Kristin Bair O'Keeffe: Writer. Mom. Teacher. Traveler.

KBOK Visits "Writer Unboxed" To Talk About THIRSTY and Inspiration

What inspired me to write THIRSTY? What moves me as a writer? What gets my heart thumping and my pen moving?

Find out today at Writer Unboxed.

3 Crazy Things About Me (and more)

On Tuesday, September 29, I'm visiting two terrific blogs, talking about Thirsty, writing, having vertigo, and my writing nooks in Shanghai. Check out the posts at:

AskWendy

and

Author Exposure

"Positively Pittsburgh" -- Online Radio Show Tomorrow (9/28, 7 p.m., EDT)

FYI  I'll be chatting about THIRSTY with host Joanne Quinn-Smith and a couple of other terrific Pittsburgh writers tomorrow on "Positively Pittsburgh," an online radio show.

Tune in at 7 pm. (eastern time ) on Monday, September 28.

Here's the link: Positively Pittsburgh

Double Happiness: Tully and Thirsty -- September 26

Back home in China, the Mandarin character for double happiness is everywhere (necklaces, napkins, posters, wrapping paper, paperweights, t-shirts, etc.), and it means just that...lots and lots of happiness.

Today, September 26, 2009, is day of double happiness.

One year ago today on September 26, 2008, Andrew and I were united with Tully in Vietnam. Somewhere around 3:00 in the afternoon (after a rather crazy morning/lunchtime of driving to the orphanage in Vinh Long, eating, and waiting/waiting/waiting), one of the nannies put Tully in my arms, and after what seemed like a forever-king-of-wait, I became a mom. (Isn't she the cutest, sweetest, most beautiful little thing in the world?) It's hard to believe an entire year has passed. Tully runs and talks and dances and sings and tells us what to do ("Sit," she says, pointing. "Sit.")

And today, September 26, 2009, I will launch my debut novel THIRSTY with a reading/celebration at Jabberwocky Books in Newburyport, Massachusetts (my stomping ground before we moved to China). Andrew will be there cheering me on with Tully in his arms; I will read from my novel.

Double happiness everywhere.

Lucky, lucky me.

New Author Video! Me in Shanghai Talking About My Debut Novel THIRSTY

New video! Me in Shanghai talking about THIRSTY, my writing process, similarities between Pittsburgh in 1883 and Shanghai today, and more. (And you get a glimpse at my life on the other side of the world. Check out the parking monitor guy...he's funny!)

Click here to go to the video on YouTube. Once you're done watching it, rate it. (Good rankings lead to more viewers, and the more, the merrier!)

The new video is also on the THIRSTY website.

Let me know what you think!

(And oh, yeah, 5 days until the launch!)

7 Days to the Official Release of THIRSTY Or 7 Things You Can Accomplish in 7 Days

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One week...just 7 days...until the official launch of THIRSTY. Got me thinking during my walk this morning (where I do a good bit of my best thinking...especially when I'm walking with my daughter in Maine under blue sky and sunshine with cormorants fishing just ten feet away) about things you can accomplish in 7 days' time:

1. Launch your debut novel. (yay!)
2. If you don't have a debut novel to launch, spend your week saying hello to random people in grocery store parking lots. (This doesn't necessarily take a week to do, but it might take a week to get someone to say hello back. Why are people so weird in grocery store parking lots? I won't climb on my soapbox right now, but I have a lot to say about human behavior in grocery store parking lots. Get back to me.)
3. Read One Hundred Years of Solitude. (Don't look up the words you don't know...that will only slow you down. Just make up definitions as you go along.)
4. Eat 7 foods you've never eaten before. (Quinoa, anyone?)
5. Attend a conference. Go to one where you'll learn something new: yoga, flag football, podcasting.
6. Take a vacation from constant input. You don't even need to leave your house, but no phone, no Blackberry, no Internet, no iPod, no email, no TV, no radio. (Turn 'em all off and see what happens.)
7. Make up 7 words (1 per day). Use your new words in conversations. See if anyone notices OR uses them back at you.

Ta da! One hell of a good week ahead...

9 (Days to the Official Release of THIRSTY)

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We're into the final countdown.

This is it.

My little sister called last night (the middle little sister...the nurse). "I'm holding your book in my hands," she said. I could hear her smiling. I smiled back.

This book thing, I realize, is a little surreal for everyone who's been close to me since the beginning...since I started writing when I was eight. Since my "early projects" like "The Hummingbird" and "Sir Lanceless" and "Telly the Telephone." Thirsty-five years I've been working toward this. Step by step. Word by word.

Want to read a little more about how my writing dream began? Click here.

The Eagle (a.k.a. Kristin Bair O'Keeffe) Has Landed (and barely slept...)

Yee ha!

We're back in the U.S.A!

But first...

This was us in Shanghai on Friday, September 18 (yep, that's a printout of the cover of THIRSTY...I carried it for good luck):

And this was Tully in Shanghai's Pudong Airport BEFORE traveling halfway around the world. Way more chipper than she was at the end of the journey:

And finally, after thirty-six or so hours of traveling, Andrew, Tulliver, and I made it to the U.S. (One very important question: Why aren't there any luggage carts at the Newark airport? Some kind of traveler torture? Designed just for families with kids under two? A lesson in not traveling with too much crap?)

Now we're hunkered down in Maine under a bright blue sky, frolicking (yep, that's right, frolicking) in the first crunchy fallen leaves and twirling under the sun.

I'm drinking water from the tap, eating loads of fresh blueberries, and loving the freedom I have on the Internet.

Of course, there is the J E T L A G (which, by the way, someone needs to find a cure for...or a preventative treatment that actually works...somebody?...anybody?...). Tully slept well for a while last night. Then the I'm-asleep-but-my-body-is-so-confused crying began. Andrew and I took turns rubbing her back. She'd stop crying and fall asleep for an hour or so, then the I'm-asleep-but-my-body-is-so-confused crying would begin again. Wish I could do more to help her through it, but the good news is that every day it will get a little better. Soon (in a week or two) we'll all be properly sorted.

Now...where's the coffee?

Packing...for the THIRSTY Book Tour!

Computer?

Check.

Tully and Andrew?

Check.

Passport?

Check.

E-ticket numbers?

Check.

Pop-Tarts for the plane trip?

Check.

Excitement about returning to the U.S. for the THIRSTY book tour?

Check, check, check!

See you Stateside!

Announcing the THIRSTY Spike Day Contest Winners

I am happy to report that Spike Day was a big success. Thirsty started out in the rankings somewhere around #700,000 and at its peak almost broke #1,000.

Whoo-hoo! (and thanks, thanks, thanks!)

Congratulations to the 6 winners of Thirsty's Amazon Spike Day Giveaway!

The following 5 people won very cool bookmarkers designed by an artist in Shanghai:

    Carol Grosky
    Karrie Z. Myton
    Alison Wells
    Ellen Saunders
    Sherry David

And Mar Junge won the review of a 10-15 page fiction manuscript!

A heartfelt thanks to everyone for ordering Thirsty and participating in Spike Day! Your support means so much.

(If you didn't win, don't fret. Just check into the blog regularly. I'm going to be doing a number of fun giveaways in the upcoming weeks.)