nycdilettante

The End

Today...after a long, long week...60.5 hours at work to get a proposal out...I am at home reading Book The Thirteenth in A Series of Unfortunate Events.  I've been readin this book since Lemony Snicket hit the bookshelves with THE BAD BEGINNING.  I even ran a book group for children about the books.

The children thought I might be Beatrice.

So...I'm sitting here all day...after a trip to the gym and to Target...reading through THE END trying to figure out what happens next...will THE END be the end?

A Million Little...Lies?

The internets are abuzz with news from The Smoking Gun that James Frey's memoir A MILLION LITTLE PIECES may be greatly fabricated.  The NY Times is writing about it.  And there are no comments from everyone...James isn't answering his phone, Random House is silent, Oprah is silent and the internets...full o' anger and comments.

I have a signed first edition of A MILLION LITTLE PIECES.  I was one of the first people to read it when the galleys came out.  I snagged it pretty fast and loved it.  I devoured it and I never really wondered or needed it to be absolutely factual.  I could have cared less frankly.

I met James at a bookseller's luncheon and he seems to be a pretty sincere guy.  Someone who wanted to write a book...not a book on it's way to be a screenplay.  Which...I hear he has sold the screenplay and a movie is in the works. 

I don't know what to say or think.  I believe everyone is truthful for the most part.  Maybe it's cynical...but I'm the type of person who just trusts people.  And I lived in NYC for 5 years.  And my apartment was broken in to.  And still...I'll leave money on the door for the pizza guy and expect him to leave the pizza.  (Which by the way...he did leave...just he put it on the back porch so for awhile I didn't feel so good about my general belief in people.  Then I just wished I had looked on the back porch instead of calling hours later and asking about it.)

I noticed in the last few weeks that people searching for the phrase "james frey is a liar" got directed to my blog, mostly due to my typelist of books I've read.  I thought to myself...why do people spend time doing this? 

I feel bad for James.  If the memoir is composed of lies...many people are rolled up into all this.  Including his parents...who appeared on the Oprah Show.  And Oprah's fact checkers, who did some research on all of this. 

A lot of people are comparing this case to the J.T. LeRoy saga...which I somewhat disagree with.  But maybe both J.T. LeRoy and James Frey "invented" themselves from the best and worst parts of themselves.  Maybe we believe them because it helps us feel like better people to do so.  I'm not sure.  All I'm sure of is...this will be a huge thing for a good amount of time and then...as all things do...it will pass and we will be obsessed with something else.

Like Chad Lowe and Hilary Swank.

UPDATE: James will be appearing on LARRY KING LIVE tonight to talk about these allegations.  He won't be there for the full hour according to the LKL publicist.  We'll see what happens after this train wreck.  Hopefully, I'll be able to have a friend TIVO or DVR it for me as I am cableless.

Listen up

On August 25th the Oxford American's Music Issue hits the collective consciousness.

This issue always is amazing.  So...I'm telling you now.  Subscribe or start looking for it on newsstands.

And then thank me.

Cause it f-ing rocks, my children.

What's on tap this weekend?

I am pretty intrigued by this...and for those of you who are of a literary bent...this Saturday stop by The Big Hunt in Dupont Circle to experience....

Literary Karaoke!

I have no idea what this will be like...but the $5 bucks at the door goes to literary journals in the DC area...always a good thing to support.

*UPDATE....

I didn't make the event but thank goodness for The Happy Booker and her FOtHB report that filled us in.  It sounds like it went well and had I gone...I would have run into a few writers I knew from my past life as a CRM for a large *ahem* bookseller in the greater DC area.  Based in NYC.  Yeah...you know who they are. 

Anyhow...check out Christy Zink's report and the next time there is Literary Karoke...I'll be there.

My mantra

“Truth is fierce and unrelenting. We cannot change it, but we can change the way we live with it. Making mistakes, not being loved and dying are inescapable experiences of being human; so is our fear of them. By facing those fears, we have a chance to step beyond them. When we are willing to do the best we can with what we know, to be honest with ourselves and others about who we are and what really matters to us, only then are the lives we live and the love we receive truly our own.”

Hannah's Gift: Lessons from a Life Fully Lived (2003)

Maria Housden

What is it about Summer?

I'm not sure why this is so...but as soon as summer hits, I have a desire to hole up with stacks and stacks of books and read non-stop.  I think this must be a result of childhood habits.

Growing up in Chase City, the summer meant the "Summer Reading Program" at the public library.  Our public library was in an old armory.  I seem to remember it being somewhat greenish.  I could be wrong.  I was a child.  It was in the block across from Moss's Florists and near Elaine Weston's Dad's small grocery store.  (I remember the Westons very well.  They were all small and slight.  I think of them now and I picture Russian nesting dolls.)

