In the mouth of the serpent

Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways: Traci L. Slatton - Fallen - Author Interview

2012-05-17T17:29:00.001-04:00

Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways: Traci L. Slatton - Fallen - Author Interview: Author Interview I know you get asked this question over and over but can you tell us a little about yourself? Maybe something juicy.

I am an author, wife, and mother who loves yoga. I’d rather travel than eat, though the two combine awfully well. I grew up all over the US because my dad was in the military. Currently, I am leaning toward anarcho-capitalism, because I am deeply skeptical of two groups: Democrats and Republicans. Also of liberals and conservatives. It seems to me the world is full of challenges too complex to reduce to a party line.

Something juicy? Ok, one of my dearest girlfriends recently threw out half my closet and then forbade me to wear industrial strength, granny-approved knickers. Now all my knickers are lacy. “Feel gorgeous from the inside out,” she advised. I am dutifully attempting this, and “a woman’s grasp should exceed her reach, or what’s a lingerie store for?”

ART TALK interview with my husband Sabin Howard

2012-05-08T13:24:00.004-04:00

Listen to internet radio with ArtTalk on Blog Talk Radio

The Dabbling Mum Speaks with Alyice Edrich: Interview with Novelist, Traci L. Slatton

2012-05-07T08:48:00.001-04:00

The Dabbling Mum Speaks with Alyice Edrich: Interview with Novelist, Traci L. Slatton:

Photo © MC O'Conner/Savvy Shooter

Traci L. Slatton read her first BIG book at the age of six......

My recent post on HuffPo: What I'm learning about life from writing novels...

2012-05-03T08:55:00.002-04:00

Here's my recent posting on the Huffington Post.

The Dabbling Mum Speaks with Alyice Edrich: Interview with Novelist, Traci L. Slatton

2012-05-02T07:44:00.001-04:00

The Dabbling Mum Speaks with Alyice Edrich: Interview with Novelist, Traci L. Slatton: Photo © MC O'Conner/Savvy Shooter Traci L. Slatton read her first BIG book at the age of six. It was called, Angel Unaware , and it was...

TOXIC YOGA MATS... When your practice isn't as pure as you think

2012-04-27T11:14:00.001-04:00

I discovered yoga ten years ago, when I was going through a difficult life passage. It was months of anguish. My then-boyfriend, now-husband finally said, “Time for you to fix yourself. I’m calling the ashtanga center downtown to send you a teacher.”

My first yoga teacher Laura soon arrived. My first few lessons were an initiation into the humiliation of twisty pain. I got to meet myself: all the stuck muscles, organs, nerves, and joints where I wasn’t breathing, where I wasn’t conscious.

But yoga did the trick. There was no place in adhomukha svanasana or ardha chandrasana for fixating on the ups-and-downs of my life. Yoga is a brilliant pattern interrupt, and within a few weeks, my outlook on life had improved.

A few months later, another light bulb clicked on over my head. I was watching Laura demonstrate triangle pose, and the graceful consciousness with which she let her straight back leg pull her front body forward until she clasped her big toe spoke to me. I got it: there was a better way. A better way to move. A better way to feel. A better way to live. My practice of yoga was born in that moment.

Mine is a common story. People go to yoga to feel better, to breathe more fully, and, yes, to work toward that delicious, lithe, tricepy yoga body. We go to know ourselves more fully. We go to detox, both mentally and physically.

So it was with great, unpleasant surprise that I recently discovered my yoga studio smearing industrial strength cleaner on yoga mats between classes.

Pure Yoga, owned by Equinox gym, opened up on the upper West Side of Manhattan about a year before I wandered in. Again, I was trying to heal myself: I’d struggled through low thyroid function before a holistic doctor put me on Armour thyroid. I felt better and I wanted to lose the weight and get back in shape. I wanted my body to feel supple and agile again. I wanted the clean energy yoga instills.

Pure Yoga offers a range of terrific classes, and most teachers are skilled, respectful, and thoughtful about the body. The facilities are gorgeous. Equinox, and the decorator, went to pains to design a yoga studio that emphasizes peace and calm and that evokes everything ‘sattvic’ or pure about yoga and meditation.

When I joined, I was told, “You don’t need to bring your own mat. We provide them, and our mats are clean.” I took that at face value.

