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People Are Enjoying My BookCraving Normal by Michele Miles Gardiner

People Are Enjoying My Book

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on October 9, 2019

Well, this is a wonderful way to start my day–

A man reading my book in England wrote this to me:
“Oh man, your book is brilliant, heartfelt and hilarious! I can’t stop reading it. The story about Santa is fantastic, and when I turned over the page to see the picture of you with suicide Santa splayed out on the roof, I was crying with laughter. You’re a true talent.”

Greg Firlotte emailed me this, about reading my book: “…the family dishrag passages!! I laughed out loud in my room late into the night over these and thought if anyone passed by my door and heard me laughing uncontrollably, they might have me committed today! Can’t wait for tonight’s reading!”

This is from a lovely woman in Spain

Reader of my book, "Craving Normal" in Spain

From Canada! Here’s another wonderful message from a reader my book, “Craving Normal.” Though our lives have been different, my stories resonated with her. She wrote, “Thank you for taking me on your crazy journeys through life and reminding me to chuckle along the way.”

Happy Reader of Craving Normal by Michele Miles Gardiner

Book review of Craving Normal


You can buy my book at my favorite Los Angeles bookstore, Skylight Books.

You, too, can read my “crazy stories” (quoting my editor). You can find Craving Normal, in print and eBook, here, on Amazon.

 

My friend Leslie’s bawdy and funny Texan mom is loving my book. Leslie texted me this photo, saying how much fun her mama is having. I call this “Shock and awe.”

You might have fun, too, if you buy my book:
https://tinyurl.com/y3ezy7d9

Reading Michele Miles Gardiner’s book”Craving Normal,” true and humorous story collection

I signed my first book, yesterday.

"Craving Normal" my collection of nonfiction humorous stories, and personal essays

 

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Inspiration for Craving Normal, My Nonfiction Story CollectionCraving Normal by Michele Miles Gardiner

Inspiration for Craving Normal, My Nonfiction Story Collection

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on February 17, 2019

Now that my book, Craving Normal, is finally published, here comes the real work: promoting my nonfiction story collection. Promoting Michele Miles Gardiner's book Craving Normal

In one step, I created an author page on Goodreads.com. One question I answered: What inspired you to write this book?

This isn’t what I wrote, but I now remember sitting down, years ago, with writer Kevin Starr (my mom’s cousin, American historian, California’s State Librarian, and prolific writer). I’d invited him to my home in Tarzana, for my special spaghetti dinner.

I told him my idea: to interview people raised in non-conformist families–kids of punks, hippies, political revolutionaries, artists, etc. Having my own quirky childhood and always feeling like I didn’t fit in, I wondered how other people grew up, what they experienced. Did they rebel? Or did they gravitate to how they were raised? Anyway, I found those questions intriguing.

Kevin didn’t. “Write your own stories.”

And so I began to write those, along with other experiences. My book isn’t only about my childhood, but my lifelong quest to fit in, to find my own place in the world, and how I stumble along the way.

I’m now thinking I need to update my acknowledgement page to include Kevin. I was honored to have his support. He’d write me supportive emails after seeing my essays in LA newspapers and reading my old blog about my life in California. I’d send Kevin a copy of my book, but he passed away two years ago.

For that reason, I wish I put this book out sooner. But, really, it wasn’t ready then. My stories still needed to be crafted and thought through. I knew I didn’t have the right book cover idea.

Craving Normal by Michele Miles Gardiner
Previous idea for “Craving Normal” book cover, a painting I created.

Photo: One of a few ideas I had for my book cover, to use this painting I created. Maybe for my next book, “How to Become Broke and Influence Nobody.” Considering the hours I spent sunbathing, instead of looking for a job, it just may work.

 

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My Humiliating Moment with Rodney Dangerfield

My Humiliating Moment with Rodney Dangerfield

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on June 20, 2018

Starting a new blog, I hear Rodney’s voice: “Tough crowd. Tough crowd.”

 

 

 

 

In my 1.5 second scene with Rodney, I’m the blur on the right. I recorded that blur of a moment here:

Excerpt from my book “Craving Normal,” in my story “Confessions of a Hollywood Extra”:

While working as an extra on the movie “Back to School,” with Rodney Dangerfield, I sat about ten feet from Rodney and Sally Kellerman as they prepared to do a scene. The quiet of the set prior to the cameras rolling allowed my voice to carry. My female newlywed friend, another extra, wondered if I wanted to get married. The last thing on my mind! So I said, “I’m not meeting guys nice enough to go out with in LA. Can’t imagine finding one to marry.” My voice carried through the silent crowd.

Rodney’s voice boomed toward me. “Hey, Honey! Come down here! I’ll marry ya! I’ll marry ya, right now!” My face turned hot, and I’m sure as red as a tomato, while Rodney, the crew, and the extras laughed. Well, that was one way to shut me up. And it did.

On bottom right, after hours in the blazing sun, using all my acting skills to become an enthralled, sports-loving, college student.


Bottom left, dancing to Oingo Boingo in the
Dead Man’s Party scene, in “Back to School.”

Jen (the blonde in the video thumbnail) is my newlywed friend I mention
in my Rodney Dangerfield moment of humiliation. I’m dancing in this Oingo Boingo
video, next to Jen. But you have to stop the video to find me. And, of course,
I DID just that. I’m at 2:08.

