Tag Archives: brushes with celebrity

March Madness!

Posted on March 20, 2008 | 2 Comments

I’ve been away for a plethora of circumstances. I’ll give you a little peek into my world these last eleven days:

1. My computer, henceforth to be called “Regan”, taunts me each time I power up, freezing for no reason, shutting down without provocation and doing everything short of spewing split pea soup at me. I threatened her with replacement but she merely laughed in my face, knowing full well I don’t have the money. Right now she’s watching, waiting, storing up an electrical charge to get me…

2. We’re on Day 7 of Spring Break. Today is only the second day of sunshine. The count thus far: five full-blown wrestling matches, seventeen screaming fits, three losses of computer privileges, two one-on-one basketball games with No. 1 son, four forts built with No. 2 son, and one breakdown by Dad to purchase the Transformers Movie.

3. Go Jayhawks!!

4. In others’ news, my friend Deanna received an email from from Ze Frank, geek extraordinaire (insert binary solo in his honor), who asked about this painting. My friend Angie won a “Healing Through Art” award for her poem “LIttle Girl Lost.”

5. That’s all for now. Regan has been very patient while I posted. I don’t want to wear out her good humor, as I must check my email periodically.

Happy Vernal Equinox, everyone!

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I’m a best-seller!!

Posted on March 7, 2008 | 17 Comments

 Well, me and a thousand others. Not Quite What I Was Planning made the NY Times Top-10 list. It’s the closest I’ll likely ever come to hitting the big time, so Whoo hoo!

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Summarize your life in six words

Posted on February 5, 2008 | 8 Comments

Today Harper Perennial released Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. You can find pithy contributions from Ned Vizzini (page 121), Gregg Easterbrook (page 117),  Aimee Mann (page 73), Harold Ramis (page 92) my own (page 68) and my two favorites by Joanna Sheehan (page 105) and HarperCollins editor Kate Hamill (page 211) . 

Other contributers include Stephen Colbert (page 137), Amy Sedaris (page 41), Daniel Handler (page 176), Nora Ephron (page 162), Joyce Carol Oats (page 128), Jonathan Letham (page 65), Deepak and Gotham Chopra (page 15), and more Famous and hundreds of wonderfully Obscure. Enjoy!

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Hanging with The Man.

Posted on January 29, 2008 | 13 Comments

[info]elizabethcbunce

, MT Anderson and me. I tried not to gush.

Great evening! He read from Feed and Octavian Nothing, talked of six years spent poring through 18th century literature and slave narratives from that time and pre-Civil War, and pondered briefly why he never developed the typical Bostonian accent. He also talked about refusing to underestimate the intelligence of teen readers. He was smart, funny, low-key, gracious. We sat next to a teenager and her dad. Her paperback copy of Feed was well-loved, its cover creased and worn. It reminded me of my first copy of Cat’s Cradle, whose cover and first few pages eventually fell off. Sadly, my battery decided to nearly die the second I turned on the camera, so I have only a few pictures. Enjoy!

    

I must run and care for No. 2 son, who is home with a nasty cough and slight fever. You know what that means: he’s bouncing around the house dressed like a knight, slashing here and there with his plastic sword, even though he can’t breathe and stops every two minutes to hack up a lung cookie or two.

Happy days, all!

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DNA Lit Fest

Posted on January 16, 2008 | 13 Comments

Damn. I just told my husband today that my hope to make it in this business slowly but surely dies a little more with each passing day, that I wish I could just kill it outright and move on with my life. Then something like this announcement appears in my mailbox, and I get all excited again. 

The best independent bookstore on the planet will hold its annual DNA Lit Fest March 28 & 29. 

Two years ago I took No. 1 Son to the first day, which is for children. We watched Chris Raschka recreate his Caldecott-winning drawings for The Hello Goodbye Window. After he spoke, No. 1 Son showed Mr. Raschka his own drawing he’d made during the talk, which was of Chris Raschka drawing the hello goodbye window. 

Later, as we waited out in the hallway of the auditorium for Kate DiCamillo to finish her presentation, No. 1 son met a gentleman wearing a dull gray suit and holding a bulky case. His name? Daniel Handler. He and No. 1 Son talked for several minutes, until Mr. Handler’s handlers whisked him backstage. No. 1 Son enjoyed the day, but of course had no clue how cool it truly was. That year the lineup was Handler, Raschka, DiCamillo, Molly Bangs, Lisa Brown and Naomi Shihab Nye. 

This year the line-up is also made of awesome. Jane Yolen. Linda Sue Park. Giselle Potter (who will illustrate my friend and fellow JWKCer Ann Ingalls’ book THE LITTLE PIANO GIRL), Jon Muth (Zen Shorts), Laurie Keller (The Scrambled States of America) and the father-daughter team of Kate and Jules Feiffer (she of Double Pink and he of Phantom Tollbooth fame).

(And if you followed the best independent bookstore on the planet link above, you saw who will speak January 28 at 7pm at the Plaza Library.)

Damn.

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