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.

And I think this is the final cover. Close to it, anyway.

I’d encourage everyone to order it from your own local feminist indie bookstore or mine, Women and Children First. But it’s also available for pre-order at Powell’s, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Our edits are due next week, which is one reason why I haven’t been updating here. (The other reason is, of course, that I needed another blog like a hole in the head.) I am hoping to do more writing about writing and the publishing process here soon, but that’s hard to do when I’m actually, you know, engaging in it.

In the meantime, check out this article on short stories. I haven’t written one in a long time, but I used to, and I still love to read them.

In American publishing, there is a persistent idea that people don’t like to read short stories anymore. The consensus at the major houses seems to be that story collections don’t sell, and editors are discouraged from taking them on unless a literary agent selling a very desirable novel refuses to sign a contract unless they do. There is a shortage of explanations for why this is: All anyone seems to know is that it has always been this way, and always will be for as long as any of us are on this earth.

In other news, Americans have stopped reading books because blogs and text messaging have made them incapable of paying attention to anything longer than a few pages. Consequently, “short is in,” as Time magazine put it recently in an article about the fad of mini-lit: six-word memoirs, four-word film reviews, 12-word novels, and so forth. 

Has conventional wisdom ever been more plain in its incoherence? 

Excellent question. 

You might have noticed in the “About Kate” section that the working title of the book is Lessons from the Fatosphere.

It’s not the title I wanted, for a lot of reasons — chiefly that the Fatosphere is a hell of a lot bigger than just the two of us. (And we’re pretty big, HAW!) Someone just raised that very point over at Marianne’s blog, and all I can say is: you’re right. And we brought it up. And it didn’t matter, because the publisher was superkeen on the word “Fatosphere.”

And not fighting that point with someone who knows a lot more than I do about publishing is part of not being an asshole.

The entirety of the Fatosphere — and our limited role in it — will be acknowledged in the book. And since it hasn’t gone to press yet, there’s still a possibility that the title could change. But we have been through a lot of proposed titles, and Lessons from the Fatosphere is so far the only one that both of us, our editor, and the publisher can agree on.

Edited May 5, 2009: Since folks are linking this page from Facebook, here’s a handy link to actually buy the book! If you want the Australian version (which is called Screw Inner Beauty), that’s here.