Catching up

Happy March. I’ve missed everyone here as I’ve been a bit swamped - busily fulfilling the marketing obligations for my book, packing up and moving to a new place, and the ups and downs of everyday life. One exciting bit of news - I’m leaving for Australia in a couple days to do some media for Living Oprah in Sydney!

I’ve decided that, upon my return, I’ll completely invest myself in fresh, new work. A couple weeks ago, I launched a project called Ready, Set...Wife! (www.readysetwife.com) and I already love it. My writing partner, Cathleen Carr, and I are fascinated by how marriage has become such a hot button issue these days. People are writing books about it, producing shows about women who want to marry millionaires, defending the institution of marriage in Washington D.C., and gossiping about celebs who have broken up after years of publicized matrimonial bliss. While working on Living Oprah, I heard from many people who had surprisingly negative opinions about Winfrey’s single status. (Um...who cares? Why is Oprah’s personal life anyone’s business but her own?)

Cathleen and I are dissecting what it means to be a wife in 2010. Although we’ve only launched the project recently, It’s been so much fun because we’ve heard from women and men, singles and marrieds, straights and gays, divorced people, widowed folks. We’re looking at wives in pop culture, politics, history, and in our own lives. Even though the roles of women have changed so drastically, why is being a wife still a goal for otherwise strong, independent women? Is a legal contract really necessary to ‘seal’ a commitment to a relationship? We are even opening up about our own feelings about being a spouse. (Poor Jim. At least he has a shoulder to cry on this time around. He should have Cathleen’s husband, Peter, on speed dial.)

Please do join me over at Ready, Set...Wife! I love your feedback, as you know, and would appreciate your thoughts on the new project.

I’m taking a page from Oprah’s book - she’s moving on because her show has run its course and I think I should, too. I have been trying to think about how I might continue the Living Oprah blog because I’ve gotten so many emails asking me to do so, but I’m just not sure how to do it in anyway that would satisfy me...or you. I loved it and I miss you, but I think it's time to call it a day. This was only intended to be a one-year project but I’ve been living with it for over two years. I don’t want to be ‘the Oprah lady’ forever or build a future based on Winfrey’s name or hard work. Continuing the blog feels like beating a dead horse, and I like horses and mean them no harm. I’ll stop check in here occasionally and let you know what’s going on with me, the book, and if there’s any Oprah-related news I am inspired to write about. (I’m actually checking in much more often on Facebook under my Living Oprah account, so if you’d like, friend me there.) Other than that, it’s time for me to keep things fresh and new.

I’d like to think even Oprah would approve.