Feb. 1 is Amazon Spike Day

So if you're planning to buy Feed Me! on Amazon, please do it tomorrow (the 1st). Thanks!

From the department of Gee, I wonder why

comes a gem of a press release that begins like this:

Yikes! 1 of 3 Canadian Women Battling Body Image

TORONTO, ON --- January 27, 2009 --- The mirror doesn’t lie. From muffin tops to thunder thighs, from junk in the trunk to flabby arms, Canadian women say they don’t like what they see.

Um, do you think there could be a connection here?

I get a lot of press releases like this, most of them hawking diets. Some, like this piece of work, pretend to promote positive body image even while undermining it. Note to PR flacks: My readers and I are smarter than you are. We can see the strings moving your arms and legs. And we know who benefits from garbage like this, and it isn't us. I won't name the ridiculous "expert" this press release is flogging except to say that s/he is not supporting positive body image.

Have you come across other oxymoronic examples? Send them my way.

Feed me, then review me

If you've read FEED ME!: WRITERS DISH ABOUT FOOD, EATING, BODY IMAGE, AND WEIGHT, I'd love to have you stop by Amazon and review it, so other people can see how great it is. I'm kidding about the greatness, but I would love to have a couple of reviews pop up on the Amazon site.

I appreciate it, y'all. And of course I hope you truly like the book.

Unspeakable

Eighteen-year-old Alicia Rae of Hampshire, England, was found dead in her bed by her mother yesterday. She'd been struggling with anorexia for two years and, apparently, lost the struggle. She was very nearly the same age as my daughter Kitty, who became ill with anorexia at 14 and who has been well now for three years.

It is unspeakable that Alicia Rae is dead at 18. It is unspeakable that her mother had to find her body. Unspeakable, but we have to speak about it. We have to say her name, Alicia Rae. We have to remember that anorexia kills, that in fact it has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease, killing 20 percent of those who develop it.

We have to speak about what happens to the body and the brain when they are starved. We must talk of the unspeakable irony of a young woman like Alicia Rae, dying of malnutrition in the midst of plenty. We must speak of the hell she and her family went through, and of the churchyard where she's buried now, not far from her home, not far from the bedroom where her mother found her dead.

We must speak of these things and remember and tell them. We must do everything we can to make sure there are no more Alicia Raes. That means pushing for better treatments and spreading the word about new treatments that work. It means not hiding in the proverbial closet when eating disorders strike. It means standing up for our children and facing down the stigma of anorexia--the stigma that keeps us silent and despairing and alone.

In this season of new beginnings, we must talk of the unspeakable so that there will be hope.

And the winners are . . .

Tisa Agloro and Carrie Rigdon. Congrats!

Now, for those of you who did not win a copy but who plan to buy it on Amazon, I have a plea: Would you order it on our Amazon Spike Day, which is February 1st? That's this Sunday. No big deal if you just can't wait that long, or if you want to pick it up at your local independent bookseller (I'm all for supporting indies) or library. But if you are shopping Amazon and can wait, February 1st would be swell.

Tisa and Carrie, please email me your addresses and I'll get your books in the mail this week!

Thank you everyone! Please let me know what you think of the book. I love hearing from readers.