a chick with sticks (and a computer)

Domesticity and Karen Neches

Yes, yes, yes -- I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I'm not sure why. It's not like I haven't had the time (though I have been very busy). I just wasn't feeling bloggy, you know? Or rather, whenever I was feeling bloggy, I was in the midst of the thing I wanted to blog about. Once the moment was gone, the blog seemed to evaporate from my mind as well. Maybe I should take more pictures. . .

(See? One of the things I could have blogged about, but didn't, was knitting three matching hats for my cousin, her daughter, and LaLa. Cute, huh?)

In fact, now that I think about it, most of what I've been doing--besides writing fiction, of course--has been pretty domestic. We've completed our housey projects--a new kitchen backsplash (remarkably drama-free), a refinished bathtub (had to be redone three times. Your basic nightmare), and a new counter for our trashed bathroom vanity (the stone-guy we hired--and gave a rather large deposit to--disappeared for weeks with no word. Occasionally, he'd answer the phone, say casually, "Oh, of course, I'll be over to install it this afternoon!" and then disappear again. Finally, though, he actually came and, because I clung to his ankles so he couldn't leave the house, actually finished the job.) Needless to say, we are DONE renovating. Perhaps FOREVER.

I've also been cooking up a storm for the fam, for parties, for friends over for a impromptu dinners. In fact, I just took a banana bread out of the oven, which I whipped up to use three overripe bananas laying around the fruit bowl. I know! I mean, we all say, "Oh, those bananas are too ripe to eat. I should make a banana bread out of them." But does anybody actually do it? This is the first time in my life that I have. LaLa helped, which is why there is flour and banana gunk all over the kitchen right now. But it was twice as fun to bake it with her.

But it doesn't exactly make for scintillating blog material, see? But here's something that does! Karen Neches! Karen, otherwise known as Karin Gillespie, is not just an amazing novelist. She's the Girlfriend Cyber Circuit's official founder and Girlfriend wrangler. Without Karen/Karin, I wouldn't be a Girlfriend, and YOU would not have spent the past year or so reading interviews with all the amazing writers who've visited my blog. So (everyone), "Yay Karen!"

Especially because her new book, "Earthly Pleasures" sounds dreamy and delicious.

Here's the scoop:

Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Nocturnal Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who will advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they’re expired. “Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial” she assures her charges. “It’s all about contentment.”

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she’s been chosen to live her first life. She’s required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all of the world’s greatest philosophies through five Beatle songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel “Earthly Pleasures” but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

In Earthly Pleasures (Simon and Schuster, February 2008, $14) great love can transcend the dimensions, narrowing the vast difference between Heaven and Earth.

Don't you love it? So clever and fun. No wonder most of the book's blurbs call it a treat! Speaking of, here is Karen herself, e-chatting with moi:

Elizabeth: You walk into a bookstore and make a beeline to. . .
a) chick lit
b) YA lit
c) lit-lit
d) biographies
e) a big stack of gossip mags and a cappuccino

Karen: f) The new release table. I like to see what’s coming out.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 1: When you were a teenager, what young adult novel a) saved b) changed c) okay, made a big wallop on your life?

Karen: Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume. I think it was the first book to talk candidly about periods and my friends and I were obsessed with getting ours. Back then, YA books were so bland and unrealistic.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 2: Where did you grow up and what kind of role does that setting play in the books you write?

Karen: I grew up in Minnesota and oddly enough I’ve never set a book there, maybe because it’s so homogenous. The South is my setting of choice.

Elizabeth: You've written both fiction and non. What do you do to shift gears when you move from one genre to the other?

Karen: I used to write a column for the newspaper. Every line had to count so it often took me all day. I much prefer fiction.

Elizabeth: What do you love about Skye, the star of "Earthly Pleasures?"

Karen: She’s a greeter in Heaven who is a little bit saucy. For instance when one of the newly dead gets freaked out, instead of talking them down, she sprays them with TIC (Tranquility in a Can.) She ends up falling in love with a mortal named Ryan who has a near death experience in her office and instead of giving up on this long-distance relationship, she goes for it.

