Women! An award, a machete, and a Frog Prince. Plus Paul Newman.

Mario here:

We Celebrate!

Fellow Leaguer Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy was chosen as the Best Teen Series at the Canadian Teen Read Awards in Toronto. Go Richelle.

Your help is needed. Another Leaguer, Carolyn Crane, has embarked on a "manly" challenge. Five pull-ups. Who-hah! Drop by her blog The Thrillionth Page and post your support as she charts her success on the Blue Bar of Progess.

Learn her secrets for making coconut soup, which involves a machete. Crane is obviously a woman who likes to express herself physically. Don't forget to put her next book, Double Cross (due Sept 28) on your shopping list. Read a review on The Literate Kitty.

Our intrepid Jeanne Stein with our Mystery Writer peeps (Becky Martinez, Beth Groundwater, and Mike Befeler) at the Mountain & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show. As expected, the show was a great opportunity to meet regional booksellers and renew contacts. But in a sign of the times in the book biz, the big publishers displayed about half the wares they've usually brought before and were a lot less forthcoming with freebies.

Everybody lusts for something, and if you lust for one of us scribes (and you should), here are 15 Reasons to Date A Writer on Datingish.com. Number 5, I'm all over that one.

But we ink-stained wretches know that while the outside world sees our life at the keyboard as one of unfettered imaginative bliss, reality (as it so rudely does) smacks us daily on the head with petty distractions and necessary chores. LA Times Television Critic Mary McNamara shares her tribulations as a working mom as she struggles with the manuscript in her essay A Working Mother's Guide to Writing A Novel.

The Denver Public Library runs the Fresh City Life program and I'll be teaching a workshop for them, Be Creepy ! How to Write Scary Stories that really Scare. October 5 and 19, 6-7:30 PM at the Fresh City Lounge.

Dancing pal and fellow writing wretch, Elle Lothlorien, has gone the self-published ebook route with a wonderful humorous romance, The Frog Prince. Get your copy HERE.

It's been two years since the passing of one of my heroes, Paul Newman. Anybody have a favorite movie? Mine was Cool Hand Luke. Here's to show that in his prime, Newman was a choice piece of eye candy. Go for it, girls.

Another cultural icon, this one skewered for your pleasure.

See you again this Thursday.