March 8, 2012 • Category: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Authors
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Since The Earth Moved was published in 2004, I have received:
- Two paintings of earthworms, one more abstract and one in a more photorealist style.
- A handpainted greeting card, suitable for framing, of a mass of wriggling worms creating using paint pens and gold glitter.
- A dried, dissected earthworm pinned to a specimen board, framed behind glass, with neatly-typed labels indicating the anatomical features.
- A dead nightcrawler encased in lucite, intended as a paperweight,
- Two collections of earthworm-inspired poetry.
- A coffee mug sporting the worm-shaped logo of a company that makes earthworm bins.
- A pink, plush, stuffed earthworm.
- Countless gummy earthworms, including some that are disturbingly realistic.
- An offer of a business partnership involving the use of worms to clean polluted waste sites.
- Dozens of requests for advice from aspirational worm farmers.
- Dozens of photographs of strange worms, with requests for assistance with identification.
- An earthworm-themed board game, sent by its creator, who was looking for a distributor and hoped I could help.
- An earthworm jigsaw puzzle.
These unsolicited gifts continue to arrive, years after the book’s publication. I can’t explain it, really. No other book I have written has inspired such an outpouring of gifts, handmade crafts, and business offers. I wrote a book about the flower industry, and do you think bouquets arrived on my doorstep? I’m at work now on a book about cocktails, due out next year, and I have yet to receive a single bottle of free booze. But the earthworms? They keep showing up, like nightcrawlers on the sidewalk after the rain.
–Amy Stewart
And now we’d like to give something back to you! We are excited to be giving away three copies of The Earth Moved. Have you ever received anything odd in the mail? Let us know with a comment on this post and we will choose three people at random to receive a copy of the book.
Read an Excerpt of The Earth Moved
Tags: Amy Stewart, earthworms, The Earth Moved, Worms
Carole Bryan says...
I am psycho when it comes to my worm witness protection and relocation program. I carry an old teapot with a little dirt and water in it while I am digging and whenever I find a worm, I lovingly put it in the pot with it’s friends and carry it to my compost piles…then I stand there and ponder, “which of the 4 piles is going to be your new home?”
March 22, 2012@ 5:42 AMKathyG says...
I received a package of music from Austria, from a vocalist I was going to accompany. She misheard my address, which is on Iowa Avenue, as ‘Ohio Street’. But the post office figured it out (or guessed correctly, since there is no Ohio Street or other MidWestern state street in our town) and it was delivered right on time.
March 18, 2012@ 11:32 AMWes says...
Well, surprised as I was, the excerpt was quite entertaining.
Ya never know, the last book I read was about cannabalism and headhunting in the new world. Yeah, sounds terribly morbid but as a history buff I couldn’t put it down…
“The Earth Moved” appears to be an interesting read.
March 16, 2012@ 11:40 AMJonquil says...
I’ve received Christmas cards addressed to a former housemate from a different city….who never lived at my current address.
March 15, 2012@ 9:37 AMTerry Jenkins says...
I regularly get mail for a friend who died many years ago, only her name and title have now morphed with mine. Now I have a doctor in my family! She would be pleased with the joke. I love worms too!
March 13, 2012@ 3:12 PM