Welcome summer! I know summer starts for a lot of you the day after school ends. Or after Memorial Day. But for me, summer always begins on the first day of summer. Which is the summer solstice. Which is tomorrow. I will try to focus on the happy fact that sunset is at 8:30 instead of getting that sinking feeling I always have when daylight hours start decreasing. We have the greatest amount of daylight hours all year on the summer solstice (about 15 hours in New York), which means that the day after tomorrow...nope. I will not think about that. I will think about getting my summer on.

Actually, I've already begun the funtivities. Section two of the High Line just opened. I was so there. As if more High Line in my life isn't enough, there's an outdoor art installation right at the end called Rainbow City with all these interactive balloons. Balloons! Plus more High Line! These are the days, yo.



You know how some offices have summer hours? Well, I'm the boss of a one-person corporation over here, and I say my only employee Susane gets to enjoy summer hours, too. Sort of. If it's a sunny morning that's not, like, a thousand degrees, I'm allowed to lay out on the beach volleyball pier instead of being online. It's this new thing at Hudson River Park where volleyball courts are fenced in on a pier - with sand! My entire floor is now covered with sand. Looks like summer. And, um, time to vacuum...

Normally, I would avoid such close proximity to balls zinging in all directions. But they have these cool curvy chairs to lay out on and a sweet summer breeze off the water and it's just too awesome to resist. I watched some fierce Chelsea boys playing a highly profesh game this weekend. It was good to desensitize myself. Back in junior high and high school, I was terrified of getting smacked in the head with any type of ball - baseball, kick ball, dodge ball, basketball, and especially volleyball. Because when you're playing volleyball, you are under attack from overhead. Scary much? Now that I'm (technically) a grownup, I think it's time to be a bit less afraid of volleyballs. So I sat right there and read my book and didn't get hit. Small steps, people. Small steps.

I have to say that I was shocked by how many people borrowed my sunblock. If you're going to be outside for a while, bring protection! One new product I'm loving is Neutrogena Wet Skin.

You know how when you're laying out and sweating and even if your sunblock is waterproof, it still comes off sometimes and you burn? And then you're furious because, hello, you spent half an hour putting on sunblock before you left and you even reapplied it and now look? Or is that just me? Well, if you can relate then you'll love Wet Skin. It's sweatproof, waterproof, and you can spray it right on wet skin. I'm using SPF 85 and loving it. This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

In online news, The Guardian has come to my attention with this piece on authors' responses to that ridiculous WSJ article about how teen novels are all corrupt a few weeks ago. Then When It Happens got a sweet review. "It's like Twilight without the vampires!" I'll take it. Also, the Book Blog Experience is running a giveaway of So Much Closer to go with Add a Comment

 written and illustrated by Alice Provensen  Viking  1991  When the star of a famed Italian puppet theatre is stolen fro his owner he goes on a mischievous romp through modern day New York City only to realize there's no place like home... unless you get to rip off someone in the process.  Landing in New York, Il Professore Tucci-Picini (all Punch puppeteers are referred to as Professor) has

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It all started with a vegetable.

My corner deli had a brand new awning made. It is green. It is huge. And it says something like this right across the front:

"Deli, groceries, beer, snacks, vegetable."

Dude. They have one vegetable.

Really? Just one?

As my friend Rachel Vail said, You better go in quick and snatch that vegetable up before someone else gets it!

Actually, this all started way before the vegetable. I've always been extremely annoyed by typos. Typos in books are bad. But typos on signs? Are the worst. Those typos are like nails on the chalkboard to me. They grate on my nerves and every time I see them they irritate me all over again. Whenever I see a typo on a store's sign, I'll tell the person working there about it and how it should be fixed so we don't perpetuate the stupid.

Yeah. I'm that girl.

Not that they care. No one ever changes their signs. Even the handwritten ones that would take two seconds to correct. What makes me sad about the vegetable example is...well, so many things, but mainly that they just spent all this money on a new awning and didn't even bother to proofread. It's like with the grocery store around the corner. They just did a whole big renovation. Now they have street signs hanging above the aisles. One the the signs says "Bleecker Street." Or it's supposed to say "Bleecker Street." Tragically, it says "Bleeker Street."

