheduled from 1:00 to 2:00 in the A.M. -- and this time I don't mean the AM radio dial (though that is where to find WCCO -- at 830 FM, to be exact). Hope you can tune in. Or catch it streaming online at WCCO.

(* The "Bird of a Feather" line is from our Way #22: Seize the Night.)

Don't count yourself among the Night Owls? Okay. KCHF, that Santa Fe station where we taped our first on-camera interview, is making it a lot easier for people to "catch us" on the air. Our half-hour appearance on "Issues and Answers," with host Diane Kinderwater, will air on Channel 11, in Santa Fe (and on cable systems around New Mexico) five times, as follows:

Weds., Mar. 26, 4:30 p.m.
Thurs., Mar. 27, at 10:30 p.m.
Fri., Mar. 28, at 10 a.m. and again at 10:30 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 29, at 10 p.m.

Plus, as I mentioned, the "Issues and Answers" interview is coming soon to a YouTube near you!

Okay, that's the media round-up to date. Wait, make that the broadcast media round-up. We've got a few websites and (dare I say "old-fashioned") print rags to our credit by now. (Yes, I can say old-fashioned, by the way. Do it all the time. More and more often, it seems. Is that another midlife-ism?)

Stay tuned, will you? Peg has photos from our first booksigning event.

Love Love Love,
Sheila

March 4th, revisited

True story about March 4th a year ago. SO GREEN was our Christmas tree the holiday before last --- a beautiful ceiling scraper of 14 feet --- that when we carried it out of here (that is, as we marched forth with it, a year ago yesterday), the thing was actually sprouting new growth! Peg can vouch for this. She came over to work on the book that day, and I called her out to the compost pile to show her: our retired tree, stripped of its holiday bling, yet SELF-adorned with bright shoots of Spring Green, here, there and everywhere! A passionate part of me wanted to stand it right back up in water, but... well, it was March, for heaven's sake, and we'd already had more than one neighbor remark, upon seeing the gentle giant in our great room, still proud as a peacock past Valentine's Day, "Hey, I'd be happy to help you get that out of here!" So we decided to march forth on March 4th, out the back door, bearing the beauty to its final resting place, where it lay sprouting as it died.

Sigh.

Well, this year the winter holidays are long past, and I marked (er, marched?) the day in a manner much more in synch with the season: I shopped not one but two gardening stores. Mostly, I wanted a blooming bush of some sort, to celebrate the publication of 50 Ways to Leave Your 40s. Chose an orange rose named Rio Samba! Oooooohhh, I love orange. And I love roses! So there you go. Some onion sets hopped into my basket on the way to pay. Oh, and a small pot of shamrocks, to remind me of my papa. (Not only did he have Irish blood, but he was also a March baby who ended up dying in March. And he had an unusual take on the Ides of March. Stay tuned -- I'll tell that story on March 15th. Or perhaps the 16th!)

The second gardening store yielded strawberry plants and a hanging planter for them (so the pill bugs don't get 'em this year), two big packets of wildflower seeds, and --- oh, get this! This is a first for me --- pansies. Yes, this longtime herb-and-veggie grower is taking her first foray into flowers. I have transplanted blooming things into pots before, yes, but it was always for something or someone else. But this year, by gum, our property will be prettier with pots of pansies!

I p-p-peaked at the potatoes I have hidden in the dark pantry. Sure enough, they're sprouting eyes! Still no p-p-pea sprouts, though. I planted a couple different varieties straight into the garden two weeks ago -- was told the only secret to succeeding with peas around here is to plant them by President's Day -- and now I'm checking for sprouts everyday, even through the morning frost. It's been three years since I've gardened. Guess you could say I'm a little eager.

So! How does YOUR garden grow? Even if it's only the metaphorical kind, do tell!

Love, Love, Love,
Sheila

March FORTH!

Left. Left. Left-right-left.
The misspelling in the title is deliberate. After Feb. 29th, I'd have to say March 4th is my next-favorite date -- for its built-in, homonym-like call to action: "Get going," this date seems to say, "March forth!" So I had better, right?

Here are the headlines in the world of 50 Ways to Leave Your 40s:

THE BOOK IS HITTING THE STREETS. Even those who declined amazon's offer of overnight shipping are by now receiving their orders. Amazon sold out -- there's news! -- and were expected to have the book back in stock today. (March forth!) Oh, and the book has RECEIVED ITS FIRST CUSTOMER REVIEW!!! From Colleen Anderson, the sparkling soul who delivered the Answer of the Gods (in the form of the book's title) not one hour after I scribbled the Big Question: "I must write a book! What shall it be about?"

Yes, Colleen Anderson, whose own creative gifts are so numerous as to defy comprehensive description, did bestow FIVE FULL STARS on "50/40." Wanna read all about it? Click here then scroll down a ways. Thank you, Colleen! And give my love to Michael (Davis, her sweetie, and the guy who channeled The Answer in the first place.) Blessings on you both. Congratulations: You're GodParents!!!

BURIED LEAD (there's always at least one in my blog posts): The Chicago Tribune this past Sunday ran our book's FIRST MEDIA REVIEW. We haven't seen it --- HAVE YOU SEEN IT??? Peggy drove all over town looking for it on Sunday, but Albuquerque came up empty. Kim Corbin, our publicist at New World Library, has a call in to her contact at the Trib. And I, meanwhile, put out the call to a select subset of my email address book, whereupon Marty Ronish forwarded the request to her Chicago buds. Fingers crossed that someone will produce the clip --- and that what it has to say about the book is, you know, good!

Finally, what about those DAFFODILS in the photo up there? Well, I am kicking myself for not fetching my camera earlier and oftener, but this is how last Friday's (LEAP Day's) fistful of buds looks today. Actually, there were two fistfuls of buds, one of which I delivered to the doorstep of my beloved coauthor, Peggy Spencer M.D. Because I didn't know for sure she'd be home, I opted for buds rather than blossoms, lest they wilt and die before she discovered them. Of course, as soon as I did select buds about to bloom, I saw in them the perfect metaphor for our book going out into the world. "Let the blooming begin!" I wrote on her card --- and then on another one, for my family, more of my beloveds.

SURPRISE! They turned out to be daffodils. On a guess, I'd said tulips. But no. Sunshiny daffodils. So much did I regret the missed opportunity --- woulda, coulda, shoulda had a fabulous time-lapse film of "Bud to Blossom in Two Days Flat" -- that I went back over to the shop where I bought them, hoping to score another fistful. Again no. Sold out. (Another metaphor for the book, perhaps?)

OK, gotta go. Got a zillion things to do to be ready to be an author. Too late, I know, but I still "gotta." Keep in touch! PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT -- this blog could use a lot more comments! Take a moment, would'ja? Pop in and say hey.

EVEN BETTER: Join Colleen and leave a CUSTOMER REVIEW about 50/40 at amazon.com. There's also a place to enter useful KEYWORDS to help 50/40 come up when amazon's customers are looking for a particular kind of book. THE MORE THE MERRIER!

Whatever's on your agenda for today, do be sure to March FORTH! Ready to put your best foot forward? Left. Left. Left-right-left...

Love, Love, Love (a.k.a. Way #47)
Sheila