That was my mistake. While Pure does regularly wash its mats in machines, sometimes the cleaning people just spray the mats. I happened to see them doing so on a busy Saturday, when there probably wasn’t time to take up the mats between classes.

Curious, I wandered in and picked up one of the spray bottles. ‘Industrial Strength Cleaner’ read the label.

“You’re spraying this toxic stuff on mats that people are going to be right on top of for an hour?” I asked, appalled. The guy shrugged and mumbled something.

Class was about to start; I didn’t have time to peruse the ingredients. I took a rolled-up mat out of a wall bin and hoped it had actually gone through a washing machine. I also hoped there weren’t any pregnant women in the class. As a general principle of looking out for pregnant women (having had three children myself), I didn’t want them pressing their exposed flesh into the stew of chemicals that had been smeared around the mat’s surface. The flesh on the inside of the arms is particularly permeable, and poses like child’s pose and dolphin pose, among others, call for arms outstretched, pressing into the mat.

I was right to be concerned. Dr. Linda Hillebrand, with a practice in Brentwood, California, who has studied and consulted regarding environmental toxicity, said:

Cleaning supplies are some of the most toxic products and certain chemicals can pose health and/or environmental risks. There are “less toxic” commercial cleaning products now available. However, because manufacturers are not required to list all of their ingredients, unless they are active disinfectants or known to be potentially hazardous, it can be challenging to sort through all of these products.
Read the labels and avoid harmful ingredients whenever possible. Some of these ingredients are: Nonyphenol ethoxylates (NPE’s) which, when released into the environment, break down into toxic substances that can act as hormone disrupters, potentially interfering with reproduction. Antibacterials in cleaners may cause local (skin and eye) irritation, and certain types, such as triclosan, may contribute to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Some studies also suggest that triclosan could form dioxin, a carcinogen in the presence of sunlight and chloroform, a probable human carcinogen, in the presence of chlorinated water.
Ammonia is poisonous when swallowed, extremely irritating to respiratory passages when inhaled, and can burn the skin on contact. Butyl cellosolve(butyl glycol, ethylene glycol, monobutyl) is a lung tissue irritant and is poisonous when swallowed. Chlorine Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorate) causes irritation to lungs and eyes. If chlorine and bleach are mixed, they can form a dangerous gas that can severely damage the lungs. D-limonene can cause skin irritation. Diethanolamine (DEA) and Triethanolamine (TEA) can produce carcinogenic compounds which can penetrate the skin when combined with nitrosomes (many times used as an undisclosed preservative).
The term ‘disinfectants’ includes a wide variety of ingredients (such as chlorine bleach, alcohol, quaternary compounds, pine oil, ethyl alcohol), some of which are regulated by the EPA as pesticides. Hydrochloric acid can severely burn skin and irritate the eyes and respiratory tract. Naptha can cause headache, nausea, central nervous system symptoms with overexposure. Petroleum based ingredients (surfactants), also includes formaldehyde, a carcinogen. Phosphatesare toxic to the environment.
Best advice is to research the products or better yet—make your own cleaning products.

In fact, my first response was to ask to research the ‘Industrial Strength Cleaner’ so I would know exactly what Pure Yoga proposed that I lie on, inhale, and absorb. After class, I went to the desk to speak with the manager, to ask permission to take a photo of the bottle label so I could do the research.

A desk attendant suggested that industrial strength cleaner wasn’t actually in the bottles labeled ‘Industrial Strength Cleaner.’ She said, “Maybe they just use those bottles, but that’s not what’s in them.” I suppose it is possible that the industrial strength cleaner, which is not free but must be purchased, was dumped out so that Pure Yoga could spray the mats with something non-toxic, something ‘pure.’

Anything is possible.

The manager finally emerged. Her immediate response was to stonewall and to cast me as an agitated client. I was polite and calm, but I did repeatedly ask for the opportunity to take a photo so I could research the ingredients. She refused, saying, “I’m just trying to work with you.”

“If you’re trying to work with me,” I answered, “then you’ll permit me to photograph the bottle label so I can research the ingredients and see if they’re toxic.”

But she was in full cover-up mode. No permission was forthcoming. I told her that I would blog about this episode. “Do you realize that pregnant women are lying on the chemicals in that cleaner, and possibly absorbing those chemicals through their skin into their bloodstream to pass on to their unborn children?”

“Go ahead and blog,” she said scornfully.

