Happy Monday! I'm still asleep and preparing for my last day at H&R Block tomorrow.

You can now read my reaction to Lynn Harris' article on BlogHer.

Last night I got all wound over Lynn Harris' article on Salon, which I'm covering on BlogHer on Monday. I started the post fifteen different ways, and no matter how I proceeded, I found myself on my high horse and riding. Standing on my soapbox and preaching, like the homeless guy who spouted whoremongers and hellfire on the Pentacrest at the University of Iowa in the mid-nineties.

It's something I sometimes do. I preach. I can't stand to see people treat each other with such disrespect. This isn't satire, this isn't comedy -- those comments are just MEAN.

I'll be offline for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. Please check out my piece on BlogHer on Monday, and enjoy your holiday. Go forth and let thee not be an ass.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Read a review of Cat Ladies on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

The other day when I was driving home, I saw the end scene of my novel. Today, I sat down and wrote the last 40 pages.

 

Many, many Fridays.

There are still a few scenes that I really want to include for which I haven't found a place yet. And the sentences -- oy, they're not good yet. And also? I think a bunch of the details don't yet agree. I haven't read the first few chapters in months. I can't remember some of the middle. So I'm nowhere near ready to let anyone but Beloved read it yet.

However, the rough draft is done.

 

I wish I had more to say, but I seem to be all out of words.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reviews for daring girls and Ivy-League seekers on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

I remember last August reading Erin Kotecki Vest's post about her new job at BlogHer and being so jealous, even though I know Erin and I know how hard she worked to position herself for that job.

I've struggled as a working parent. I hate the commute. I hated having the little angel be the very last kid at daycare. Sometimes I was very bitter.

Somewhere, in the midst of my ruminating, I realized it's not fair and not realistic to wait for life to reach out and hand me my wishes on a platter. I realized the only person who could change my career is me.

I want to be a writer, one who spends my time thinking about real issues that matter to women (men, too, but I'll be honest -- women). One who takes time to follow current events and distill what they mean to me and to humanity. One who reads great blogs and responds to them. One who doesn't have to sneak onto Twitter and worry The Man is going to put the smackdown on my Internet access.

When Sleep Is for the Weak came out last September, I thought I was done. I thought my life would permanently change. But (as authors will tell you), it didn't. I realized there needed to be more books, that this first book was just a stepping stone, a calling card, a launching pad. I cut back to four days a week at my corporate job to have more time to write. I got my first national magazine hit in the November issue of Scholastic Parent & Child. I started selling more articles online. I started getting paid more to do what I loved. I started working on my novel, posting my work on Kindle, taking on more responsibility at BlogHer, and yes, there were a lot of days when I thought blogging might possibly be a ghetto in which I'd never get paid a living wage. People asked me why I wrote for free or nearly for free. I've made about 50 cents an hour on a good day for the past five years doing what I love.

I've pitched more ideas than I care to share that have gone nowhere. I've pitched a few that are in flux. My writing notebook is overflowing with half-baked projects, pitch ideas, lists of topics about which I mean to write. I've struggled to compartmentalize that writing into the time I have for it. I've nearly quit reading due to the time it takes to write.

That is going to change.

I've accepted a position with BlogHer as assignment editor. I start in two weeks. After five years of people asking where I'm going with this blogging thing, I finally have an answer. I'm going to funnel all the ambition, grammar geekdom, corporate organizational skills, excitement and intellectual curiosity I have into the BlogHer editorial team. The one led by Katie Couric's top four pick for most influential people (not women, people) in new media.

And I'm going to stop questioning my instincts.

Once upon a time, I met a woman named Laura Mayes who shared my views on writing and publishing. I immediately liked her. She was cheerful and upbeat and ambitious and persistent. And today, she has a gorgeous, high-design book filled with wonderful writing and photography called Kirtsy Takes a Bow.

Lest you think it's like all those other blog books, look at how YUMMY IT IS.

She said "high design," and I was all, "yeah, yeah..."

Right. High design. Can you believe your blog post could look like THAT?

So, anyway, I'm also extremely flattered to have a piece in this book. It's about politics. I can't wait to see what it LOOKS LIKE IN THERE.

Also, I really respect my fellow contributors, many of whom I count as good real-life friends now. It's funny how that's happened over the past five years of reading them, seeing them at BlogHer and other get-togethers, Twittering and sending frantic e-mails back and forth late at night.