Elizabeth: Finally, which Chick with Sticks are you? If you haven't read my book, please refer to this handy quiz.

Karen: I’m TAY.

Thanks, Karen!

And thanks to you readers for tuning in. I hope I'm out of my blog funk now and will be checking in more often!

xoxo

Elizabeth

Let's "Twist" again

My latest Cyber Circuit Girlfriend is Melissa Senate. Her yummy "Theodora Twist" is out in paperback!

The concept? Bad girl teen starlet Theodora Twist needs an image makeover. So her handlers return her to her hometown and she moves into the life of everygirl Emily Fine. Hilarity and--but of course!--a reality show ensue!

TT sounds like a guilty pleasure without the guilt. I can't wait to read it--and now that it's in oh-so-carryable paperback, I'm sure I will!

But first, Melissa and I had an e-chat. . .

Elizabeth: You walk into a bookstore and make a beeline to. . .
a) chick lit
b) YA lit
c) lit-lit
d) biographies
e) a big stack of gossip mags and a cappuccino
f) the ________ (please fill in) section
. .. . and why?

Melissa: Chick lit/women’s fiction first. Then young adult, then essay collections. I am a collector of essay collections!

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 1: When you were a teenager, what young adult novel a) saved b) changed c) okay, made a big wallop on your life?

Melissa: The Cat Ate My Gymsuit made me so happy I read it ten times in one year. It was the first book I read that made me realize I could write in my own voice, spill my actual (and not so nice all the time) thoughts right onto the page.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 2: Where did you grow up and what kind of role does that setting play in the books you write?

Melissa: I grew up as a kid in boroughs of New York City (the Bronx and Queens) and as a teenager in northern New Jersey (ie. a mall). My kid life and a my teenaged life were so drastically different that they both intermingle to inform my writing.

Elizabeth: You write both YA and Chick lit. What do you do to shift gears when you move from one genre to the other?

Melissa: To shift from chick lit to YA, I rent one of my favorite teen movies: How To Deal, which is based on two of Sarah Dessen’s novels (she is my favorite young adult author). I also buy some teen magazines and do some informal research interviews of local teens. Lots of eavesdropping too.

Elizabeth: I heart Sarah Dessen as well! What do you love about Theodora Twist, the character?

Melissa: She’s a diva, but has a good heart. We all know divas without a good heart. ;-)

Elizabeth: Finally, which Chick with Sticks are you? If you haven't read my book, please refer to this handy quiz.

Melissa: I'm Amanda!

Thanks, Melissa!

xoxo

Elizabeth

Happy New Year

LaLa at the end of 2006:

LaLa at the end of 2007:

What a difference a year makes, huh? I guess I'm supposed to say how much I miss that chubby, silky-haired 8-month-old version of LaLa, but I don't actually. The infant months were lovely while they lasted, but this lanky, mop-headed, giggly, chatty, bookish LaLa? She's even more delightful. Watching her grow into toddlerhood was the best part of my 2007.

Another great thing happened on the very last day of the year--we sold Husband's condo!!!! This was the bachelor pad he was living in when we met. It was a great place just outside of downtown--all airy and loftlike with two ginormous closets and a view of the skyline. When he bought it several years ago, there weren't many condos in this housey city.

But by the time we moved into our house three years ago, there were condos, condos everywhere. Condos in complexes with party rooms and cappuccino machines and pools and barbecues. Condos with more than one bedroom. Condos that were CHEAP.

Selling seemed hopeless, so we rented the condo out (to my brother, who was an excellent tenant) and began to fret about whether we could ever, in a million years, sell the thing. Finally, as condos continued to be built all around ours and the value started to go down, we put it on the market. And immediately, the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit.

It sat on the market for 7 months, while my brother patiently let strangers tromp through, peeking into his cabinets and peering into his fridge. But finally, somehow, it sold! We closed on New Year's Eve.

