March 8, 2012 • Category: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Authors
35 COMMENTS
Share This
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
Debbe says...
I get a fair amount of junk mail at times but I have received an invitation this weel to a retirement home walk through… I think they may have gotten there demographics off a bit as I have a ways to go for that.
March 8, 2012@ 12:52 PMPilar says...
Someone sent me a sea urchin shell which she had wrapped in one kleenex and mailed in a regular business-size envelope. So I received an envelope full of seashell dust.
March 8, 2012@ 12:34 PMBetty Hamilton says...
I just get the normal everyday mail. ;o) BUT would love to get this book in the mail!!
March 8, 2012@ 12:32 PMJJT says...
I once received an unsolicited package that had 3 identical shoes in it.
March 8, 2012@ 12:11 PMJaime A. Geraldi says...
When I lived out west, my friend mailed me lox and bagels from NY!
March 8, 2012@ 12:10 PMIrene Wright says...
Would love to have your collection of ‘worms’ – they sound interesting.
March 8, 2012@ 12:08 PMI’m always getting letters from ? telling me I’ve won ££££££ in a lottery I have never entered. Just the usual ‘junk mail’. Other than that, nothing interesting has arrived in my mail box.
Jill Hartmann says...
An invitation to attend a talk where you could win a free cremation for you or your loved one!!!
March 8, 2012@ 12:08 PMWould love to win a copy and read this!
Michael says...
Received a soda can tab pin with a Darwin fish on it! I wrote a paper in college about Darwin’s earthworm studies. This book looks very interesting!
March 8, 2012@ 12:07 PMCari R. says...
A couple of months ago I received a wig in the mail. There was a handwritten note in the box saying that the customer was returning the wig because it was too tight. Mysterious because I have never been in the wig business and have no idea have the customer got my address. Hmm.
March 8, 2012@ 12:06 PMmatkeltri says...
The oddest things I’ve received have been promotional items from companies. Stuffed toys representing bacteria (e.coli, MRSA) have probably been the oddest. Not nearly as odd as worms!
March 8, 2012@ 12:06 PM