Frances Kuffel's Blog
April 5, 2011
the f chronicles: a life without ideas
I'm going through some terrible financial times with a book deadline (>i, a memoir about dating in my 50s) in ten weeks. Because the only things anyone really wants to know about me are how much I weigh, what I'm eating and how my dog is behaving, I have decided to start a weekly newsletter, the f chronicles.
See http://caronthehill.blogspot.com/
for more details. The price structure will be:
$5 a month
$12 for three months
$25 for six months
$40 for a year.
If you really want to receive the newsletter but can't afford it, just refer someone else to it and ask them to include your name and email as well.
You can email me questions at
thefchronicles@hotmail.com
See http://caronthehill.blogspot.com/
for more details. The price structure will be:
$5 a month
$12 for three months
$25 for six months
$40 for a year.
If you really want to receive the newsletter but can't afford it, just refer someone else to it and ask them to include your name and email as well.
You can email me questions at
thefchronicles@hotmail.com
May 9, 2010
Dear Readers:
A lot of readers think I'm mean. They think I'm mean in general and they think I'm mean about the other four women in Angry Fat Girls. Had I been Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, however, there would be little texture or nuance to the story. Nor, I believe, did I spare myself. Every one of us is half-pleasant and half-unpleasant, more or less. I did the best I could to present both sides of us all.
I think there's a place for readers to speak up and I'm glad there are so many forums on the Internet on which to do so. I also know that it feels more urgent to write a book when one is enraged or disappointed.
I'm going to remedy this by saying that in Passing for Thin I wanted to tell readers that if I could lose weight, they could lose weight. In Angry Fat Girls, I wanted to tell you that if you yo-yo, if you put your life on hold because of weight, you're not alone and you're not a freak.
And that is, for the most part, the reaction I've gotten from readers who write directly to me:
"My husband bought me your book for my birthday! I decided to read it before calling the lawyers (LOL), and haven't been able to put it down since.My history of being 375, then down to 160, then up to 410, then down to 287, now up to 340....well, you get the picture. ~ Thanks for writing so I know it's not just me!"
"Bless you for your amazing books. I don't feel all alone. Now I even feel a little bit normal."
"I felt the need to shoot you an email and say thank you for getting it on so many levels."
"What resonates is that it's so many different kinds of books that have never quite been done before...Is it a printed blog? Is it a memoir? Is it an academic paper? Is it a novel? And then it hit me...it's a living thing, a workbook!"
"All the voices in my head are nodding vigorously with everything...the shame, the guilt, the struggle to right the broken relationship to food and how to be in the world...whether 20 or 200 lbs, it seems that the inner conversation goes on either way. AND, the trips up and down the scale! Oy!"
Yes, I keep track of these comments. I have to. The world is cruel and we all have so little armor to protect ourselves.
I think there's a place for readers to speak up and I'm glad there are so many forums on the Internet on which to do so. I also know that it feels more urgent to write a book when one is enraged or disappointed.
I'm going to remedy this by saying that in Passing for Thin I wanted to tell readers that if I could lose weight, they could lose weight. In Angry Fat Girls, I wanted to tell you that if you yo-yo, if you put your life on hold because of weight, you're not alone and you're not a freak.
And that is, for the most part, the reaction I've gotten from readers who write directly to me:
"My husband bought me your book for my birthday! I decided to read it before calling the lawyers (LOL), and haven't been able to put it down since.My history of being 375, then down to 160, then up to 410, then down to 287, now up to 340....well, you get the picture. ~ Thanks for writing so I know it's not just me!"
"Bless you for your amazing books. I don't feel all alone. Now I even feel a little bit normal."
"I felt the need to shoot you an email and say thank you for getting it on so many levels."
"What resonates is that it's so many different kinds of books that have never quite been done before...Is it a printed blog? Is it a memoir? Is it an academic paper? Is it a novel? And then it hit me...it's a living thing, a workbook!"
"All the voices in my head are nodding vigorously with everything...the shame, the guilt, the struggle to right the broken relationship to food and how to be in the world...whether 20 or 200 lbs, it seems that the inner conversation goes on either way. AND, the trips up and down the scale! Oy!"
Yes, I keep track of these comments. I have to. The world is cruel and we all have so little armor to protect ourselves.