And they're one block from Bleecker Street.

Seriously? You couldn't walk one block to check how to spell Bleecker Street? Or freaking Google it?! How hard would that have been?!?

Before I puff up in an even bigger rant, let me leave you with this image. It's the new (of course) awning of my fave vegetarian restaurant. It speaks volumes all by itself.

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You know those mystery novels that are preoccupied with time and alibis and maps, where you’re constantly being asked whether a suspect could have made it from one place to another in however much time? And how it’s more like a word problem in a high school math textbook than a story, and you keep having to flip back to the map in the front of the book, and every time you do that you lose the thread of what’s going on, and the characters are like puzzle pieces, and it just never really works, even when Dorothy Sayers does it?

I’m exaggerating, but I do get really irritated when mystery novels give too much space to maps and alibis and such, because so often authors focus on those things to the exclusion of the characters. I’m okay with train schedules and clocks, I just want the people in the book to be the most important thing about the book. I get that that’s hard, but one cannot live by plot alone.

Geraldine Bonner, however, doesn’t seem to have a problem keeping her people and her plots balanced. I’m very much indebted to Cathlin for recommending her, because this is the first time a mystery author has made me like flipping back to the map in front of the book (and by flipping back to the map in the front of the book, I mean saving the image of the map from the ebook and having it open in a different window). Also, the narrator reminded me of Nancy from In the Bishop’s Carriage, and that’s always a plus.

Molly Morgenthau narrates all of The Girl at Central, about half of The Black Eagle Mystery, and maybe a third of Miss Maitland, Private Secretary, and I’d like to say that the more she narrates, the better the book is, but Miss Maitland is kind of better than The Black Eagle Mystery.

When we first meet Molly, she’s the switchboard operator in a small town in New Jersey. She’s got an enormous crush on Jack Reddy, who owns a fair amount of land in the neighborhood, but Jack is in love with Sylvia Hesketh, who would be everything a wealthy young lady in a novel should be if only she weren’t an incorrigible flirt. Molly starts eavesdropping on calls to Sylvia’s house in hopes of hearing Jack, and so when Sylvia is found dead, she’s able to bring forward some useful information. Soon she and Soapy Babbitts, one of the reporters who arrived in town after the murder, start investigating the case together. And eventually solve it, of course, although that’s sort of an accident.

During the Sylvia Hesketh case, Molly meets Wilbur Whitney and his son George, both lawyers, and it’s through them that she gets her next two cases. The Black Eagle Mystery involves a financier hurling himself out of the window of an office building, and it’s the least good of the three, mostly because of the contrived romance plot. You know how teachers are always exhorting their students to show, not tell? I’d be the first to admit that telling rather than showing can be good, too — just look at the collected works of Anthony Trollope — but romance is not the place for it. I did really enjoy the twist at the end, though.

The ending of Miss Maitland wasn’t so cleverly twi

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Today and tomorrow is MoCCA Fest, the premier indie comics event in New York City. Doors are open each day from 11am-6pm at the Lexington Avenue Armory (68 Lexington Ave between 25th and 26th Streets). I exhibited there last year and highly recommend MoCCA: lots of terrific artists will be in attendance, remarkably low-key and relaxed, and the focus is purely on comics and art.

Plenty of animators will be exhibiting, among them, Devin Clark and Dan Meth (A17), Bill Plympton (B6), Meathaus (A11), Kaitlin Sullivan and Polly Guo (C16 ½), Jake Armstrong, Dan Pinto, Maya Edelman and others at D12, and Rob Kohr and Tom Eaton (L19 ½). Also on Sunday evening at 5:30 pm, there’ll be an animation screening of recent indie films. Tickets are $12 for one day or $20 for both days.

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Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: MoCCA Fest, NYC

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THE CARRIE DIARIES by Candace Bushnell introduced the world to Carrie Bradshaw as a teenager, leading up to her move to New York City (wasn’t the end line of THE CARRIE DIARIES the most perfect thing?!).

Now there’s SUMMER AND THE CITY.  Carrie Bradshaw is loving NYC in the summer, especially since she’s taking her first real writing class.  But making it in the big city isn’t all glamour and gorgeousness, as Carrie soon discovers.

