Call me Rachel Resnickova. Czech translation of Love Junkie from Jota arrived yesterday. Positively psychedelic!

Gifts: A beautiful new review from The Barcelona Review

Meat stand in Morocco 

http://www.barcelonareview.com/rev/69.html
Talk about gifts. What a thoughtful, generous review from one of my all-time favorite online magazines, The Barcelona Review. Check it out, and then if you're interested, click on the link to an old story of mine, "The Meat-Eaters of Marrakesh." You just might recognize one of the characters/settings/relationships in the memoir. Only it's unleashed and heightened the way fiction allows. In the review of Love Junkie, Jill Adams says, "This book matters." Wow!
Merry merry! Whether you celebrate Xmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia or Festivus (the holiday for the rest of us) -- tear it up! RRxo
Stay tuned for groovy pics and write-up of the recent wild and woolly Hustler/Hollywood event. For now, as a seasonal teaser and my gift to you all who have been so supportive and inspiring, enjoy this snap from the last minutes of the Hustler/Hollywood event. Yes, Jesus came. Clearly he is a love junkie, too.

Jesus has my back. And one of the guest's backs, too.

Also her formidable scarlet nails.

Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't Have?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Happy birthday, Ma! A note to the Original Love Junkie

Happy birthday, Ma! Even with your eyes downcast here, you look somehow mischievous and lively. Strong, and devil-may-care sexy. One of the things that motivates me, and gives me pure pleasure, is breathing life back into you with words. You were so vivacious. I remember your deep laugh, the infectious timbre, its crazy escalation. The way you sang nonsense ditties by Lewis Carroll when you were drunk. "'You are old, Father William,' the young man said, 'And your hair has become very white. And yet you incessantly stand on your head. Do you think at your age it is right?'..." Don't worry. I will not let them forget you.

Here we are, bewildered by the world, together. I love how strong your clavicle looks, and I remember how you broke that clavicle in one of our many car accidents. This one happened somewhere outside D.C., in that white w/ black convertible topped VW bug with the green-and-blue flower stickers from Zuma's stuck on the hood. I remember the song "Everybody's Talkin' At Me" by Harry Nilsson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HL4WRp_Qk&feature=related was playing on the radio, and how when we smashed into the guardrail, you threw your arm protectively across my chest, and I loved that. I can still feel the warmth of that arm, pressed against my child's chest. I can't hear that song without feeling grief rise up in me like smoke.

You're so young here, Ma! High school? Before you became a Bostonian debutante? When you still wore the proper WASP clothes, the red lipstick and pearl earrings. I call this expression of yours "stargazing." If you look at the B&W photo of me on the home page of this site, you might recognize that same stargazing in my face. Those telltale shining addict eyes. They light up when we're triggered, don't they, Ma? When we fix our gaze on something, someone, whom we think will save us. Something that still breaks my heart is how you kept looking for love from people who could never give it. If there's one most precious thing I've learned in recovery, it's this:  "Go where the love is." If you don't, you will surely die.

I love this one of you in triptych, Ma. You, incognito. You, gazing (somewhat) steadily, though off to the side. You, questioning yourself, questioning it all. You had such humor, and heart. I thank you for all the photographs you handed down to me, the gift of your artistry and your eye. I miss you. Terribly. Today, I celebrate that you were born, and I thank you for birthing me. Happy birthday, Ma. Don't forget. I will always love you.

New Love Junkie book site page: Reader Responses!

So this is a time for gratitude. Today, as I contemplate never eating again I'm still so full, I want to pay tribute to the incredible Love Junkie readers. We have just added a brand new page to the Love Junkie book site to showcase some of these reader responses. When I have doubted the book, when I have despaired about the book's chances in this challenging economy and cultural climate, when I have felt like hiding away from the raw story itself, letters from readers have kept me going. Their words have given me faith that there is something in this book that can help others.

Please check out this new page, and let me know your thoughts here on the Love Junkie blog. Here's the link:
http://www.lovejunkiethememoir.com/Reader_Responses.html

Meanwhile, below is a photo of a real Love Junkie reader caught in action! This is Judy Carter, the renowned comedian, author of perennial bestseller The Comedy Bible, and a previous participant in the Writers On Fire workshops. She generously posted this on Facebook some weeks ago. Enjoy! I look forward to your comments on the new Reader Response page. We plan to update it with new responses in coming weeks.

Gratefully yours,
Rachel
xoxo

P.S. SEND PHOTOS OF YOU READING LOVE JUNKIE AND WE'LL POST A NEW PIC EVERY WEEK! 