But there’s more than toxic chemicals at stake here. Dr. Debra Jaliman, a dermatologist with a busy practice and author of the popular book Skin Rules: Trade Secrets from a Top New York Dermatologist (St. Martin’s Press, March, 2012) said this about yoga mats: “In my practice I’ve seen a variety of infections from yoga mats. Bacterial infections are the most common, like impetigo and boils. I have even seen MRSA staph infections. I have also treated athlete’s foot, which is a fungal infection, plantar warts, and herpes. The best thing would be to bring your own mat, but if not, rubbing alcohol is a good way to sanitize a mat without toxic chemicals.”

Perhaps regulations require yoga mats to be sanitized with certain chemicals. If so, it’s my feeling that an establishment that promotes itself as ‘pure’ must disclose those chemicals to their patrons. We deserve to know. Hiding the truth from well-intentioned yogis who go to yoga to detox is not ethical.

But the bottom line is: bring your own yoga mat. Even a studio that takes pains to promote its purity may well be hiding something toxic.

Fun with my friends

2012-04-22T09:16:00.001-04:00

My friend Michelle Czernin makes great parties. She made one in New York City for a splendid young man, Europe's hottest rising opera star, Daniel Serafin. I invited another friend, Debra Jaliman, author of the wildly popular SKIN RULES. Here we are....

photo credit: MC O'Conner/Savvy Shooter Media

Quotes of the Day

2012-04-17T08:12:00.001-04:00

A couple of years ago, vacationing in Cape Cod, I discovered a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. It was a good read, and left me with even more respect for this gifted, sensitive, and intelligent woman who faced her life with dignity.

Here are some of my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes:

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
Eleanor Roosevelt

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Note: I found these quotes on brainyquote.com

Radio Program: A Book and a Chat hosted by Barry Eva

2012-04-06T10:09:00.002-04:00

Book PR can be fun. The best part of it is talking to intriguing people with whom I wouldn't otherwise have had an opportunity to speak. Christine Giri of Time Tamer, Marcia Cook of A Good Story, Susan Wingate and Joshua Graham of Dialogue Between the Lines, Maryanne Comaroto of Maryanne Live, Faith Ranoli of Heart and Home Healing, Kelli McCracken of ParaYourNormal, my friend Rory Pinto of New Perspectives--all these good folks host lively radio programs that enhance and enrich the lives of their listeners.

Last night was another treat: I had the opportunity to be on Barry Eva's sparkling radio program, A Book and a Chat. It was good fun. I hope you enjoy the show.

Listen to internet radio with A Book and a Chat on Blog Talk Radio

Favorite Quotes; and Live on A Book and A Chat Tomorrow

2012-04-04T07:51:00.000-04:00

My two favorite quotes of the day:

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

"Insanity is rare in individuals--but in groups, parties, nations and ages, it is the rule."
― Nietzsche

I will be live on internet radio tomorrow 4/5 at 6:30 pm. Tune in here.

A Book and a Chat with Traci L. Slatton 04/05 by A Book and a Chat | Blog Talk Radio

2012-04-03T13:51:00.001-04:00

A Book and a Chat with Traci L. Slatton 04/05 by A Book and a Chat | Blog Talk Radio

Catch me live on internet radio on Thursday, April 5 at 6:30 ET!!

Radio Show: A Book and a Chat with Barry Eva 4/5 @ 6:30 pm

2012-03-25T11:00:00.001-04:00

Catch me on April 5 at 6:30 ET on Barry Eva's A Book and a Chat

About the show: A Book and a Chat" has proved a hugely popular radio program with people of all ages. With over four hundred shows already recorded, the shows format of "a chat over a cup of tea" has received nothing but rave reviews from guest and listeners alike. The writer of a successful young adult romance book "Across the Pond," Barry has himself appeared on a large number of radio and TV programs. "A Book and a Chat" is a program for writers and readers, not so much a literary show, more like... let’s sit around have a cup of tea and a few laughs." - Read what the guests are saying about the show here.

FALLEN nominated by TRR for Best Romance - Sci Fi/ Futuristic 2011

2012-03-18T12:04:00.000-04:00

FALLEN is up for another award: The Romance Reviews has submitted it for Best Romance - Sci Fi/Futuristic 2011.

Vote here.

And many thanks to The Romance Reviews!!

