this is not a FAQ part the second

February 27, 2012 By erin

Okay, this took longer to put together than I’d intended but here is Part II of the not really a proper Frequently Asked Questions extravaganza. This is more about me and miscellaneous things than about writing, thus the title.

Part II: Not On Writing 

I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!

— Alice In Wonderland

  

About Erin

 

How old are you?

I get this a lot, I think because no one has stuck my birthdate on Wikipedia yet and I assume it’s difficult to guess from my appearance given that I still get carded frequently. I am currently 33 years old. My birthday is the 8th day of July.

 

Where did you go to school?

I went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. I lived in the same house that Julia Child lived in when she went there, which I still think is pretty darned cool. I majored in Theatre and I probably could have minored in Studio Art had I actually bothered to declare it an official minor. I could have done the same thing with English or Religion, most likely, but I didn’t sleep that much during college so I’m sure there were a lot of things I should have done and didn’t.

 

Are you married?

I don’t like that I even need to cover this but since there are still inaccurate author bios going around I probably should: I was married, I have been separated since early 2010 and I’m currently in the process of getting divorced. It is a long story that the internet does not need to know but I figure the clarification is fair.

 

Where do you live?

Currently Boston, previously Salem. I’ve lived in Massachusetts most of my life. I am thinking of moving later this year but I haven’t decided where just yet.

 

Where did you get that necklace/those boots/that dress?

A great deal of my jewelry comes from Etsy. I am almost always wearing at least one piece of bloodmilk. There are savage salvage pieces in heavy rotation and the necklace with all the keys is from star of the east. I also have a couple of pyrrha wax seal necklaces.

My boots or shoes, with rare exceptions, are Fluevogs. I am not a shoe person, truly, but I am a Fluevog person.

Most of my tour wardrobe has included pieces from AllSaints Spitalfields. There are also bits from Ann Taylor and J.Crew and Trashy Diva.

 

Why do you smell so good?

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

 

What’s your favorite book/movie/band/etc?

I am bad at favorites because I like variety and layers, but here is a small sampling:

Books, some all-time favorites:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock

Movies, same:

The Fall

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Gosford Park

Amélie

Spirited Away

Bands/musicians/etc:

Tori Amos

Florence + the Machine

Radiohead

Arcade Fire

and I’m all into classic jazz lately.

 

About Art Stuff

 

When is your Etsy store going to be back?

I don’t know. Likely not until I have someone else to run it for me which… yeah, I don’t know. I would like it to be active again eventually but I really can’t say when that will be.

 

When will the tarot deck be available?

Good question. Lots of details still need to be worked out and I’ve been putting it off because I want to have the time to give it the attention it deserves but hopefully that will be sometime in the not-too-far future. When there are deck publication details I will post them all over the place, I promise.

 

About Contacting me & Social Media & Such

 

Can I send you art/cookies/books to be signed/etc?

I’m still working on the best way to handle this sort of thing. Right now I can’t receive & return books to be signed, I’m sorry. I’m hoping I’ll eventually have a good setup for sending out signed bookplates or something like that but I don’t have one in place yet. I shall update this accordingly when I do.

If you would like to send me actual (non-perishable) things you can send them care of Doubleday, 1745 Broadway New York NY 10019. Putting “Attention Alison Callahan” will likely help, she’s my beloved editor. Eventually I will get a PO Box, but that will likely require knowing where I’m going to live for a reasonable amount of time.

 

Where else can I find you on the internet?

I’m @erinmorgenstern on Twitter, which is my social media of choice. I like it because it lives in the now. I try to respond to @ replies as much as I can.

I have a facebook fan page that I don’t keep up with personally as much as I’d like to, it is co-run by Doubleday and they speak facebook better than I do.

If you want to ask me a direct question, tweeting at me or blog commenting will likely be most effective.

 

Can I email you?

You can email me at erin@erinmorgenstern.com. I try to respond as much as I can but it’s usually not in anything resembling a timely manner.

If you write me (or have written me) at any other email address I cannot guarantee that I’ve even seen it, with the exception of the address you likely have if you are someone I actually know. I have recently (mostly) caught up on my email so if you have sent me anything important or anything that required a reply, please resend to the address above.

