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I have a friend’s cat at my apartment for two weeks. He likes to “help” me work.
For the Greenwillow Blog today, I wrote about how I got to Greenwillow.
You can find it over here.
I’m kind of a sucker for good tattoos, especially very graphic (design-wise, folks! get your minds out of the gutter!) ones and literary ones. I have the Contrariwise blog in my google reader, and I’ve been known to do the occasional Flickr search for typographic tattoos. A number of my friends have very cool, yet simple designs, from a connect-the-dots tattoo to a falling leaf to a bird with a keyhole to various other symbols. The Siren Music Festival down on Coney Island is one of my favorite cool tattoo-spotting places every summer.
Recently, a friend who has a few typography/literature-inspired pieces got a new one– “stet” on the back of her neck. To stet herself, as she is, which I think is such a neat idea. And another friend shared this photo that she came across. Both made me start wanting a third. (I have a Garamond italic ampersand and the lamppost from Narnia.)
When I was growing up, it seemed that tattoos were a very “badass” thing to do. But now it seems like they are so much more prevalent–and nerdy tattoos have just as much prevalence as any other. Maybe I’m totally making this up, but it seems to me that they are becoming more and more accepted. Not necessarily “mainstream” but not a much bigger deal than getting your ears pierced or your belly button pierced. (At least, my mom’s reaction to “I got another tattoo” was exactly the same as her reaction to “I didn’t fold my laundry at the laundromat.”)
And I think that is really interesting for a time when things are moving more and more to digital. Something involving ink and physical, tangible marking is just as popular as ever, if not more so. It makes me think that print isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. While the internet is has permanence (you can find anything and it could be there forever), it’s also so impermanent (the next new thing is always washing away the old). Digital is all ever-shifting pixels and light.
Ink has power. It soaks into the surface it’s used upon. It becomes part of the paper, of us. When I looked up definitions and history of tattoos as I started to think about this post, many used the word “indelible” to describe them. Indelible means “that cannot be removed, washed away, or erased.” A tattoo grows with you. Writer Michelle Delio said, “When designs are chosen with care, tattoos have a power and magic all their own. They decorate the body but they also enhance the soul.” When you hit on the right choice for a design, even though you will change and your focus will shift as life moves on, that design will always hold something special for you. (Which is not to say that people don’t get bad tattoos for ill-advised reasons. That definitely, definitely happens.)
So many novels use tattoos in powerful ways, too. In Robin McKinley’s Sunshine, they are spells, and they can shift and move. There’s Melissa Marr’s books, too. Sometimes it isn’t good, as in The Diary of Pelly D by L.J. Adlington, when everyone must be marked with their genetic line. But back to the good, in Amanda Davis’s novel Wonder When You’ll Miss Me, the “painted” young man in the circus says, “Tattoos are weird, you know. They’re, like, addictive. You fall in love with them and then you want to cover yourself. It’s like you’re reclaiming your body or something. Marking it up just for yourself.”
Who knows whether I’ll have the lightning strike “OH!” idea for a new design anytime soon. Or ever. Maybe rather than being addictive, it’s more that once you have one tattoo, you’re more open to that lightning striking. The ink’s become part of you, and the permanence is no longer scary. But you’ve got to be selective about it.
Anyway. This is all just to say that I wonder if there’s a connection between people of my generation getting more tattoos and the move to digital. Even while we are smitten with the technology and gadgets, and see how they will be important to our futures, are we also grounding ourselves in something real, something that can be touched? Something indelible?
“Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places, the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille.” –Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body
I’m embarrassed how neglectful I’ve been to this blog, lately. But I have good excuses, I swear!
I was acquiring a new sister:
High-five for wedding success!
And then one of my best friends got married, too:
All the Dickinson alumni at Deb's wedding!
Other exciting things were happening, too, though. Like Leah Cypess’s debut novel, Mistwood, was published.
And so was Jody Feldman’s second novel, The Seventh Level.
And I was busy at work on some fantastic novels that you’ll be able to read in 2011. (Or maybe later this fall, if you’re lucky enough to get an ARC.) I’ll be telling you more about those at a later date.
Happy summer!
