Posts for category ‘the SLC’

Maybe I just haven’t been desperate enough yet, but I can’t imagine ever getting up at 4 a.m. to go shopping, or even going anywhere near a mall Thanksgiving weekend. *shudder* If any of you do, ‘fess up. (“Fess” was an answer in yesterday’s NYT crossword, by the way, in the very context of “‘fess up.”) What do you get out of it? Are you an adrenaline junkie? Highly competitive? I don’t get it.

I do love to shop, though! Allow me to suggest that you make a special effort to shop local as you can. Local First Utah says that even shifting 10% of your gift-buying budget to local businesses can make a big difference for your community. I know that you have lots and lots of books on your shopping list this year, and if you are in Salt Lake you’ve got two very fun chances to get that taken care of. If you are not in Salt Lake, I’m pretty sure that your city has locally-owned business, too, so check them out.

Monday, November 30th – 6 p.m. @ Sam Weller’s (245 S. Main St.)

Weller’s is hosting the City Academy Book Fair reception at the store Monday night. I will be there to sign and chat for an hour or so, as will James Dashner. (Oh, by the way, both James and I have books on the Kirkus Best of 2009 list for YA. Now aren’t you extra excited?) If you are in SLC and have not been to Sam Weller’s, well, I don’t know what to say! It is a great store, and if you plan for some extra time to venture downstairs, you might find an old favorite out of print book, or something rare and perfect for someone on your list. And, if you are looking for a particular hard to find title, you can contact them and they’ll keep an eye out for you. Follow Sam Weller’s on Twitter: www.twitter.com/samwellers

Thursday, December 3rd – 5:30 p.m. @ The King’s English (1500 E./1500 S.)

It’s The King’s English Annual Holiday Party!  There will be a passel of local authors there to sign and chat. Including James and me, and if you’re tired of us, there will also be Jessica Day George, Pat Bagley, Heather Armstrong (aka Dooce), Emily Wing Smith, and a bunch of others. Personally? I am most excited to meet Sister Dottie!  Not only is it a party, it’s also a sale. In honor of Buy Local First week, you get 10% off all week. At the party, you get another 10% off! And TKE staff can wrap and ship while you hobnob. Follow TKE on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kingsenglish

A few more shop local holiday gift ideas…

Slowtrain Records recently introduced a CD of the Month Club. This is not like those clubs you joined through the mail when you were in college, where if you forgot to send in a postcard you’d end up with Loverboy’s Greatest Hits. No. This is Chris and Anna and staff personally selecting music that they know Slowtrain customers will enjoy. Follow Slowtrain on Twitter: www.twitter.com/slowtrain

A membership to the Salt Lake Film Society makes a great gift and supports The Broadway and Tower independent theaters.

Most of your favorite local restaurants sell gift certificates. We just dined out on a Trio gift certificate the other night. Dellllicious. And, there are a growing number of boutique-y shops around town. I was recently at Nailed, for example, and I had no idea that not only is it a great place for a manicure but that it also has some very cute bags and jewelry and things, and a selection of adorable and affordable gloves.

Remember, even 10% of your budget makes a difference! But you can do more, I bet, without much effort. Here, or in a town near you!

First: Big congratulations to my homegirl Emily Wing Smith for winning the Utah Book Award for The Way He Lived. It was very fun to share the moment with her and see her get much deserved recognition for her beautiful book. Read it!

Now, Utah People. Do you even know how fantastic your book festival is going to be? Gary Soto. Michael Cunningham. Carlotta Walls LaNier (one of the Little Rock Nine) in conversation with Salt Lake’s own Rev. France Davis. And many other fabulous people. As a reminder:

Shannon Hale and I will be in conversation with each other – Saturday, October 24 – 4:30 p.m. – Main Library auditorium. (1 hour)

The whole schedule is here.

And, as if that were not enough, Isaiah Sheffer is traveling here far, far from his home turf of Symphony Space to produce an episode of Selected Shorts right here in our very own Salt Lake City, for national broadcast. Actors from both coasts are being flown in to make this happen. (Please God, let one of them be Mark Ruffalo.) Do you understand and appreciate how much of a Big Deal this is? For a fan of Selected Shorts, like me, it’s the biggest. Unless you are flying to New York every month, this is a rare, rare opportunity to be part of the live audience. I am so there.

