katie allison granju

I knew Brenda Blanton Lane, the victim whose murde… February 29, 2004

I knew Brenda Blanton Lane, the victim whose murderer has been on Tennessee’s death row for fifteen years but who now has an execution date set. Brenda was a talented, gentle, quiet, and kind young woman who worked as a reporter at The Shelbyville Times Gazette when my mother was the editor there.

Brenda was abuducted from a parking lot by a crazy man, who stabbed her repeatedly with a butcher knife, ran over with his car, and left her to die in a remote middle Tennessee location on a freezing winter day. I was a teenager when Brenda was killed and her murder affected me very deeply and was hard on my mother, who was very fond of Brenda.

Today my mother is the media relations spokesperson for the Tennessee Supreme Court and as such, she is charged with handling all of the public communications regarding Brenda’s murderer’s pending execution. It’s a really sad irony and lately I have been thinking unimaginable it would have been to Brenda and my mom that one day Brenda would be long dead at the hands of a murderer and that my mother would have to discuss it with the press on a weekly basis.

So sad.

Literary Mama’s SPECIAL MOTHERS DAY ISSUE!! Lit… February 26, 2004

Literary Mama’s SPECIAL MOTHERS DAY ISSUE!!

Literary Mama, an online literary magazine (http://www.literarymama.com), features writing by mother writers about the complexities and many faces of motherhood.

This Mothers Day, Literary Mama will publish a special issue devoted to MOTHERS WRITING ABOUT THEIR MOTHERS. The fiction department is joining the fun…While our usual “slant” is towards fiction about mothering from the mother’s POV,

this is your opportunity to submit stories about mothering from the child’s POV.

We seek:

* Short fiction of less than 6,000 words.

* Stories about mothering from the child’s POV.

* Submissions written by writers of all ages WHO ARE ALSO SELF-IDENTIFIED MOTHERS: biological, non-biological, step, transgendered, grand, or adoptive. * Reprints okay (so long as you have the rights).

* Simultaneous submissions okay as long as you notify us if accepted elsewhere.

Please send submissions in the text of an email along with a brief cover letter to Ericka Lutz, Fiction Editor, fiction AT literarymama.com. Mention that your submission is for the Mother’s Day issue.

Deadline: March 25

Remember: your manuscripts are always welcome. Please see http://www. literarymama.com/submissions for our

regular guidelines.

I don’t plan on seeing The Passion of Christ becau…

I don’t plan on seeing The Passion of Christ because I hate watching violent, gory movies. I could barely sit through Mel Gibson’s movie, The Patriot. But I did read with interest today that just like any other Big Hollywood Movie nowadays, the film has licensed merchandise based on the torture and crucifiction of Jesus.

I am not making this up. You can buy things such as necklaces made from pewter nails just like the ones Jesus (and gazillions of other people who were brutalized by the Romans) had pounded into their hands. The packaging has the movie’s logo and lettering on it.

This is just….wrong.

I wrote an article a while back about the booming “Christian lifestyle industry. It was one of the most disturbing social trends I’ve ever researched. I hate the idea of a “Christian parallel universe” where true believers can buy Christian themed versions of just about any product or service you can imagine.

Have you checked out the wonderful webzine, The Ph… February 25, 2004

Have you checked out the wonderful webzine, The Philosophical Mother? If not, you should.

I am the Commentary Editor at LiteraryMama.com, a …

I am the Commentary Editor at LiteraryMama.com, a wonderful new online

literary journal chock full of great writing of all kinds related to the topic of motherhood (including poetry and fiction).

I am currently actively seeking provocative commentary pieces for my section. I want stuff that really takes a position. The topic can be micro/highly personal or global or anything in between. The only stipulation is that it has to be related to motherhood in some way.

But… an essay on something like why you have no intention of ever becoming a mother would be just as welcome as one about why you think more people should have seven kids like you do. I would really love to get more submissions that tackle the politics of parenthood, as well as more material from men. So the motherhood topic is not really as

limiting as you might think.

What I’m currently getting a lot of from writers is actually more literary creative nonfiction - some really great stuff but not the op-ed pieces that I want. (We do however have a creative nonfiction

section and I will happily direct you to that editor if that’s more up your alley).

We are not currently a paying market, but I can tell you in all sincerity that the exposure for writers who are published at LiteraryMama.com is significant. We are getting lots of traffic, a

moderate amount of press attention, and I know for a fact that several writers have been contacted by editors at major magazines after their pieces ran in LiteraryMama.com.

Please forward all submissions to kgranju@yahoo.com. Length should be under 2K words and I prefer to receive submissions as Word attachments. I will consider reprints. Feel free to forward this message.

We had a very scary incident happen this past week… February 23, 2004

We had a very scary incident happen this past weekend and I’m sharing it with other parents to remind you to keep your guard up.

We went to Bristol, VA for a horseshow on Saturday. We arrived Friday nght and spent the night at a hotel and then went to the arena on Saturday morning about 8 am. It was out in the middle of nowhere.

So when we drove up, I reminded the kids not to wander off or go to the bathroom themselves, etc, etc.

About fifteen minutes or so after we arrived, Jane (who is 8 years old and weighs less than 50 lbs) left the arena to go to the car and get her boots. I did not realize this and was busy saddling up her pony, etc. So a few minutes later her trainer, Susan comes walking over carrying Jane, and Jane was just sobbing quietly in her shoulder and shaking. Susan had apparently encountered Jane when she ran back into the arena saying that man in the parking lot had approached her and tried to call her over and get her to climb on a four wheeler he was driving. Wisely, she turned and ran as fast as she could back into the arena.

