I’ve finished my third book, ALMOST A MURDER. It’s a true story, written like a novel (like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, but we didn’t have to make things up because this story is exciting enough all on its own). It’s a nonfiction novel, or literary realism, or a courtroom drama – call it what you will, we are very proud of it. I think it could make bestseller so that means we all need to be talking it up and recommending it to others.

As always, it is available in all the brick and mortar stores like Jan’s Paperbacks (I LOVE that bookstore) in Beaverton and Barnes & Noble all over and in bookstores in 57 other countries. Yeah!

It is also on-line so wherever you buy your books, go pick up this new courtroom thriller. In fact, pick up all three of my books and have yourself a great month of reading. (LOL – too much????)  Thanks everyone. Purchase the book at B&N online.

 My second book, DEAD IN A DITCH – Growing Up In Texas & Other Near-Death Experiences, is available for purchase from Broadway Books, Wallace Books, Koho Pono Publishing, Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble – or probably any bookstore near you. We’ve got great distribution.

What Folks Are Saying about Dead in a Ditch:

“Jody Seay is one funny writer!” – Jerry Juhl, Head Writer for The Muppets

 

“If you have ever known or been a mother just sure your children would wind up dead in a ditch, then you MUST read Jody Seay’s hilarious book about her childhood. Read it even if you think reading will make you go blind. This is the story of an earth daughter raised by an earth mother. The result is a Texas-sized funny book about both.” – Liz Carpenter, author, speaker, former Press Secretary in the LBJ Administration

My publisher, Koho Pono Press, will be happy to help you supply your entire family with this entertaining and touching collection of stories. Call them at (503) 723-7392. Talk to Scott or Dayna. DEAD IN A DITCH – Growing Up In Texas & Other Near-Death Experiences can also be ordered from Amazon.com or your favorite bookstore.

Praise for my first novel, The Second Coming of Curly Red:

“…remarkably confident debut novel…” – Publisher’s Weekly

“…far better than average…great book.” – The Wishing Well

“…a story about real family values…” – M.S.R.R.T. Newsletter

“…highly recommended, heartbreaking and funny…writing doesn’t get any better than this.” – Best-selling author, Susan McElroy

Buy it on Amazon!  Buy it on Barnes and Noble!  or Buy it from PayPal (secure; see below)

Bunkin’ With You in the Afterlife is a cowgirl musical written by award-winning author, Jody Seay. Full of rambunctious fun, quirky, touching and funny songs, this comedy musical play takes square aim on the sometimes touchy subject of religion and spirituality, as well as homosexuality, equality, and women’s rights.

Featuring Minnie Rhodes and her Many Roads Ministry, Cowgirls for the Lord, who ride around on horseback in the deep green hills of conservative southern Oregon spreading, and singing, the good news – not of having been saved – but, indeed, of never actually having been lost.   Request to Produce this Play Now!

My Career as a Writer

My career as a writer began the night after my mother died in 1986 when I sat down at my typewriter and wrote about the experience of having been with her at her death. That story evolved into the first essay I ever wrote and the first article I ever sold called, SHARING THE LANTERN. Years later, with many essays published in numerous books, magazines and newspapers across the country, I decided to write my first novel. Good thing.

         

The Second Coming of Curly Red, in manuscript form, won First Prize for fiction at the 1998 Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference. After its publication in 1999, I toured the nation promoting it, and even got to read parts of it at a Democratic fund-raiser for Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury, where I was introduced by Governor John Kitzhaber. Other featured authors that night were Ken Kesey, Jean Auel and Chuck Palahniuk.

While in New York City, I got word that The Second Coming of Curly Red was a finalist in the 2000 Oregon Book Awards. Oregon Literary Arts then sent those of us who were finalists on a mini-book tour around the state, allowing me the opportunity to present my sometimes controversial book in very conservative parts of Oregon where it would never have occurred to me to go. This was a Godsend. I made friends and my novel was chosen as Book-of-the-Month in two small eastern Oregon towns. It has been most gratifying to be able to change minds and help open hearts to a message of love, understanding and acceptance.

My most recently completed work, a collection of essays in memoir form, is called DEAD IN A DITCH – Growing Up In Texas & Other Near-Death Experiences. These are touching, universal, mostly funny stories about growing up in Texas and all the ways Mother thought we, her children, would die – since DEAD IN A DITCH was where she was terrified we’d all wind up.

Oh, and here’s something I need to tell you about my books.  IF YOU BUY ONE OF MY BOOKS AND YOU DON’T LIKE IT, I’LL BUY IT BACK.  Here’s why:  The number of moments we have here is finite and we don’t know what that number is.  I don’t want anybody to be disappointed that they spent money or time on anything I’ve written.  So, if you buy one of my books and you are disappointed, just tell me.  I can’t give you your time back, but I can give you your money back.  YOU CAN’T LOSE!  (And, I promise not to be a weasel about it, either – won’t try to talk you out of hating it or into loving it…”What do you mean, you didn’t like it?  Well, then, just tell me which part…that part?  I loved that part!  How can you not love that part?  Well, yes…okay, I know I promised…and, yes, I will…but, clearly, you’re a moron…”)  No, I won’t do any of that.  Honest.

Another novel is also in the works called MORE THAN HORIZONTAL, and if I ever get off my duff and finish the thing, its going to be a good one. It is a story about one woman’s search for joy and self-acceptance, a tale rich in lesbian history, and will also include some of the wonderful characters in my first novel, The Second Coming of Curly Red, for those of you who kept wondering “What happens to Jimmy?” and “We want to know more about Della and Bonnie.” MORE THAN HORIZONTAL also has a spiritual element to it when the heroine, Liz Camarro, meets a lesbian minister, Minnie Rhodes and her Many Roads Ministry, Cowgirls For The Lord. This is a group of women who ride around on horseback spreading the good news of salvation – not from having been “saved”, but from never actually having been lost. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. My musical, BUNKIN’ WITH YOU IN THE AFTERLIFE, originated as a song in my head. It morphed into a novel, where it bounced, unfinished, for a bit, before morphing, again, into a musical. Now, making its way back to incarnation #2, MORE THAN HORIZONTAL, the novel – new, improved and, best of all, COMPLETED, will be heading your way soon!”

Phew! Glad I finally got it all down. Now, when anybody asks me what I’m working on I can say, “Check out my Web site, jodyseay.com, and take your pick.”