SUMMER AND THE CITY is the continuing story of Carrie Bradshaw, an icon of fashion and New York City.  On-sale April 26, 2011.

Can’t make it to New York this summer?  We have the next best thing: we’re giving away TWO gift packs containing an advanced readers copy of SUMMER AND THE CITY, a letter from Candace Bushnell, and a “I <Heart> NYC” t-shirt.  Tell us in the comments what you love about Carrie Bradshaw and/or New York City, and you’ll be entered to win one of the two prize packages.  Contest ends 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 20th.  Winners will be announced Monday, March 21st.

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On Thursday, some of our staffers met up with volunteers from Barclays Capital for a reading event at the YAI Network‘s Gramercy School in New York City. The preschool serves children ages 3-5 who have developmental disabilities and/or learning delays.

The kids especially enjoyed In the Snow, Bear About Town and stories from Eric Carle’s All Around Us collection. Barclays volunteers also participated in classroom lessons that the Gramercy teachers developed specifically for the occasion, like making sure that Bear was ready to go to town by helping glue his scarf, jacket and boots on.

Best of all, every child at the event received a backpack with three brand-new books to keep.

These books are part of Barclays’ ongoing commitment to helping First Book bring books to children from low-income communities. Thanks to their support, we’ll be launching a special section dedicated to financial literacy and college readiness on the First Book Marketplace next month.

Learn more about this event here.

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As of January 6, I've been a proud New Yorker for 15 years. Carrie Bradshaw said that you're not a real New Yorker until you've lived here for at least 10 years. But in my heart, I always knew this magical place was my true home. I moved here in the Blizzard of 1996 from Philadelphia, which had just gotten over two feet of snow. But nothing could stop me. Actually, nothing could stop my friend Tim from helping me move. He was the one who shoveled the snow and drove the U-Haul. And now he lives here, too, which is awesome.

I was going through this crazy stomach churning thing at the time. For weeks before the move, my stomach was perpetually upset. I couldn't eat anything without feeling sick. I didn't realize it at the time, but the stomach churning was caused by severe stress. Even though I was beyond excited to finally start my life in New York City, it was really scary. I had like 73 cents in my bank account. I didn't know anyone here. I didn't even have a job lined up. All I knew was that I'd be starting grad school and that I had a tiny studio waiting for me in Chelsea. But I guess that was enough. Because as soon as I saw the Twin Towers in the distance, my stomach instantly felt better. For reals. And I never had that weird stomach churning again.

You'd think that I was planning to live here all along. New York City has had an intense pull on me since I discovered Late Night with David Letterman when I was 12. But I never made a definite plan to live here because it felt like a fantasy world. Like this unattainable dream that would always be impossible for me to achieve. That felt especially true back in high school. Back then, it felt like forever until my real life would start. Books and shows and music saved me. But what saved me even more was the hope that I would one day be living my ideal life. I held on to that hope and refused to let go, even when it felt like I wouldn't survive.

One song that helped me hold on was "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty. I still listen to it (and this other song of his called "Right Down the Line") often when I'm writing. These lyrics helped me keep hope alive, like if I could just keep holding on things would get better:

Another year and then you'll be happy
Just one more year and then you'll be happy
But you're crying
You're crying now

Two days before my New Yorkiversary, I was folding laundry and listening to NPR when "Baker Street" came on. They said something like, "You probably recognize this song, but might not remember the artist behind it." And I was like, "Gerry Rafferty!" Then they said that Gerry Rafferty had died. One of the people who helped me survive and would never know it was gone forever. And I was folding socks.

Let's just say I was relieved to have season one of Glee.



I'm not finished with season one yet, but do I really need to tell you I'm a proud new Gleek? Not just because I'm crushing on Mr. Schuester (as if I really need another crush). Not just because another one of my Hold On songs back in the day was "Don't Stop Believin'" (along with several other Journey classics). But that "Defying Gravity" diva-off between Rachel and Kurt? Has been on repeat mode in my brain for days. Seriously, I'll be at the gym doing a mash-up of whatever's playing in class and "Defying Gravity" in my head. Their voices are incredible. I mean, everyone is super talented, but that song just got me. Of course Kurt is my fave character. But you already knew that.

