I will preface this by saying, "I'm sure they're all very nice," but last night, I went to a book party for Jill Kargman's The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund and was scared out of my mind. It was like the Stepford Wives had all flung their flaxen hair and metallic Chanel purses at the innocent people of Chevy Chase, MD (well, as innocent as they can get with Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, and Ralph Lauren as fellow residents). As a former member of the Junior League of Washington, I can report, this crowd was like the Junior League raised to the power of 57,000.
I'm sure my discomfort says way WAY more about me than it does about them, but it was still a pretty disconcerting experience. I came wearing a vintage Pucci dress and black gladiator sandals and felt woefully uncool and underdressed. All around me were red carpet women with glowing skin, bouncin' and behavin' hair (so much for my chic little bob), and enough designers on their body to repopulate a small country. The party was a Nanette Lepore, but the attire was more like the second floor of Neiman Marcus threw up all over the room. In a good way.
Luckily, my friend Carrington knew some people and the highlight for me was when one of her friends asked me about my own book. When I told her it was about the year I spent subscribing to women's magazine, she said. "Oh, like Dee Dee Myer's?" Which made absolutely no sense to me (granted, the party was loud, so maybe she thought I thought I used women's magazines to rule the world), but her comment totally made my night.
And even more luckily for me, my wonderful friend Joyce Neave was in attendance. I thought one or both of us would get whiplash from all the looking around we were doing. "Why can't everyone just wear name tags so we can debrief later?" I asked her. "This is not good for my ADD," she admitted.
In the end, I came away with an autographed book (Kargman has the most miniscule handwriting of all time), a mini Nanette Lepore umbrella, and a store gift card. And a curious desire for a metallic Chanel purse so I could gain brief access into this beautiful little world.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
My other life
You know what they say about those who can't write, teach? Well, I'm here to prove the theys of the world wrong. Because when I am not composing epic literature, I am on the faculty of Johns Hopkins, shaping young minds as part of their Masters of Writing Program. And below, is one of my most favorite recent graduates, Jean Stanula. (And I'm not just saying that because I was her thesis advisor.)
Jean, of the faux hawk and authentic voice, wrote some amazing stories about: her fear of flying, a urban archaeologist in DC who takes people on dino digs, making peace with her Catholic upbringing while on a trip to Nicaragua, and, an admiring look at a newly outed comic book heroine.
And another bonus - her partner Lauren has a sister who absolutely worships my book and actually cried when she met me at the Hopkins thesis reading (although I think she had been tossing back a few beers prior to the reading). Photos to hopefully (if she's not too embarrassed) follow.
In the meantime, enjoy this Kodak moment...
Jean, of the faux hawk and authentic voice, wrote some amazing stories about: her fear of flying, a urban archaeologist in DC who takes people on dino digs, making peace with her Catholic upbringing while on a trip to Nicaragua, and, an admiring look at a newly outed comic book heroine.
And another bonus - her partner Lauren has a sister who absolutely worships my book and actually cried when she met me at the Hopkins thesis reading (although I think she had been tossing back a few beers prior to the reading). Photos to hopefully (if she's not too embarrassed) follow.
In the meantime, enjoy this Kodak moment...
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
A Big Deal!
Today I got to chat (in real time!) with my newest favoritest writeriest friend, Izzy Rose, author of the brand-spanking-newly released The Package Deal. (A book that yours truly has, ahem, blurbed.)
We had been trading emails for months and this morning, la Rose rang me up. And, tah dah! Just as I expected, she is as funny and smart and thoughtful as her book, which, by the way, is about her becoming an instant stepmother to 2 fairly grown boys and moving from San Francisco to set up a new home in Austin, Texas.
What I found particularly fascinating was listening to Izzy talk about her mother's sidekick role in her recent book readings. Mother Rose was the Q in the Q&A portion of the event and I can only imagine how much she relished the role. And how lucky Izzy is to have her mother's eager participation and partnership in these early and exciting days of her book's release.
It made me remember when I gave a reading in my hometown and looked out in the audience to see my mother's nervous face, a weave of dread and, well, more dread. Even though I assured her I wouldn't be reading any parts of the book containing the words "my mother," she still looked ready to vomit, fearing that I'd put her on display for our whole town to appraise (or worse, deride).
