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
Kelly says...
My daughter recently sent me a bag of licorice kittens!
March 13, 2012@ 2:11 PMHumboldtjen says...
The strangest thing I’ve ever received was a box of my mother’s used undies!! She meant to send the scrapbook she bought me for a present, but instead, threw it away and accidentally sent me the similarly sized box of her carefully concealed expired underwear. She must have gotten the two boxes mixed up somewhere along the lines.
March 13, 2012@ 11:26 AMJennie says...
I receive catalogues from companies I’ve never heard of. and just try getting off a mailing list like that. it’s darn near impossible!
March 12, 2012@ 3:48 PMyour book though, I would love to receive that in my mailbox.
Thank you!
Alison says...
Someone once sent me, anonymously, a calendar from the James Herriott “All Things Bright and Beautiful” series. Used and out of date. I’d love to read your earthworm book.
March 12, 2012@ 1:13 PMEd Remsrola says...
Greetings Earthworm… uhhh… Author of book about Earthworms. Gen mentioned your book on her blog today, so I thought I had better make my way here. Afterall, who can resist a book about earthworms when it is described with words such as, “Intrigue! Drama! Mystery!”?
March 12, 2012@ 11:47 AMPingback: Monday Miscellany: Giveaways, Rocky Mountain Gardening, and St Patrick’s DIY | North Coast Gardening
Jackie DiGiovanni says...
I am on various lists for press releases. I sometimes hear from groups I am not familiar with. The events they describe are creative and sometimes offbeat. The ones I have been able to go to are fabulous and better than advertised.
March 12, 2012@ 6:30 AMKaryn says...
I once got a pocket-knife in the shape a shotgun shell. Very weird…
March 11, 2012@ 6:26 PMSally Anne Sadler says...
Great got a card and a box of chocolate covered cherries from my chicken named Turkey Lurkey. No idea who sent it. I don’t think it was my chicken. While she is a clever, if uniquely ugly chicken, alas, she has no thumbs.
March 11, 2012@ 12:55 PMmelanie says...
The strangest thing I ever received was a letter enclosed in a plastic fish. The fish itself was addressed and stamped. Weird… and nice!
I’d love to read this. Thanks!
March 10, 2012@ 3:50 PM