So yay for Glee! Yay for everything in this world that makes us happy and

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Dear John,

I miss you every day. But especially today.

You gave us the kind of music that transcends time. Music with a message. Songs that speak to us and encourage us to make our lives better. Songs that make us want to change the world. Songs that make us imagine.

You are an indelible part of New York City. When I want to remember you best, I go to Strawberry Fields. No matter what time or which day, people are always there, playing your songs and bringing you flowers. You fought so hard to stay in this magical place because you understood its energy, an energy you translated into music and art. I still feel your passion every day, John.



I wish I could tell you that we're all living life in peace today, 30 years after you were taken from us. Sadly, we are not. But Imagine lives on, as do all of your words, and they continue to inspire us to live and let live.

And so you shine on.
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
On and on and on...

Love,
Susane

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Anayvelyse at the Poem Shop, University Place between 13th & 14th Streets.



She's a poet with an aura of awesomeness. Of course she was set up right outside Crumbs. She knows what's good.

Anayvelyse writes poems on her typewriter, then edits them at home. She trades poems for money or found objects.

Righteous.

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There are still a few spots left for the Networking Dinners.  Here is the information with the dates and restaurants:

June 29th – NYC  Cafe Centro – 200 Park Ave. & East 45th Street – 6:30 pm
Rebecca Frazer – Editor, Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky
Marissa Walsh – Agent, Fine Print Literary Agency
Michelle Poploff – VP Editorial Director, Random House
Catherine Onder – Editor, HarperCollins
Shauna Fay – Assistant Editor, Putnam
 
June 30th – NYC  Bourbon Street Bar and Grill – 346 45th Street – 6:00 pm
Stephen Barbara – Agent, Foundry Literary + Media
Alison Wortche – Assistant editor, Knopf Crown
Karen Chaplin – Editor, Puffin
Erica Sussman – Editor, HarperCollins
 
July 15th  – Princeton, NJ  Witherspoon Grill 7:00 pm
Magery Cuyler – Publisher, Marshall Cavendish
Marietta Zacker - Agent, Nancy Gallt Agency
Carolyn Yoder – Editor, Calkins Creek; Sr. Editor, History, HIGHLIGHTS
Teresa Kietlinski – Agent, Prospect Agency
 
July 27th – NYC  Cucina Cafe – 200 Park Ave & East 45th St. 6:30 pm
Holly McGhee - President, Agent of Pippin Properties
Tamra Tuller – Editor, Philomel
Lisa Yoskowitz – Assistant Editor, Dutton
Eve Adler – Associate Editor, Henry Holt
 
July 28th – NYC – A.J. Maxwell’s Steakhouse – 6:00 pm
Kelly Smith – Editor, Sterling Publishing
Emilly Van Beek – Agent, Folio Literary Management
Steve Meltzer - Associate Pub/ Exe. Managing Ed., Dial, Dutton, & Celebra
Sarah Barley – Assistant Editor, Henry Holt
 
August 3rd – NYC – Naples 45 – 200 Park Ave. & 45th St. – 6:30 pm
Mary Kole – Agent, Andrea Brown
Connie Hsu – Assistant Editor, Little, Brown & Co.
Kate Sullivan – Assistant Editor, Little, Brown & Co.

August 4th – NYC  – Trattoria Dopo Treatro – 125 West 44th Street – 6:00 pm – FULL
Sean McCarthy – Agent, Sheldon Fogelman Agency
Heather Alexander – Assistant Edition, Dial BFYR
Regina Griffin – Sr. Editor, EgmontUSA
Anna Olswanger – Agent, Liza Dawson Associates

Please e-mail me if you would like a spot.  Each dinner is $140.  Checks are mailed to:

NJSCBWI - PO Box 660 – Ringoes, NJ 08551

For all of you who know Nancy Consecu, Senior Editor at Little, Brown & Co.  She is leaving Little, Brown for a position of Executive Editor at Dutton.  She starts on July 6th at Dutton and will report directly to Lauri Hornik.  Congratulations, Nancy!

Another Snapple Bottle Fun Fact:  Did

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