Kristin, second request: could you hook me up with the "My Turn" submission guidelines? I want to do a piece about being a writer with MS, and how that works...

I'd cut it, but right now, I'm a 'ho. Hey, want a date? There's nothing I won't do, but some things? Will cost you extra.

Huh, I've seen the "My Turn" column. I could have some words to say on modern health care and its impact on the family, but I'm sick of the subject myself.

Oh crap. Sorry. I know more than I did before, now that I got the auto reply.

Send your essay to myturn at newsweek dot com.

Here is the text of the email I received from them:

The guidelines for submitting a My Turn essay are as follows:

Please send your essay as text in the body of an e-mail message. We will not open or consider any submission sent as an attachment. The essay should be A) an original piece, B) about 850-900 words, C) personal in tone, D) about any topic, but not framed as a response to a Newsweek story or another My Turn essay. Submissions must not have been published elsewhere.

Please allow two months for your submission to be considered. Be sure to include your full name, address and phone number with your entry. We will send you a letter to inform you if we are unable to use your essay. We are fully aware of the time and effort that is put into each submission, and we consider every manuscript carefully.

I've been completely transported by the setting. Wants to go to England now for a spell, Lilty does.

You should read Deb's Eyes in the Fire. I'd say about 2 pages in, and I was ready to move to England.

Bookmarked, Kristin, thanks.

Kristin, definitely bookmarked. I can do a piece for them, I think.

Steph, Plainsong is even more, with England and the countryside and the roads and the church spires and the small towns....

Got it. I'll order both, then when Weaver comes in, say I got it for a present so's they put it on the shelf, too.

Ooh, what a fabulous idea. What I've done so far is ask at the info desk at both Borders and B&N in several locations, repeatedly, if they have it in stock. I've also called in to all local stores, asking if they have it in stock, ("No, I don't have time for you to special-order it, it's for a present I need this afternoon!") and my family, friends, and writing group are all doing the same. I figured enough demand for both books would make the stores stock them--or at least the latest one.

But actually getting it onto the shelf is even better.

In Winter Darkness

In these cold corners where I dream
a stench invades the memory well
of bile, cold as spoiled cream
in winter darkness waits this hell.

There's nothing in December's chill,
just weight of passion stripped away
No warming breath, no surge of will
can bring me back this holiday.

If what I cherished, lost as youth
he whom I loved now gone to clay
I'm bound at heart to touch my truth,
pulled clear of memory's overlay

There is no sun, no kiss, no touch, no rhyme
that can return me to that warmer time.

AmyLiz, are you around?