Emma Straub's Blog, page 8

Steve Winwood + Sequins = Love

One of my favorite things to do in Los Angeles is visit the ladies of Ban.do. I discovered them just before my wedding, and they made me the most giant and wonderful head tutu for the ceremony. We've been best friends ever since. If you've ever seen me wear a giant pouf on my head at a reading, or at a wedding, or at a party, or working in the bookstore, chances are, I got it at Ban.do.

This is my kind of office. They were playing the Steve Winwood Pandora station, as if things could get any better.

Fuzzy wedding shot on the left, Taylor Swift on the right. I think this means that Tay Tay and I are basically sisters.

What's a Wednesday with cupcakes?

Our wedding announcement. I really am so excited to have made it on the wall TWICE.

My new bow. I think it really completes my look. (My look = slightly sunburned, on a permanent sugar high)

If you think you (or your wife/daughter/sister/friend) might need a little sparkle in your life, hit up the ladies. They will not do you wrong.

Yours,

Emma

I'm Fancy Free and Free for Anything Fancy

I've been in Los Angeles for a little more than a week now, and am just starting to make the slow transition from Guacamole Town to Revision City. So far, we've gone to the movies three times: Page One, the documentary about the New York Times, Tabloid, the new Errol Morris documentary, and Top Hat, in celebration of what would have been Ginger Rogers' 100th birthday. Tonight, we're booked for Harry Potter. That's four movies in about ten days. Sure, they have movie theaters in New York, but I also have a lifetime's worth of friends to see, and parents, and obligations, and readings, and dinner dates. It's been positively luxurious to be able to sit in the dark so often. And, after all, it's research.

The novel that I'm revising is about a movie star. The book starts in 1929 and goes through the 1970s. This means that any movie made in that span of time is a part of the world I'm trying to illustrate, and that I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what it means to sit in the dark, to watch life unfold on the screen, and what it feels like to be on the other side of the lens. Last night, sitting in a theater watching Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire glide across the floor, I began to codify a few of my thoughts on The Movies:

1) My favorite movies are ones in which there is an on-screen credit for 'Gowns.'

2) It doesn't matter if you're a great singer, or even particularly good-looking. What matters is how your maribou feathers look as they flutter from your shoulders as you dance. As Irving Berlin wrote, "I'm fancy-free and free for anything fancy."

3) Joy is timeless, and irrepressible, and for the rest of my life, I want to go to the movies as often as possible, and to watch Ginger Rogers' skirt twirl upwards like the world's tiniest fireworks display, each kick a new mark in the sky.

This coming week, I'm going to dive back into my draft. You can bet there will be more dancing.

Yours, from Los Angeles,

Emma

LA Reading List + Justine Bateman = Gold

I brought a tidy stack of books with me to LA, though in truth I'll spend most of my time here reading my own book, and doing novel research. Still, though, a girls got to have options. I brought J. Courtney Sullivan's Maine, Lynne Tillman's Someday This Will Be Funny, Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin, and Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child.

The option this girl is currently taking is watching Satisfaction on cable. Scott Coffey? Justine Bateman? A big-haired Julia Roberts, pre-Mystic Pizza? A very young and virile Liam Neeson? Sold, sold, sold.

love and palm trees,

Emma

I'm A Total Blurberer

Sources tell me that blurbing can be a dangerous business, but right now I'm feeling very excited about having my first blurb appear on a book. Simon Van Booy's novel Everything Beautiful Began After was a total pleasure to read, and I mean every word of this blurb.

The other blurbers have won prizes and written best-selling books, but I bet you that I'm the only one who took a screenshot and posted it on my website.

Simon is reading at BookCourt on Friday, July 8. You should go. I will be on the other side of the country, drowning my sorrow about missing it in guacamole.

With love, and in print,

Emma

Happy July!

Yesterday, I made two batches of ice cream sandwiches: chocolate-chocolate-chip with mint chip ice cream and oatmeal with chocolate ice cream. It must be summer.

This July, I'm skipping town in order to do some added research on my novel. I'm accepting any and all recommendations on what to see/do/eat in Los Angeles.

AND, of course, if you happen to be on the West Coast, I'd love to see you at one of my readings!

July 27, 2011, 7pm–Skylight Books, Los Angeles, CA

July 28, 2011, 7pm–Booksmith, San Francisco, CA

Hope to see you there!

xo, and happy July!

Emma

A Small Number of Amazing Things

1. It has come to my attention that not all of you know about Ban.do, my main source for head tutus. If you happen to live in Los Angeles, they're having a studio sale next week, and you should come and buy prezzies for every girl you know.

2. The season finale of The Killing was terrible, but Bill Simmons wrote this amazing wrap-up that made it all worth it. Read it for this observation alone: The Killing is destined to become the first example anyone brings up when the subject is, "What show did something that made its fans hate it the most?"

3. The new Ann Patchett book is great and the fact that she is opening a bookstore in Nashville makes me want to write her a love letter. In fact, consider it done. Okay, now I'm done. Letter written.

4. We here at M + E have been renovating our studio for the last seven or eight weeks, and it looks like tomorrow is the last day. Here's a picture of the sink area, still in progress. Now THOSE are colors, amiright?

