It wouldn't kill you to buy a book, you know.
I haven't even had time to take pictures, so here's some old ones.
So fucking insanely busy right now, with pitches and deadlines and so forth. It's nice to get back into the swing of things, but I cannot see straight right now.
I've had some nice moments with other writers lately, though, so that's cool. I had coffee with Terese Svoboda last week and I learned a lot from the conversation. The main thing that stuck in my head is the fact that Terese, who has published nine books, keeps switching genres to make things interesting. I could get down with that. I can't wait to read Tin God. Terese was pushing Lydia Millet's stuff too as top-notch. Lots of good things coming my way from the internet booksellers.
I had lunch with Emily Flake yesterday. She's a stunning individual. We talked about the contemporary state of infidelity. She drank coffee and I had a totally pointless diet coke, because then I ate a fried green tomato sandwich and then we shared the butterscotch pudding and it was awesome.
I finished Tayari Jones' The Untelling. What a magnificent, sad book it was. It had a really nice slow burn to it but it is always funny and interesting. I highly recommend it.
I'm also recommending my friend Michelle Orange's new book The Sicily Papers, a series of letters she wrote from Italy, packaged to look like a Canadian passport. It's a really adorable design, and I was jealous of it. Also it's small and fits in your bag easily and I've been reading it on subways which is the best way ever to read a book. I went to her reading the other night at KGB and was completely charmed. She's on tour right now, reading at a town near you. So go see her, you won't be disappointed.
And finally, last night was the In the Flesh Reading. Marcy Dermansky and I had a blind date beforehand at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown (get the soup dumplings!) and it was really fun and now I totally am in love with her. (And yes, Marcy has a new release too: Twins is now in paperback. I've raved about this book before, so if you haven't read it yet, get on it. It was one of my favorite books of last year, no joke.) Then I read first and felt bad that my story didn't have any actual fucking in it, but it went ok, and then all of the other readers were grand, and the audience was really attentive and supportive which is always cool, and Kristin came for a bit and Neal Pollack showed up halfway through fresh from yoga, if you can believe that, and Stephen Elliott couldn't have been any more charming and YES HE HAS A NEW BOOK: My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up. I really love his writing. I taught him once in a class, which I told him. I mean I basically gushed all over him. But I think his writing is tight and top-notch and pretty revolutionary to boot.
Also I met Tony Swofford who wrote Jarhead and I said, "Wow, they made a movie out of your book, you're living the dream," and he said, "Well the dream is actually just to keep writing," and I totally felt chastened. I mean, duh. But you know, if you sell the movie rights, then you get the money that lets you keep writing. I wouldn't care for a second if they actually made the movie. They'd fuck it up anyway, right? (I should mention he and his girlfriend were very nice after that. Don't want to start a war with Tony. HAHA. Ahem.)
Afterwards we met some guy on the street who said there was an open bar nearby for a Helen Hunt movie so of course we all went, doubting all the way, but indeed there was an open bar. I talked to the bouncer for a bit about Staten Island. I had just seen the MTV True Life on Staten Island girls and I said, "Are they really like that?" And he said, "Staten Island girls are terrible! All they care about is your money. And tanning. There are 300 tanning salons on Staten Island." But I'm sure there are nice girls there.
Later on Marcy and I hunted searched for Helen Hunt so Marcy could give her a copy of her book so that Marcy could sell the movie rights so that someday she can chasten me for not caring enough about my art and we saw her just as she was exiting. Great hair. And Marcy said, "Should I?" And I said, "Do it Marcy!" And she did! And Helen Hunt said, "Oh you wrote a book, good for you!" And gave a nice smile and then she hopped into a cab and was whisked away into the night.
I have to stop writing this now because I have to write things that might help me pay the bills. But it has been fun lately. I like writers. And Helen Hunt.
(10/19/06)