Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Titles at The Awl
This is what I'm supposed to be doing with this blog, right? Reposting and/or linking to things I blog and write in other places? Here's an article I wrote about being forced to change my novel's title. The Awl is my new favorite thing to read online. Totally addictive.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Thrust Upon 'Em
Tomorrow night I'm doing an event I'm really looking forward to. Reading in front of people -- public speaking/performing of any kind really -- makes me so nervous that these events are hard for me. Everyone I tell this to says incredulously, "But you're a teacher." This is true and a good point, but it's so different somehow. I can't really explain it except to say that writing is an awfully solitary activity to do as performance. I am not self-conscious when I teach, at least not much. I am super, uber, total self-conscious on a stage of any kind at all.
Anyway, tomorrow's event is less me, more performance, more wine, more friends, more Shakespeare -- a good combo. Actors will be performing chapter two of The Atlas of Love, and though I'll be there to help, I won't be the main attraction. There will be other actors, other books and readers, plus music from my fabulously talented husband (signing Hamlet), plus lots of wine, plus Shakespeare's birthday. I defy you to think of a cooler event.
Many cheers to Debut Lit for making this happen and for supporting and celebrating debut authors and for realizing that just because traditional readings are sometimes boring, they needn't be. We're writers and actors and music makers after all -- a little creativity seems in order, no?
Please join us!!!
April 23, 7 -9 p.m. FREE
Bartholomew Winery
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, WA 98134
(in the old Rainier Brewery building)
Anyway, tomorrow's event is less me, more performance, more wine, more friends, more Shakespeare -- a good combo. Actors will be performing chapter two of The Atlas of Love, and though I'll be there to help, I won't be the main attraction. There will be other actors, other books and readers, plus music from my fabulously talented husband (signing Hamlet), plus lots of wine, plus Shakespeare's birthday. I defy you to think of a cooler event.
Many cheers to Debut Lit for making this happen and for supporting and celebrating debut authors and for realizing that just because traditional readings are sometimes boring, they needn't be. We're writers and actors and music makers after all -- a little creativity seems in order, no?
Please join us!!!
April 23, 7 -9 p.m. FREE
Bartholomew Winery
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, WA 98134
(in the old Rainier Brewery building)
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Online Chat at SheKnows.com
SheKnows.com is hosting an online chat with me about THE ATLAS OF LOVE, their first book club pick of the year, on Thursday 3/31 from 8-11pm EST (5-8 PST). Please stop by to chat, ask questions, or just say hi. I'd love to meet you! It's like an author event you can attend in your PJs (though really, you're welcome to attend the live-in-person ones in your PJs too as far as I'm concerned.) So come on by! And if you've missed it, it'll be archived, so you can still check it out.
Here's the URL:
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/827109/live-chat
Here's the URL:
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/827109/live-chat
Friday, March 18, 2011
If libraries+bookstores=good, then ebooks+bookstores=good
So anyway, back to that library gala. The Bellevue Library just overtook the library in Queens, NY to be the number one most visited library in the country. Their gala took place in the library -- which made me worried going in that the lighting would be designed to help people read (what you want in a library) rather than to help you look good in a cocktail dress (what you want in a gala) -- for which it was entirely suited. Great space, great lighting, and, as my husband pointed out, replete with entertainment when you got bored of schmoozing and watching your wife sign books. That is, it's beautiful, a place you want to be and hang out.
The gala was sponsored by/supported by/and sold copious books supplied by a local, independent bookstore, Third Place Books. What struck me was that no one thought this was a problematic pairing. No one thought: if we offer people books on loan for free, they'll stop buying them. No one thought: if we make books too affordable and bookstores too cool, no one will use libraries anymore. Instead, everyone knows this: teach a kid to fish and s/he'll eat for a lifetime. Kids who grow up on libraries will be lifelong readers who will 1) support local libraries and 2) support local bookstores. Used, usable libraries make for strong communities which make for smarter, more curious, more well-read, more wealthy, more healthy, more cultured, more community-supporting, bookstore-supporting, library-supporting citizenry plus a nicer place to live. Duh.
Whereas the attitude towards ebooks is the opposite. All of the players in this game seem to have concluded that ebooks mean the death of bookstores, mega and local, and of community reading spaces and most authors who aren't Dan Brown. This seems stupid to me. I'm back to teach a kid to read and s/he'll eat for a lifetime. Seems to me that ebooks should, in fact, lead to greater demand and support for bookstores and library services and authors because what we all want is readers. Make reading easy, available, affordable, portable, sleek, and cool, and you make people who read more. Those people are going to want spaces to go read with other people, spaces to go read and also get coffee, spaces to read with other readers, spaces to meet authors and go to events, ways to connect with their community, a wide variety of good things to read, people to recommend good things to read, people to filter out all the crappy things they don't want to read so that they can find the ones they do, and, well, lots of books...so libraries and bookstores and authors. I own a Kindle AND I spend a lot of money at the bookstore AND I spend a lot of money at the library (because we support the library but also, okay, because we lost a wallet of kid DVDs in the airport in Minneapolis, but that's another problem, the problem of flying cross-country several times a year with a toddler. Now if libraries could solve that problem, we'd be in business.) People get their reading material from lots of places, not just one. Ebooks make for people who read more. That is the world I want to live in.
