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Where I’ve Been

13 Jun

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 Good Argument

21 Mar

Yesterday on my run, I listened to last week’s episode of This American Life. It’s called “Save the Day,” and the last act is about the Life Raft Debate at a university in Alabama–basically, the students gather once a year, and professors from various disciplines must convince them that, if they were all on a life raft when the world had been obliterated as we know it, their discipline is the one to save. And it had become more about showmanship than good argument over the years. Until the Devil’s Advocate a few years ago–the person who’s job is to say the student shouldn’t save any of the disciplines–pointed out this fact, and told the students they deserved better. They deserved good arguments, not to be coddled or simply entertained. And he pointed out, too, that a good argument doesn’t have to be boring–it can be funny and entertaining but also engaging on an intellectual level.

It reminded me of a moment in The West Wing when President Bartlet says that if nothing else, they will raise the level of public discourse in the country.

Not to get too political, but this is one of the big reasons I voted for Obama. Because he made good arguments. He didn’t pander, didn’t talk down, and didn’t rely on easy catchphrases and showmanship. I felt that he wanted to engage our minds, he wanted us to think, to form our opinions, regardless of whether we agreed with him or not.

I started to think about this blog post right after listening to This American Life yesterday morning, and it seems particularly timely given tonight’s health care debate.

I think however much we all want to be entertained, we also thirst for a good argument, for the debates, the statements, the information that makes us think. And I can tie it all back into books for children and teens, too. (Of course!) One of the reasons I love working on books for young people is that they have that hunger to know and understand things. A good book opens the world and challenges even while it entertains. It doesn’t talk down, but talks to its audience. It holds that audience in high regard. A good book gives everything, and I think that as a result, all of us and our world give everything back in return. We become engaged with ourselves and with each other.

Belonging

13 Feb

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.

Recipes: A new favorite and an old one

15 Nov

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!

Big City, Small World

12 Oct

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.

I <3 NY

7 Sep

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!

A Decade’s Worth of Random Thoughts

22 Aug

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?

Facing My Fears . . . or maybe not.

22 Jun

Speaking at the SCBWI-Florida summer conference in Disneyworld meant that I had one morning to go a park before my flight home. I picked the Magic Kingdom, because . . . well, come on, isn’t that the one you have to choose? I had been to Disney as a kid, but the last was when I was fourteen, so it’s been a while.

I walked around a lot, went on the rides I remember loving (despite the occasional odd look when, yes, it was just me, with no kid or companion). And I was going to conquer an old fear: Space Mountain.

In my mind, every time the phrase “Space Mountain” is said, I hear that ominous “dum dum dum” music of peril. Because when I was seven, I went into Space Mountain and honestly thought I might never come out. At seven, I was quite small–technically not quite tall enough to ride alone, but my mom had my younger brother, and the guy running the ride wanted to be nice. So I climb on in, all excited, but the seatbelt doesn’t quite fit. No problem: there are little handlebars on either side of the car to hang onto. The ride starts.

It was the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had. I was convinced I was going to fall out of the car, and very distinctly remember thinking, “If I fall out, will I fall forever, like in space?” My mom also must have thought I was going to fall out, because she reached back from her seat in front of me and held onto the top of my foot. (Because, you know, that totally would have kept me from danger.) By the time the ride ended, and I tried to stand up, I was shaking so much, I couldn’t. One of the poor workers (I think the same one who let me on in the first place) had to carry me out to where my dad was waiting for us with my younger sister.

I walked over to Space Mountain yesterday morning, fully intending to face the terror again. But it’s closed for renovation. I guess I’ll have to conquer this particular fear another time. . . .

Easter in food!

12 Apr

Homemade nutroll

The best chocolate-covered pretzels in the world

Eating is a big part of Easter for my family. It’s just what happens when your dad’s a grocer and your mom majored in home ec in college. So here is a look at my Easter weekend.

The Easter basket

Paska bread

Hrudka and homemade horseradish

A Moving Day in the Life of an Editor

26 Aug

When does being a bookish person and having a kickass library have a drawback? When you’re moving to a fourth floor walk-up. Sigh. Luckily, I also have kickass friends.

My move in numbers:

1: splinter

2: times I bumped my head in the same place

3: pizzas eaten post-moving

10: friends helping move all those books

16: boxes of books

Countless: bruises

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