If you want me to do a reading/signing/interview/etc or have a question that involves rights or things of a business sort please contact Doubleday or InkWell Management.

 

Will you come visit my city/country/teahouse?

I would love to, especially if there is tea, but I don’t do much deciding of where I go myself so again, please contact Doubleday or InkWell if you want me to come read things or sign things or drink tea. (I am afraid I cannot do all three at once, alas.)

 

 

Okay, I think that’s it but again if you have other questions not answered here (or in Part I) please feel free to add them in the comments and I will update this accordingly!

checking in

January 27, 2011 By erin

I have a thing for hotels. Which is kind of strange, considering how rarely I stay in them, but I love the idea of hotels. Especially old hotels.

I also have a thing for vintage objects. My latest vintage Etsy find that I simply had to have is this antique hotel service bell:

And along with the antique hotel service bell (which has a lovely, clear ring), I also have reservations to see Sleep No More in New York in March. Twice. Because I know once will not be enough.

Remember Sleep No More? The immersive Hitchcockian MacBeth I was obsessed with last year when it was in Brookline? It’s back, it’s in NYC, and it’s hotel-themed which is making me swoon.

Seriously, I am so deliriously happy about getting to experience it again (twice!) that even the fresh almost-foot of snow outside cannot dull my glee.

I’m going to go write now. Possibly punctuated with occasional giggling and nice, clear rings from a 100+-year-old hotel bell.

calling cards

November 3, 2010 By erin

I decided I needed business cards, but I didn’t particularly want to put “author” or “writer” or “kitten wrangler” on them.

After a lot of pondering and Etsy searching, I decided to go with something along the lines of a Victorian calling card. It seemed appropriate.

So I ordered these from GoGoSnap:

Name on front, website & e-mail on the back. Room to scrawl my phone number if needed. They are swirly gorgeousness & I love them.

Julie at GoGoSnap is brilliant & accommodating & I’m absolutely going back for all my quirky vintage-inspired correspondence needs.

In other news: I still feel odd not doing NaNoWriMo (I keep thinking I’m forgetting to do something) but I am buried in revisions. Revisionland is turning into my natural habitat.  Scrivener 2.0 is making Revisionland a much lovelier place at the moment, though. I may wax poetic on that at some point in the future.

monday miscellany

January 18, 2010 By erin
  • As an addendum to the Fluevog-o-rama post, the boy would like me to mention that he does not have two pairs of vogs, he has three. I forgot about his shiny dress shoes with the diamond pattern that Googling has not helped me find a link or name of the style. They’re shiny, though. I should talk him into letting me do a photo retrospective of his shoes, too.
  • We finished re-watching Season 4 of LOST today. The entire finale is kind of brilliant. I still love Frank. They need to make a movie out of The Hunger Games soon because Tania Raymonde needs to be Katniss. I’m excited to re-watch S5. Also, my crush on Michael Emerson is pure & true & knows no bounds.
  • I’m still in revisionland, which mostly consists of writing down snatches of new scenes in a notebook while breaking down my previous draft in Scrivener. It’s a mess right now, but the new version is starting to have shape, so that’s something.
  • I’m weirdly obsessed with antlers lately, have I mentioned that? I recently got this necklace and I rather love it. I’ve been favorite-ing actual vintage antlers on Etsy, too, but people keep buying them before I get a chance to mull over where I might put them. (I do have one random antler hanging out on one of the bookshelves in the studio already.)
  • I don’t think I’m going to be able to catch the A.R.T.’s production of Gatz, unfortunately, but I’m loving getting bits of The Great Gatsby via @ARTGatz on Twitter. It’s making me want to re-read the book, which I haven’t read since high school.

shiny objects

December 10, 2009 By erin

I had these fabulous intentions of doing an Etsy-o-rama post, with lots of pictures and links to some of my favorite shops, for ease of finding wonderful holiday giftage from wonderful sellers. It was going to be epic!

And then I kept forgetting. And when I remembered again my list kept getting too long and the amount of images and html got daunting and then I’d forget about it again. And it’s December 10th already, you say? Fancy that.

So what you get instead is an Ode to two of my very favorite Etsy shops that both happen to sell shiny objects. And we all know how I love me some shiny objects.