So Husband and I are going into 2008 with a great weight lifted off our shoulders. To celebrate, we've decided to do a lot of house projects that we'd been putting off . I'm very excited but also very scared. The one project we already began--refinishing our clawfoot tub--has been an ongoing disaster.

Yet, with the year all fresh, rosey and new, I'm optimistic. Anything seems possible, even home improvement. But perhaps that's because I've made basically no other new year's resolutions, except for a pretty doable to-do list of organizational chores. And, of course, the constant thing on top of my to do list: write a book. But since that's my job it doesn't really count as a resolution.

Which means I'm starting off 2008 REALLY lighthearted, aren't I. Let's see if it lasts! Hope you had a lovely New Years, and remembered (as we did) to eat black-eyed peas for luck, and collard greens for money. Yummo.

More soon...

xoxo

Elizabeth

Christmas--A Time for Payback?

Well, Husband, LaLa, and I had a blissful, four-day Christmas break. Instead of driving six to eight hours to spend a mere two days on a blustery beach, we nixed the trip and stayed home, which enabled us to have an overnight visit with my sister- and brother-in-law, go to an amazing holiday party featuring pigs-in-a-blanket and about four different kinds of toffee, and most importantly, spend many hours lazing around the house doing NOTHING. Outside it was rainy, gray, and horrible and inside it was COZY.

One of our few ventures to the Outside was for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Since I'm Jewish, I'm referring, of course, to going out for Chinese food. We went with some other Hebraic friends, pigged out on stir-fried green beans, eggplant in garlic sauce, and crispy duck and sang "Moses the Chanukah Turtle" the whole ride home. (What you don't know that one? Moses the Chanukah Turtle, had a very shiny shell. . . Apparently, some deer named Rudolph owns first rights to the tune. . .)

The next day, we went to the house of these same friends, who have a Jewish mom and a Puerto Rican dad and had a traditional PR Christmas dinner--pork roast, rice with pigeon peas, tostones, and flan. I made the mantecaditos, which (Jose informed me) translates to "lard cookies." Ew! Mine, of course, just had shortening and they were awesome, if I do say so. Puerto Ricans know how to eat.

Then we went home for more cozying, sighing with contentment, happy (perhaps a bit smugly so) that we got to enjoy Christmas without actually having to do all the WORK that comes with Christmas.

And, that of course, is when everything went to crap in the course of, seriously, one hour. First the cable and DVR broke, leaving us TV-less--on a dark, rainy evening when everybody is busy and everything is closed.

Then LaLa came down with a sudden and alarming fever--made more alarming by the fact that a few times earlier that day she'd pointed to her back and said, "Back hurt" and "neck hurt." Husband's heart and mine simultaneously stopped as we looked at each other over our weeping baby's head and mouthed, "Meningitis." We used one phone to call our local children's hospital's helpline and another to call LaLa's uncle, who's a pediatrician. Since she wasn't stiffened or seizing, we figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't meningitis. So we gave her Tylenol and juice, plunked her into the bathtub, whereupon she started cooing and playing, and then put her to bed. And then we collapsed, rendered limp and listless by what felt like a near-miss with disaster.

A few minutes later, husband pulled a bowl out of the cabinet, dropped it, and somehow cut a deep gash in his palm in the shatter. Blood and ceramic shards were everywhere. Husband (admittedly not the best patient in the world) groaned about having to go to the ER for stitches on Christmas. And I poo-poohed him, saying, "That cut so doesn't need stitches." (Of course, two days later, it still looks kind of awful and open-woundish and I'm wondering if I was wrong.)

So, we went to bed grumbling, the four days of bliss completely cancelled out. LaLa stayed feverish and cranky for 24 more hours, keeping us up for two nights in a row, all without the help of all those Sesame Streets I'd DVR'd for a rainy day. This was the rainy day! It was even actually raining out!

But, it's now the 27th, and LaLa has completely bounced back, the cable guy has come and repaired the tube, and Husband has stopped moaning over his mortal wound. Today, we all had lunch together since granny nanny is out of town and Husband has a light week at work. LaLa ate like a champ. All is better.

