Pamela Ribon

Requests

[readermail]”…for some reason I feel the need to tell you, the EBAY hair sale rates fairly high on my squick meter (though I am sure the hair is quite clean and well-conditioned)…”

“Nobody can clone you from your hair unless that person has the hair follicle and access to lots of science labs. So I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Worrying about people doing Voodoo with it, on the other hand…well, never mind, I wouldn’t worry about that, either. I’m sure that, if there is any Voodoo done with your hair, it will be Voodoo for good book sales.”

“I like the haircut (from what we could see of it). But no, I won’t be bidding for the bag of hair, you complete freak!”

“Also, if Buffalo Bill doesn’t update about this hair sale, I’ll be mad.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what — I’m auctioning off some of my hair too. And not from my head, either. Top THAT, Ribon!”

“I’m sure I’m not the first to say this, but … lady … my boyfriend is a psychiatrist and I promise that he won’t tell me ANYTHING you tell him. Seriously. I bet he’d see you for free. (I mean, I hafta say that, or you may try to pay with more of your hair.)”

“Also, as much as I love the library, I just think it’s too weird to bid on a bag of your hair. Sorry. Maybe I’ll donate another book instead.”[/readermail]

Okay, so the hair is creeping you guys out. Sorry about that.

There are also many new book donations, but I’ll have to update those tomorrow. I’m crazy-behind in my work and I have more than one person bugging me about an upcoming deadline. So if you’re giving to Oakland this week, you still have time to make the next entry by donating a book today!

I did get this letter from an Oakland bookstore:

[readermail]In talks with the Oakland Library you, and your website, came up. Thank you very much for the generative help you have provided. I just wanted to let you know that we all appreciate the support you are giving. I also wanted you to know that over the past 8 years our store has provided the Rockridge Branch with over 100 boxes of books (over 5000 books). As you probably know, they were shorted the promised dollars for stocking their shelves once the new building (constructed by their self-taxed monies) was completed.

We were unaware of the website links for the Library until recently, when customers were upset that we weren’t listed on their site, though we had done so much to help them. That is remedied now, with a link from their site to ours with their Wish List on our site.

Our customers’ concerns prompt some of our own. You have listed on your site that Cody’s is in Oakland. They are actually in Berkeley. The Amazon site is also linked through your site, and the Library’s. I just wanted you to know of another option, very useful for the kind of local, community-oriented support you are interested in. It is BookSense.com, a website created by the American Booksellers Association, providing online ordering and services for independent bookstores throughout the country. Linking to them supports the communities they serve (in the myriad ways that independent booksellers, like librarians, do). The multiplier effects of supporting local businesses are well-documented though not well-publicized. The taxes returned to the local economy by supporting local businesses funding schools and libraries, is one example. Please check out the BookSense.com site and see how it “directs traffic” to local businesses, in local communities, with local libraries. I hope you will consider linking to them as an alternative to the more corporate Amazon model (quick, well-funded, but no multiplier effect).

Please also check out our website www.dieselbookstore.com and feel free to let your readers know of our support for libraries local and afar. We would be grateful if you would add a link on your site to our site with regards our Oakland libraries.

Thanks again for all you do. Keep up the good work.

All the best,
John Evans

DIESEL, A BOOKSTORE,
5433 College Ave,
Oakland, CA 94618

510-653-9965
info@dieselbookstore.com[/readermail]

I do have a link to BookSense at the bottom of every entry (see: “Hate The Man?”), but another plug for the indie bookseller never hurt anyone.

So, it’s time for today’s Blast from the Past entry. I figure since the majority of the people have spoken about how my bag ‘o hair gives them the “skeeves,” I should also let the majority of the people pick today’s Classic entry.

[readermail]”Oh my! I have been dying to read the entry where you and your ex boyfriend were driving on the toll road and you had your Mom on the phone and your ex threw the dollar in the change receptacle! Oh man, that entry makes me almost wet myself every time I read it!” – Nicole

“I think my all-time favorite entry (no, God, that’s not possible…there were too many…) was the one where Eric tried to throw a dollar into the toll basket. I distinctly remember snarfing Diet Dr. Pepper onto my monitor. Pleasepleaseplease hook a girl up and post that one again!” – Tina/rudergirl

“Oh, and the one with Eric and the dollar bill at the toll thing? ” – Joanne

“Also, the one where Eric threw the dollar bill into the toll booth basket.” – Amanda

“Pam! Exact change!” – Allison

“Heya, that Michael Moore thing was amazing, that’s how it goes in your dreams, never in real life! My request for Classic Pamie is the tollbooth story, which I know isn’t in the book because you told me at last year’s JournalCon. So bring on the tollbooth story!” – Kymm[/readermail]

This coming from the girl who met Randy Newman and he knew who she was.

So, here it is. Everybody’s favorite Exact Change story. My mom still giggles about this whenever she’s on a toll road. This was in an early draft of the book (you’re starting to see how the early draft of this novel was a four hundred page event, right?), but it has since been cut, much to my sadness. This is also one of my favorite stories.

For those of you who haven’t been pamie.com readers back in the day, I just want to make a small disclaimer that I didn’t constantly write about my then-boyfriend. Yes, I wrote a lot about him, and some of the best stories were about the fun times we had together, but I also wrote a lot about trying to make it in comedy, working in Austin, etc. It’s just that those stories aren’t as funny as a boy and a dollar bill in a toll road. Eric is a very funny guy.

Here it is.

And for those of you who love in or near Katy (do I even have readers from Sealy?), I just booked my Katy Budget Books signing date.
DATE: Thursday, July 24
TIME: 11:00AM
Katy Budget Books 2450 Fry Road
Houston, TX 77084
Ph: 281-578-7770
Book Signing / Discussion / Q&A

Some of you have written asking if I’m coming to your neck of the woods. If you don’t see your city listed on the left sidebar, then I’m currently not scheduled to be in your area. All I can suggest is asking your local bookstore to contact Simon & Schuster to set up a signing. There isn’t a lot of money given to first-time novelists for these kinds of things, as there isn’t a huge demand for me, or someone like me. Maybe if this book does well, or if my next book does well, then there will be a chance I’ll come to Chicago or Nashville. As of now, I’d have to pay for the trip myself, as I’m doing with most of the dates on my whirlwind three-city tour.

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