Go figure
So you write a review of someone’s book, then your review gets reviewed: go figure.
brant (brant) v.i. - to simultaneously brag and rant.
brant (brant) n. - a shared on-line journal where people can post brags and rants about themselves and their personal experiences, opinions, observations, and feelings.
branted, brant-ing, brants intr.v. To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a (we)brant.
brant (brant) n. - a shared on-line journal where people can post brags and rants about themselves and their personal experiences, opinions, observations, and feelings.
branted, brant-ing, brants intr.v. To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a (we)brant.
April 26, 2008
April 25, 2008
Laura’s Sister-in-Law Colleen on Huffington Post
Here’s the link to Colleen Dealy’s piece, written with her radio-show co-host Taylor Baldwin, now up on the Huffington Post: click here. The only problem — not that Laura’s complaining! — is that there was some kind of mix-up because the photo of the blond woman on the post is neither Colleen or Taylor. Until we get that fixed, check out the new website for their show, The Good Stuff.
April 23, 2008
Laura Reviews ‘Certain Girls’
Well, it doesn’t happen very often but Laura has a review in today’s daily Washington Post of Jennifer Weiner’s new novel, Certain Girls. The book, already on the NYTs bestseller list (at #3) is a sequel to Weiner’s first novel, Good In Bed, which Laura had never read (until now), and it’s great. A real tear-jerker. In fact, Laura hastens to say that while everyone always focuses on how funny Jennifer Weiner’s writing is, Laura would like to focus on how moving the deep dark sad parts can be (but then, Laura is, deep down, a deep dark sad person so it’s no real surprise that that’s what she’d be most attracted to). Anyway, she wishes she weren’t still having technical difficulties and could post the book jacket but she’s still having technical difficulties so she can’t post the book jacket.
April 16, 2008
Pretty Is What Changes
Despite the great thing that came of all of Laura’s TV watching, she’s been trying to watch a little less TV and read a few more books, and so when one of her best friends, Julie Grau, sent her a book her new company — Spiegel and Grau, a new division of Random House — was publishing, Laura turned off the tube and opened the exploding Jiffy Bag right up. Inside was PRETTY IS WHAT CHANGES: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny by Jessica Queller, and it’s the story of what happened when Jessica, a TV writer (hmmm, maybe that’s why Laura couldn’t wait to start reading), found out she was BRCA-positive — or in other words, that she had the breast cancer gene. Laura would write more but she doesn’t have to because she wrote a review of the book for the breast cancer site she blogs for, www.mybreastcancernetwork.com — click here for the link to the review. Also, check out Jessica Queller’s website: www.jessicaqueller.com
April 15, 2008
Confessions of a Book Deal
So the biggest news is that Laura is writing a book with “Confessions of a Matchmaker” star Patti Novak. The book, to be published in January 2009 by Ballantine, is going to be called GET OVER YOURSELF: How to Get Real, Get Serious, and Get Ready to Find True Love. Laura had wanted to write about this for the longest time, but she couldn’t, and then when she finally could — when the book finally sold over a month ago — she didn’t because she was too busy to update her brant.
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Some of you eagle-eyed brant readers might remember that Laura blogged about Patti Novak back in July when Patti’s show on A&E first aired. Last year was Laura’s Year of Watching Television and “Confessions of Matchmaker” was her all-time favorite show. Anyway, Laura branted about Patti, and then sometime in late September she got a call from Patti’s manager, Josh Seftel (a filmmaker/director with a new movie coming out called War, Inc. starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, and Ben Kingsley — more about him later). Josh told Laura that they’d seen her blog and and asked if she’d be interested in meeting Patti someday in case at some point she wanted to write a book.
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Would she be interested? She felt like she was on Candid Camera.
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And so a few weeks later, when Patti was coming to New York to do the The Early Morning Show on CBS, Laura (and Ben and Brendan) raced down from Boston, and Laura met Josh and Patti’s fiance Kurt Williams and, of course, Patti herself, who was everything Laura thought she’d be: funny, warm, interesting, and a great storyteller.A month or so later, Josh called again and said that Patti was interested in working with Laura on a book, using her particular brand of tough love that she showed on the show to help readers find love. After some back-and-forthing on collaboration issues, Laura and Patti started talking on the phone to plan the book, and during those multi-hour conversations Laura would often use up an entire legal pad and 2 or more thick black Sharpies — which is to say that Patti had a lot of great stuff to say that Laura was desperate to get down on paper. In early January, Laura drove to Buffalo where Patti lives and spent four days there, staying in Patti’s house, having more pad-and-Sharpie depleting conversations, and most interestingly, watching Patti actually do her thang at her office: that is, sitting in on some interviews with potential clients. It was an amazing four days and Laura went home exhausted but inspired.
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A few weeks after that, as Laura was finishing the proposal for GET OVER YOURSELF Patti was on Oprah where her talents were showcased on a one-hour show. Laura’s inserting pictures now for those who missed it. Needless to say, everyone was really excited about the Oprah business, especially Patti’s book agent, and shortly after that (or maybe it was a month, Laura can’t remember) the book was sold to Ballantine. Patti and Laura couldn’t be happier or more excited about the deal, and they’ve already started having their long talks on the phone, comparing notes about narcissism (they’re each fascinated by the topic) and other common interests, so Laura’s heading out to Staples later for more pads and Sharpies.
It’s a match made in heaven, pardon the stupid pun, and Laura still can’t quite believe her luck at getting to work with someone whose show she was obsessed with! The lesson Laura learned? Keep branting!
Posting Anyway
Well, Laura’s web guy has spent the whole day trying to figure out why she can’t post photos even though HE can, but at this hour it remains a mystery. So Laura’s just going to start posting and hopefully at some future time she’ll insert photos retrobrantically.
Technical Difficulties
Laura has written several brant entries but hasn’t posted them because for some reason she’s been unable to insert images into the posts. Her web-guy is looking into the problem and hopefully he’ll have an answer soon so that she can make good on her promise to start updating.
April 14, 2008
Update coming
OK, clearly Laura did not make good on her promise a month or two ago to brant more frequently but hopefully no one except the pornographic spammers have noticed. And so today and tomorrow (and probably the rest of the week), Laura’s going to update everyone on the extremely exciting goings-on (<–more than a little ironic) in her life. Stay tuned.