One Story Debutante Ball 2012

So you guys know about the One Story Debutante Ball that I'm taking part in on Friday, April 20, 2012 in beautiful "Paris on the Gowanus" Brooklyn?  

I am wearing a dress exactly like this one....

I know what you are saying.  "Didn't you do that already?  How many times are you going to be a debutante, you egomaniac?"  

As many times as they ask.  

See, the first time I did it, TECHNICALLY my book wasn't even out yet. So TECHNICALLY I was not yet a DEBUT author so... And I love it so.

Also, I just had a baby and was all hormonal and insane and this year that is not the case.  I think I'm wearing a cute punk rock kind of outfit and I'm getting my hair cut at Dickson Hair Salon that afternoon so hopefully I will look cool too.

The amazing and wonderful Tara Altebrando is going to be my mentor-escort and she is both a mentor and escort- and not in the dirty way.  She is also a parent and a serious writer and she is funny and interesting and I adored Dreamland Social Club and the more I hang out with her the more I love her.  We are going to have so much fun! 

No hat this year.

No heaving breasts full of milk for a newborn.

No fake title for a yet-to-be-published book.

No glasses just lots and lots of black eyeliner and black eyeshadow (my new favorite thing).

I love One Story, I love that they do this. And this year, they interviewed me! If you think of it, send some $$ their way, and find out more about One Teen Story here.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and let you know all about it.  In the meantime, I'm supposed to be working on a keynote address for the National English Honor Society at a school in Long Island and it's going great!  Any suggestions much appreciated though.  And I'm doing laundry.  And I'm OBSESSED with this tumblr.

Love ya lots and I love comments too.  xoxo

What's on My Nightstand

I love mermaids. When I was a kid I was obsessed with them, would hold my breath underwater and pretend that the light in the Oak Park YMCA pool was a magical mirror into which I would stare through goggle lenses and comb my imaginary mermaid hair. My mother encouraged me to believe in them and I did with all my heart.

Saturday marks the 29th Annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island and we are not going. I would love it, of course, but with two kids, heat, and the train ride it all adds up to a miserable experience for all.

However... there was a time when I was into it, when I wore shells on my breasts and a tail on my legs and slapped glitter all over my sweaty skin. Coney Island is one of my favorite places on earth. The tattoos! The freaks! The surf! The sand! The Cyclone! Sexy and retro, naughty and nice what is not to love?

Tara Altebrando has written a novel set in this most evocative and magical of places. Dreamland Social Club sounds great, from what I heard at a reading at Books of Wonder. I can't wait to... dive in! And Tara was smart and lovely and did tons of research on the bizarre and perverse history of Coney

Island so. Fasten your seatbelts!

Nova Ren Suma is a great writer who also happens to be a celebrated fellow-alum of Columbia's MFA program. Last month we went for a charming lunch at a secret grotto of a restaurant in the Village and chit chatted about said MFA program and writing and yoga and etc. It was awesome.

Her INSANELY STARRED REVIEWED latest, Imaginary Girls is not about mermaids. It is about sisters and the power of love over death and swimming and all those things give it a supernatural, intense, emotional pull over me that is mermaid-esque.

AND THAT COVER. Unbelievably beautiful- just like the writing inside.

These two books and Swamplandia! and Jon Savage's Teenage are all arm wrestling with a year's worth of New Yorkers on my nightstand... The summer is young! What's on your nightstand?