October 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....

This line from the Eagles' song "Already Gone" has always inspired me, because I think it is so true in most of our lives.

Now I know there are exceptions to any rule, and that goes for life's hard knocks as well. But most of the time when we feel like we're chained to a situation that we can't get out of, we really do have the key to unlock those chains. All we have to do is get our minds to work to find the key.

As I was thinking about that this morning, I remembered a letter exchange I had a few years ago. A young woman had written to me after reading one of my books, and told me how much she enjoyed the book, but that she just didn't think she would ever be able to accept the body she was in.

I wrote back and "waxed eloquent" on how it was her body and she should learn to love it.

She wrote back to me, actually trying to convince me that she couldn't and, in essence, shouldn't have to learn to love her body.

I didn't reply to her letter because I realized she was content in her misery. She wasn't looking for the key to unlock her chains of self-loathing and unhappiness.

If I had written back to her, I would have told her that she has three choices. She can spend the rest of her life starving herself, trying to become a size that her body wasn't genetically programmed to be; or she can learn to accept and even love that body; or she can spend her life complaining about her situation, while making herself and everyone around her miserable.

And basically, that covers about any life situation we find ourselves in. We have the same choices.

Maya Angelou wrote, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."
 

A Word From Pat

Happy October, everyone! As many of you already know, this is one of my most loved months. So I'm humming with contentment, just like the bumblebees that are gorging themselves on my lingering flowers from summer.

My life has been fairly simple since we last talked. I've worked again at a "real job" for two weeks at the place where I'm on call, or as they say, "their call girl." But after Tuesday I'll be able to get back to my really important stuff, like working on my next two books.

This coming weekend, Oct.10–12, I'll be at the Southern Festival of Books here in Nashville, along with my publisher, Peggy Elam, and Bunkie Lynn, author of The Big Girls' Guide To Life. We'll have a panel presentation on Friday at 3:30 p.m. The title of our panel is "Tell Me Why I Should Love My Body." We'll each speak for about 20 minutes, then there will be a question and answer session.

Bunkie will lead the session with a humorous talk about how we feel about our bodies, then Peggy, a licensed psychologist, will talk about why we should love our bodies, and I will follow with how to love our bodies.

Then Bunkie and I will sign books. You can read about the event and see a photo of the three of us at: http://www.pearlsongpress.com/peggy_elam_phd/. Who knows, we may take this show on the road!

If you remember, in the last newsletter I talked about being a part of an upcoming article in First magazine. The issue will be on the stands from Nov. 3 until Nov. 24, 20008. I'm sure I'll send out a reminder in the next QP.

Until then, everyone have a wonderful October.

                                                     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

One step at a time, we may be getting there!

Can you believe this? Women are starving themselves to be thin, but now, in lieu of a facelift, they're adding leftover liposuction fat to their faces because―as we all know―fat baby faces look younger!

The "New" Plastic Surgery: In Which Fat Becomes The New Black

As "The New New Face" explains, the face lift has transformed over the past decade. It used to be about pulling and tightening but now is all about―are you ready for this?―fat. In describing the adolescent ideal pursued by today's plastic surgery client, the mag says, "As thin as [teen's] bodies are, they still haven't entirely shed the baby fat in their faces. This, it seems, is what women in their forties and fifties are now after: baby fat." Babies certainly do look young! And they have oodles of fat.

Read the rest of the article from The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlotte-hilton-andersen/the-new-plastic-surgery-i_b_117227.html
 

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 Susan Schulherr, author of Eating Disorders for Dummies.

If you're a woman, odds are you're not happy with your body. You probably can't remember when you weren't at war with your belly or your thighs. (Men are beginning to catch up with their own versions of body discontent.) Western culture provides you with a steady stream of images and advice about an often unattainable "right" way to look, feeding your feelings that you just aren't acceptable as you are.

Enter Pat Ballard with 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are) to supply a badly needed alternative voice! Ballard's easy-to-read, easy-to-use volume is like having your own personal coach and cheerleader for ending the warfare and making peace with the body you have. She's out in front to show you the way, behind you to nudge you forward, and beside you offering support and encouragement for every step (all 10!) of your journey. She accomplishes this with guidelines (" . . . our bodies know what they want to look like"), worksheets to practice new ways of thinking and behaving (". . .look for 10 good things about [your] body and try to develop them"), and the greatest collection of inspirational quotes for body-love and general self-respect you're likely to find anywhere (for example, from Gloria Steinem, "Each individual woman's body demands to be accepted on it's own terms." Or, from an unknown author, "It's not who you are that holds you back; it's who you think you're not.")

10 Steps is your body's best friend in pocket form. I'm delighted to have it on hand to recommend―personally and professionally―to anyone struggling with body image and the inkling that it's better to embrace than fight the one-and-only body you have.
 

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.

See Pat at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN the second weekend in October! She will be in the Pearlsong Press booth with publisher Peggy Elam, Ph.D. and author Bunkie Lynn. Pat, Peggy & Bunkie are on the festival schedule Friday afternoon (Oct. 10, 2008) at 3:30 p.m. for the joint presentation "Tell Me Why I Should Love My Body!"

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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