Green Goddess on a Cracker! It’s Really Happening!

The excitement begins on a chilly spring day . . .  far, far away . . .  at a nerd convention . . .

It all started a couple years ago in Toronto; Karma and I gave papers on using humor in the classroom at a conference. An editor asked us if we were interested in turning our idea into a book, and we said sure, but nothing came of it for a while. Then Karma got an email from her, asking us if we’d like to submit a proposal. So we put together a letter proposal. She liked it and asked for a table of contents and some sample chapters. We wrote. And waited. We addressed concerns. Wrote more. Then waited more. Karma called her last week to ask about it, and she responded to Karma in an email that included the sentence ”we are planning to send a contract to you and Denise.”

my partner, Karma Waltonen. writing partner, that is.

When I saw the word “contract,” I nearly peed my pants. Then I ran around the office, looking for someone to hug. Jenn wasn’t in her cube. I walked towards my boss’s office, seeing people but no one particularly hug-worthy. My boss’s office door was closed, but I knocked and entered anyway, and said “Somebody’s fucking got to hug me.” My coworker John was the lucky recipient.  I babbled and couldn’t stand still, and finally my boss told me to quit jiggling in his office. So I let them get back to their meeting.

Karma (my brilliant and amazing best friend) and I are writing a book and it will soon have a contract, which suggests it will be published. Holy frak! And the best part is that it’s on The Simpsons. It’s a book for teachers, really, on how to use the show in humanities classes, complete with activities and paper assignments. It’s quite clever, if I do say so myself.  We have some stuff to hammer out, like permissions, royalties, and A TITLE would be good.

I’m full of hope. And beans. And sugar and spice. And soon, vodka. I’m hoping this high stays with me for a while.  I’m so stoked on the idea of being published, and for Karma to get tenure-track. The idea of making any money off of it isn’t really in my head, but my friend Justin suggested we take it to Comic Con and the like, because, as he said:

me with Justin and Mr. Fabulous

you’re a GIRL, you have huge TITS, and you’re doing a book on the SIMPSONS

NERDS will buy your book just to be able to talk to you for a minute

 And I heart Justin for many reasons, most of all that.