5. The Justin Bieber documentary. I am stone cold serious.

Yours,

Emma

Poets + Writers Lists Me as One of 33 Tweeps to Follow

Even better, they list it in alphabetical order, so I'm #9! Wheeeeeeee! Such lovely company to be in.

love

Emma "#9″ Straub

What I Bought on My Book Tour, or How To Support The Home Team

Here is my philosophy about reading at bookstores, especially ones in faraway locales.

1. Buy a book. Independent bookstores need support, and after all, they are supporting you by allowing you use of their space/time/audience. The best way you can show them your love is to buy (at least) a book. And then tell all your friends in the area how indispensable they are, because it's the truth.

2. Write a thank you note. This is so basic, but goes DOUBLE if they have baked for you. Saying thank you (in print, via the actual postal service) is the least you can do. Booksellers work really hard, and deserve your finest stationery.

Here's a picture of the books I bought this week:

I bought Courtney Sullivan's Maine and the British edition of Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City at the Brookline Booksmith, Lily King's Father of the Rain and Kate Christensen's The Astral at RiverRun Bookstore, and William Lychack's The Architect of Flowers and Paolo Giordano's The Solitude of Prime Numbers at Longfellow Books. Can't wait to read them.

Yours, with gratitude,

Emma

Plainly, Mainely, Amazing

Mike and I had lobster rolls at our wedding, and so we were really looking forward to Maine, the great lobster shack of our dreams, etc. Our expectations were huge, and I'm happy to say that they were exceeded at every turn.

Our first stop was Longfellow Books, the wonderful shop where I would be reading later in the day. Chris was so enthusiastic about Portland, and about books, that we fell in love with the whole place immediately.

Chris sent us to the Porthole for lunch. His directions were as follows: "Walk down the alley until it looks like you're going to Tijuana."

The Porthole did us right. Fried scallops, fried fish, cole slaw, heaven. We were so full that we had to walk it off a little bit.

Was it our fault that we wandered right past Duckfat? Pictured above: one strawberry milkshake.

Me and my new friend Betty. We're giving ourselves facelifts. Betty told me that I look like one of Titian's paintings, and that I should always wear my hair just so. You've got a deal, Betty.

Phyllis has baked either cookies or cupcakes for every single one of Longfellow's readings for the last four years. For me, she made "good marriage" cookies, into which she put "only the good ingredients." Phyllis is also an expert on clowns. Really. Could this bookstore get any better? I don't think so.

Stuart is the owner of Longfellow, and is a crusader of good in the universe. I wanted him to adopt me.

These are the Susans. They met at the reading. The Susan on the right told me that the Maine winters get very long and boring, so a couple of years ago, she threw a Susan party, and invited all the other Susans she knew.  Today is my mother's birthday, and she is also named Susan, and so it all felt very fortuitous.

The youngest audience member was Emily, my husband's first cousin.

The next morning, the cousins climbed on some rocks in Kennebunkport.

On the beach in Ogunquit, shoes in hand.

Lunch, part one.

Lunch, part two.

Oh, Maine! We couldn't have loved you more! Antique stores! Lobster rolls! Rocky beaches! The Barbour outlet! Vacationland, indeed.

love

Emma

Portsmouth, NH: In which I get (Lobster) Torpedoed

After the raging success that was the Brookline Booksmith, we were wary of Portsmouth. How could it improve on an audience filled with sugar-happy friends? What fools we were!

We went to Colby's for breakfast. Even before our food arrived, we were repeating the phrase "I love this place" with alarming frequency.

The strawberry pancakes at Colby's. Our waitress warned us that the pancakes were big, and that we might only need one. The well-intentioned girl had clearly not been reading the blog. Afterward, we talked to her about the NKOTBSB concert she's just attended, with special guest-stars Naughty By Nature. She was Our People.

Then we walked over a bridge into Maine, because we could.

After a brief disco nap, we met up with Liberty, the Ambassadoress of New Hampshire.

Liberty introduced us to some local wildlife.

Then we walked back into Maine for a Lobster Torpedo. Don't even ask if I ate it all, obviously I did.

Mike, bridge.

Clocktower, bells and all. We kept waiting for Doc Brown to show up.

The wonderfully warm RiverRun Bookstore, with OPWM visible in the window.

My new best friend Meganne baked these astonishingly delicious things. Strawberry jam, crumbly top. Oh boy. You would have loved them. Mike had four.

I read first. People laughed at all the right spots.

Then my pal Jami Attenberg read from her forthcoming novel, The Middlesteins. Jami likes to gesture.

Then the very lovely Kate Christensen read from The Astral, which came out two days ago. Kate is one of my favorite contemporary writers, and I was beyond excited to read with her. As it turns out, she's also very sweet and very funny and has the kind of easy laugh that makes dorky fangirls like me feel normal again.

See what I mean? Swoon.

Joe Hill turned up for the reading, sweet man that he is. (Note: if you scroll back through to the Rhinebeck reading, you will find Joe's younger brother Owen hiding behind his arm.)

I don't know exactly what is going on here. I think I'm selling this young woman my book through a mime experiment.

Then we went out and drank some local beer. There are an astonishing number of writers in New Hampshire, as it turns out. We had such a good time that we are now going to keep an eye on real estate listings, just in case.

Next stop, Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine!

love,

Emma