But even if my mother came out smelling like, pardon the pun, Roses, I can't imagine her ever wanting to share such a public spotlight. Same goes for my father and brother. No amount of begging could convince any member of my family to get up and deliver my wedding toast. My father even tried to avoid walking me down the aisle, telling me he'd "meet me up front." He didn't, he explained, want anyone looking at him.
So to have a daughter who not only writes about the most personal, intimate details of her life but then has an unexplained urge to get up there and spit them all out into a microphone must be a real parental mind bender.
Still, I do wonder what sorts of questions my mother might ask me. And if I'd be able to answer the tough ones.
We had been trading emails for months and this morning, la Rose rang me up. And, tah dah! Just as I expected, she is as funny and smart and thoughtful as her book, which, by the way, is about her becoming an instant stepmother to 2 fairly grown boys and moving from San Francisco to set up a new home in Austin, Texas.
What I found particularly fascinating was listening to Izzy talk about her mother's sidekick role in her recent book readings. Mother Rose was the Q in the Q&A portion of the event and I can only imagine how much she relished the role. And how lucky Izzy is to have her mother's eager participation and partnership in these early and exciting days of her book's release.
It made me remember when I gave a reading in my hometown and looked out in the audience to see my mother's nervous face, a weave of dread and, well, more dread. Even though I assured her I wouldn't be reading any parts of the book containing the words "my mother," she still looked ready to vomit, fearing that I'd put her on display for our whole town to appraise (or worse, deride).
But even if my mother came out smelling like, pardon the pun, Roses, I can't imagine her ever wanting to share such a public spotlight. Same goes for my father and brother. No amount of begging could convince any member of my family to get up and deliver my wedding toast. My father even tried to avoid walking me down the aisle, telling me he'd "meet me up front." He didn't, he explained, want anyone looking at him.
So to have a daughter who not only writes about the most personal, intimate details of her life but then has an unexplained urge to get up there and spit them all out into a microphone must be a real parental mind bender.
Still, I do wonder what sorts of questions my mother might ask me. And if I'd be able to answer the tough ones.
Monday, May 18, 2009
I can hardly Believe it
My friend Maggie just forwarded me the following email from Amazon:
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Cathy Alter have also purchased The Believer, Issue 63: June 2009 by Heidi Julavits. For this reason, you might like to know that The Believer, Issue 63: June 2009 will be released on June 1, 2009.
Just to see my name in the same hemisphere as Heidi Julavits is pretty cool. And I guess there is this six-degrees-of separation between her and me and Dave Eggers (I guess it's one degree from Eggers which makes me two degrees from Julavits which again, is pretty cool.) Okay, very cool.
Because I don't look on my Amazon book page (too chicken to see what people are saying about me and my book - I'm sensitive!) I would never have known about this coupling. And it got me thinking. what other author names pop up in relation to me?
Here is a wishlist of my desired Amazonite pairings:
Carolyn Parkhurst (come on, have you read Dogs of Babel? It's heartbreakingly fabulous.)
Martin Amis
Jonathan Franzen
Mary Gaitskill
Malcolm Gladwell (hey, as long as I'm fantasizing)
Jennifer Egan
Charles Dickens
and, of course, Diana Vreeland
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Cathy Alter have also purchased The Believer, Issue 63: June 2009 by Heidi Julavits. For this reason, you might like to know that The Believer, Issue 63: June 2009 will be released on June 1, 2009.
Just to see my name in the same hemisphere as Heidi Julavits is pretty cool. And I guess there is this six-degrees-of separation between her and me and Dave Eggers (I guess it's one degree from Eggers which makes me two degrees from Julavits which again, is pretty cool.) Okay, very cool.
Because I don't look on my Amazon book page (too chicken to see what people are saying about me and my book - I'm sensitive!) I would never have known about this coupling. And it got me thinking. what other author names pop up in relation to me?
Here is a wishlist of my desired Amazonite pairings:
Carolyn Parkhurst (come on, have you read Dogs of Babel? It's heartbreakingly fabulous.)
Martin Amis
Jonathan Franzen
Mary Gaitskill
Malcolm Gladwell (hey, as long as I'm fantasizing)
Jennifer Egan
Charles Dickens
and, of course, Diana Vreeland
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)