BookLust

Get Down Tonight

Happy Groovy Hallowe'en!

How Long, Great Pumpkin, How Long?

Conversation between hubby and wife concerning the carving of  Hallowe'en pumpkins:

Wife: I've already finished carving both my pumpkins. You didn't want me to work on the third one, because you insisted on carving one yourself. It's just sitting there in kitchen. When the heck are you gonna get to it?

Hubby: You can't rush an artist. I'm like a sculptor with his stone – waiting for the image inside the pumpkin to come out and speak to me.

Wife: Uh....huh.

Stories Can Wait

Saw a wonderful documentary tonight on the life and work of Canadian writer Mavis Gallant. She's in her mid 80's now, and still such a charming, elegant, insightful woman. Known for her many beautiful, perceptive short stories, she said of this medium, that one musn't read short stories like novels. One doesn't devour a collection of short stories in one sitting; one is to read a short story, close the book and then go on to something else for a bit, for in her words, "stories can wait."

Soup's On!

Speaking of Hallowe'en and food, I wanted to mention that last night I made the most amazing chicken noodle soup with the new love of my live, my sweet, sweet slow-cooker. If you don't own a slow-cooker, and you are a busy person who loves home-made meals, then honey, get thee to a store and get one PDQ. It's the easiest thing to do. Limited prep time, throw the stuff in, and 8-11 hours later, you've got a masterpiece on your hands, I'm not kidding. So far I've made turkey stew, split pea soup, pork stew, chicken soup and beef stew. There is nothing more satisfying than a hot home-made meal on a frosty Fall day. And the hubby is so happy he's like putty in my hands!

And so in honour of chicken soup and the brisk beautiful month of October, I leave you with this lovely poem from Maurice Sendak's treasured book, Chicken Soup With Rice:

In October
I'll be host
to witches, goblins
and a ghost.
I'll serve them
chicken soup
on toast.
Whoopy once
whoopy twice
whoopy chicken soup
with rice.

Ghost Eats It All!

Having friends who are cartoonists, illustrators and writers is such a kick. I love the feeling of walking into a bookstore, and seeing a name I recognize on the cover of a book, and saying to whoever is with me, Hey! I know that guy!

Last week when I had a chance to escape from the studio I just happened to see this book in one of my local bookstores, as part of a Hallowe'en display, so I snatched it up quick. It's an adorable little board book called Ghost Eats It All!, which is all about a greedy ghost and a poor hungry monster. My very talented online pal Janee Trasler is the author and illustrator of this book, and she's got more books coming in the future! Congrats, Janee!

It's not too late to get a copy of this cute book for some Hallowe'en reading. I know you'll eat it up! Yum!

Compute This!

Oy. The last few days have been a real kicker. Still working like crazy, trying to keep up with deadlines. And wouldn't you know it, when I'm up against the wall, that's when my computer decides to die. Kaput. Finito. On Saturday morning, it bit the big one. Got a computer guy to come  in on Sunday to do a post mortem, and found out that three of my circuits burnt out. But all I cared about, of course, was my precious hard drive. Thankfully, all is well with my data (maybe this horrific experience will finally teach me to back up my files on a more regular basis?)

So yesterday evening I finally got me a new baby! I'm not a big-time computer savvy person (obviously) but from what I understand, this sucker is pretty darn good. Got me an Apple Mac Pro. So sweet! And the best part is (and this is kind of really embarrassing to admit) I'm finally up to OS X! Yes, it's true. I've been knuckle-dragging my way through life on 9.2 for waaaaay too long. So  hopefully a lot of my old computer problems will be gone. Just like my bank account.

Ok, back to work!

The Bountiful Book

Oh. My.

Can you believe this? Yes, it really exists. And it's right here in Toronto!! How did I miss this? Well, probably because it's by the 401 highway, close to Pearson International Airport, not an area of the city that I frequent with any regularity. So what the heck is it? Well, it's part of a new public art exhibition, called Artstage.

The artist of this glorious monument (entitled The Book) is Ilan Sandler, and here's a little bit about his thoughts regarding his sculpture:

The Book is a steel sculpture with two pages torn away from its spine. The spine is perpendicular to the ground, the covers are open, and the pages appear to blow in the wind. From the highway viewers see a book that looks as if it were lifted by the wind and oriented towards a sheet that has already escaped its binding. Because the scale of the book is enlarged, the sculpture becomes anthropomorphized and appears to be performing a choreographed dance with the escaping page...Although most books tend to be read from front to back, The Book's gesture can be absorbed by viewers in an instant as they drive by the installation. However, viewers who have an opportunity to get closer to the site will recognize that the holes in the steel pages form clusters of words. The clustered texts link the letters of the Latin alphabet to its predecessors, which include the Phoenician alphabet that emerged from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Phoenician letters that developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs were used to represent syllabic sounds of Semitic languages dating to approximately 2000 B.C. Carvings of a twenty-two character Phoenician alphabet from 1000 B.C. have been linked to earlier carvings from approximately 1750 B.C. (known as the Wadi el-Hol script) that have been inspired by particular Egyptian hieroglyphs...The steel book is a monument poised between eras in the evolution of thought.

I have got to go see this. This beauty will be around for three years, so I guess I've got time to find a way to get to see it. Anyone wanna drive me there? Heh.

I Was A Teenage Popsicle!

No, not me, silly. It's a title of a new YA book, written by my pal and former SLUSH writer-in-crime Bev Katz-Rosenbaum! I'm so thrilled and happy for Bev I just might implode. I Was A Teenage Popsicle is a really fun story about a sixteen year-old girl, Floe Ryan, who along with her parents, is frozen at the Venice Beach Cryonics Center until a cure can be found for their rare disease. Floe gets thawed out, and that's where the fun really begins. In Floe's words:

Now I've been thawed, and guess what, it's ten years in the future and I'm still a teenager. And my parents are still, shall we say, chilling out... So now my little sister is my older sister, and payback's a beyotch. She's making me suffer for every snotty thing I ever did. Try getting used to that...not to mention a new school, new technology, and a zillion other new things that happened while I was napping in the freezer.

If you live in Toronto, this Sunday October 22, Bev's having her book launch party at the Yonge & Eglinton Indigo, starting at 2:30. There'll be refreshments and promotional giveaways, and of course a chance to meet Bev! Oh, and I'll be there, too. How could I miss enjoying the success of my talented friend?

Congrats, Bev. You really deserve this. We've sure come a long way since those days of SLUSH, haven't we?

My Gorey Death

Ah geez, c'mon! I've been seriously cutting down on the drinking, honestly! And I only have gin and tonics in the summer. Mmmmmm.... gin and tonics....

From the What Horrible Edward Gorey Death Will You Die? quiz, found via the always delightful Isabella of Magnificent Octopus fame.

Overheard in the Bookstore 3

Ok, it wasn't really overheard, it was actually said directly to me.

The workload is so overwhelming that I haven't even entered a bookstore in the past 3 weeks (and let's not even begin to discuss how much reading I have accomplished in this time). But yesterday I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of good ol' Bloor West Village quality time, including wandering around my local bookstore. One of the delightful employees smiled from ear to ear when I walked in, and turned to her colleague in an excited manner to say, "Look who's here, John! Look!"

I smiled back, though somewhat confused, until she explained to me that this morning she had said to her colleague, "I have a feeling that today we will have a visit from Mrs. Storms."

How d'ya like them apples? Bookstore staff that can actually foretell your arrival! Talk about exceptional customer service!