Nights And Weekends - Fallen Review

2012-03-15T14:51:00.002-04:00

Nights And Weekends - Fallen Review

"Knee-gripping suspense and a host of great characters bring the post-apocalyptic world to horrifying life in Fallen. "

New Perspectives Radio Interview of Sabin Howard & Traci Slatton

2012-03-14T22:47:00.004-04:00

Video chat by Stickam.com

Sabin Howard Speech at the ICAA on March 2, 2012

2012-03-11T14:32:00.000-04:00

Quoted: The Epoch Times on Sabin Howard Sculpture

2012-03-08T07:27:00.001-05:00

The Epoch Times, a vibrant and thoughtful international news outlet in both print and internet format, reviewed our sculpture opening at the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art on March 2, 2012.

Parts of my talk that night were quoted, including my line about post-modernism: "I'm here to tell you, the emperor has no clothes."

Check out this well-written article here.

My New HuffPo article: review of SKIN RULES by Debra Jaliman M.D.

2012-03-06T18:04:00.003-05:00

Check out my new review of the essential skin care book SKIN RULES Trade Secrets from a Top New York Dermatologist by Debra Jaliman M.D. Here's the link.

This book is beautifully, concisely written and full of practical advice. Get the book--you'll be glad you did!

My speech at the ICAA for the BOOK LAUNCH/SCULPTURE SHOW

2012-03-03T08:53:00.000-05:00

WELCOME to this book launch and celebration of classical art!!

I am so happy to see you here, and to welcome you to this wonderful evening of discussion about the value and importance of modern classicism. It’s a quixotic but urgent topic. I am here on stage with four of my favorite people—the honorable vice consul Signore Stefano Acunto, Jim Cooper, Peter Trippi, my husband Sabin Howard--to discuss this topic with you, and I’m so excited.

Please note there’s a lovely woman with an iPhone that can take your credit card information, if you’d like to buy a book. Sarah, where are you?

Let me take this opportunity to thank a few people, the ICAA and Signore Acunto and Mrs. Carole Acunto, Jim Cooper, Peter Trippi, David Ludwig, Todd Deskins, Sarah Miniaci, Drew Stevens, Don Steelman.

So, about this book THE ART OF LIFE….

A few weeks ago, in speaking with the honorable vice consul Steve Acunto, I told him that I would begin my talk by saying, “The Republicans think art is for sissies, and Democrats think art has to be ugly to be real art.”

“Well, Traci,” responded Signore Acunto, “then you shall have to wear a breastplate and helmet.” So rather than turn myself into a valkyrie, I decided to think more deeply about what I meant, polemics aside.

At this point I should probably disclose that, politically, I am currently a radical skeptic, and there are two groups whom I view with skepticism: Democrats and Republicans. Also, liberals and conservatives. Here in the waning years of the American Empire, partisan politics has made fools of us all.

And yes, art is political. I believe my husband Sabin will tell you that art is not political—that it transcends petty ephemeral concerns. But I believe that art speaks to who we are and how we want to live, so it’s very political.

So is ugly art real art because that gives certain groups the virtuous feeling that they support freedom?

When I ask the question that way, you already know where I stand.

It’s amazing to think that the 20^th century which gave rise to repeated genocides--repeated genocides--also gave rise to new intent and new methods to better ourselves, to become, as a human race, better--peaceful and tolerant. I am thinking about Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Dr. Martin Luther King.

Along the way to evolving and becoming better as a human race, something happened. The problem for me is that in throwing out the bathwater, we threw out the baby. In throwing out discrimination, we threw out discernment. And we need discernment.

We need to discern between what is masterful and what is silly, what is skilled and what is sloppy, what is art and what is not. Currently in the culture there’s a underlying attitude among some groups that it’s not acceptable to discern, that to say, ”Sabin Howard's work is art and Dung Madonna is not” makes you a (fill in the blank with the latest catchphrase for bad person) Nazi rascist bigot. Sabin calls this the “I’m ok, you’re ok, even the serial killer down the road” mentality.

But we do discern. Human beings intuitively sense mastery. We have an innate ability to look at something and see that it is beautiful, that it is powerful, that thought and skill and vision went into it. We just know.

But in much of the contemporary art world we are not supposed to know. We are not supposed to look. We’re supposed to understand visual art through our ears. We are supposed to listen to the heady babble of professors, PhD’s, and my personal favorite, gallery owners who have something to sell. We’re supposed to read the manual--The New York Times. We are supposed to stifle our authentic human response to a work of art.

