November 2008
News, updates, & pronouncements from Pat Ballard,
the Queen of Rubenesque Romances

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. 
Eleanor Roosevelt

Something to think about....

Knowing that I was planning to keep my grandkids, Shaun, 8, and Kayla, 6, this weekend, I was feeling a little regret that I don't have any video games or computer games for them to play. We have satellite TV with any possible cartoon channel they could want―yet I wondered if I was not being a good grandmother by not having all the latest technology for them.

Then sanity returned to me and I remembered that I want my house to be a house of memories. Memories that come from spending one-on-one time with their grandparents. And by not having those built-in babysitters I'm forced to be more creative in coming up with ideas of how to spend my time with them.

So Saturday night Joe, "Pawpaw," built a fire in my woodburning stove and we roasted wieners and had an outside picnic, even though it was after dark and the temperature was in the low 50s. We had hotdogs with all the trimmings, plus Joe put a can of chili on the fire and cooked it in the can. He and Shaun enjoyed the chili.

During one of the quieter moments Kayla said, "I love the sound of the crickets."

I added, "And listen to the wind rustle the leaves in the trees."

She said, "I'm calling this our wilderness picnic!"

After the hotdogs were finished, we roasted marshmallows. Shaun really got into that. He soon became my official "roaster."

The next morning about 11:00 the kids and I were back outside. As soon as the leaves start falling, Shaun and Kayla want to come to Mimi and Pawpaw's and play in the leaves. One of the games we play is picking up huge handfulls of leaves and throwing them on each other's heads. So that was one of the first things we did. We all looked like "Swamp Thing" before it was over.

Then their parents―my son, Eric, and my daughter-in-law, Tiffany―came over around 1 p.m. and after lunch we went back outside and built another fire and roasted more marshmallows.

At one point, while Shaun played baseball with Eric, Kayla was swinging and looking up into the trees and said, "This is just the best house ever!"

My heart filled with the knowledge that it had been a memory-making weekend. Not just for them, but for me, also.

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.
Thomas Campbell
Hallowed Ground
 

A Word From Pat

I have worked fulltime at my "part-time" job since I wrote the last newsletter. That's the reason it's late―again.

I hope everyone had a good October. My publisher, Peggy Elam, Bunkie Lynn, author of The Big Girls' Guide To Life, and I teamed up and had a booth at the Southern Festival of Books the weekend of Oct. 10-12. We had a 90-minute panel on Friday,titled "Tell Me Why I Should Love My Body."

We spent the rest of the weekend meeting people and selling our books. It was my most successuful SFB so far.

You can see photos and listen to our talks at our Love Your Body Blog, http://www.loveyourbodyblog.com.

As I mentioned in the October issue of the newsletter, I'm in the November 24, 2008 edition of First magazine. It should still be on the shelves at most grocery stores, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. First is usually on the shelves right before you start through the checkout lane.

Everyone have a wonderful November, and for those in the U.S.―have a beautiful Thanksgiving!

                                                     Love,

                                                                    Pat

Visit Pat's Place at www.patballard.com | Write me at patballard@bellsouth.net
 

New from Pearlsong Press:
Pat's first nonfiction book,
10 Steps to Loving Your Body
(No Matter What Size You Are)

As a young woman Pat Ballard almost died trying to starve her body into a societally approved size. In 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are) she shares the steps she created―and took―to heal the damage of years of dieting. Join her in celebrating size diversity, self esteem, positive body image, and health at every size.

Your body is a unique work of art.
There never has been, nor will there ever be,
another body just like yours.
Learn to love it and it will love you back.

More info at the Pearlsong Press website. (All copies of 10 Steps purchased from the Pearlsong Press website are autographed by Pat.)

Links About The Queen & Her Books

Pat's Place website
The Queen's Blog
About Pat Ballard
Dangerous Curves Ahead
The Best Man
Abigail's Revenge
Wanted: One Groom
Nobody's Perfect
His Brother's Child
A Worthy Heir
Pearlsong Press blog posts about Pat

Weighty Matters

Losing the Weight Stigma
by ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG

The public-health crusade of the moment is a no-holds-barred war on obesity. Those waging it don’t have time for subtlety. When Senator Christopher Dodd introduced the Obesity Prevention Act of 2008 this summer, he called obesity “a medical emergency of hurricanelike proportions” that is wreaking havoc “on our families, on our society and on our health care system.”

But some activists and academics, part of a growing social movement known as fat acceptance, suggest that we rethink this war—as well as our definition of health itself. Fat-acceptance activists insist you can’t assume someone is unhealthy just because he’s fat, any more than you can assume someone is healthy just because he’s slim. (They deliberately use the word “fat” as a way to reclaim it, much the way some gay rights activists use the word “queer.”) Rather, they say, we should focus on health measurements that are more meaningful than numbers on a scale. This viewpoint received a boost in August when The Archives of Internal Medicine reported that fully half of overweight adults and one-third of the obese had normal blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar—indicating a normal risk for heart disease and diabetes, conditions supposedly caused by being fat.