In a Greek coffee shop in NYC reading Rachel Resnick's amazing book "Love Junkie." Passionate story of sordid details of a personal exodus from sex addiction. Get it!

-- Judy Carter

Big news: AOL Health interview! Plus EW & Eric Roberts' endorsement!

5:45PM. On board the groovily retro Coast Starlight train. Just pulled out of San Luis Obispo. It's already darkening as we hurtle toward Los Angeles. Sacramento seems far behind. Above, pinpricks of light glimmer like tiny stars, the motion of the train lulls my sleep-deprived body and brain, and I feel like I'm dreaming when I think about the surprise of having an interview front and center on the official AOL site.

The interview for AOL Health appeared as the lead story on the early evening of Monday, November 24th. I know because suddenly my e-mail box flooded with notes from friends, relatives, classmates, colleagues, strangers, saying they'd seen my photo flash across their screens and then the interview. "Are You A Love Junkie?"

That same day, rockin' actor Eric Roberts actually tweeted Love Junkie's Amazon link and called it an "important book." Surreal!

Eric Roberts' on Twitter Gives Shout-Out to Love Junkie 11/24/09

I remember first falling for Roberts and his charismatic edgy energy when he starred in "The Pope of Greenwich Village" along with Mickey Rourke. He was totally the kind of sexy, street-hustling, wild-eyed man I would've gone for when in full-blown love junkie mode. Here's a still from that film:

I wonder if being a father to Emma Roberts, also an actor, had something to do with him resonating so strongly with Love Junkie. I also noticed something on his site called The Natural Child Project:  Children Reflect the Treatment They Receive. Then there's his quote:  "Just because I'm girl crazy doesn't mean I like women." Lots to chew on, in light of Love Junkie's terrain! I'm curious what you  think about it all.

Earlier this month Love Junkie also appeared in Entertainment Weekly's Nov. 13th issue, featured as New In Paperback. The attention the book is getting is dizzying. Even disorienting. Maybe I am still struggling with deep programming that renders me more comfortable with struggle, with failure. Yet what sustains me, what allows me to not only believe but perhaps enjoy some of the notice, is that this book is about me, and yet not about me at all. It seems that what I wrote is somehow dovetailing with a cultural readiness to look at relationships a little differently. To try out a new lens with which to examine patterns of destructive relationships. To dig beneath the very concept we have of love.

I am honored. I am delighted. And I am humbled.

Here is the link to the AOL Health interview, if you are interested. I think the interviewing journalist, Michelle Burford, did a fantastic job. She was a pure pleasure.
http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/relationships/love-junkie-rachel-resnick

Thank you for your support, and faith, and for joining me on this journey. More to come very soon. There's been a lot happening lately.
Rachel
xoxo

New Website Launch!

As I write this, I’m drinking a fresh-made latte to warm my bones. I’m such a sun whore. The hell with seasons, the subtlety of changing leaves and all that cyclical jazz. Give me eternal summer. The merciless yet vivifying glare of sunshine. There’s a chill in the air today, the sky is dishwater gray, but the view from my deck overlooking the Topanga State Park is still breathtaking. Buck up, is what that view says. Open your eyes. Be grateful. I inhale, think about the journey I’ve been on the past few years. In truth, I barely recognize myself. I feel like a shape-shifter, psychologically speaking. My friend the amazing writer Samantha Dunn warned me that writing a memoir would change me. She was right. In the wake of the book, I’m still learning who I am.

In November of 2009, my first memoir Love Junkie came out. The year before that, I squirreled away in my modest Topanga rental to bang out the book. Sometimes it felt more like sluicing open my veins than writing. I’d never been so skinless. I pity whoever got close to me then. For a whole year, I was like a walking-talking raw nerve. And crazy. That’s right. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Writing a memoir can make you bonkers. Memoir is about memory, and to write vividly, you’ve got to “go there.” Meaning, you’ve got to relive those memories, which in this case, meant feeling pain fresh. Okay, yes, there was also memory of physical ecstasy – which was more fun to revisit -- and I hope a lot of dark humor shot through the whole thing. You know, that special humor that springs from a wacky, rough childhood – where everything starts to look deliciously absurd. We’re talking survival goggles.

