Day 328: 3 BIG Announcements!

I have three MAJOR announcements to share today.  I'm bubbling over with excitement and pride!  Here goes:


1) I am no longer unemployed.... because I've been offered the best job in the world!  I finalized a BOOK DEAL with Penguin, based on Mirror Mirror OFF the Wall.  
I've been working to make this deal happen since a few weeks before my wedding (and I know a few of you have already caught word of the news), but nothing felt final until I deposited my first (modest) advance check in the bank.  That happened last week, and I've been a little dazed ever since.  I feel like I can finally call myself a writer.  Authoring a book has been a lifelong dream of mine, so I am incredibly grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

If anybody wants to buy me this coffee mug, I'll
gratefully guzzle from it every day for motivation!

Much like my blog, the book will be a humorous and quirky memoir of my year without mirrors, chock-full of nerdy insights from the latest research on body image along with historical and cultural "stuff" about mirrors and beauty.  It will go further than the blog, by delving into my life in greater detail and by incorporating a much more substantive amount of research and "fun facts."   I couldn't have made this happen without my phenomenal book agent, Mollie Glick, of Foundry Media.  Mollie pushed me to produce a book proposal (the week before my wedding!!) when I didn't know if I had it in me, and then held my hand through the nerve-wracking experience of the "auction."  I'm also psyched that I'll soon be working with Marisa Vigilante, my editor over at Penguin!  Hopefully she'll help polish gems out of the pebbles I'll be sending her in a few months... :)  Right now the book is slated to come out in Summer of 2013, so I have lots and lots (and lots and lots) of work to do!

2) ABC's 20/20 has signed on to produce a segment on my year without mirrors.

Robin Roberts is amazing.  I will be speechless.

Holy crap!  Yep.  It's true.  The lovely publicity folks at Penguin helped to negotiate terms for filming that I am comfortable with (i.e., they have promised to cover the important issues I care about, and NOT just focus on the scintillating mystery of how I apply eyeliner without a mirror...).  In a few weekends Michael and I are headed to New York City to be interviewed in the ABC studio by Robin Roberts (gah! feeling faint...).  I'm particularly thrilled that a 20/20 film crew has agreed to accompany me to the UCSF Young Women's Health Leadership Summit on March 7th, where I'll be giving two About-Face media-literacy workshops and basking in the amazingness of girl power.  The 20/20 episode will likely air sometime in April, after my year-without-mirrors is officially over.  I'll keep you posted on how things progress, and you'll definitely get a note to "tune in" on the air-date.  (BTW - Is it horrible that I'm kind of freaking out about what I should wear for the interview?  Any publicists out there have advice??)

3) Finally - THE PARTY IS ON!!  (And you are ALL invited!) 

Clearly, there is much to celebrate.  So... on the evening of Saturday, March 24th, I'm throwing a "First Look" party in the "Audre Lorde Room" of the stunning San Francisco Women's Building, to celebrate the end of my year without mirrors.  I'm partnering with About-Face to make this an ALL-OUT BODY-POSITIVE BONANZA.  We've invited other Bay Area organizations to the event, so there will be lots of fun, playful, body-positive activities and exhibits.  I'm springing for booze and munchies, so fun will be had by all.  At midnight we'll toast to my adventurous year, and I'll go check my badass-self out in a mirror for the first time in ages.  I couldn't have gotten through this year without the support and encouragement from this blog community, so please join me if you're able!  If you're interested in attending, shoot me an email at kjerstingruys@gmail.com and I'll add you to the official evite so you can get all the details.  


Again, THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU, for reading this blog and supporting me in this journey.  It's not over yet!

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