Ever since I created my own book trailer for Blacklisted from the PTA, I’ve been collecting other funny book trailers. Frankly, we need more, because there are a lot of funny books out there, as well as a lot of really boring books that people could be tricked into buying if only they had a humorous–though deceitful–promotional strategy. So far I’ve found six, from Linda Yellin, Jenna McCarthy, Alan Arkin, Sarah Maizes, Maya Banks, and of course yours truly. We need more. Truly.

So, get a snack, check out my collection of funny book trailers page, and let me know when you come across worthy additions. (While you’re at it, bring me something, would you? I’m thinking something in a salty/sweet with magical ass fat burning properties.)

Check Out These Posts, Too, If You Want:

• 5 Books I’ve Resolved to Read in 2012
• Live From My Kitchen: Blacklisted Book Trailer
• How My Husband Got Kicked Off My Sales Force

Image: skypax pictures, Flickr

I’m not big on making New Year’s resolutions, per se. However, I love the whole out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new attitude. Of course there is the requisite dieting, but only because I don’t fit into a single pair of jeans. Instead of boring you with my oatmeal and egg white regimen, I thought I’d channel my self-improvement enthusiasm into a reading list.

Here are five books I’ll read in 2012:

40 Days to Personal Revolution by Baron Baptiste 

I read this one last January and tried to follow the 40-day “transformation” program that included daily yoga and meditation. Daily – that was the kicker.

Read the rest of this post on Modern Mom.

Random Bubbly:

• Parenting Trends, and My Too-Tight Sweater
• Girls Trip New York City Style
• Reflections of 2011, aka Holy Crap, I Did All That?

Image: macinate, Flickr

I’ve received a lot of encouragement lately to spend more (okay, SOME) time reflecting on what I have accomplished. This, instead of just charging ahead. So I put it on my to-do list and here I am: Thursday, 10:45 – 11:15, Reflect. And what am I supposed to do, just sit here? No can do. A bullet-pointed list seems in order. We’re coming up on 2012, after all. I wouldn’t want the world to end without a digital record of my accomplishments.

2011, The Recap:

• Started representing Peekaboo magazine on the KFSM 5News ParentingU segment.
• Published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms.
• Presented a session on using Twitter to create community at SheCon new media conference in Miami.
• Published Blacklisted from the PTA, surpassing every single sales goal I set.
• Became a freelance contributor to the Today Show MOMS website.
• Became a columnist for Brooke Burke’s Modern Mom website.
• Pitched a story to Writer’s Digest about how to have a successful book launch party. To appear in the February 2012 issue.
• Released a video book trailer.
• Recorded my first audio essay and posted to this blog.
• Interviewed Wendy Williams for her “After the Show” website feature. They linked to my book.
• Applied for and was granted one of only ten national licenses to produce Listen To Your Mother in Northwest Arkansas.
• Invited to speak at several venues in 2012, including The Divorce Expo in Detroit, the Ozark Writer’s League annual conference in Branson, and the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual conference in Oklahoma City.

This post is sponsored by Serve from American Express. Sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account!

A friend of mine is getting married in February, and although we would have loved to humiliate her with half naked men in the City of Sin, she wanted a pre-wedding celebration in New York City. No arguments from me. I combined a little work with a lot of play. Soon we, her friends, were emailing a blur of schemes and plans, trying to fit in all the things Our Girl wanted to do in the city.

I can’t begin to remember it all, but here are some highlights:

• Got kicked out of a cab in the rain to the tune of, “My shift is ending.”
• Scored half price tix to Jersey Boys, so had to cue up a Frankie Valli Pandora channel. Natch.
• At Bar Americain I saw Bobby Flay, or a reasonable facsimile signing one of his books.
• Ate Magnolia cupcakes.
• Interviewed Wendy Williams.
• Did not learn how to hail a cab. Pissed off a pedicab driver.
• Finally got to meet my online buddy Jacoba Urist, and many others, at a BlogHer meetup.
• Courtney Love sighting at the premiere of Young Adult.
• Met the very cool and stylish Crushworthy Moms, Alison Kleinert and Karina Lepiner.
• Peeked in the windows at Hoda and Kathie Lee at Rockefeller Plaza.
• Shopped in China Town.
• Shopped on Fifth Avenue, where shopping = trying not to trip and topple a rack of clothes on the top floor of Louis Vuitton.
• Got free drinks just for sitting at a restaurant table too long! Lingering pays.

And of course, there was eating–lots and lots of wonderful food. Among my favorites were an amazing artichoke avocado salad at Il Corso, the blue cheese chips at Bar Americain, truffle fries at Rue 57, and the artichoke fritters at Stanton Social.

It was at Stanton Social where us girls squared up for the Rockettes tickets I’d put on my credit card before we hit the city, as well as the Sex and the City tour tickets another in our group had covered. It was fairly comical watching us calculate the dinner bill and reimburse each other for tickets. (And that doesn’t even take into consideration the shady back room dealing in China Town.) On one side of me was a three-way transaction that included two sets of tickets, dinner, and a Hard Rock t-shirt. And maybe a goat. Too many martinis to remember. On the other, a woman handed me $80 cash. The next day she slipped me another $8. And just before we headed for the airport she gave me another $1. The next night we used Serve, and I have to say I’m a fan.

I was a bit apprehensive, as I think some of the girls were as well, but the process was super easy and you can use the funds in your Serve account online or off. (They send you a card.) Check it out for yourself and if you like it, make sure to enter the contest described below.

Remember to sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found by clicking here. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Image Credits: The Marque, Flickr, Lela Davidson

Very disturbing news in the inbox today. I have been invited to write about my “go-to” holiday hairstyle. Upsetting not only because I do not personally possess such a thing, but also because I had no idea this was a thing. So now, in addition to having a) no failsafe holiday hair, and b) zero invitations to impromptu events requiring “holiday hair,” I also have to spend the rest of the season feeling inferior in the knowledge that others have both. Also, I am now obsessed with something called a sock bun. Thanks a lot, BlogHer.

So now I’m supposed to post about my go-to holiday hairstyle.

Um… clean?

My best friend in high school had an older sister who was a hairdresser. When I was sixteen she cut layers into my permed hair and told me about a technique she’d seen demonstrated at a recent hair show. At the end of the cut the stylist rubbed the client’s head around in his crotch and threw her back upright. He called it “the freshly f-cked look, direct from Dallas.”

Theatrical, yes. Perhaps I was unduly influenced, but ever since then I figure the messier the better. No hairstyle survives a good time, anyway. That’s not really a go-to holiday hairstyle, is it? Maybe some tinsel would help?

Surely, you have a better suggestion than mine – you should leave it in the comments here, or just do what the woman in the video does– you know, if you have those horrible long, thick locks. While you’re at it, enter to win $250 in BlogHer’s Life Well Lived sweepstakes. I did. Because mama needs some blowout.

Image Credit: hansvandenberg30, Flickr

Thanks to L’Oreal for

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