Selected Shorts – Sunday, October 25 – 2 p.m.  – Main Library auditorium (2 hours)

It’s a day off from uni-blogging and a day on for randomness. So: writer Joelle Anthony had me over to her blog for a fun Q&A. And, The Well-Read Child gives Once Was Lost a nice review here. Thank you Joelle and TWRC.

Moving on…

Via The Curator, I came across this Guardian article about the “stuff-a-lanche” most of us are now living under. The article is spot-on for me (though I’m not sure I want a government employee to pick my book of the month…maybe an awesome librarian). This in particular made me laugh:

…Scenes From a Marriage and The Seventh Seal – two well-regarded Ingmar Bergman films I bought during a short-lived fit of self-improvement. I should have thrown them in a bin on my way home from the shop. It’s hard enough to choose between the two: am I in the mood for a lyrical 92-minute meditation on death, or an unflinching three-hour portrayal of a dysfunctional relationship? Neither, as it turns out. They’d only be interrupted by emails and texts anyway.

Meanwhile, my Netflix envelope full of Babette’s Feast has been sitting on my DVD player for a month. It’s one of those movies that, when I mention I haven’t seen it, makes all my friends go bug-eyed and clutch their throats in horror. I’m sorry! I mean to watch it! But I also have half a season of 30 Rock to catch up on!

(While I’m apologizing to my friends and while a fourteen-minute Jeff Buckley song is playing on KRCL I would like to add: I do not like Jeff Buckley.)

Next…

I was in line at the Dollar Tree yesterday, as I often seem to be lately, when I struck up a conversation with two high school girls in front of me whose cart was full of baby dolls. “That’s a lot of babies,” I said. It turns out that they and some of their friends were independently launching a month of awareness of the importance of comprehensive sex education in high school. Utah, which has adhered to the abstinence only model, recently decided that parents can choose between abstinence only and comprehensive (actually, the teens can “choose” but can only do comprehensive with parental consent).

Now, don’t get me wrong. Abstinence has some great stuff going for it. It works for preventing pregnancy and disease, if you do it, and greatly uncomplicates your emotional and possibly spiritual life during a time that is already complicated enough, and there is a lot to be said for putting off decisions about your sex life until after you become an adult. I mean, really and truly, I recommend it. But if as a society we want to reduce unwanted pregnancies, abortion, STDs, and poverty, every single post-puberty human should know how to use a condom, and understand the difference between myth and fact when it comes to pregnancy and disease. So to the girls from West High with their cart full of babies who are doing their part, I say kudos.

Last night I dreamed it was the end of the world, and Robert Downey, Jr. came to me for food and Internet access. May I say that individually wrapped frozen salmon fillets might not be the best survival food.

Hey! It’s an exciting week here in Utah for book lovers. The Utah Humanities Book Festival kicks off Wednesday with events all over the state. (Click on your area to see what’s going on.) On Thursday night, I’ll be vying with my home girl Emily Wing Smith for the Utah Book Award, The Way He Lived vs. Sweethearts. Personally? I’m casting my vote for Emily. Not that I get a vote. But if I did, it would go to her, as TWHL was pretty much my favorite YA of 2008.

Saturday and Sunday are when it really all happens here in SLC, at the main library. There’s a great lineup of book fest events and authors, including Michael Cunningham, Chris Crowe, Paisley Rekdal, and Isaiah Sheffer, who is going to be hosting Selected Shorts right here at the SLC library on Sunday the 25th!

The theme this year is “In Conversation,” and every author will be in conversation with another writer, or a bookseller, or booky person. I love this. I will be appearing on Saturday, 4:30 to 5:30, in the auditorium, with Shannon Hale, and we will be In Conversation with each other. It’s going to be a lot like Inside the Actor’s Studio, is what I’m saying. I can’t wait to find out Shannon’s favorite swear word!