She was VERY shaken up. Whatever this guy’s motives, he set off all her instinctual alarm bells. She was just really frightened. I called the police and had the arena management announce to all the other parents there what had happened, which they did not want to do. I insisted. Jane described the guy as having long blond hair and a cowboy hat. He was smoking and driving a four wheeler, which she said she saw come up to the arena off the road.

So the police arrived and were just wonderful. They talked to Jane for a long time and told her that she did exactly the right thing and that they were very proud of her. Then they went looking for the guy. Amazingly, he was still driving his four wheeler around the area. He immediately admitted approaching and talking to Jane but he claimed he was trying to shoo her out of the parking lot. The police said he was definitely lying - that he was shifty and strange and defensive. Obviously they couldn’t arrest him because he hadn’t committed a crime, but they told him to stay away from the arena.

Then they came back to tell me they found him and while they were there, another parent came fwd and told them that he had approached their child in the parking lot as well. The police told us that he was definitely up to no good - that he might have wanted to snatch Jane but more likely would have just exposed himself or something. They told us to tell all the parents we saw to watch out for him. They took an incident report and said that since that is a very rural area, they would let all the police officers know to keep an eye on the guy.

Jane was very shaken up but I think she felt validated that no one tried to tell her that it was nothing or that she didn’t need to be frightened. Everyone told her how smart she was to just turn and run and not agree to go closer to the guy. She didn’t ride quite as well as

usual, although she won a number of ribbons. But you could tell she felt rattled.

I was too. It was really upsetting. If I saw this man, I swear to you that I would be likely to physically attack him. I know this probably would not be a good idea but seriously, I don’t think I could stop myself. And he would come out the loser, I can assure you.

I have a new column published today about parentin… February 19, 2004

I have a new column published today about parenting an adolescent boy.

I want to add a commenst feature to my blog. If yo… February 14, 2004

I want to add a commenst feature to my blog. If you have a suggestion for a good comments host that worls well with blogger, will you let me know?

kgranju@yahoo.com

The worst thing about the brand spankin’ new Tenne… February 13, 2004

The worst thing about the brand spankin’ new Tennessee Lottery is that every time I need to pay for gas or a drink or whatever at a store, there are always three people ahead of me buying and scratching and scanning and talking about lottery tickets. It’s very irritating.

It’s always interesting for me to look at this sit… February 12, 2004

It’s always interesting for me to look at this site’s traffic statistics and see who is visiting and why. Sometimes people find it because I talk about things like breastfeeding and pregnancy and children and they have bizarre, sometimes-scary fetishes that are revealed in the search terms they use to get here.

But lots of times, people are searching for things like “Katie Allison Granju’s sister, Betsy” or “Granju email address.”

If you want to contact me, feel free. I’m at kgranju-at-yahoo.com. And if you’re an old friend who wants to find out what my sister (or brother, Robert) is up to, email me and I’ll put you in touch. I like hearing from people, usually.

Friendster.com is really neat-o, but can anyone te…

Friendster.com is really neat-o, but can anyone tell me why the site never, ever works?

The Second Annual Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum… February 5, 2004

The Second Annual Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum will be held in Reston,

Virginia February 26, 2004. The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services

(CIMS) will also present their first Education Day, February 25, 2004, and

hold their annual meeting February 27-29, 2004. For more information and to

register visit http://www.motherfriendly.org/events/ or call toll-free

1-888-282-CIMS.

Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS)

www.motherfriendly.org

888-282-2467

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 4, 2004 Fiesta… February 4, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 4, 2004

Fiesta Farm

1413 Cooper Lane

Knoxville, TN 37932-2406

www.fiestafarm.com

(865) 693 6863 (865) 693 6721 (Barn)

Fiesta Farm is pleased to announce the addition of prominent horseman Charles Moorcroft of Connecticut to its on-site staff. Moorcroft will instruct hunter-jumper and dressage riders at Fiesta Farm’s West Knoxville facility and he will play a prominent role in the administration and planned expansion of the program at the 29 stall Fiesta Farm facility.

Moorcroft will work in tandem with Susan Kuliasha, owner/trainer at Fiesta Farm. For the past two decades, Kuliasha’s Fiesta Farm riders have competed widely in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Georgia . Fiesta’s current “student body” includes many active junior riders, as well adult competitors. With Moorcroft joining the program, Fiesta will be expanding its A-circuit schedule and roster of riders.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Susan Kuliasha, whom I greatly admire, and I look forward to expanding opportunities for Fiesta’s riders,” notes Moorcroft. “And of course, the warmer weather here in Tennessee is great as well!”

Moorcroft will retain his connection to trainer Kathryn Fletcher of Grazing Fields in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. His past accomplishments include development of instructional videotapes at internationally known Cloverlea Farm in Columbia, Connecticut, owned by Beth Baumert, Editor of Dressage Today magazine. He has also worked for Olympic equestrian gold medalist Karen O’Connor.

In recent years, Moorcroft’s students and Lee Hill-bred ponies have successfully competed at Pony Finals and other top shows across the nation, including Devon, Fairfield, Old Salem, and elsewhere. A number of Moorcroft’s ponies have relocated with him to Tennessee.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Fiesta Farm

1413 Cooper Lane

Knoxville, TN 37932-2406

www.fiestafarm.com

(865) 693 6863 (865) 693 6721 (Barn)

From the "Duh" files. February 3, 2004

From the “Duh” files.

I have a new column up about the loss of tradition…

I have a new column up about the loss of traditional grandmotherhood in our Botox-happy culture. As always, let me know what you think of it: kgranju@yahoo.com