Martha, Martha, Martha!

On Friday at 2:30 ET, Brian and I will be interviewed about the book on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius XM 110. We'll also be taking calls about lost 70s-80s products.

If you don't have satellite radio, you can sign up for a 7-day free trial and listen online.

Cleveland rocks!

The book's still finding its way into media hands. We're #3 on the Cleveland.com Pop 10!

DIY Pudding Pops

So when we wrote the book, Jell-O Pudding Pops were still around. But now the book is out, and Jell-O/Popsicle (who was making them under license from Jell-O) seems to have given up on our favorite frosty treat.

The term "Pudding Pop" is a generic though, not a trademark. A Minnesota dairy we love, Kemps, is making them but they are only sold in certain areas.

But you can also make your own!

Check out this totally cool tutorial for rainbow Pudding Pops!

And I also love these more traditional ones from Chow.

Seattle publicity on Monday

Seattleites: You can see us Monday on Q-13 news at 9:15 am, hear us on KOMO AM at 11 am, and win prizes/hear a reading/get a signed copy at University Books (4326 University Way NE) at 7 pm!

Seattle book readings

Just a reminder that the first of our two Seattle book readings is this Saturday! I'm kind of terrified no one will come to these. Brian and I will both be at them...his very first visit to the Emerald City!
Saturday, June 18: Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE., Lake Forest Park
6:30 PM (I feel like this is a weird time...but it is at 6:30 not 7)
We'll have 70s-80s trivia, prizes, snacks, props, will do a little reading from the book and sign books for anyone who wants. Completely casual but would love to see you there.

If you can't make it, there is another one!
Monday, June 20: University Books, 4326 University Way, N.E., Seattle
7 pm (this seems a more normal time)
And again, retro trivia, prizes, snacks, props, a reading and book signings.

Please come to either or both! Bring friends! Relatives, even!

It's BOOK day

It's BOOK day. After more than four years of dreaming and pitching and working and getting rejected and researching and giving up evenings and Fridays and sanity ... I have a book in bookstores. You can search on Amazon and my name pops up. I'll be able to walk into a bookstore and find a book that I wrote. I'll be in card catalogs, assuming they still have card catalogs.

In seventh grade, they asked us to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. I wrote "AUTHOR" in big letters and drew...a giant pencil. (What? This is why I didn't write "ARTIST.") In college, we had to write a paper about a personal dilemma and I wrote about how I couldn't decide between journalism and teaching, but that I thought journalism might be more likely to help me be an author. I remember wishing that there were a class in Authorology that I could take, thinking that I just had no idea how to begin, and that I knew no one who had done it. Wishing that there were an easy path, knowing there wasn't. Wondering how a nobody kid from Minnesota could actually publish a book, which to me seemed as wonderful and as unreachable as winning an Oscar.

It's not going to be a Pulitzer winner or a bestseller.  But it's out there (thanks much to my co-author Brian Bellmont!) It may be a light silly little fluffball of a book, but dammit, it's our light silly little fluffball of a book. If I never do anything else, I did this.

Hometown mention

This is nice for me, even though it's just a little mention of our book in the newspaper I used to work for, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. You see, I've edited a ton of listings, a ton of roundup columns like this, and to have my own book in one is kind of a sweet completion of a circle.

Early review

An early review of the book. Thanks, Pop Culture Guy Don! We hope the book sparks this kind of fun reminiscing and personal memories from everyone who reads it.

"Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?" comes out June 7.