I would go up the stairs into the musty, squeaky place and pretty much look at every book on every shelf.  I would always take several books home and I would read NON STOP.  I would roll through those books like a house of fire and go back for more.  I can only remember being late returning a book once.  I was horrified because the librarian called me to ask me to bring it back.  This my introduction to feeling guilty.  Okay...it wasn't...but I still remember it vividly.

I had to pay her with all pennies. 

Which leads me to think of a story about Jack Lawson, our paper boy and paying him for the afternoon paper with all coins that I shook out of my piggy bank (that wasn't a pig but something made out of paper that smelled rubbery because of the stopper).  I remember he stood in my bedroom while I did this and I was so excited because he was a boy who I thought was cute and he was standing in my bedroom. 

I digress...

At any rate...now it's summer and instead of zoning in front of the TV...I've been reading.  I still have friends in NYC who are in the book world.  And due to this...I still get my hands on advance reader's copies.  Thank you Jebus...as Homer Simpson would say.

I have a nice stack of books to go through and hopefully they will keep my mind off other matters.  Like dating.  And my credit report.  My weight.  Gastric bypass surgery (I'm NOT having surgery...it's just a thought).  My wonky camera. My work load.  The fact I don't have an agent.  The fact I don't have a book deal.  The fact that I haven't dated since paleontologists thought the T-Rex was slow moving and dumb.

Yeah.  It all goes back to dating.

And the T-Rex.

More Richard info

For those of you who love Richard McCann..hear him discussing Mother of Sorrows on NPR's "The Diane Rehm Show," 11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon Tuesday, May 31st.  To find your local affiliate NPR station that carries "The Diane Rehm Show," click on this link:

http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/about/affiliate_stations.php


To join the show by phone or e-mail:
Phone:  1-800-433-8850
E-mail:  drshow@wamu.org

Weekend Reading

If you missed Richard's event on Saturday...all is not lost!  Check him out at the following events this week:

Friday, May 6Th @ Chapters, 445 11Th St. N.W. @ 1:00 PM

Saturday, May 7Th @ American University, Campus Store, Butler Pavilion @ 3:00 PM

Be there or be square my friends!

As for me...what have I been up to?  Well...tomorrow I am getting my eyebrows waxed and shaped.  Very exciting.  And then I'm going out for drinks at P.F. Chang's in Fair Lakes.  It's going to be very exciting!

I am going home for Mother's Day this weekend.  I have been getting books together to take home for my mom.  I also watched VANITY FAIR and THAT'S SO RAVEN while working on my blogs, updating my photo albums and taking lots of pictures.  I'll be bringing THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA to watch at home with the parentals for the weekend.  I've  been making lists and planning for my trip to Edisto Island next weekend. 

Oh...and working.  Working, working and working.  I'm so ready for a week off!

Check This Out

So...I know that for those of you who are "coupled up"...Saturday is date night.  But...if your calendar is free...I would like to suggest a weekend activity.

Hit Politics and Prose at 6:00 PM on Saturday to hear Richard McCann read from his book Mother of Sorrows.

Richard is the co-director at American University of their Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program.  Richard taught me many moons ago at Mary Washington College (which is NOW the University of Mary Washington or something else equally confusing for us alumni).  My friend Lori and I took his American Studies class and then I gave Richard some poems I wrote and then a prose piece. (And who now works for "the administration" so just by mentioning his name here means I'm in trouble.  Or maybe not.  I just need my clearance.  Please, please give me a clearance US Govt so I can get a raise.  I digress....)

At any rate, Richard (who is quite the poet) said...you know I'm not so crazy about the poetry...but the prose piece is good...so I'm going to let you be a part of my creative workshop class.

And since that time...we have kept in touch and after I got my heart STOMPED on by the only man who will ever love me (thus far) he encouraged me to apply to American University's MFA program.

Now...I realize that I am not currently working in the publishing industry.  I am writing a blog and not really being Mr. Jonathan Safran Foer.  I am working for "the man".  But...I have the skills.  And one day...I will do that which I need to do.  I watched Richard give amazing gifts to many writers that passed through AU, through MWC, Hollins Collins, Provincetown.  He is gifted and gives to the writers that surround him.  A few years ago I went to see Mark Doty at the Chelsea B&N and we chatted a bit about Richard and about his amazing ability to teach.  This amazing ability to teach has held up his dedication to his novel.

And now it's here.  And so...I am saying...go and hear Richard read.  You'll have a blast.  Not only is Richard a great reader...he knows more gossip than I do.  That is a gift in and of itself.

And for those of you in NYC...Richard will be reading at the Chelsea B&N on Wednesday, May 11th. 

Oh yeah...and if you aren't in the areas where Richard will be reading....click on the link above...umm...yeah you could buy the book.  Or request it at your local library.

Would I ever steer you wrong?