Tell a friend about the book fest. It’s free, and it’s awesome. Not in Utah? Investigate book festivals in your area! It’s the season.

This week, the Salt Lake area book community said goodbye to our beloved Jenn of The King’s English, which also meant G. and I said goodbye to friends. We met Jenn and Chris at the Utah Book Festival two years ago. They were there to work for TKE, but hey, it was a cocktail party, so there was time for chatting, too. We all hit it off (and if you are a couple who has ever been on the prowl for couple friends, you know how rare this is) and have since shared meals and game night and porch-sitting and swapping of Netflix queues. Chris, a terrific writer, inspired me and a few others to put together a little writers group—which was short-lived but totally fun. He’s also a connoisseur of hand-rolled cigarettes and a brave goer to ice cream “are you from the ward” socials, and got me my first and quite possibly last movie role.

Jenn introduced me at that 07 book fest and at just about all my local events since. She baked the first Sweethearts tour heart cookies and makes a mean mac and cheese. Also, she was pretty much super woman in her job and always made book events fun. Together they love movies, food, good wine, books, Touch apps, their cats, and each other.

All us local authors who know how much Jenn has done for us are sad to see her go, but it’s an extra big sadness for us say goodbye to both Chris and Jenn because it felt like our friendship had really just started. But, Jenn is pursuing a new opportunity, still in bookselling, and we’re excited for her and wish them both the best.

They came over to help us celebrate our anniversary a week or so ago…note Jenn’s shirt: “Will work for books.”

(Safe travel, guys, I know our paths will cross again soon…)

- In the SLC: Ann Dee Ellis is launching her new book, Everything Is Fine, tonight at The King’s English. 7 p.m. I will be there. I will not be square.

- On the interwebs: Since I am in a self-Googling recovery program and have been abstinent nearly a year, sometimes I miss out on hearing cool stuff. Fortunately, there is my agent, who is like my sponsor, to filter results and send me links to stuff he thinks I should see. Like this. Which has given me my new favorite review quote:

“Usually, when a book is  OMG-I’ve-died-and-gone-to-Heaven-and Heaven-is Scotland-with-a-hundred-dancing-nude-Jamie-Frasers, I tend to become tongue tied. Sweethearts is such a book.”

Thank you, Lit Connection!

- Your daily diabetes tip: Okay, it won’t be daily, but since my post about that the other day, a couple of people have said yes, you should talk about it, because almost all of us know someone with diabetes and it can help us understand them better. So one thing that comes up is that people say, “But can’t type 2 diabetes be almost totally controlled with diet and exercise?” Sometimes. It’s true that you can do a A LOT with your lifestyle choices to stay in good control of your blood sugar.

However, it’s not easy, and there are no days off. For example, to stay in good control, I basically have to work out intensely an hour a day, poke my finger numerous times a day, and be very, very, very careful about the quantity and quality of carbs (and all foods, really) I eat. There’s no, “Oh, just this once, have a donut, it’ll be okay,” because every time your blood sugar spikes beyond normal ranges, IT KILLS IMPORTANT CELLS THAT THE BODY CAN’T REGENERATE! And that leads to long-term complications. Such as your feet falling off and you going blind and other fun stuff. Aiyyeeee!

So, know that your loved one with diabetes who is trying to stay in good control can’t ever just exhale and say, “Just for today I’m going to eat like everyone else/celebrate/be lazy/feel normal.” Well, I shouldn’t say “can’t” because we can all choose whatever it is we choose, but there are potential serious consequences. Even if 90% of the time, all this stuff is no problem and we just do it automatically, the other 10% of the time when you’re just so over it really, really, really sucks.

That’s one reason a lot of diabetics deal with depression or just generally being sad or angry. Sometimes you wake up and think, I just don’t want to deal with food today. I don’t want to get out of bed because that means I have to make choices and poke my finger and take my medicine and go to the f***king gym AGAIN and there’s no guarantee I still won’t get complications some day and I’d rather just skip it, thanks. And maybe if I were 78 instead of 38, I’d say screw it, but in the words of the kids from Bye Bye Birdie, I’ve gotta lotta livin’ left to do.