 

 

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Growing up in the 1960s & Beyond, “Craving Normal,” by Michele Miles Gardiner

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on June 4, 2018

“Craving Normal,” my stories as a child growing up in the 1960s and beyond, will be available soon. Here’s my nearly complete book cover. Think I’ll keep “Enthusiastic quote goes here.”

Growing up in the 1960s
Book cover for “Craving Normal,” written by Michele Miles Gardiner

“Craving Normal,” by Michele Miles Gardiner – back book cover text:
Living in a rock hut on a nude beach, staying in a religious commune,
facing an angry man with a gun, riding camels, hiding her freaky health
food lunches from lucky Twinkie eaters – Michele didn’t experience any
of this when her family lived in the suburbs of San Francisco. Then came
the counterculture revolution. Her entire life changed: Michele’s young
parents sold their home, bought a car and trailer over-seas and took her
and her little sister to explore the world.

We know a lot about the “flower children,” but what does an actual child
growing up in that era have to say? While many tales about that revolutionary time
are on record, few come from the perspective of the children who lived it.
This collection of stories are from one child’s perspective – tales of
becoming a young adult whose brain, and life, transformed from her early
experiences. Rebelling by cheer-leading, eating junk food, attending honor
roll parties, dreaming of being a foxy stewardess/actress? Lame, sure.
But how else does a child of young parents of the wild Sixties generation
rebel? By countering the counterculture.

Michele’s collection of stories – in which she rarely takes herself too
seriously – span from her earliest memories of the suburbs (her idea of
“normal”), through growing up trying to find a place where she fits in, once
again. Does she find it? Is Hollywood a sane place to search for normalcy?

“Craving Normal” trailer here: https://youtu.be/Z0M1BTXK20Q

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Life is Like Dating

Life is Like Dating

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on August 20, 2017

The reason life is like dating is if everything went smoothly, just as we plan, all the time – no awkward experiences, no “get me outa here!” moments – it would be much harder to appreciate the pleasant moments. Life can be like people we may date: Awkward, odd, horrifying… but then, along comes a good one. After all the bad dates, you appreciate him/her all the more.

Here’s one blind date I experienced:

Right when we met and got into his car, the guy started making goo-goo eyes at me, trying to hold my hand, not taking the hint from my don’t-touch-me body language – arms folded over my chest, body pressed into the passenger door, and nervous laughter. At a stop light, he stared at me for an uncomfortably long time and said, “You remind me SO much of my dead sister.”

Nooooooooooo!

Oh, and it only got worse. The entire night he stared at me with a creepy reverence, as if I were an angel whom he’d never let go. Hence my physically wrestling him all night until I finally fled.

Still talking to myself on this blog, but if you happen to read this share one of your “date from hell” stories. I’m not the only one, right? We’ve all endured crappy dates. I know. Tell me about it.

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Fighting for My Right to Paaaaarttttttyyyyy!

Fighting for My Right to Paaaaarttttttyyyyy!

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on August 5, 2017

Back in the 1980s I was brain-dead. A lot of young people were. I don’t know, maybe the mass idiocy was our only way to rebel against the generation before us, those “Flower Children.” They dropped out, sat in, protested, and wanted to start a revolution. The most revolutionary thing I did was to discover the height my hair could reach with hair spray and a big comb. The only thing I ever fought for was my right to party. While lumped in with the “Baby Boomers,” people my age missed out on the FREE love (Watch out you’ll die from AIDS!) and mind-tripping drugs.

Hey, it wasn’t easy to rebel against a generation that enjoyed public nudity and dropping acid. I guess I could’ve gone punk or goth. Instead I went vapid. Hence the plethora of shockingly stupid moments I’ll be sharing with readers in my book.

In my book, “Craving Normal,” I tell about my childhood experiences, memories and perspective of growing up in the era of 1960’s counterculture and the aftermath. I follow those experiences with stories of my own teen years in the ’80s. An era nothing like the Sixties. My teen/young adult stories in the 1980s are often pretty goofy. But so was that decade – a blur of neon spandex, head bands, big hair, and bouncy dancing. Totally counter to the years in which I grew up, where everyone seemed so deep and serious. But my teen years? Not so much!

I should preface my book with this cautionary small print: “Don’t try this at home. Results may vary.”


Photo: Yep, I’m wearing a headband. Must’ve been too tight, because my brain was numb. Excuse the bad Photoshop. But I blurred out my friend, as to not insinuate she’s as lame-brained as I was.

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Come to Our Commune

Come to Our Commune

Published by Michele Miles Gardiner on July 26, 2017

My first blog post!

How did we end up in a religious commune? Well, here I am in La Jolla, California dancing and singing to The Fifth Dimension’s “Aquarius,” just before these men (on the lawn) talked my dad into taking our family to stay at their religious commune in San Diego. Not that my dad was religious, just that he had a deep reverence for penny-pinching. Getting stuff free was the closest he got to a spiritual moment.

Wearing my super groovy vinyl dress, I danced and belted out, “This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius…” clueless about where we were headed.

More about this commune experience in my up-coming book, “Craving Normal,” in the story titled “Jesus Freak for Cheerios.” To keep posted on my new non fiction book, join my email list here: http://michelemilesgardiner.com/

 Observation: Looks like the woman in red scarf is scoffing at our hippieness, and/or at the dude on the left who may be toking a joint.

 

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