11/16/12 11/16/12

Pete's Candy Store Reading Series

[gallery]

I was so honored to be among the crowd hearing Mira Jacob read from her novel (out in 2014) for the first time. She and Alison Hart have been running Pete’s Reading Series for 12 years. 12 years! The audience they gathered was incredible. It made me so happy I sang! Would that every reading could be like this.

11/14/12 11/14/12

Pete's Reading Series Tomorrow at 7:30pm

Pete’s Candy Store: tomorrow, November 15th at 7:30pm. I will be reading with the lovely Mira Jacob in the bar that looks like a club car. Do come! You don’t see why not…(709 Lorimer Street in none other than Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

11/13/12 11/13/12

The music of SAFE AS HOUSES: playlist for Largehearted Boy

"I NEED TO KNOW YOUR OPINION ON COLTRANE."

David at Largehearted Boy: A Music and Literature Blog let me yammer about one of my favorite things to yammer about—music! Specifically, the music that infuses the pages of Safe as Houses…

11/8/12 11/8/12

Manhattan

"Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. Oh, I love this. New York was his town, and it always would be."

11/8/12 11/8/12

Three Lives & Company

Yesterday I stepped out of the cold and into Three Lives & Company to sign a few books and Toby and his staff brightened my gray day. I always feel like Kathleen Kelly from You’ve Got Mail in this bookstore. The next time you are in the West Village and are in need of a charming experience: www.threelives.com

11/5/12 11/5/12

Amanda Faraone and I sat down to chat for Fiction Addiction, and this is what happened.

"Things exist in the world that don’t make any sense to me. People can be very mean to those in need. That will never make sense to me. Friends will make decisions to be cruel and unkind. That will never make sense to me. Someone can go through a break-up—I mean last week, I had three of my girlfriends call me, upset about random various heartaches, and, in many cases, they are being mistreated. That will never make sense to me. But, I can write a story about a girl who’s going through a break-up with a rodeo clown who goes to live in a convent and I can make that story funny to me, so that it makes me laugh. There are very sad things that happen in the book—like a house fire, like robberies, but if I put magic in it, then the world seems a little bit lighter."

10/31/12 10/31/12

The first time I've felt like a New Yorker

I’ve lived in this city for 9 1/2 years yet I’ve always insisted on calling myself a Philly girl. And I am. However, over the past three days the acts of strength I’ve seen, the unwillingness to complain, the compassion in the face of obscenely sad photos, the compulsion to help out, the tenacity, the runners in the park (!!!), even Bloomberg’s insane Spanish, has given me this overwhelming feeling of bratty fortitude that makes me certain that when these lights come back on, they will be brighter than they were before. Holy crap, I realized, I think that’s called being a New Yorker.

10/28/12 10/28/12

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Holly Golightly: What do you do, anyway?Paul Varjak: I’m a writer, I guess.Holly Golightly: You guess? Don’t you know?Paul Varjak: OK, positive statement. Ringing affirmative. I’m a writer.

10/25/12 10/25/12

You can rely on the old man's money

I had been feeling homesick for Philly then last night, I found a (Philly’s own) Hall & Oates pin gum-ball machine! Needless to say, I stocked up. It was minutes before Royal Young hosted a reading for Elizabeth Crane Brandt, Adam Wilson and I in a beautiful house on the Lower East Side. A good omen for a great night.

10/23/12 10/23/12

Mean Neighbor

I have a mean neighbor who never smiles at me or my dog, no matter how hard I smile at him or how cute my dog’s sweater is. Well tonight from my kitchen window I heard him scream-singing the words to “What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. He knew all the verses. He was INTO IT. I listened and when he finished I thought to myself: Good job, mean dude. I felt marginally better about him, and the entire world.

10/22/12 10/22/12

Happy Endings Music and Reading Series, Wednesday, November 21, 2012, 7:30pm

Oh, how I love Thanksgiving—football games on the lawn, dogs in cute sweaters, frosted up windows and the brutal wonder of family. If you are in the NYC area on Thanksgiving Eve, consider joining me, Vanessa Veselka, Zadie Smith, and Sondre Lerche at Amanda Stern’s wonderful Happy Endings Series. Each reader and musician is required to take a risk. I am considering playing my first song on guitar and singing—which would be quite a risk, if you’ve ever heard me play guitar, which you haven’t, because I’ve never played for anyone besides a select group of people I’ve blood-sworn to secrecy! I will be reading “North Of" for the first time in public, my story about a girl who brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving.

November 21st, THE BOX, 168 Chrystie Street, doors open at 7:30pm, show starts at 8pm. $15

10/19/12 10/19/12

Rob Delaney defends Funny Women

robdelaney:

The New York Post published an interview with Adam Carolla on Sunday in which he said, among other things, “dudes are funnier than chicks,” and, regarding writing for television, “they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff.”

10/18/12 10/18/12

Powerhouse Arena Reading

My friend Brianna Roth and I at powerHouse Arena. (Photo courtesy of one Mr. Michael Roth.)

10/17/12 10/17/12

Rob McLennan, Editor and Publisher of above/ground Press, interviewed me and this is what happened...

What would you like to do that you haven’t yet done?
"I’d like to win a Pulitzer. And save every homeless dog and cat in the world. Also, live in a house with a washer and dryer (I love you, Brooklyn). People who have a washer and dryer in their house must never be unhappy."

10/16/12 10/16/12

The Writer, Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house, my daughter is writing a story…

10/16/12 10/16/12

Blonde on other blonde

Flanked by beautiful blondes! Leigh Newman, Emma Straub and yours truly at The Franklin Park Reading Series, October 15, 2012, Brooklyn.

10/16/12 10/16/12

Franklin Park

Great editors, great pals. Electric Literature’s Halimah Marcus and Benjamin Samuel and I at Franklin Park’s Reading Series, October 16, 2012.

10/16/12 10/16/12

Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, Nov. 21, 7:30pm, Vanessa Veselka, Zadie Smith and yours truly.

Just added! I will be reading a story and taking a risk, alongside Vanessa Veselka and Zadie Smith for the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series @ JOE’S PUB, which now takes place at THE BOX, 189 Chrystie Street. Tickets go on sale October 20th. If you are in NYC the night before Thanksgiving, come spend it with me and Bob Dylan…

10/12/12 10/12/12

The Nervous Breakdown let me interview myself and this is the silliness that ensued.

"Go to California and drive to the coast at sunset. Sit on a bench and listen to the waves and see all the people with their dogs on the darkening lawns. Think to yourself: I may not be where I want to be creatively, but at least I am in California."

10/12/12 10/12/12

KGB with Susanna Moore

Had a wonderful night at Behind The Book’s reading at KGB with Dale Peck and Susanna Moore (pictured). Susanna has a shock of black hair, teaches prisoners, and was an absolutely captivating reader. Today I will buy everything she’s ever written.