GLOSSING OVER IT

fiction. fashion. food. frivolity.

Q&A with Author Erin Celello

Today I’m thrilled to be featuring an interview with Madison author Erin Celello about her latest novel, Learning to Stay (NAL/Penguin 2013), which, as Erin describes it, explores “the question of what happens when one person in a marriage becomes someone fundamentally different.” In Learning to Stay, what triggers the change is a traumatic brain injury that the husband, [...]

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In Recognition of the Saints Who Live With Writers

When I was a kid in Catholic school, November 1 meant dressing up as a saint and parading down the aisle of our parish church. A lot of the costumes involved plastic, medieval weaponry. At least one girl always dressed up as Joan of Arc, complete with sword and shield. There were a lot of angel wings [...]

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Big Book News

Waiting to announce a book deal reminds me of the initial weeks of pregnancy, when you’re waiting until a certain time to share your good news. Perhaps it’s out of caution–maybe it hasn’t been an easy road and you want to wait until something “official”– a doctor’s visit, maybe, or the end of the first [...]

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Literary Matchmaking

A lot of writers have compared the process of finding a literary agent to online dating. Sending out a query letter about your novel is like creating that perfect online profile–with just enough information to pique people’s interest and leave them wanting to find out more, but not so much information that you come across [...]

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Back to School Style for Grown-Ups

The hot hot summer has begun to cool and soon it’s time for back to school. Since I’m not a teacher and no longer a student, and since my son is still in diapers, I can think about the first day of school without panic. (Though I do still have that recurring dream about not [...]

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The “YES” (in other words, agented!)

I have a quote, framed and printed on a letterpress card, next to my desk. It’s a reminder to help me through all the “nos” and the “maybe ifs” that come with being a writer and putting my work out into the world. Today, I’m here to attest that it’s true. That after the final [...]

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The Flavors of Summer

The summer issue of Edible Madison magazine is out, both in print and online. For this issue, I met with the fun and fabulous ladies behind NessAlla Kombucha. I didn’t know a whole lot about kombucha before interviewing them for the article, so I learned a ton, including how to home-brew kombucha. You can get [...]

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Is there a place for poetry?

April, what T.S. Eliot called “the cruelest month,” is National Poetry Month. And, in our modern world of clamor and clutter, I have to wonder: is there a place for poetry? I’d like to think the answer is yes. I have dozens of poetry books on my shelves that have not been opened in years. But [...]

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Why We Write

  Ask any writer why he or she writes and you are likely to get the answer, “Because I have to.”  You’d probably get this answer from a bestselling author who’s on deadline to deliver her next manuscript. And you’d probably get the same answer from an unpublished teenager who taps away at a computer [...]

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So Much to Celebrate

On New Year’s Eves past, I’ve stood with my toes in the sand on a Mexican beach, danced on a ballroom floor in San Francisco, bummed a seldom cigarette at a Chicago bar, cozied up with Fat Tires and football in a Colorado condo, and waved my arms on many a curbside, shivering and looking [...]

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