Today is International No Diet Day, and by a happy coincidence, Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body is currently the #2 bestseller on Powells.com. First, we want to offer UNBELIEVABLY HUGE THANKS to everyone who’s already bought it. But to everyone who hasn’t — how awesome would it be if we could get the book up to #1 in celebration of International No Diet Day? If you were planning to buy it anyway, please consider ordering it from Powell’s today!

Update: We did it!

The book is out. THE BOOK IS OUT!

Despite my issues with Amazon, I just ordered it for my Kindle. Because it’s too early to go to a bookstore, and any given store might not have it in stock anyway, but I needed to celebrate the whole “It is really, truly available for purchase today!” thing. (By spending money on something I A] already have multiple free copies of, B] have already read about 400 times, and C] still have in Word files on my computer. Shut up.) It is ON MY KINDLE, y’all! Pre-ordering has given way to ordering! It’s real!

Which means now we get to start hearing how much it sucks. Anyway.

As I said to the Aussies and Kiwis yesterday, if you see the book in a store and have the technology handy to send me a picture (katesblog at gmail dot com), I would love that. If you like the book and have the time and energy to review it on Amazon, Powell’s, Good Reads, or your own blog, I would love that, too! If you don’t like the book, I would love it if you kept your mouth shut about it. I AM FULL OF LOVE TODAY.

And I’m sure at least half of you right now are like, “You know what I’d love? If you’d quit plugging your goddamned book and go back to writing real posts. WE GET IT. YOU CO-WROTE A BOOK. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. EVERYONE WHO CARES ALREADY KNOWS.” To those people I say… Did you know I co-wrote a book? And it’s available for purchase today? Tell your friends!

Oh, all right. If you really want something else to talk about today, check out my boyfriend Paul Campos’s piece in The Daily Beast about the fat hate and sexism being leveled at some of the candidates to replace Souter on the Supreme Court.

So what’s the real motivation for all the anxiety about the bodies that house two such apparently distinguished legal minds? A glance at the comments at a site such as Abovethelaw.com, which features a number of vicious attacks on Kagan’s appearance, provides one clue. For some men, the only thing more intolerable than the sight of a powerful woman is the sight of a powerful woman they don’t want to sleep with.

Emphasis mine. Quote of the fucking year, right there.

Also, check out the Q&A Marianne and I did with Damsel, a newish blog aimed at women in their twenties. Later today, there should be an interview with me up on Broadsheet as well — I’ll come back and link that when it’s up.

Also, THE BOOK IS OUT!!!

The book will be out in Australia and New Zealand on May 4, and it looks like this:

OK, I’ve got some upcoming reading/event dates for Marianne and me!

On Saturday, May 9, we will both be in Philadelphia, doing a reading and/or workshop (um, we’re not sure which yet) from 4-5 p.m. at The Rotunda (ha), in between performances of Big Moves Boston‘s latest revue, “Fat Camp.” Big Moves honcho Marina Wolf Ahmad, who awesomely set this up for us, writes:

This year, Big Moves Boston is taking over the phrase “fat camp” and making it our own, with an all-new, summer-camp-themed revue, Fat Camp (“leave your baggage behind”). Fat Camp runs in the Boston area April 24-25 and May 1-2, and then travels to Philadelphia for one weekend only, on May 8-9.

Fat Camp is summer camp the way Big Moves would do it, full of dining-hall dancing, post-modern pillow fights, a full-service cold-cereal bar, shower-room burlesques, campfire sing-alongs, and of course, trust games. With lots of audience interaction, Fat Camp invites viewers to take their own body-acceptance journeys along with us, and learn to love the skin they’re in!

There will be Fat Camp shows at The Rotunda on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening, $10 advance tickets and $12 at the door. There’s also a hip-hop workshop right after our event for $5.

On Sunday, May 10, we will be in Boston at Lir Irish Pub, at 1 p.m. — though doors open at 12:30 so you can get started on the eating and drinking. This event was organized by the fantastic Center for New Words, who also did the Yes Means Yes event where I nearly broke my damn ankle. And yes, we know it’s Mother’s Day, but it was the only time we could do it — bring your mom, if you’ve got one! Or just come for a drink to recover from brunch with her!

On Friday, May 15, I will be appearing (sans Marianne, sadly) here in Chicago at Vive la Femme, around 6 p.m., I believe. (Uh, Stephanie, you out there? Is it 6?) We’ll also be celebrating the 7th anniversary of Vive, Chicago’s only plus-size boutique, so it should be a raucous affair. And if it’s not, at least you can try on some adorable cocktail dresses.

On Friday, June 5, we will both be in Brooklyn at Re/Dress for an evening of fattitude that will include plus-size vintage shopping, refreshments, and a dance performance (not by us). I’m iffy on the start time of this one, too — will get back to y’all on that.

Those are the confirmed dates for now. We’re also working on setting something up for both of us in Minneapolis on Sunday, June 28. I’ll be in St. Louis at Pudd’nhead Books (owned by a Shapeling!) some time in July, and I’m also intending to hit Madison, Milwaukee, Champaign-Urbana and Indianapolis as my schedule allows. I know Marianne’s planning to do some solo stuff in the south, too. We’ll keep you posted.