The gala was sponsored by/supported by/and sold copious books supplied by a local, independent bookstore, Third Place Books. What struck me was that no one thought this was a problematic pairing. No one thought: if we offer people books on loan for free, they'll stop buying them. No one thought: if we make books too affordable and bookstores too cool, no one will use libraries anymore. Instead, everyone knows this: teach a kid to fish and s/he'll eat for a lifetime. Kids who grow up on libraries will be lifelong readers who will 1) support local libraries and 2) support local bookstores. Used, usable libraries make for strong communities which make for smarter, more curious, more well-read, more wealthy, more healthy, more cultured, more community-supporting, bookstore-supporting, library-supporting citizenry plus a nicer place to live. Duh.
Whereas the attitude towards ebooks is the opposite. All of the players in this game seem to have concluded that ebooks mean the death of bookstores, mega and local, and of community reading spaces and most authors who aren't Dan Brown. This seems stupid to me. I'm back to teach a kid to read and s/he'll eat for a lifetime. Seems to me that ebooks should, in fact, lead to greater demand and support for bookstores and library services and authors because what we all want is readers. Make reading easy, available, affordable, portable, sleek, and cool, and you make people who read more. Those people are going to want spaces to go read with other people, spaces to go read and also get coffee, spaces to read with other readers, spaces to meet authors and go to events, ways to connect with their community, a wide variety of good things to read, people to recommend good things to read, people to filter out all the crappy things they don't want to read so that they can find the ones they do, and, well, lots of books...so libraries and bookstores and authors. I own a Kindle AND I spend a lot of money at the bookstore AND I spend a lot of money at the library (because we support the library but also, okay, because we lost a wallet of kid DVDs in the airport in Minneapolis, but that's another problem, the problem of flying cross-country several times a year with a toddler. Now if libraries could solve that problem, we'd be in business.) People get their reading material from lots of places, not just one. Ebooks make for people who read more. That is the world I want to live in.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Libraries+Spring Break=Love
What do libraries have to do with spring break? Nothing really. But I find I have a zillion (okay, maybe three) would-be blog posts about libraries AND, because it's spring break, time to write them. Like chocolate and peanut butter I tell you.
Last week, I attended a fundraising gala for King County Libraries. More about them in my next post on libraries. (You can hardly wait I know.) For this gala, I bought high heels AND mascara AND eye shadow just like an actual female adult. Incredible! It's a good thing I did too because while I was at my assigned table signing my books and chatting with readers, Nancy Pearl (!!!) (!!!) came up to HUG me because, she explained, though we'd never met she felt like she knew me because she read my book and thought it was "wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully" written. She even tweeted this impression Monday morning: “Don't miss Laurie Frankel's The Atlas of Love; this story of women's friendships and redefining 'family' flows with lovely writing.” If you can think of something cooler than that, please post it in the comments section, but know that the bar in this case is high indeed.
It is high because Nancy Pearl is just that cool. And she's a librarian. I assume that the stereotype of librarians as uncool has gone the way of, uh, libraries. That is, libraries have gotten pretty cool of late. At least in my part of the world. Here in Seattle, the branch libraries are plentiful with interesting architecture and inviting spaces, and the central library was designed by a world-famous architect and is one of the coolest buildings in the city by any definition. Check out the google image search. So I have to think as library cred goes up, so does librarian cred? I have been meeting lots of lovely -- and cool -- librarians on this journey.
All that said, once you get made into an action figure -- and become the go-to book recommender for NPR -- I think you have cool pretty much cornered.
Last week, I attended a fundraising gala for King County Libraries. More about them in my next post on libraries. (You can hardly wait I know.) For this gala, I bought high heels AND mascara AND eye shadow just like an actual female adult. Incredible! It's a good thing I did too because while I was at my assigned table signing my books and chatting with readers, Nancy Pearl (!!!) (!!!) came up to HUG me because, she explained, though we'd never met she felt like she knew me because she read my book and thought it was "wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully" written. She even tweeted this impression Monday morning: “Don't miss Laurie Frankel's The Atlas of Love; this story of women's friendships and redefining 'family' flows with lovely writing.” If you can think of something cooler than that, please post it in the comments section, but know that the bar in this case is high indeed.
It is high because Nancy Pearl is just that cool. And she's a librarian. I assume that the stereotype of librarians as uncool has gone the way of, uh, libraries. That is, libraries have gotten pretty cool of late. At least in my part of the world. Here in Seattle, the branch libraries are plentiful with interesting architecture and inviting spaces, and the central library was designed by a world-famous architect and is one of the coolest buildings in the city by any definition. Check out the google image search. So I have to think as library cred goes up, so does librarian cred? I have been meeting lots of lovely -- and cool -- librarians on this journey.
