A Force of Nature

Stacey Graham is a force of nature.

There is no passive language in anything about her. She shakes, pops, shimmies, toddles, and gets down. There are ample amounts of “yay!” and truckloads of thanks dispensed to friends and acquaintances alike. Certainly, the *headdesk* stage direction occasionally finds its way into her status updates, but what always shines through, for herself and those she supports, is something simpler: “Win!”

There are the daily anecdotes about raising her five children laced with Chuck Norris, zombie ooze, and toddler philosophy. The creation of the Magnificent Rack (indeed), locks cut too short, waggles, slaps and yodels line our Twitter feeds and Facebook walls. Exploits in granola making, cupcake building and the country-livin’ Internet outages make the rounds. Her soundtrack? A 1960s/1970s cacophony with pearls like the Beatles “Blackbird” and the sultry sounds of Etta James cranked up to ’11′ for good measure.

Dalliances into the world of Jane Austen are frequent. Her crush on Fitzwilliam Darcy is renowned (including the accumulating puddle of drool in front of her PBS-tuned television). Swoon for anything dealing with the 18th Century writer led her to the “Jane Austen Twitter Project.” The 140-character contributions included to the 15-chapter experiment included this gem:

“You, Mr. Elton, by your very existence, have slandered and defamed my wife, my wife’s family and friends, and in particular, our dearest Mrs. Collins. For that, sir, you must pay.”

Along the way, she landed a pair of publishing contracts and cemented her status as legend among our years-long cadre of writer friends (as if she already hadn’t). Zombies abound in the first one. Ghosts in the second.  Both will certify her status as humor writing savant and publishing commodity to be reckoned with. Neither is far from her Oregon upbringing, the digging in the Scotland dirt or her life in Berryville.

In between, she got bored (go figure) and decided Erma Bombeck needed something more than a footnote in Reader’s Digest. She scouted and found a dozen or so clever, friendly and engaging writers and formed “An Army of Ermas.” Twelve to 15 times each month, you get a look at life seen through the lenses of some talented people. Stacey focuses all of them to ensure the overall picture is clear, funny and heartwarming. At some point, she allowed me to pen a regular column for “Ermas,” and for that small stumble on an otherwise stellar run, she’ll be forgiven.

“Grateful” only belittles my gratitude toward this woman who allows me to call her friend. And I’m not alone. The posse of writers at “Ermas” has declared today, Aug. 9, at “An Army of Ermas” Day to celebrate her shining star that is a light for many of us. You’ll find them scattered on blogs across the electrons today.

Stacey Graham is a force of nature. We can all only hope to experience such a force once in our lives.

Links

An Army of Ermas

Betwixt and Between (Stacey’s blog)

Girls Ghost Hunting Guide

Jane Austen Twitter Project

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