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In Magazineland, yes, it is. But I don’t mind because they made such a nice mention of my book and blog. Crazy busy at the new job, but enjoying working with excellent people and, well, feel lucky to be working.

The bad news is that the MediaBisto mention somehow got me on some PR listserve and now I’m getting releases about everything from hair salons in the south to C-level celebs’ second careers designing jewelry. All sent to my personal email. Ah, fame.

In any event, FORMERLY HOT…FINALLY CONTENT is in and copy edited, and the folks over at Ballantine are cranking on ideas for the cover, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. If any of you has a flash of brilliance and cares to share, you know where to find me.

Check it out: Elle Canada mentioned Formerlyhot.com in their 2010 horoscope column! I’m hoping that the other 11 signs of the zodiac will pop by for a read, and not just cancers.

What’s cool about their mention is that I don’t actually know anyone at Elle Canada, and I don’t know the writer, Georgia Nichols. Every other mention the site has gotten in print so far has been through friends or formerly colleagues, so I’m taking this as a sign that this lowly blog is going worldwide! OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m psyched nonetheless.

Thanks, Elle Canada!

In other news, I just finished up with the copy edits for the book, which is (for now, anyway) being called Formerly Hot…Finally Content: Discovering Who You Are When You’re No Longer What You Were.

What do you think of that title?

One of my stories I wrote for SELF was nominated for a Media Industry Newsletter award. I can’t speak to the prestige factor but they use the word “award,” and not in parody, so I’ll take it! You can read the piece here, and I’ll let you know if the piece wins.

A very nice mention in the Los Angeles Times of an essay that I wrote in Behind the Bedroom Door. I was a little reluctant to read the book myself when it came out, for fear that all the other women’s sex lives would be revealed to be better than mine. And some of them were. But that was completely beside the point. In the same way that Formerly Hot aims to explore how women think about a topic that isn’t discussed openly and honestly very often, BTBD does too. Check it out if you can!

I just came across a lovely blog posting about a reading of Behind the Bedroom Door that I did with some other women at KGB, a bar here in NYC, a few months ago. I read from an essay I wrote about a long-ago sexual assault I endured, which, like many unpleasant episodes of one’s youth, has ramifications even now.

Just to be clear, though, I would be thrilled to read at Borders or Barnes & Noble, should I ever be fortunate enough to be asked. The very sweet J-school student who interviewed me after the reading, I think, meant to say I was more comfortable reading that particular essay in a small venue like KGB where people weren’t simply there to pick up Osteoperosis for Dummies or kill time before their movie started. I sure didn’t mean that I was so fabulous that I wouldn’t read at a chain store. I don’t know of any writer who is that fabulous.

I apologize in advance for the excess of exclamation points. It’s a women’s magazine convention that I still rely on, probably too heavily.

But check it:

Tremendous news! Well, tremendous to me, and hopefully to you, too. Formerly Hot is going to be a book (once I write it and they staple the pages together, that is!) I just shook figurative hands with an editor over at Ballantine–a living, breathing Boston Formerly who seems as psyched as I am to add to the Formerly Army.

Ooh, that sounds too militant. So not into marching in lockstep. The Formerly Club? Nah, too exclusive–velvet ropes with some burly bouncer to pick and choose who can come in is so not what we’re about. Network? A bit corporate striver. How about the Formerly Party (as in cake, piñatas and goody bags, not as in flag pins, backroom dealings and, let’s face it, still mostly older white guys who can’t relate to being us)? That’ll do for now, until we think of something better.

So please, continue to post your thoughts and feelings about finding yourself a Formerly, and if you haven’t yet, do so! As always, if you’re shy, you can drop me an email at stephanie@formerlyhot.com or post under an assumed name. And as always, thanks for all the support and happy thoughts.

Steph

Photo by Lainey’s Repetoire CC

Whaddaya know about that?

Check this all out!

Self Magazine’s editors decided in the June 2009 issue that Formerly Hot is a blog they love!

I have a piece in Redbook this month about turning 40 (which I did two years ago, but whatevs.)

And I’m blogging my butt off for More, while still somehow retaining plenty of butt to sit on. Not sure how that works.

In any event, check it out and check this space for future NEWS!

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