All that said, once you get made into an action figure -- and become the go-to book recommender for NPR -- I think you have cool pretty much cornered.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Adam Haslett on Stanley Fish and Strunk and White
There's lots about this article that's lovely and interesting, and I'm especially taken by the allowance that extra words are in fact what we enjoy about good writing. Also that "if we could separate meaning from sound, we'd read plot summaries rather than novels," and that teaching minimalist writing leads to minimal thinking and lack of creativity. Teaching someone how to write good sentences might be the ultimate Sisyphean task. But what's stuck with me (since I read this Monday) is this bit about letter writing: "The writing of complete sentences for aural pleasure as well as news is going the way of the playing of musical instruments—it's becoming a speciality rather than a means most people have to a little amateur, unselfconscious enjoyment." Right? Interesting!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Outside the Box is Where I Live
This line, midway through season one, was the reason I had to stop watching Battlestar Galactica. I know that mortally offends some people -- my apologies. But it's not a well written line.
Never mind. I've been thinking today about alternatives, other ways of doing things, things outside of boxes. For instance, I did a reading at Pacific Lutheran University's bookstore Thursday night. Their bookstore rocks so much harder than a) most campus bookstores and b) even most bookstores period. Their bookstore lives outside the campus bookstore box. How so?
1) It isn't located in the student union or even on campus. It's located two blocks from main campus on a busy street and also in a strip mall so that other people, people who are not students, might go. It even has its own name: Garfield Book Company.
2) It has, front and center when you walk in, a climber with sliding board plus some little tables with toys. Before I had a child, I imagined that you'd bring your kids to the bookstore and plop them in the children's section where they'd read quietly to themselves and then you'd let them pick one book to take home and all would be right with the world. Then I had a kid and realized that a children's section in a bookstore is no place for a child who will run around pulling all the books off the shelves and flipping them over the shoulder like Bret Boone. Having a sliding board, someplace to climb, and toys to play with? Well, that's much more promising. Kids who like to go to bookstores and bookstores with indoor (and thus dry) play structures make for parents who patronize bookstores.
3) They also have a fireplace, a lovely, full-size coffee shop (with gelato and, soon evidently, wine), and a whole floor dedicated to being a real bookstore while the upstairs is reserved for being a college bookstore (i.e. sweatpants, water bottles, and everything else on which you might write "PLU" plus books for courses).
4) The bathrooms are clean and nice and have those toilets where you press one button for half flush and another for full. Do decent bathrooms make that much of a difference? You bet.
5) They have a designated space for readings and community gatherings with the aforementioned fireplace, sofas and comfy chairs (with swivel writing desks for note taking), and a full kitchen for their brilliant book club Food for Thought which reads books about food BUT ALSO brings in a chef to cook stuff from the books. Book clubs through bookstores? Middling attendance. Book clubs with food? Much bigger draw. Plus, they've got the double draw going -- community and college campus, students, faculty, staff, and friends.
In a word: smart. We need more community, independent bookstores. Like everything and everyone these days, they're on the brink of not making it. So I'm saying, maybe outside the box is where they should live.
Never mind. I've been thinking today about alternatives, other ways of doing things, things outside of boxes. For instance, I did a reading at Pacific Lutheran University's bookstore Thursday night. Their bookstore rocks so much harder than a) most campus bookstores and b) even most bookstores period. Their bookstore lives outside the campus bookstore box. How so?
1) It isn't located in the student union or even on campus. It's located two blocks from main campus on a busy street and also in a strip mall so that other people, people who are not students, might go. It even has its own name: Garfield Book Company.
2) It has, front and center when you walk in, a climber with sliding board plus some little tables with toys. Before I had a child, I imagined that you'd bring your kids to the bookstore and plop them in the children's section where they'd read quietly to themselves and then you'd let them pick one book to take home and all would be right with the world. Then I had a kid and realized that a children's section in a bookstore is no place for a child who will run around pulling all the books off the shelves and flipping them over the shoulder like Bret Boone. Having a sliding board, someplace to climb, and toys to play with? Well, that's much more promising. Kids who like to go to bookstores and bookstores with indoor (and thus dry) play structures make for parents who patronize bookstores.
3) They also have a fireplace, a lovely, full-size coffee shop (with gelato and, soon evidently, wine), and a whole floor dedicated to being a real bookstore while the upstairs is reserved for being a college bookstore (i.e. sweatpants, water bottles, and everything else on which you might write "PLU" plus books for courses).
4) The bathrooms are clean and nice and have those toilets where you press one button for half flush and another for full. Do decent bathrooms make that much of a difference? You bet.
5) They have a designated space for readings and community gatherings with the aforementioned fireplace, sofas and comfy chairs (with swivel writing desks for note taking), and a full kitchen for their brilliant book club Food for Thought which reads books about food BUT ALSO brings in a chef to cook stuff from the books. Book clubs through bookstores? Middling attendance. Book clubs with food? Much bigger draw. Plus, they've got the double draw going -- community and college campus, students, faculty, staff, and friends.
In a word: smart. We need more community, independent bookstores. Like everything and everyone these days, they're on the brink of not making it. So I'm saying, maybe outside the box is where they should live.
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