I’m guest blogging today

Today, I’m guest blogging on my agent’s website. Since I have both a website and a blog Caren wanted me to give the pro’s and con’s of each from an author’s perspective (not that I feel like an author yet, because I don’t).

So, I guess I feel like I’ve kinda met my blogging quota for the day.

If you’re bored – which you are because what else would you be doing here – check out my new site www.kelseytimmerman.com. I just started working on it last week. I welcome any suggestions you may have about how to improve it.

Introducing the “Where Am I Wearing?” cover

What do you think? Check out my guns! Actually, that dude is not me, but you’re welcome to imagine that it is. I’m neither that buff nor tan.

A big thanks to Paul McCarthy, the fella who designed the cover, and all of the other folks at Wiley who helped with it.

In honor of Valentine’s Day I’ve set my filter on Lovey Dovey

The BootsnAll gang updated their blogging software so things are a bit strange around here: Comments are going to SPAM even though I have the filter set on “Lovey Dovey” (and yes that is the actual setting’s name); and the Latest Comments section of the home page is empty for some reason. Here’s what they said:

The initial step is moving your current blog over. We’ve done enough testing that this should be a seamless process and you should barely notice a blip. Of course, now that we’ve said that it could all come crashing down We’ll be making the switch later this evening (Tuesday, Feb 12th).

To which I thought: “Crap it’s the 14th and I’m still having issues.”

Apologies to Rachael who continues to be banished time and time again by the SPAM filter, but, God bless her, continues to comment nonetheless.

I’ll get to the bottom of this.

It is official!

Publisher’s Marketplace made the official announcement today. If you can’t read the pic here’s what it says:

14 January, 2008

Non-fiction Narrative: www.whereamiwearing.com blogger Kelsey Timmerman’s WHERE AM I WEARING?, in which the author learns about the garment industry by following the Made In China/Bangladesh/Honduras tags of a complete outfit and goes to the countries to visit the factories that made his clothes and talk to its workers, to Richard Narramore at Wiley, for publication in 2008, by Caren Johnson at Caren Johnson Literary Agency (World).

It just goes to show that any idiot with a pair of Jingle These underwear and a propensity to blow money on strange around the world quests can become an author.

Living the dream baby. Living the dream.

The Maple Mammary recount

The people have spoken. Their outrage has been voiced. They couldn’t believe that Mrs. Butterworth’s Boobs was relegated to the 5th slot on the most viewed pages of WAIW? in 2007. They were mad as hell and they weren’t going to take it anymore, so I recounted.

Mrs. Butterworth’s Boobs received the second-most visitors on any single day in 2007 (409). The most visitors in a single day were on The Adventure Begins post (598).

Whatever it’s worth, I’m naming the Mrs. B’s Boobs post the WAIW? Reader’s Choice Post of the year.

WAIW? Christmas inventory contest update

If you haven’t entered the Where am I Wearing? Christmas Inventory Contest of Destiny, you better hurry. I’ve decided to extend the deadline until next Tuesday the 8th to give you all a little more time to enter. If you don’t, I will track you down and steal your gifts Grinch-style. Seriously, I’ve purchased a sleigh and I’ve got a little dog ready to pull it to your house. I’m a mean one, indeed.

Jenn just logged 23 items on her inventory and has made a strong case for the The You are a Spoiled Brat, You Should Feel Guilty Award. Can anyone top her?

The Where the Heck is that Award is still wide-open. Everything seems to be made in China, who knew?

2007

(Happy New Year from the Timmermans)

This year has been ridiculously busy. I spent 3 months on my Where am I Wearing? quest, bought a house, and got married.

On the writing front, I’ve accomplished more than I could have ever imagined when I wrote this post on December 31st 2006. I’ve continued to contribute to the Christian Science Monitor’s Home Forum section as well as record pieces and do a few interviews for the World Vision Report.

Most of all, I’ll remember 2007 as the year I got my first big break. This isn’t entirely official since the small details aren’t worked out, but…y’all better save up $24.95 by November of ’08 because that is when Where am I Wearing? is going to hit book stores. Wiley & Sons will be publishing the book in hardcover. Again, my agent and I have agreed to the offer that was first presented to us and now we are just ironing out the details like who gets the dough if I become an action figure, which I don’t expect will ever happen.

Well, that’s it from ’07. Now I’m going to go snuggle up with my wife, a glass of wine, and our precious kitty, in our beautiful home and while away the last remaining hours of the year. There’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.

From maple mammaries to your underwear: The Top ten posts of 2007

WAIW? sprung to life in March. Since then I’ve written 323 posts and over 62,000 words.

The top ten most-viewed “Where am I Wearing?” posts of 2007:

1. The Underwear Wall of Fame

2. My All American Cambodian Blue Jeans

3. The Adventure begins

4. Happy Birthday Garfield

5. Mrs. Butterworth’s Boobs

6. Synergy Barbie

7. The Kings of Fantasy Kingdom

8. Where am I Wearing? The ultimate slideshow

9. Shoes: because going barefoot sucks

10. Can plumpy nut end world hunger?

BIG news in the works

Here’s a not so subtle hint…

The Christmas Inventory has begun

Last night I received my first gift of clothing – a Columbia sweatshirt made in Sri Lanka. (Thanks, Randy and Sheila.) I’ve added it to the “The First Annual Where Are YOU Wearing Christmas Inventory Contest of Destiny” post.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to my mom’s family’s Christmas in Illinois this past weekend. We got about 8 inches of snow that came along with 40 mph winds. Mom’s family has a tradition of gifts that require explanations and/or are accompanied by belly-aching “please-stop-or-I-might-pass-out” laughter, and the occasional inappropriate comment that puts the X in X-mas. We have a blast. And it’s just not the same giving or receiving gifts when were not all crammed in my Grandma’s basement trying to crack lude jokes without grandma or the younger, more sensitive cousins catching on.

For instance, I bought a plastic gold chalice bejeweled with the word “PIMP” for a cousin who is in his first year of college. The value of this gift is not in its utilitarian function, but in its opening and the eruption of laughter that follows. Now, the UPS man will leave it at his dorm. My cousin will take it back to his room and open it alone, or perhaps in the company of his roommate, and think that I’m even weirder than he thought I was.

I have a notion to take the chalice back to the store. But what could I say? It’s embarrassing enough spending twenty bucks on a gold chalice bejeweled with the word “PIMP”, but it would be even more so returning it. “Err…I thought those were real jewels.” Or “It was gift for my cousin. He already had a gold chalice bejeweled with the word PIMP.”