Jane Green's Blog, page 141

Five things you didn't know about me…

The wonderful chicklitisnotdead website sent me a Flip video camera (which, by the way, is so fantastic, I may have to get one myself. Completely idiot-proof. Even a luddite like myself could figure it out), and asked me to film five things you didn't know about me.

El Camino - my new and rather fabulous assistant - and I trooped around the house on a Sunday afternoon filming in various rooms, and it was a blast.

The website is offering up the video camera, so be sure to click the link above...

Confession time

I am back from London, back from filming an television ad which was huge amounts of fun. I also had a make-up artist who may be the best make-up artist I have ever had. She was so good, I quite wanted to pack her up and bring her home with me, for she made me look much lovelier than I actually look.

Part of me was desperate to keep the make-up on forever, and the other part couldn't wait to get home and wash it all off, for the make-up used for film and television is far heavier than you...

London-bound

I am off to London later today for the rest of the week, to film a TV ad for the new book.

Normally, I am Superpacker. I always pack incredibly light, in one carry-on bag, and never wear all of the few clothes I have brought. Packing takes me about ten minutes - I scribble lists of essentials: ear plugs; hairdryer; underwear (yes, I have been known to forget underwear), and whizz round my closet, assembling wardrobe choices on the floor.

I take very simple clothes, mostly jeans and...

Queen o' the Cheap

Beautiful Guru turned to me the other day and said my skin looked amazing, and what was I using?

Olay Regenerist, I burbled excitedly, thrilled to share my new discovery. Their youth serum and moisturiser (after the whole Jurlique cleansing routine, naturally). For the record, my skin has never looked more radiant.

'You're my cheap guru,' she laughed. 'You always know the best cheap products.'

And I am ashamed that it is true. I am addicted to drugstores, and the products found within. I'd...

Going off Twitter

John Mayer recently said, in the interview that may have ended his career, something along the lines of Jennifer Aniston not understanding the importance of social media like Twitter and Facebook, and thinking she was still living in the nineties. Don't quote me on it, but I'm pretty sure it was something like that, and there seemed to be some disdain behind the words - what sleb did not understand the glories of Twitter? Who wouldn't want to keep in touch with their fans and let them know...

I was there in the room

 

Yesterday I was honored to be welcomed as a guest performer in a production of The Vagina Monologues at The Westport Country Playhouse.

It was an extraordinary day, to join this cast of women who had come together sometime late last year, and to be welcomed as one of their own.

I had never seen The Vagina Monologues. I had always heard how wonderful it is, but truth be told, I have become somewhat of a prude in my old age, and I wasn't entirely sure why I would go to see a show about, well...

Thoughts on comfort

I have long spoken about the joys of hitting my forties and finding peace, but just the other day I was hit by another epiphany: that it wasn't just finding peace that has made my life so happy - but comfort.

For many years I longed for comfort. To be comfortable. To be comforted. I longed to feel at home in the world. Throughout my thirties I discovered my need for tactile comfort. I would pass by the scratchy cotton sweaters, and the stiff shiny pants, heading straight for delicious angora a...

Join me in a 5pm performance of The Vagina Monologues, this weekend!

This weekend I am celebrating V-Day by appearing in a performance of The Vagina Monologues, at The Westport Country Playhouse. Join me, Dani Shapiro, and a host of other wonderful women, reading the classic Eve Ensler monologues.

Hope to see you all there!

Thinking on my feet

I am very successful at gardening outdoors, looking after cats, and writing books.

I am not very successful at keeping plants alive indoors for longer than about a week, looking after fish, and reading ARCs on time.

But what I am very good at, is thinking on my feet.

Last week, we introduced another fish to keep Bubbles company. Bubbles was seven months old, or at least, had managed to survive, in my fishtank, for seven months, which is something of a record.

Mini-me brought Bubbles home from a b...

Book Readings

 

I have just returned from an event at the Westport library: Cathleen Schine reading from, and talking about her new book, The Three Weissmanns of Westport.

I do not often go to book readings, other than those of my friends, and it was a rare treat indeed to hear the author's words in her own voice.
There was, as there always is, that terrifying silence after the reading bit, when you ask for the first question, and you are met with a sea of blank faces, but the silence did not last –...