Some months ago I was at the store and a very well meaning clerk gave me a tip that changed my life–but it wasn’t for the better. She recommended a great product called Shiseido Facial Cotton. They are lovely, perfect cotton pads for make-up or swiping the face with toner. They were a great recommendation.
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I was hanging out with a crazy Brit named George when I first had the idea of the bookii. I had been working on writing a book and was finding it incredibly 2 dimensional. I wanted multiple topics and more visual than I could accomplish in print. I wanted my reader to be able to explore my book rather than reading it one page after the other. In a conversation with George we were talking about an online technology called Prezi that allows you to explore deeper and is a more flexible presentation platform than Power Point. Somehow talking about that helped me start to visualize a dynamic memoir that had pictures and color and video and wasn’t bound by the boundaries of a printed book. Prezi didn’t end up being the medium, but the concept stuck with me. What makes it a bookii? Well, it is a book that you read electronically It is written by one author and instead of purchasing a book, you purchase an annual subscription to a bookii. My bookii is creative non-fiction–a lifestyle, but I hope there will be lots of bookiis that are both fiction and non-fiction combined. I imagine being able to read my favorite authors and about their characters while simultaneously being able to look up what they were thinking about when they were writing about it or what their inspirations were by exploring their bookii. The Crucible Bookii is my bookii. It is the world’s very first bookii. It is rich with interesting articles about the stories that make up my life. I hope you will become a member and share this journey with me as I create this interactive real-time memoir. Melanie shares how the bookii idea...
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A couple of mornings ago we were all hanging around in the kitchen during breakfast and my son Xander said, “I don’t want you guys to ever get divorced.” He has been asking questions lately about step-parents and would he ever have step-parents and I know his little brain is trying to figure it all out. My husband says, “Melanie are you in for never getting divorced?” I said, “Are you in?” “Yes,” he replied. And I could tell he really meant it. “Me, too.” I said. “Let’s shake on it,” he said. And so we did. There was an intimacy to all this in front of our children that was much like declaring our love in front of 125 friends and family. It was sweet, it was current, and in many ways it was deeper for me than any vow I have ever made. Mel and I aren’t prone to big displays of affection but this little exchange darn near took my breath away. I walked out of the kitchen wondering what had just happened. It was an unexpected moment of incredible intimacy. The Crucible Bookii is my story as it continues to unfold and how I see the world from my perch on the edge of the Crucible…because falling in love changed everything. To read more about our story, may I suggest Our Gay...
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Emerson drew this picture and brought it home. I thought it should be on my bookii. It is just great...
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I felt so incredibly free. I can’t tell you the last time I was on vacation by myself in a city other than my own. It was an explorer’s dream.
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The next day I was looking in the mirror feeling disappointed in myself. I actually, really looked at my face in the mirror and I realized I didn’t want to be the person who was afraid to explore the world in any way I chose.
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