But it kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? I mean, we don't believe in baby Jesus, much less celebrate his birth on Christmas. And then we went and ate major trafe (hello, pork roast!) on Christmas day. From a Judeo-Christian standpoint, it seems we could have incurred some wrath no matter how you slice it.

If you believe in that sort of thing. Which I don't , really, but it IS an interesting coincidence, isn't it?

Hope your Christmas was wrath-free, however you chose to observe it. I'll be back soon with a GCC post!

xoxo

Elizabeth

Scary Girlfriend--Laurie Stolarz

I'm not sure I can actually read Laurie Stolarz's new book, "Project 17."

I mean this as a compliment. I'm a complete boo-hooing wimp when it comes to scary stuff. Though I appreciate the art of the terrifying novel, I'm way too much of a fraidy cat to actually read one. Especially if that novel is smartly and psychologically scary. And Project 17 looks like just that sort of book-- a Blair Witchy blast of the chills. Check out the jacket flap copy:

Breaking in was easy. Getting out will be harder.

High atop Hathorne Hill, near Boston, sits Danvers State Hospital. Built in 1878 and closed in 1992, this abandoned mental institution is rumored to be the birthplace of the lobotomy. Locals have long believed the place to be haunted. They tell stories about the unmarked graves on the premises, of the cold spots felt throughout the underground tunnels, and of the treasures found inside: patients' personal items like journals, hair combs, and bars of soap, or even their old medical records, left behind by the state for trespassers to view.

On the eve of the hospital's demolition, six teens break in to spend the night and film a movie about their adventures. For Derik, it's an opportunity to win a filmmaking contest and save himself from a future of flipping burgers at his parents' diner. For the others, it's a chance to be on TV, or a night with no parents. But what starts as a playful dare quickly escalates into a frenzy of nightmarish action. Behind the crumbling walls, down every dark passageway, and in each deserted room, they will unravel the mysteries of those who once lived there and the spirits who still might.

(Shiver.) Yup, sorry Laurie. No can do. Even the trailer freaked me out.

But for those of you who crave the creepy, I'm sure you'll dig Project 17, especially after reading my dishy interview with the scary scribe herself:

Elizabeth: You walk into a bookstore and make a beeline to. . .
a) chick lit
b) YA lit
c) lit-lit
d) biographies
e) a big stack of gossip mags and a cappuccino
f) the ________ (please fill in) section
. . . and why?

Laurie: B – YA lit. I’ll want to see if my books are there. I take note of the displays, which books are faced out, and end caps. Then, I finally start shopping for pleasure.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 1: When you were a teenager, what young adult novel a) saved b) changed c) okay, made a big wallop on your life?

Laurie: I actually didn’t read much as a young adult. A book really had to pull me in to get me to read it. I do remember getting into books by Lois Duncan and Stephen King, though.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 2: If there was no such novel, what kind of book do you WISH you'd had to change/save/wallop your life?

Laurie: There were so many amazing books out there when I was a teen. I wish I’d checked out more Judy Blume – definitely.

Elizabeth: Tell me about your childhood, part 3: Where did you grow up and what kind of role does that setting play in the books you write?

Laurie: Around the time I was thinking up ideas for a new project, the newspapers in my area were flooded with stories surrounding the controversial teardown of Danvers State Hospital, an abandoned mental hospital 30 minutes north of Boston. Many people were against tearing it down because it is considered an historical landmark, built in 1878. But, still, developers wanted to use the land to build luxury apartments and condos. In the end, the developers won, and two-thirds of the hospital was torn down. People are now living in the new developments.

Growing up, the hospital, which was finally shut down in 1992 due to budget cuts and overcrowding, was rumored to be haunted and became a notorious hot spot for break-ins and dares. Coincidentally, in Bleed, one of my characters, Derik LaPointe, breaks in to the hospital to go exploring. This is how the initial idea for Project 17 sparked. I thought, why not have Derik break in with a group of teens, on the eve of the demolition to spend the night and film a movie? There are six teens who break in in total, all with their own motivations and agendas, but what they end up finding is far beyond anything they could ever imagine.

