Laurie Sandell's Blog, page 373
August 2, 2009
Summer Stoopin'
[image error]Last night my friends Derek and Kristin had a BBQ on their Brooklyn stoop, which is right around the corner from mine. In fact, I can see into their kitchen from my bedroom window (Derek swears they can't see into mine.) Clockwise from left to right, that's Lila Cecil, who runs Paragraph, Kristin Dispaltro, yours truly, Abby Pesta, deputy editor of Marie Claire, Amanda Stern, Derek Loosvelt, and Charlie I-Don't-Know-His-Last-Name-But-He-Has-A-Very-Cute-Daughter-Who-Is-The-Owner-Of-That-Hula-Hoop
August 1, 2009
Beauty Secrets I Wish I'd Never Learned
[image error]It's happened to all of us: You're running late for an important event. You hop in the shower, grab the closest bottle of shampoo and lather up, only to realize you've grabbed a bottle of dog shampoo. You frantically try to wash it out of your hair, then pick up a bottle of human shampoo, only to realize it's empty. Dripping wet, you hop out of the shower and feel around in your dop kit, hoping to find a little bottle of hotel shampoo, but alas–you used the last one on a recent trip to a hotel.
July 31, 2009
I'm getting action–window action
[image error]Serizzles, I'm aware of the fact that it's going to start to get boring if all I talk about on this blog is my book. But it's not every day that a girl walks by a bookstore and sees her book in the window. The process of writing itself is profoundly unsexy: It involves hours of surfing the 'Net, and tossing a stuffed squirrel to one's dog, and eating Newman-O's cookies, and making phone calls to friends who tend not to appreciate being interrupted in the middle of the workday. For some writers,
July 30, 2009
All kinds of exciting things are happening
[image error]For one, I've been invited to attend Wordstock, a literary festival in Portland, Oregon, one of my favorite cities in the world. I spent last summer there, finishing my book, and I made some great friends and drank some kickass coffee. (I was also able to forgive the Pacific Northwest for unleashing a PacMan-style attack on America's best independent coffee houses by inventing Starbucks.) My readings are just around the corner; the book is in stores and I just watched a finished copy of my autho
July 29, 2009
My book is officially out today
photo devpunk
I haven't left the house yet today, but I imagine there is a crush of paparazzi gathered around my stoop. I'll fight my way through them, disappear into a waiting limo and travel to the ticker tape parade that is happening in my honor on Fifth Avenue. Naturally, I'll bring Violet with me so she can play with Bo while I field compliments from Obama. It's all so overwhelming!
July 27, 2009
Hey, it's my book, prominently displayed at B & N
[image error]I've started obsessive-compulsively walking into bookstores to see how they've shelved my book. And so far, I've been thrilled to find that it's usually right at the front of the store. This is in the Barnes & Noble on Court St. in Brooklyn. OK, I admit I propped one copy up on top of the pile. But as soon as I walked away, a woman started flipping through it, and read several pages right there in the store. (She didn't buy it, but that's OK! It caught her attention and she picked it up, out of
July 26, 2009
My first New York yoga teacher
photo by Michael Halsband
Was a man named Govinda Kai. The year was 1997, and I'd just returned from two months in India, where I'd taken my very first yoga class in the mountains of Dharamsala. My teacher was a direct student of Iyengar's named Sharath, and the class was four hours long. I had no idea that was out of the ordinary. That class was also where I met Derek, a guy who is one of my closest friends today.
[image error]Derek
When I returned to New York in 1997, I found a studio that taught Mysore-style
July 25, 2009
Meet my friend Patty, a.k.a. "Recession Princess"
She's made a list of all the things she's cut back on "since things went wacky." I'm right there with you, Pat![image error]
[image error]Patty
No more pedicures (I now own the ugliest hooves in Manhattan)No more waxes – shaving now and growing cactus legs in 24 hours.No sending out my laundry. I do it myself now and no longer come home with stranger's underwear.No more Boden. Even the catalogue causes chest pains.No more cheap massages at the Chi Quong joint on the corner. They were legit, I swear.No more Rose Otto from BJuly 23, 2009
They wrote about the book in The Wall St. Journal!
[image error]I was interviewed today and the piece is already online. The process was nerve-wracking! I'm so used to being on the other side of the tape recorder, and I tried to be as transparent as I always want my subjects to be, but it is different when the story is about you. I got off the phone with the reporter and immediately started second-guessing myself: Was I articulate enough? Did I represent the book accurately? Will my mother freak out when she sees this? (The answer is yes.) I am thrilled beyo
Whoop! There it is…
[image error]Walked into a bookstore in East Hampton and found my book on the shelves! It was in the "Young Adult" section of all places, so Amanda marched up to the counter and said, "I have a really annoying question to ask: How does your shelving process work? Because this book is new non-fiction, for adults." The guy behind the counter said, "Oh–whomever stocked it must have made a mistake. I'll put it in New Fiction." I said, "Oh…I'm sorry, actually, I'm the author. It's non-fiction." He was very nice