First there is The Copper Camel, which I have mentioned here before. I internet-know (that sounds dirty) the lovely proprietress through the more writing-centric wilds of the web. Beyond making beautiful copper jewelery she is an extremely talented writer as well, and I aspire to someday have a wit as sharp as hers. There should be wit sharpeners that work like pencil sharpeners. Or knife sharpeners.

This week she made me do the dance of shiny object joy with these:

doors

They’re DOORS. Incredibly detailed, hand painted with teensy tiny brushes etched copper DOORS. Look at the Moroccan one up close. I mean, seriously.

I want all of them, of course. But I decided to be good and I just got the castle doors for starters. I cannot wait to see them in person and I can tell already that they will be something I wear all the time and layer with other things.

Each door in the above photos is available individually in her Etsy shop. Do yourself a favor and read her brilliant descriptions for all of them, too. Go forth and buy shiny copper wonderments.

Go. Shoo. Because I almost don’t want to share the other shiny object maker. But it will probably be good for my shopping karma, so I will.

I started buying gorgeous recycled vintage jewelry creations from SavageSalvage just over a year ago, when I found and had to have this bracelet. I have since amassed something of a collection. My most recent acquisition is this piece:

il_fullxfull.102235077

Yes it is even more gorgeous in person. I wore it the last time we went to Sleep No More and the witches really liked it. It got pawed a lot. Not that I’m complaining, those are some sexy witches over there.

I kind of stalk Steph’s Etsy store like a stalky thing, because so many of her designs are one of a kind. Really, I’m still not sure why I’m telling you about them and increasing my consumer competition. Maybe because Steph is a sweetheart who I’ve actually been lucky enough to get to know a bit and I want more people to wear her stuff and receive her gorgeous gift wrapping. (Giftwrapping I have repurposed into paintings myself. It’s like the Etsy circle of life of Art. Or something.)

Currently I’m coveting this piece and this piece and this piece. Because I have a problem and I need some sort of shiny object program with steps.

You have plenty of time to get some gorgeous holiday giftage from either of these wonderful, talented ladies for the lovers of unique, creative shiny things in your life. I’m just sayin’.

magic & pennies

September 15, 2009 By erin

I love how magical the internet is sometimes.

I met the artist known as Clovia over on the Absolute Write Forums. Then she found me over on Etsy, and she liked my art and I liked hers and we arranged a trade.

I traded her a print for these earrings, which are marvelous.

And I mentioned that I loved the Ganesha design in her galleries and she said she’d make me up a little ornamental piece with one of them as well.

I was expecting something very simple, so I kind of flailed around like a crazy person when I saw this.

ganesha ornament

Photos don’t do it justice, there are too many lovely shiny parts and the actual Ganesha design is beautiful and intricate. I have it hanging above my desk and I love it to bits.

Please go check out her Etsy store to see more of her gorgeous work. She does magical things with pennies. (Pennies!)

All spare change should aspire to such lovely destinies.

floppy kittens, etsy sale

July 28, 2009 By erin

It quite suddenly decided to be proper summer around here. In the last week of July. The Kitten Flop Barometer is at Very High Flop.

(Or should that be Very Low Flop, since the floppiness is very low to the ground? Though Bucket is flopped on the table in front of the fan, while Tessa is flopped by my feet on top of a pile of papers that need to be shredded. The Kitten Flop Barometer is not a precise device.)

I seem to be in the middle of all sorts of things which involves a lot of thinking and waiting and not necessarily a lot of interesting blog fodder. Also, it’s hot, which is demotivating.

Things I am waiting for in the mail:

  • BPAL order including bottles of Belle Vinu, Imp & Lawn Gnome
  • DVD of Watchmen
  • New bank card, to replace the unfortunately compromised one.
  • Notice from the bank about all that fun bank fraud stuff. It’s like a money adventure, but not as fun as shopping. When all this is done I am totally buying new shoes.

And of course, I’m keeping an eye on my my e-mail inbox for agent responses. It’s been pretty quiet lately on that front.

I’m writing bits of all sorts of things. I have two big works in progress plus a fairy tale for my writing group and I’m pondering the queens for the tarot deck.

