Books: “Confessions of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated” by Alison Arngrim

For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history’s most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character—and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.

In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents: Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost. She recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of Little House: Michael Landon’s “unsaintly” habit of not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine MacGregor (who played Nellie’s mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.

Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her life’s challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse, depression, and paralyzing shyness; the “secret” her father kept from her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her “Little House husband” and best friend, Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her second career in social and political activism. Arngrim describes how Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined, and how she is eternally grateful to have had the biggest little bitch on the prairie to show her the way.

GrungeCake Magazine Interviews with Author Denis Sheehan by Gutty!

In my obsessive MySpace days, I befriended Denis Sheehan’s Bone Print profile and fell in love with the synopsis of his book, “A Nobody’s Nothings.” I knew it was going to be a good read, so I ordered one and later ordered one for George (Gutty). We have been telling everyone we know about the language, character, and emotion of this book. Folks are intrigued, but they aren’t the folk that indulge in reading so they smile, agree, and never act… and that’s fine. In hopes, that you are different from the others, you will order his book and we can share insiders. We love you Sheehan! Content is mature and not suitable for children or sensitive doodyheads.

GrungeCake Magazine Interview with Author Richard K. Lofton by Jazzlyn Kirkland!

Imagine being a 5-year-old child trapped inside of your own body with no way to verbally communicate. At such a young age, verbal communication is key to living because you are at the beginning stages of learning. What would you do? Would you teach yourself to read and write so you could at least communicate with adults? Being in pre-school, would you turn to poetry as an outlet for creativity while the other kids are on the mat playing toy trucks? What about reading books way beyond your grade level or skill to prove to your teachers that you have been wrongfully placed into a special education class because you cannot speak? Well, I know a man — a very wonderful, brilliant, intellectual, intelligent man who has done everything to beat the odds that face him and that man is Author Richard K. Lofton.