Faster Than Kudzu

B4B is LIVE!

Welcome to Blogging 4 Books. It generally begins on the first MONDAY of every month, but due to the holiday, we pushed it back a day. The Original B4B began on The Zero Boss, a now defunct blog by Jay Allen, who now can be found, among other places, at Blogging Baby. To him we offer the big props, because he made it up.

The short version: You blog on a chosen topic. You post a link to your blog entry in the comments below this entry. B4B closes at MIDNIGHT your time next Tuesday.

If you have no blog, you write the essay and cut and paste it (no attachments please) into an email to Ann Fitten (the Bloggess behind Edgy Mama) and ask her sweetly to host it for you.

Sheryl over at Papernapkin is January's SPECIAL! GUEST! BLOGGER! and a former B4B winner herself. Everyone be NICE to Sheryl. She took on the gig last night when Mir sent her a desperate HELP HELP IM because SOME doofus forgot to set up S!G!B!s. Wonder who canoodled the Rover on THAT one? *looks innocent* Anyway, Sheryl rode in to the rescue, and we think she's PRIDDY. She will narrow the entries down to seven.

PEE ESS, If you would like to be a S!G!B! one month in the next 2 months -- I can't plan ANYTHING past March ---- shoot me a line. joshilyn at joshilynjackson dot com.

If you are one of the seven finalists, your entry will be read by lovely authoress, RITA winner, and exceptionally cool friend Lani Diane Rich who BOLDLY stepped into the gaping breach when I realized I had ALSO completely SPACED on lining up Special Guest Authors. She will pick first, second and third place.

First place gets a signed first edition of her very funny Chick-Lit novel, Ex and the Single Girl which Booklist says is a "funny, sweet novel ... full of quirky, likable characters and the charms of small-town life". Enterfreakintainment Weekly gave it a B+, and I myself read it in a single sitting while mold grew happily on the sink full of filthy dishes in my kitchen.

If you want to know what the book is about... Portia Fallon calls it PTE--or the Penis Teflon Effect. It's the way all the women in her family deflect men like ping pong balls. No man has ever "stuck" with a Fallon woman for more than two years, and Portia has nearly surpassed that record. Until her live-in boyfriend dumps her and she realizes she's "four cats and a Reader's Digest subscription away from being totally irredeemable." Now, everyone from her mother Mags to Auntie Vera and Grandma Bev is convinced that Portia needs to find a "Flyer"—a fling—to take her mind off her ex. Enter Ian Beckett, a sexy, smart, and unsuspecting British novelist, who's visiting her small town of Truly, Georgia, for the summer. Then enter once again Portia's ex-beau, who's decided to fight to win her back. Now Portia faces a slippery decision: Which of these men has the right stuff to make a commitment stick?

And now, THE TOPIC which we are going to slyly goozle right out of the title. This month, write about your Ex --- and since that can mean several things, you just go ahead and take it however you like.

GO!