Elizabeth: What do you love the main character in "Project 17?"

Laurie: There are actually six main characters in my book. The novel is told from six different points of view. I love that the characters are so diverse and that each has his own agenda for spending the night in an abandoned haunted asylum.

Elizabeth: Finally, which Chick with Sticks are you? If you haven't read my book, please refer to this handy quiz

Laurie: Amanda

Thanks, Laurie! I'm sure your readers will have the tuna salad scared out of 'em. (Apologies to Mo Willems.)

xoxo

Elizabeth

My GCC finale!

My very last Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit interview is up at Jennifer Lynn Barnes' blog. Jen is scarily brilliant yet adorably accessible and thus, hers is my new favorite blog. Well, hers and the fabulous Diablo Cody's. Diablo's was the very first blog I ever read many years ago, back when she was an obscure, um, "dancer" who called herself Darling Girl and I thought "blog" was spelled "blahg" as in "Blah, blah, blah." Darling Girl was profanely fabulous back then and it's so cool to see her getting the Tarantino treatment now for writing "Juno." I sort of feel like I knew her when, even though, of course, I didn't actually.

Anyway, check out my fun interview with Jen.

And thanks to ALL the girlfriends who hosted me on their oh-so-entertaining blahgs. More soon.

xoxo

Elizabeth

The holiday lazies

Hello! It's been a long, long, long, long time. I apologize. I blame having my Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit tour (suprisingly challenging! And fun, of course). . .

followed quickly by a work deadline. . .

followed immediately by YET ANOTHER computer crash (it turns out my logic board, replaced only a couple months ago, was a lemon! So I had to say good-bye to my laptop for yet another week while they replaced it. Silver linings: the repair was absolutely free, since the Mac folks had given me a bum board AND I got to spend more quality time with those dreamy Apple Store geniuses). . .

followed by the construction of yet another towering storage unit from Ikea to ship-shape up our horror of a home-office. (We quickly outgrew our Billy Bookcase of Salvation and moved it to the bedroom, for those of you who were keeping track of my ongoing saga of The Ugly Office.) This new piece has drawers and doors and shelves and it is modular and confounding and heavy. It took days to build, and possibly years off our marriage. On the plus side, there is actually ROOM TO SPARE in it and I LOVE IT! So it might be known as the Effektiv Office Unit of Salvation--for more than six months this time. . .

followed by a trip to visit my cousin in Detroit (I know! Somehow I always end up flying NORTH in the winter). . .

followed by a lovely four-day weekend with my family, because Husband had some spare vacation days that he had to use up before the end of the year.

And there was Chanukah in there, too. But that's not really a valid excuse since Chanukah isn't nearly the big deal that Christmas is. LaLa was showered with so many fabulous gifts from relatives that we got her a game and a book and left it at that. (My other friends with babies-who-don't-know-any-better have informed me I'm not alone. Short-changing your own kid during her pre-cognizant years almost seems to be its own holiday tradition. Love that!)

But the other reason I haven't blogged is I seem to be feeling a bit hermitish. I don't know if it's the weather (first it was ridiculously, unseasonably, disturbingly hot and now it's all cold and raw and windy) or Christmas (which always makes me feel festive and indulgent in late November and cranky and get-it-over-with-already! by mid-December) or the fact that LaLa is incredibly adorable and cuddly these days, but all I want to do lately is cozy up at home and make soup and cookies and read and knit and stuff.

I am not feeling chatty.

I have several faraway friends with whom I want to have long, juicy catch-up talks--but I can't seem to make myself pick up the phone. My to-e-mail list is getting kind of long, too. And since blogs are basically a free-for-all e-mail . . .