So when an institution such as the National Endowment for Self-Expression funds images of the Virgin Mary submerged in urine, that institution may be pretending to support freedom, but what it is actually doing is legitimizing the stifling of our authentic human response to a work of art.

Don’t buy it. They’re selling snake oil. It’s scam art.

Marcel DuChamp did us all a disservice when he foisted a urinal on us. It would have been fine for a few minutes of intellectual shock value and entertainment. But here it is, 100 years later, and art is still being flushed down the toilet.

I am here to tell you: the emperor has no clothes.

The manual is irrelevant: looking is the point. Beauty is the point. Mastery is the point.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for ornamentation, decoration, entertainment, embellishment, and illustration. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for freaky fun. It means you can see the difference.

Now what about the other part of my polemical statement, art is for sissies.

I think this goes back to certain prevailing cultural notions about what’s butch and what’s manly, besides creating estate tax loopholes. Because you know, creating tax loopholes is very butch. It goes to our fascination with the anti-hero, with irony. We’re Americans, we’re outlaws, we’re renegades, we’re riding into the sunset. But we’d better watch out, because China is riding back out of the sunrise toward us. They’re bringing it.

And we’re responding with irony. TV and movies, the popular culture, is full of anti-heroic irony. It’s a defense. It's a weak defense. Ultimately, it’s a defense against an open heart.

What art does, real art, REAL ART, is gives you an experience of an open heart. Whether it’s a novel, or a movie, or a well acted King Lear, or a painting or a piece of sculpture, you have an experience or your heart opening. You’re a better person because of it.

Real art uplifts you—it transforms you. It gives you an experience of transcendence, whether of joy or of sorrow, because both joy and sorrow move through an open heart.

Sabin Howard’s pieces lack irony as a deliberate choice to give the viewer an experience of the heart opening, of upliftment, of transformation. This is the most courageous choice of all. This is the most radical choice of all. This is the most visionary choice of all.

The great poet Rumi says:

In your light I learn how to love.  

In your beauty, how to make poems.  

You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you,  

but sometimes I do,  

and that sight becomes this art.

Thank you.

Sabin Howard Sculpture: DAILY NEWS ONLINE: SABIN HOWARD CREATES CLASSICAL ...

2012-03-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

Sabin Howard Sculpture: DAILY NEWS ONLINE: SABIN HOWARD CREATES CLASSICAL ...: Check out this article online about Sabin's studio in the Bronx.

Sabin Howard: The Man Who Sculpts Gods | Part 2 | Special Section | World | Epoch Times

2012-03-01T09:26:00.001-05:00

Sabin Howard: The Man Who Sculpts Gods | Part 2 | Special Section | World | Epoch Times

FALLEN: Top Pick for NIGHT OWL REVIEWS

2012-02-24T06:56:00.000-05:00

HCHarju at Night Owl reviews gave FALLEN an outstanding review, saying "This book had all of the key elements to keep me turning the pages in anticipation. It has adventure, horror, suspense, joy, love, passion and questions that build upon each other until the end. I was sucked into the world and found myself rooting for the heroin. So many of the characters were like friends, that I felt bereft when the story ended. The end was surprising and left me wanting more. "

Read the entire review here.

New Review of FALLEN

2012-02-22T07:12:00.000-05:00

One of the joys of being an author involved in promoting her books is discovering book lover blogs. Fictitious Musings "where bookish people share their thoughts" is one such, kept by (I think) a husband and wife team who are avid readers, writers, and bloggers. She's even a librarian by day.

Catch their thoughtful review of FALLEN here.

"...From every angle, Fallen is a captivating adventure with just enough romance to keep you enthralled and begging for more. ..."

Great interview of me and my husband Sabin Howard

2012-02-20T08:52:00.000-05:00

Lively, appealing, informative Londoncalling.com posted a thoughtful interview of me and my husband Sabin Howard. We answered questions about our book THE ART OF LIFE.

Check out the article here.

Great New Review of FALLEN

2012-02-14T11:50:00.001-05:00

Just to warm my novelist heart on Valentines Day... Bookangel at As I turn the pages wrote a wonderful, thoughtful critique, and ended with... "...By the end of the book, I wanted to know more about everyone. What will they do? How long can they survive? Will they find happiness? The book ends with a very emotional cliffhanger. This is the first of a trilogy, and I can't wait to find out what happens."