Monday Muse: Evelyn Lauder
A true icon and role model for all women. I enjoyed the pleasure of her company on several occasions and was always impressed by her charm, grace, and intelligence. Her legacy will endure, but she will be greatly missed.
Top Shelf Tues: Teen Author Reading Night tomorrow and more!
*Hey! I’ve finally updated my events page – because I have an event tomorrow! If you’re in the NYC area, I’d love to see you there!
*Today marks the kickoff of NaNoWriMo (though sadly, I won’t be participating, as my deadlines are out of sync). GalleyCat will be offering a nano tip a day throughout the month for those of you blazing the trail.
*Former student Alecia Whitaker gets her second rave review for the forthcoming Queen of Kentucky.
*And speaking of upcoming releases, check out the trailer for Lynn Weingarten’s Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers!
Happy reading, people!
Friday Freebies: Scary Stuff
Wondering what scares little old me? You’re in luck, then, as I’m guest posting over at Nova Ren Suma’s blog today as part of her Halloween author series. Check it out, comment on the post, and you’re entered to win a scary scary book — maybe mine!
Top Shelf Tuesday: #ISupportShine
My own feelings about Shine (which I loved) aside, I can’t believe the way in which the NBA YA noms were handled, and I’m impressed by Lauren Myracle’s continued grace throughout the drama. Lauren is a fellow alumn of Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a supporter and blurber of my own family, in addition to being a wonderful writer who has crossed the commercial/literary divide easily and capably. Support SHINE on twitter with the above hashtag. It’s a worthy book, awards or no.
Some relevant links to the meshugas:
Monday Muse: On Immortality
Too obvious? Nonetheless perfectly appropriate.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself.
WEDNESDAY Freebie: I am here
I mean, not to be all showy-offy about it, but I’m on the official “babymoon:” that is, the last trip the hubs and I will take footloose and child-free (even if I’m not all that footloose, seven months along).
As you can imagine, things’ll be quieter than usual for a bit around these here parts….
Top Shelf Tuesday: Support Banned Books Week
Via GalleyCat:
As readers around the country celebrate Banned Books Week, The Huffington Post has created a massive infographic with excerpts from the top ten of the 348 books that were threatened in school libraries or curriculum last year.
Top Ten Banned Or Challenged Books Of 2010
1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. Lush by Natasha Friend
7. What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
8. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich
9. Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Some of my personal favorites on this list. Gotta say, it kinda makes me proud.
Support banned books, yo.
Friday Freebie: Designers, make this work
For use as you see fit. One never knows when one is going to need a little shot of Grandpa Gunn.
You’re welcome. TGIF!
Top Shelf Tuesday: AS King’s “Everybody Sees the Ants”
Currently reading and loving.
A.S. King is a singular writer, and Everybody Sees the Ants
Lucky Linderman didn’t ask for his life. He didn’t ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn’t ask for a father who never got over it. He didn’t ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn’t ask to be the target of Nader McMillan’s relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far.
But Lucky has a secret–one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos–the prison his grandfather couldn’t escape–where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It’s dangerous and wild, and it’s a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside?
“Blending magic and realism, this is a subtly written, profoundly honest novel about a kid falling through the cracks and pulling himself back up.” (Booklist, starred review)
Read it, people. 
Monday Muse: Marianna Baer on fiction as fact
If you don’t know Marianna Baer, you will — soon. Her debut novel, Frost, releases 9/13, and has already received the informal Presidential seal of approval. In a recent interview on the Vermont College alumni blog, Through the Tollbooth, Baer had this to say on the subject of joyful writing:
“There’s a moment when I’ll go back and read a scene – maybe a scene I’ve rewritten a hundred times, maybe one that I just wrote the day before — and it no longer sounds like something I made up. I’ll read it through and not even notice the writing, because what I’ve done is tell it the way it actually happened . . . It’s the moment when a part of the story separates itself from me and takes on its own life. The moment when I believe I’m actually writing non-fiction because it feels so real to me. (Note: this almost always happens after the hundredth rewrite, not after one or two. But sometimes I’ll get lucky.)”
I actually had a moment like this last week, and it was, in a word, sublime. I think Marianna expresses the experience perfectly, and this quote absolutely captures it. 