Read the rest of the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/magazine/05wwln-idealab-t.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1223139800-xp+ynNnykFvnzk3ZLJnuRg&oref=slogin
 

Reader Review of the Month

Editor's Note: We're now featuring reader reviews of Pat's books in The Queen's Proclamation. Post a review at an online bookstore, magazine, or public website and email us at proclamation @ pearlsong.com to let us know, and we'll consider yours for inclusion in The QP. 

The following review of 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are) was posted on the Amazon.com website by Judith Matz, author of The Diet Survivor's Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance & Self-Care.

As a therapist, I know that the toughest part for most women in their journey to make peace with food is learning how to build a better body image. 10 Steps to Loving Your Body is a fabulous resource for doing just that. Author Pat Ballard offers her own wisdom, along with inspirational quotes from people such as Gilda Radner and Wayner Dyer. One of my favorites: "Begin challenging your assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile or the light won't come in." (Alan Alda)

If you are struggling with weight/body image issues, keep this book on your nightstand or in your purse, and open its pages often. It will be like having a kind and gentle best friend with you who wants what's best for you and knows how to help you get there.
 

Read a interview with Pat at The F-word (Food. Fat. Feminism.) blog.

Communicate with Pat via her "Amazon Connect" blog on Amazon.com!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/AC8LT66HFJQ1Y/ref=cm_blog_blog/102-0429066-5275365

Pat's romantic suspense novel Abigail's Revenge is featured on the Beautiful Portal website: http://www.beautifulportal.com/news.php?item.900034.8
and has been reviewed by AmaZe eMag: http://www.venusimaging.com/Magazine/2005/decjanrealistic/jennifer.htm

 An article on Pat has been posted at:
http://eastmanpublishing.com/epextra/articles/eparticle1007.htm.
And an EP Extra review of Abigail's Revenge is posted at
http://eastmanpublishing.com/epextra/articles/eparticle1011.htm 

Look for an interview with Pat on Lonnie Cruse's blog at
http://www.lonniecruse.blogspot.com.

Calendar of Events

New from Pearlsong Press—Pat's latest (and first nonfiction) book, 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are).

See http://www.pearlsong.com/10steps.htm to order. All copies purchased directly from the Pearlsong Press website will be autographed by the author.

Hear Pat on the air at Radio Free Nashville! Listen to or download the mp3 recording of Pat's June 23, 2008 guest appearance on the Health At Every Size show with Dr. Peggy Elam on WRFN Radio Free Nashville by going to http://www.healthateverysize.info/2008/06/june-23-2008-he.html.

Pat regularly guests on Radio Free Nashville's Health At Every Size show, which airs every Monday morning. She's usually in the studio on the fourth Monday of the month. The show is streamed live over the Internet 10-11 a.m. CST Mondays. You can also now subscribe to the podcast of the show (automatically receive the mp3 recordings of the weekly shows on your computer, iPod or mp3 player) via iTunes. Click on the "subscribe in a reader" button/link in the upper lefthand column, and select "Add to iTunes" or the podcatcher of your choice.

Listen to the live broadcasts over the Internet at http://www.radiofreenashville.org/. You can also listen to the live broadcasts through your telephone via UPSNAP.COM.  See the Health At Every Size show website or the Radio Free Nashville website for details. Davidson County, Tennessee residents can also hear the show live through the Secondary Audio Programming of Comcast cable's Channel 10.

For more on the show, check out the show blog at http://www.healthateverysize.info. You can also listen to or download recordings of some of the shows, including several with Pat, at www.pearlsong.com/audio.htm.

You can still hear the taped radio shows from Size Matters with Veronica, WCRS Radio, on Pat's website.

Show #1 discusses Pat's romance novels
http://www.wcrsradio.org/RadioStage/size/SIZE051.mp3

Show #2 discusses women of size and their sexuality
http://www.wcrsradio.org/RadioStage/size/SIZE052.mp3

And check out the photos from the Nov. 6, 2004 Mississippi Authors Festival that are online at The Queen's Proclamation blog and The Pearlsong Letter blog. (Click on the Mississippi Authors Festival link under the "Photo Albums" heading in the lefthand column of either blog to view the photos.) While you're visiting, post a comment on the blog!
 

Give someone a good read as well as support in loving themselves.
Pat's books make great gifts!
 

Book Contest

Top 100 Women Sites (http://www.top100womensites.com/contest.htm) has been purchased by someone who is in the process of changing the site a little. I'm not sure if he is going to continue featuring the book contest.

I'll keep you informed.
 

Read previous issues of The Queen's Proclamation at http://www.pearlsong.com/newsletterarchives.htm.
 

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The Queen's Proclamation is published by Pearlsong Press.
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©2008 Pearlsong Press