A couple of weeks ago, I got to learn and participate a little in an African drum circle. Which isn’t something I would have ever sought out myself, probably, but I’m really glad the opportunity came my way. The man leading us made sure we understood that a drum circle is just that–a circle, a community. You can’t just take a drum and go off in a corner by yourself (because that would clearly annoy your neighbors pretty quickly); you have to be with a group, practicing a rhythm and beat together. It’s about belonging to something larger than yourself, and connection.
The African word he taught us is “ubuntu.” Which, as he explained it, means: I am me because of you, and you are you because of me. So simple, and yet . . . not. In a time of year when ads want us to believe that love and connection can be shown with things–things as superficial as a mass-produced necklace or an overused saying–I think ubuntu stands out as even more real and solid. A day, a life, has meaning because of the people who are connected to it and to us. The memories, traditions, gestures, and affections.
I am me because of the writers who have shared their stories with me; because of my family and friends; because of my teachers and mentors; because of the people who have loved me, and the people who have hurt me; the people who are here, and the ones who’ve gone; the ones near and those far; those I’ve known forever and those I’ve known only briefly.
One of the other things being part of a drum circle, even for only a few minutes, highlighted is that I have absolutely no rhythm. (Which isn’t a new discovery at all.) Think about it too much, and I completely lose the rhythm of drumming (or dancing or clapping or . . . well, anything). But if I stop thinking, and just listen to everyone around me, I can totally stay with them. With them, I can find the beat. Ubuntu.
Baking and cooking are two favorite weekend unwinding activities after a busy week (which it seems like all weeks are lately, doesn’t it?). And since making good food is made even better by sharing it with others, I thought I’d share two favorite recipes: one that I’ve been making for dinner for years and one that I tried for the first time today.
Chicken Tikka & Coconut Rice
I got this from a friend who got it from a cookbook whose title I don’t know. But I’ve significantly adapted it over the years, so I don’t feel too bad about that!
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp fresh ginger pulp
- 1 largish clove of garlic, put through garlic press
- 1 Tbs chili powder
- 1 Tbs tumeric
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 7-8 Tbs lemon juice
- 2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
- boneless, skinless chicken, cut into pieces (I usually cut up about 3-4 thin chicken breasts)
- 1 zucchini, chopped into pieces
Combine everything except chicken and zucchini and mix well. Stir in chicken and let marinate for 2 hours.
Preheat broiler to medium (my broiler only has high or low settings, so I use low) and line a broiler tray with foil. Pour the chicken mixture onto tray and mix in zucchini. Baste with about 2 Tbs. vegetable oil. Broil for about 15-20 minutes until cooked, stirring/turning occasionally so it doesn’t brown too much.
I serve this with rice. If I’m feeling a little decadent, I make the rice with coconut milk instead of water.
Pumpkin Scones with Caramel Glaze
Up on the Upper West Side, there is a very wonderful, very girlie place for tea called Alice’s Tea Cup. They have the most amazing scones I have ever eaten, and the best of them all is the pumpkin scone. A couple of friends and I go there for special occasions or girl-time or when we simply cannot deny the pumpkin scone craving any longer. I’ve been trying to find a recipe to replicate them for years, and finally figured it out today!
Pumpkin Scone (adapted slightly from here–just the scone recipe, not the glaze)
Makes 24 scones
Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, diced
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned. Just be sure it’s not pumpkin pie mix!)
- 2/3 cup chilled cream
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.
Cut in the butter, either using a pastry cutter or two knives, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin puree, and cream.
Using an electric mixer, beat the wet into the dry until just combined. (Small bits of butter will be visible, but flour mixed in.)
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently and quickly until smooth. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Form each one into a 4″-round about 1″ thick. Cut each into 6 wedges and place on baking sheet.
Bake for about 15 minutes, or until tops look golden brown and sides flaky and dry. Cool on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes.
Caramel Glaze (adapted slightly from here)
Ingredients
- 3 Tbs butter
- 3 Tbs brown sugar
- 3 Tbs white sugar
- 3 Tbs cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Mix everything together in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Let boil for about a minute. Stir. Mine got a little thick while I waited for the scones to cool, so I thinned it with about a Tbs of water. I wanted a good consistency to drizzle over the scones. Place scones on plate and drizzle the glaze over them using a spoon.
Alice’s always serves all of their scones with clotted cream and raspberry preserves. Which I highly recommend, if you have both available.
