Before I start DawnWatching for the week, I will give an update on my book "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals" which goes on sale next Tuesday, April 29!
(It can be ordered now at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061351857/dawnwatch)
If you haven't been to the promo site yet, please check it out: www.ThankingtheMonkey.com
Or you can skip the website and browse the book -- the first few pages of each chapter -- on line at http://tinyurl.com/4wd4hq
The website includes a fun video with animal friendly actors like Alicia Silverstone and Emily Deschanel saying nice things about the animals and the book. There are some delightful endorsements, from smart folks like Nobel prize winner JM Coetzee, and feminist icon Gloria Steinem, and from pop icons too. My favorite might be from Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers:
"I am sick of being ignorant. This book is education with a smile, information with a kiss from a dog who just drank out of a toilet, and should be required reading for all college students."
There are kind advance reviews posted, including a "starred review" from Publisher's Weekly. And there are also a couple of profiles on me on the "reviews" page. The one from Veg News basically says I am a social butterfly and a drunk -- but at least I am fun. The profile is beautifully written, however, and ends with a perfect line about the book:
"VN Associate Editor Elizabeth Castoria got in touch with both her manic and depressive sides while reading Thanking the Monkey."
I think that sums the book up well. It includes some information that would be hard to stomach without the occasional belly laugh it provides, thanks to a decent joke or two and the brilliant cartoons from Bizarro and other sources.
And now, brand new, the website has a link to that place where you browse inside the book online! It will show you the contents page, and the first few pages of each chapter, so you can read a little and get a feel for the look of the book.
If you have a newsletter or a blog, and would like a copy of the book to review or just to help plug, please drop me a line with an email about your list or blog so I can get Harper Collins to get you an advance copy this week.
MySpace folks -- let's be friends! Thanking the Monkey is at www.myspace.com/thankingthemonkey
Or if you are a Facebooker, please join the Thanking The Monkey facebook group, and ask your facebook friends to sign up.
Those of you who are keen on YouTube might make consider making a kind comment about the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzxB6MKbPYE -- that would be much appreciated. And please forward it to your friends.
Book launches and parties are coming up in May. The page marked "events" on the Thanking the Monkey website will have the schedule, and the list of special guests, who will be reading sections of the book with me. It is being updated all the time, so keep checking back. I will tell you below some of what we have at the moment, in case you find I am in your neighborhood, and want to come by or to organize a speech or an interview.
Here is what we have at the moment:
April 22 -- that's tomorrow, Earth Day! The book won't be out yet, but I am speaking at the Los Angeles Earth Day event, a brief appearance on the main stage at 2:20 and then in the Environmental Tent, at 2:45, on Diet and Global warming: http://www.earthdayla.org/
May 3: I will be reading and signing at the delightful Animal Acres hoedown. Some other special guests are "Skinny Bitch" Rory Freedman and actress Jorja Fox, and, most importantly, the wonderful animal residents of Animal Acres. Learn more at: http://www.animalacres.org/events.html
MAY 4: My LOS ANGELES BOOK LAUNCH at The Cottage in Pacific Palisades. These lovely folks are coming and doing some reading: Ray Abruzzo (Sopranos), Emily Deschanel (Bones), Jorja Fox (CSI), Daniela Sea (The L Word), Jane Velez Mitchell (CNN and other national news anchor and commentator), and Persia While (Girlfriends). James Cromwell will be there if Oliver Stone hasn't flown him to Louisiana. And we have some other exciting actors pending... Find out more, and rsvp at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com under "events."
May 10 -- Worldfest LA! I will be speaking, reading, selling and signing. Go to http://www.worldfestevents.com/
May 17 -- The wonderful folks from Farm Sanctuary are giving me an award (the greatest honor of my life so far) at their New York gala. There is nothing more fun and glamorous, and also kind, than a Farm Sanctuary gala. Learn more at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/gala08/
The next day, May 18, is New York's Veggie Pride Parade! It culminates in Washington Square Park, where I will be signing at 1pm and giving out vegan treats : ) http://www.veggieprideparade.org/
And that evening MAY 18, 5-8pm, is my NEW YORK BOOK LAUNCH in the Soho Grand Yard. Heather Mills McCartney is coming and doing some reading (on dog and cat fur, of course) and quite a few other wonderful guests are in the process of being confirmed. I will post more on the events page closer to the date.
(A little birdie has told me it is Jenny Brown from Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary's birthday on May 18, so I hope she'll be around and we'll have a terrific vegan birthday cake! http://www.woodstockfas.org/ )
Now how is that for a fun weekend in New York?
May 26 I will be in Houston on "Go Vegan Texas!" -- the show on which I did my first ever radio hosting! That one is a fund drive, so we'll have lots of signed books (signed by some of the cool folks in the book, not just me) and other fabulous prizes. The show generally airs at 10am Central (and streams live) but starts a little later on fund drive days. Go to http://www.govegantexas.org/upcomingshow.php to learn more.
May 27 I will be at the San Antonio Vegetarian Society.
June 1st I will be back in Los Angeles at Book Expo America: http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/
I will probably also be in DC, Ohio, and San Francisco during May -- still working on the schedule.
ANIMAL FRIENDLY RADIO:
I have many press and media events scheduled in May -- KFI radio and weird cooking shows and all sorts of things. I am particularly pleased to get support from, and be supporting, the animal friendly shows. I noted Go Vegan Texas above. I will also be live on Talking Animals, the Tampa NPR station, Wednesday May 7th at 11:30 Eastern. The show streams live and takes callers:
http://www.talkinganimals.net/
And I will also be doing the El Paso NPR show, Animal Concerns of Texas, during May: http://www.ktep.org/program_detail.sstg?id=103
I so look forward to traveling with the book, and meeting the wonderful activists I have come to love online.
I thank you all for your support for this work, and for everything you do for the animals,
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
www.DawnWatch.com and
www.ThankingtheMonkey.com
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. )
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read advance reviews of Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals” and watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.
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Date: Mon Apr 21 18:57:17 2008