The good news is that the hermit's lifestyle also makes a very good writer's lifestyle. And now that I've finished the work-for-hire project that's been keeping me occupied the past few months (the aforementioned deadline) I'm going to dig back into the post-Chicks novel that's been percolating in my brain. Wish me luck (and more anti-social inclinations).

And don't completely give up on me. There are two new GCC tours making the rounds and you'll see them posted here soon. And we're driving to Florida this weekend to spend Christmas at the beach. Six hours in the car with a wiggly nineteen-month-old! And that's just one-way! That should be good for a hilarious post.

xoxo

Elizabeth

PS -- My own GCC tour is in its final gasps. Check out these late-breaking posts from the lovely Lara Zeises and the pretty Paula Chase Hyman. Thanks, girlfriends!

The Girlfriends Cyber Circuit keeps on sparking

We went to Dallas over the weekend for a big, fat, Jewish wedding--one of Husband's many cousins. The whole weekend was a whirlwind of fancy clothes and fancy food and FUN! We had a great time with droves of family and when I got home, there were yet MORE GCC interviews online. It feels like the parade of girlfriends will never end! Whoo-hoo.

So--go see me, please, at Kelly Parra's blog.

And at Jennifer O'Connell's. (Scroll down a bit to get to my entry.)

Thanks Jennifer and Kelly!

And thanks to Husband's family for showing us such a good time, especially that part where LaLa's grandmother babysat for her so Husband and I could sneak off to see a matinee of "Dan in Real Life" which I loved. I think Peter Hedges is my new McDreamy.

And, for that matter, thanks to the friendly American Airlines flight attendant who brought LaLa a warm chocolate cookie back from first class when LaLa threatened to lose it on the flight home. (This was after I'd already plied her with M & M's and Cheetos. Desperate times, my friends. Desperate measures.)

I guess it's indeed Thanksgiving time! Have a great one, everybody!

xoxo

Elizabeth

Some weekend gifts from the Girlfriends

How great was my weekend? Let me count the ways. We had dinner Saturday night with friends--always lovely. On Sunday, we had a big family lunch to celebrate my dad's SIXTY-FIFTH birthday, which is a biggie! And Sunday night, LaLa slept over at my parent's house (an additional b-day present for Dad--and for us!!!) and Husband and I went to a movie, out for fancy sushi and then it was time for dessert.

Husband: We could go to a chocolate bar, or go to a bar for an after-dinner drink. . .

Me: Did you see the building next door?

Husband: No way! How about we go to (name of another local fancy eaterie). We could have their famous chocolate cake.

Me: It's right next door! We pretty much have to go there.

Husband: Champagne! We'll go to that (local fancy bar) and have champagne!

Me: (Standing up) We can WALK there. C'mon. Live a litttle!

And that's how we ended up at Krispy Kreme doughnuts, eating hot, glazed doughnuts plucked out of the fat only seconds earlier.

And the cutely-dressed trio of people ahead of us in line ordering a dozen? They'd had dinner at the fancy sushi spot, too.

As I suspected, it was the most perfect post-sushi dessert ever. It was even more lovely to nibble our hot doughnuts late at night, chatting with each other instead of chasing a sticky-handed toddler around the joint.

On the other hand, I can't wait to take LaLa there some day (well, probably some day soon, now that my taste for Krispy Kremes have been reignited after years of dormancy) and watch her take that first bite.

Another treat this weekend? More postings from the Cyber Circuit Girlfriends. Such as. . .

Caridad Farrer. And Megan Crane. And Shanna Swendson.

Thanks, guys!

xoxo

Elizabeth

My GCC tour is (not quite) over!

I'm visiting yet more blogs today. (Yes, I'm virtually tired. ;-) Today, find me over at Jennifer Echols' pad.

And at Laura Bowers' crib.

And at Carrie Jones' place.

But there are still more blog visits to go! We're bleeding into next week, y'all, because the girlfriends--we are busy. So stay tuned, there's more fun to come.

Meanwhile, big thanks to Jennifer, Laura, and Carrie.

xoxo

Elizabeth