When the book came out, I had little idea what to expect. I went from being a hyper-introspective psyche-flaying wacked-out hermit – to a published memoirist who now had to, well, groom herself! Shower, shave, deodorize, dress in something other than sweats. And present the book to the world. It felt like a whirlwind. The book came out right when the economy was crashing, and then the publishing industry followed suit. All the rules changed, and quickly. My last published book, Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick (Gee, any connection there?!) had come out ten years before. (Why the long lag, you ask? I was too busy being a love junkie to write another book!) So I had some chops when it came to going public with my writing. I don’t think I could’ve written a memoir without that experience of publishing a novel, other publications, and years of teaching and learning to articulate things about craft in a professional, distanced way. Yet fiction is far more shielding than memoir. So in that sense, I wasn’t prepared at all. Plus, publishing-wise, it was a different world then. For GWYF-UC, I remember insisting on building a website and posting the URL on the book’s back cover. The publishers thought I was out of my mind. Cut to ten years later, and the two operative words for modern book publicity:  social networking. That includes websites, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, you name it. And – it falls primarily on the shoulders of the author.

I have to laugh when people ask me what I’m writing now. Writing? I’m a book pimp! I have a book out. While it’s out there, I’ve got to support it or all that intense cave-dwelling soul-searching heart-baring work will go to waste and wind up in the dreaded remainder bin. I tell people rather than trying to channel Proust, I’m now all about channeling the spirit of P.T. Barnum! Despite the climate, we were lucky enough to get lots of press and attention for Love Junkie. What happened was the book seemed to hit a cultural nerve. Shortly before the hardcover debuted, actor David Duchovny publicly confessed to entering rehab for sex addiction. This was a watershed moment. It seemed America was getting ready for a cultural dialogue about hidden but pervasive process addictions like love and sex addiction. The press and book tour continued. Meanwhile, I was also trying to keep my business Writers On Fire alive so I could earn to support my writing habit. It’s a bitch earning your living freelance. But I’m unsuited to offices or regular jobs, so this is my path right now. I also admit I love the freedom – and the gambling rush of it all.

It seems I barely had time to breathe after the hardcover when – whammo – the paperback was coming out. This time, we might have more of a fighting chance. The paperback launched in early October. So the shadow of holidaze was far enough away that we could spread the word about the book in its new irresistible pulsating pink cover. Urban fantasy novelist and blogger extraordinaire Justine Musk said it was the only pink she’s ever liked. She called it “fuck you pink.” Spot on.

Shortly after its release, I got the news the paperback had gone into reprint. Whut? I’d never had anything go into reprint! Then I heard Barnes & Noble had seen fit to feature it on their New Arrivals trade paperback tables in their largest stores for two weeks. Two weeks! And without anyone paying them? Then it hit the Southern California Indie Bestseller list. What was happening? I’d tried different publicists with the hardcover. Now it was time to try again. The stars were aligned because national bestseller Hope Edelman, friend, neighbor, and author of the seminal book Motherless Daughters and most recently, the stunning memoir The Possibility of Everything, generously invited me to join her in conversation at a combo book event for us both at the first ever SheWrites salon in Los Angeles. That’s where I met the fresh, young dynamic duo of Jamie and Julia - J Squared PR (jsquaredpr.com) – right as they were beginning their business. They were the literary publicists of the future, with their chutzpah and solid grounding in film publicity. Their take-no-prisoners attitude, boundless energy and enthusiasm were just the fuel injection I needed for the paperback incarnation. It was the last chance.

Now was the time to spread the word, and hopefully prepare for the book to have a life after the tiny publishing window closed. To catch you up, I’m currently smack in the midst of the paperback promotion. In future blog posts I will try to talk more specifically about that process, and about other stuff, too. In this opening post, I just wanted to introduce you all to the Love Junkie journey, so you can join me from this point forward on a more regular basis. If you have any questions, or want to know about particular things, please feel free to ask me. You can send me e-mail through this awesome new site designed by Jamie of JSquaredPR.

Confession:  I would never have had the confidence or faith to keep pushing for the book’s survival if it weren’t for the extraordinary, heartfelt letters I’ve received and continue to receive from readers. In truth, I’m more of a writer – full of doubt and strong waves of, well, self-loathing. Sure, sometimes those alternate with thinking I’m okay (wait! Maybe I’m describing an addict more than every writer!) In any case, although I do love casual socializing, I’d rather be holed up, playing with word choice, polishing sentences, conjuring visceral scenes and feeling that creativity surge through me than out book-pimping. When I write is the only time I feel bigger than myself. I know it’s not about me, but about letting something come through me.

‘Til soon.
Rachel
xoxo