Author with a fancy website and everything.

Just a quick update before I set out west tomorrow to various destinations in Laura Ingalls Wilder Land (and you bet your Old Dan Tucker I am SO EXCITED). Anyway, I have author profiles on Red Room and SheWrites, two new lit-related networks. I haven’t really had a chance to look around much yet at either place, but now there’s a couple more places where you can find me.

Here’s where you won’t find me, even though Google Maps totally told me to go there:

The other night while checking over my maps for this trip I figured out that sometimes Google thinks Burr Oak, Iowa is an hour and half west of where it actually is, as well as in the middle of an open field. (Though, to be fair, most small Iowa towns technically are in the middle of open fields.) You can see for yourself. Oops.

Thanks to those of you who have written so far and been willing to share your geekiest, most sunbonnetty Laura thoughts. I’m still happy to listen if you haven’t written yet!

Finally, does anyone know where I can stay in a really, really, really rustic cabin in the Midwest? (Hint: by “rustic” I don’t mean “basic cable.”) I’m almost actually sort of serious. Let me know! Email me, leave a comment, or send a telegraph. Thanks!

The anthology Love Is a Four-Letter Word: True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships, and Broken Hearts will be out this month, featuring an essay by yours truly and many others. The book’s website is now live, with an awesomely morose Flash animation created by fellow contributor and illustratrix Emily Flake, who shows you just how it feels sometimes. (Go to www.loveisa4letterword.com to see what I mean.)

More news and announcements about the book soon, including information about the launch party and reading at Housing Works in New York City on July 29th. For now, check out the flyer:

You can also order the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or IndieBound or Powell’s.

Last year I rediscovered my old childhood obsession with the Little House books and Laura Ingalls Wilder. This year I’m writing a book about it all.  I’ve visited the sites of Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie and I’ve seen all manner of Laurarabilia at the Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. I’m making plans for another big trip out west in July to see the rest of the homesites, and in the meantime, I’ve been trying my hand at various nineteenth-century frontier activities, such as churning butter, frying salt pork, and playing with corn-cob dolls. And then I’ve been writing.

I’ll be working on the book through the end of the year, and Riverhead Books will publish it sometime in 2010. The working title is The Wilder Life—don’t know yet if that will change, but we’ll keep you posted.

Some days the work is as fun as roasting a pig’s tail, and other days it sucks like Plum Creek leeches. Either way I love it.

Would you like to help? I’m always interested in hearing about other people’s Little House memories and experiences—anything involving the books, visiting the homesites, or even the TV show. If you’re interested in sharing, contact me and I’ll send you a very informal questionnaire. Then we can talk Laura until the cows come home, though we should really keep them from running over the sod roof of the dugout house.

I’ve also been taking photos and video of my research adventures and eventually I’ll be sharing all of those, too. You can search using The Wilder Life tag on my Flickr site to see what I’ve posted so far. (There are many more where those came from.)

And if you still need an internet Laura fix after all this, you can always follow HalfPintIngalls herself on Twitter.