Enjoy!
The first year I lived in the city, whenever I went back to my small Pennsylvania hometown for the holidays, I would hear from high school classmates, “Didn’t you move somewhere crazy?”
On one hand, sure, I guess I did. I got run into by an old man in a wheelchair the other day (being pushed by a teenager) while I was standing perfectly still on a street corner. Which is only the most recent in strange things that have happened in the last eight years–and one of the most mild.
But New York, and especially Brooklyn, most of the time feel even smaller than my hometown. Even though there are millions of people in this city, and even though I see so many different ones every single day, I also see familiar faces. I can get on the subway and it’s not all that unusual for one of my best friends to get on the same car. Walking from one of my favorite indie bookstores to the B&N down the street, recently, I ran into another friend and we stopped to talk books and art until we both got too cold. And, of course, children’s publishing is an even smaller world, where everyone knows everyone, and you’re never at an event by yourself. Occasionally even when that event has no relation to publishing (but of course everything to do with good taste).
I always get a warm glow when I run into someone I know. It leaves me smiling. Seeing friends when you expect them and when you least expect them makes this vast city cozy. And surprising, and familiar, and, yes, strange. And it makes it home.
Cue Cheers theme song.
NYC is not an easy place to live. The rent is high, the crowds are thick, the subways are stinky, the greenery is sparse. It’s easy to find things to complain about. But when you love it, you really love it. I had one of those weekends.
I went to the US Open for the first time on Thursday night, which was so much fun. A perfect late summer evening, quality time with my sister, a full moon, and seeing the last set from four rows back because the match ended so late. Going home I had train issues that could have made me hate the city. When I tried to make the connection to my train, it was not stopping at that station, you see. So I would have had to go in the opposite direction for a stop and then switch. At 1:30 in the morning. Instead, I went out to the street and got a cab–which is a treat for me. Riding over the Brooklyn Bridge and along the BQE, looking out at the city’s lights with the windows down, was the perfect end to an already great night.
Other things that I <3-ed about NYC this weekend:
* reading in the sunshine on the Brooklyn Promenade
* the Cyclone
* Nathan’s fries
* fantastic fireworks over the boardwalk at Coney Island
* lots of guacamole with friends
* Prospect Park
* the full moon
* the feeling of autumn in the air
* friends
* hearing one of my favorite albums wafting out a window down the block when I walked by
* and literally as I typed the last, a FIREWORK went off outside my window!
Two days ago, I opened up the little black moleskine I keep in my purse to make a note, and realized I had only one page left. I bought this moleskine just before I left for my junior year abroad . . . almost exactly ten years ago. And it’s one of the things, along with my wallet, keys, and a pen, that I always make sure I have with me before leaving the house.
Reaching the end made me stop to think about everything that has happened in life since I first cracked it open: the year studying in England, my first broken heart, graduating from college, moving to NYC to start my career, family dramas, world dramas, friends made and lost, apartment hunting and moving, books read, re-read, loved, recommended, or abandoned, discoveries of all kinds, friends and family members’ weddings & babies. Basically, the period of life in which I grew up. It’s neat to compare what’s written here with the journals I’ve kept during the last ten years, too. There’s a lot of telling in the journals, but the random snippets from the moleskine are just as revealing and memory-triggering. It’s full of notes from talks I’ve gone to, brainstorming for talks I’ve given, lines from articles or books I like, funny things friends have said, t-shirt ideas, lines of poetry (most of which never became anything more than that), illustrators I like, authors I want to read, shopping lists, and other random thoughts and observations.
Here are just a few:
words I like: chthonic, tiptoe, lamppost, unfurled
the curl of pianist’s back
open by chance or appointment
Umberto Eco: “‘who dunnit?’ is a theological question”
things i don’t have keys to
Ira Glass: “notice the people who won’t go away”
grocery list: milk, butter, eggs, whipping cream, raspberries, dark chocolate
shopping list: shelves, hammock stand, pillows
Friend: “I don’t like worms, but leeches concern me.”
At final Harry Potter book street party at Scholastic:
Woman 1: “So what’s going on here besides the book releasing?”
Woman 2: “Oh, the book releasing. That explains the capes.”
How do you share ebooks? If one sibling finishes book and starts another, how do you pass the finished one to other kid?