Also, I’m having a sale on original art over on Etsy. Breakdown of ridiculously low prices is over on the art blog. Here, have a very pretty widget to click and go check stuff out:

knights & orchids

July 20, 2009 By erin

On Saturday we went to see Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, which was enjoyable for about an hour and a half and then boring and badly paced for the last hour. And when the credits started I immediately turned to the boy and said “Today we have learned that a good director can elevate a mediocre screenplay to something decent but cannot salvage a final scene as horrible as that one.” Really. Love the direction, love the look of everything, love Luna, love Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe has some brilliant comic timing, but that screenplay was awful.

On Sunday we found out someone has been using my debit card to go on a spending spree in the UK. Bright side: some card monitoring place called to alert me, plus froze the card for me. According to the bank I need to go fill out fraud paperwork. There’s some confusion at this point as to what charges went through and what didn’t, but it’s several hundred dollars, at least. Joy.

In better news, I finished the Phantomwise Tarot Knights today. They’re up in the gallery on phantomwise.com. They were rather difficult, but I’m pleased with how they came out. Only 8 cards left, which is just crazy. Since I started in October of 2006 I’m thinking they’re going to end up finished almost exactly at the 3 year mark.

In other news I’m toying with multiple writing projects in hopes of finishing a draft of something by the end of the year, I just got these bracelets from Bullfinch & Barbury on Etsy and I’m in love with them, Tessa is in love with the huge cardboard box, and I’m going to go make dinner now.

In closing, here is a photo of the gorgeous orchid the boy got from his office, apparently they raffle off the old flowers when they replace them and he got this one. We’re trying not to kill it.

miscellany with hat box (sans hat)

May 7, 2009 By erin

I changed my blog layout. I looked at WordPress layouts until my eyes hurt, and I settled on this one. I like it a lot, though I’m still adjusting to it. I was getting sick of the dark background, and I’ve been craving change lately the way you’d normally crave sugar or salt or caffeine.

Also, I bought a hat box. Or rather, a hat box-esque piece of vintage luggage. I had been eyeing it for a couple weeks and thought of an extra good use for it, so I decided to go ahead and get it. Pictures when it arrives, of course. Though I really need to stop looking through vintage luggage on Etsy, my Etsy addiction was bad enough already.

My photopaintings started the week with promises that they would be done by Friday and they are lying liars. Mostly I’m just waffling over the best way to handle a certain aspect, and once I figure that out they won’t take long at all, but the days are going by and I am continuing to waffle. Ah well.

In other news, LOST is awesome beyond all awesomeness this season and Bucket has fallen in love with the foam lounge chair. These things are actually related as I had to kick Bucket off the chair to watch LOST last night. She was not pleased.

i *heart* friday the 13ths

March 13, 2009 By erin

Two Friday the 13ths in a row! They are one of my favorite types of day. I got married on a Friday the 13th, which probably adds to the fondness, but I liked them before that, too.

I’m wearing BPAL‘s latest 13 blend today, too.

A sweet, comforting base of dark chocolate and brown sugar with thirteen herbs of good fortune, including nutmeg, Tonka, allspice, star anise, Jamaican and African gingers, devil’s shoestring, lucky hand root, and thyme.

It’s a dry, spicy, gingery scent on me with just a little bit of sugar sweet kicking around the edges. Very different from my only other 13 from BPAL, the original white chocolatey version that I wore for my wedding.

Mostly layering paint on a custom painting today that keeps wanting to be darker. I like it better today than I did yesterday, so I think it was right about the dark. Going to let it dry and see how I feel about it after that.

Tessa just jumped in front of the computer, so I assume that means she says hello.

This is my new tea mug that I promised pictures of, on my desk with my statue of Thoth hanging out in the background:

It’s from khphillips on Etsy. (This mug, link has additional angles.) I’ve had my eye on this style of his for ages, I love the tones and the decals, but this is the first one I’ve actually purchased. It’s even lovelier in person. I’m tempted to start collecting them, replace my mass-produced mugs with unique pieces of usable art.

Getting Indian food for dinner, nom nom tandoori salmon. Mulling things over more than editing, I tend to switch back and forth from painter to writer and back again. Today is a painting day.