Tag Archives: literature

Accidental Speed Dating

23 May

Being a writer means spending a lot of time by yourself in front of a computer screen that just blinks back at you, waiting for you to make the first move.  Even when you’re a gainfully employed freelancer you rarely go into an office and meet your editor.  Interaction comes via emails, sometimes snail mail if you’re not linked up to PayPal.

A couple years ago, I was working as an arts writer for a hipper-than-thou New York blog that actually sought to foster their community of writers through social events.  The first time I got invited to an event, I still had never met my editor or any of the other contributors in person, and had no idea what anyone looked like.  The first time I got invited to an event, the bar where we were meeting also happened to be holding a speed dating event.  I’m sure you know where this is headed: I got a little confused, and almost ended up accidentally speed dating.

All of this comes to mind because I just read Frank D. Santo’s “Waiting for a stranger to roll her eyes: My adventures in literary speed dating” for NY Daily News.  Apparently, literary speed dating exists.  A book seems to serve as a great conversation starter, a little peek into a person’s interests—and reading level.

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Post-Valentine’s Day Book Club: Sexy Travel, Wedding Magazines, and Mysterious Photographs

1 Mar

It was the day after Valentine’s Day.  The night before, the subway became a roving flower shop as roses crammed between eager bodies heading toward their better half.  By morning, last night’s couples sat side-by-side, staring blankly out the subway car windows.  The streets were a lot less crowded that evening.  No one was carrying flowers.  It was a good night to attend a book club.

A group of coworkers from the publishing house where I work—ranging from managing ed to design and children’s books—went to MediaBistro’s Book Club Party at Bar 13 on February 15.  You know, because we don’t get enough books at the office.

And what a reading it was!  Francis Tapon read a scandalous tale of his traveling days in The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.  Susan Schneider then treated us to what it’s like to work as a writer for a wedding magazine when she read from her novel The Wedding Writer.  Hint: It’s glamour gone ruthless.  Kio Stark read from her debut novel Follow Me Down about a woman who finds a twenty-year-old envelope containing a photograph.

MediaBistro doled out free copies of the books, and the bar had a great two-for-one special on a wide variety of drinks.

What I really want to point out, though, is the authors’ websites.  Tapon, Schneider, and Stark each wrote very different books, and their websites reflect that.  Their websites are great examples of what an author website should look like—visually compelling, blurbs from media outlets that make you want to pick up the book, the option to buy the book, social media links, excerpts from the book, and a blog.  If you’re in the process of building your author platform, you may want to take a few cues from these authors.

PS: Here are the pics from MediaBistro’s Meet the Teachers Cocktail Party at Stone Creek in New York.

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Lit Life: Catcher in the Rye

7 Oct

 

I went to undergrad in Los Angeles County and currently live in New York City, where we have an active alumnae book club to keep in touch with one another.  The New York branch of the Scripps alumnae book club has been selecting books on the theme of New York.  For August 2011, we decided on none other than J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.

Oh, remember that teenage angst?!  The desire to be a grownup even though all adults seemed like “phonies.”  The distaste for classes.  The devastating crushes!  Holden Caufield, it gets better; I promise.

I hosted the book club at my apartment.  Well, I love to plan a good theme party!  Everyone was coming straight from work, but I made an extra effort to dress the part that day with a look that was prep-school chic — navy cardigan, red shirt, pleated skirt, and polished side part.
I served rye whiskey.  Get it?  Catcher-in-the-RYE whiskey?  I also put out colorful lollipops, reminiscent of the swirl of a carousel, like the one Phoebe rides in Central Park in the novel.  It was a pot luck and everyone brought such delicious foods!

So where do the ducks go in the winter?

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Gripster: New Yorker Festival 2011

8 Sep

 

The New Yorker Festival line up has been released, and we’ve got a few Greek Americans on the panel!

 

 

What Greek American authors were you hoping to see on the New Yorker Festival panel?

 

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Recap of My Reading at the InterArts Summer Showcase

28 Jun

 

Friday’s InterArts Summer Showcase was a blast!  So much creativity filled the room.  I left feeling so inspired and wanting to be more experimental and collaborative.

There were ten of us presenting.  Four of us were representing the literary arts — personal essay, poetry, argument — while others were photographers, digital artists, singers, hip-hop artists, painters.  As evidenced from the picture above, one artist made a 3D film.  I was impressed by the quality of the projects and the thought process that had gone behind them.  I bought the poet’s chapbook, and if I were richer I’d love to own some of the art.

We each got eight minutes to present.  I’ll admit it: I was nervous.  I’m not a performer, and even though I write about myself a lot I don’t actually enjoy the spotlight.  But, I knew I had a story worth sharing.  I’m not typically a humor writer, but my story had a few funny moments in it, and I began to relax and enjoy myself as I heard the audience laughing.  When I got to the clincher at the end, I even heard someone audible gasp!

…And then my friends showed up.  I was the first presenter of the evening and even though we didn’t start on time, most of my friends missed my reading entirely.  I felt so bad!  Two of them had gotten stuck in rush hour traffic for two hours, another had cycled an hour and a half from another state, someone else had dragged along a friend who was visiting from out of town, and someone whom I had just met at NYFA‘s literary mingle had gotten stuck at work.  Some of my other friends were there, though, and my always-supportive and encouraging sister was there.  Afterward a group of us went out to a pub, so I got to at least catch up with most of them.  Some of them I hadn’t seen in 7+ months!  I’m so thankful for such great friends!  I know attending an arts event isn’t everyone’s ideal Friday night, and it meant a lot to me that my friends were supportive enough to travel–some of them from other boroughs, some from other states–to support my writing.  Awesome friends!

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