Amie Adams Rita Arens Gwen Bell Gabrielle Blair Alice Bradley Kaori Brauns Brene’ Brown Marta Dansie Katherine Center Sophia Charming Kristin Chase Tracey Clark Catherine Connors Jena Coray John Culberson Maggie Dammit Marta Dansie Nadia Dole Caroline Donahue Danny Evans Lisa Fain Jordan Ferney Lindsay Ferrier Kathryn Finney Doug French Amy Gates Kenneth Germer Georgia Getz Brittney Gilbert Joanna Goddard

Aran Goyoaga Risa Green Liz Gumbinner Jennifer Harvey Krystyn Heide Genny Heikka Daniel Hope Tara Hunt Kate Inglis Sarah Ji Sara Johnson Isabel Kallman Guy Kawasaki Neil Kramer Michelle Lamar Jenny Lawson Shawn Ledington Jen Lemen Dana Loesch Yvonne Marie Julie Mason Maggie Mason Laura Mayes Jamie Meares Lily McElroy Lauren McKechnie Karen Maezen Miller Karen Mordechai Loren Morris Stacy Morrison Casey Mullins Irene Nam

Erica O’Grady Tracey Gaughran-Perez Julie Pippert Kyran Pittman Sarah Jane Rhee Stephanie Roberts Roseline Betsy Roy Andrea Scher Amy Turn Sharp Angie Smith Laurie Smithwick Casey Solomon Liz Stanley Kathryn Storke Mary Swenson Joslyn Taylor Evany Thomas Katherine Thompson Togy Ng Kwong To Penelope Trunk Amy Urquhart Erin Kotecki Vest Susan Wagner Karen Walrond Tish Warren Lisa Whelan Maile Wilson Michelle Wolfson Ryan Wright Shannon Zoet

But most of all, I respect Laura, who corralled 100 contributors and brought such vision to this book. I know (believe me, I know!) how hard it is to stay in touch with even 25 people over the book publishing process. I am a big admirer of anyone who can keep up with more and be so damn graceful under pressure.

So, congratulations, Laura! Enjoy this time! You deserve it. And your book looks beautiful.

You, like me, may be sitting here wondering where the hell October went.

In which I start talking about parenting in a digital age:

• Storytelling: When You Hear the Bell, Turn the Page -- Remember books on record?
• Parenting in a Digital World -- My new project editor gig for BlogHer. I'm pretty excited.
• Will Your School-Agers Still Need Book Covers in Five Years? -- E-books, man.
• From Happy Days to Hoarders: What Do You Think About What Your Kids Watch? -- Personally, I think TV's getting better. In some ways.

In which I try to figure out parenting:

• Do You Fight in Front of Your Kids? I Do. Sort of. -- "Fighting" might have been chosen as a verb for dramatic effect.
• Child Care: It Never Gets Easier to Choose -- I still hate the whole childcare thing with the strength of a thousand suns.
• Pregnancy! It's a Big, Fat Surprise -- Remember the lady pregnant with two babies fertilized at different times? Yeah, it's about that.

Reviews!

• Instructions on reading to your kids -- Cool Mom Picks
• Insatiable -- Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews

I got a new freelance gig! For the next six months, I'm going to be a contract project editor for a new experiment in citizen journalism at BlogHer. The topic? Parenting in a digital world. Here's my intro post, cross-posted from BlogHer.

You've seen the talk shows and heard the playgroup buzz: What theheck are we doing about the influence of social media, cell phones,games and other technology on our little angels?

Fear not! We're here to help! Over the next sixmonths, BlogHer is taking on a groundbreaking experiment in citizenjournalism with regard to parenting in the digital age. Our digitalparenting ambassadors will post analysis of breaking stories, trends,and the activities of BlogHer moms from a variety of angles. Inaddition, the ambassadors will blog insightful personal posts that shedlight on their own parenting within the matrix. We'll be rolling outessays, technology round-ups and general navel-gazing.

We'llcover geeky parenting, technology as it's embedded in our daily lives(as parents and as participants in the community), tech trendspotting,parenting headaches and triumphs caused by our devices and the socialmedia sphere, and the same great parenting writing you're used toseeing here. Parenting, after all, is still parenting, whether or notyou're doing it with your Blackberry attached.

I know I'm excited-- I've been a BlogHer Mommy & Family contributing editor for morethan three years now, and this topic has come up so many times for mepersonally. I'm thrilled to be working with the talented group ofwriters who'll be bringing you this important information.

In addition, BlogHer will host a Family Connections BlogHer groupto which all our digital parenting posts will be published. The easiestway to stay in the loop is to join the group. So what are you doing?Click on over and join!

We can't wait to hear your thoughts. Thisis a conversation, and we want to hear from YOU -- be your own beatreporter covering the ups and downs of parenting your cyberific kids.With my own daughter in kindergarten, I need your help navigating thedark waters. Come along for the ride, my friends.

So, if this topic interests you, join the Family Connections BlogHer group, and you'll get everything pushed to you. So easy. So digital-like.

And if it doesn't, it won't live here, so no worries.