photos

birthday bucket.

Today Bucket is nine years old.

Last year on Bucket’s birthday it was snowing.

Today it is almost summer-warm outside. I hope she doesn’t find that confusing.

She spent most of her birthday asleep on the bed, and was not really into birthday photos.

 

 

She was more interested in birthday tummy rubs, which she got, of course.

 

In non-kitten birthday news, there is not much news. I am still behind on emails and such. I am working on all sorts of things including that blog post about writing and busyness and non-writing things involved in this whole writer gig. I am also trying to be nice to myself and drink tea and maybe actually have time to write, which would be nifty.

Mostly right now I am all about bright blossoming things with open windows and new sandals. Looking curiously at the sunshine and wondering what wonders springtime will bring.

And my desk chair just broke. I can blame Mercury retrograde for that, right?

By erin, ago

almost springtime

I was in NYC last week for a few busy days and nights of half business/half vacation, with some overlapping of both in between. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference, especially when there is delicious food involved.

Here is delightfully out-of-focus photographic evidence, with me all grey & pink and springy, even though it was still lingering-winter chilly at the beginning of the week:

 

I forget how much I like New York until I’m there again surrounded by so many lovely people and so much fabulous food. (Most of my schedule revolved around lunches and dinners, I ate extremely well and now my refrigerator is making me sad.)

The week turned absolutely gorgeous weather-wise, too, and I finally got to walk the High Line which was beautiful and just starting to blossom with spots of color.

I also ran around Sleep No More for the ninth time and did indeed see things I hadn’t seen before. I’d go again, too, since it’s always so different, even though now certain rooms and hallways and shadowed corners seem familiar. I had one of my first genuine moments that made me jump this time, too, very nearly alone on the fifth floor. (Don’t think I’d stumbled across the padded room up there before, either.)

But seriously, mostly I ate a lot (I had dinner twice on Thursday!) and I don’t want to torment you with food, especially if you’re hungry, dear reader, though I did take a picture of the caramel popcorn at The Breslin, because how could I not?

Back in Boston now, where after a bit of a cold welcome it is now bright, open-window almost springtime here as well.

Not going anywhere for the next while but I’m going to have to lock myself away for some serious working time. Still composing a blog post (it might end up being an experiment in vlogging) about how it is that writing time seems to be a fickle, fleeting thing nowadays and there will be a few addendums to the sorta-FAQ soon(ish).

Also I bought an orchid because it seemed a springy thing to do. Hopefully I can keep this one alive, I have a lousy history with orchids.

By erin, ago

FAQ addendum & a kitten

I had wanted to have Part II of the Not-A-FAQ done by now but I had a document saving hiccup and got busier than I’d expected so it’s still in progress. It will hopefully be posted sometime next week.

However! I have made an addendum with some additional questions and hopefully appropriate answers over on Part I for your information and enjoyment.

Also, here is a picture of Tessa, staring at me through the door of the office. She was yelling incessantly but looks all sweet and quiet in this deceptive photograph.

By erin, ago

canada love

I have just returned from a few splendid days in Toronto.

I <3 Toronto. It was my third trip since September so it is starting to feel familiar and friendly.

The main point of the trip was the Toronto Public Library’s Book Lover’s Ball which was all fancy-dress and sparkly. I mostly flounced around sparkling with the delightful Lesley Livingston so I hope she will not mind if I snag her photo to share and if she does mind I can make it up to her when I buy her that drink I owe her.

I still don’t think something should really be called a Ball when there is no dancing but there was mingling and lovely people and then a seated dinner with a designated author per table. I really did get the best table, full of delightful, interesting people that were also somehow six degrees of my Canadian publicist. I would tell you the giraffe story but I think you had to be there. Also, during the cocktail hour I basically accosted Ami McKay to gush over her gorgeous vintage gown. There was a fashion show with splendid book-inspired collections and bonus swordfighting and the more I talk about this evening the more I think it probably sounds even more surreal if you weren’t there but I had a splendid time.

The other highlight of the trip was the Random House Blogger Love Fest, which was a fantastic afternoon with local book bloggers invited over to Random House to be appreciated and I got to serve as a surprise special guest along with the aforementioned Ami McKay and also Paula McLain, they are both absolutely delightful and I kind of want us all to go on tour together. In my imagination we would do this looking something like The Andrews Sisters. I was doubtful beforehand that we would actually be a complete surprise but apparently we were and it made the entire thing even more fun. Thank you to all the wonderful bloggers and to everyone who put the event together!

In between official obligations I actually had some time to get to see more of the city and have fantastic food (I am a teensy bit obsessed with Origin) with good company. Friday night there was that perfect snowglobe snow and it was all warm-feeling in winter cold wonderful. I took this photo of the CN Tower, though it doesn’t quite capture the snow:

Hopefully I will be back soon.

By erin, ago

housecleaning

I have a small windowless office. Over the last few months it became more of a place to put things I didn’t want to deal with than a proper space to work in, so yesterday I made a lot of coffee and locked myself inside not quite with the goal of organizing, really, but in an attempt to clear out some of the mess and make it a more habitable space. I had aspirations of coziness. I put on my “Early Jazz” Pandora station for soundtrack purposes. It could still use some work and I need to go through all of my files and things, but I think as far as overall habitable/cozy I was fairly successful.

The floor was covered in piles of stuff, I really should have taken a “before” photo. Lights are both new to this room, I switched out the floor lamp that had been too bright for a lamp and a mirrored sconce and while it’s not hugely bright in here I’m usually at the computer anyway so I think it’s sufficient. It makes it more atmospheric. Almost everything on the walls was put up yesterday and there are still a few spots that need something but it’s a vast improvement.

The desk side of the room isn’t quite as cohesive yet, there’s also an oddly shaped nook behind it that really seems to want a tree or something. Maybe when I have time I’ll make a paper tree to loom in the corner.

So I am typing this from my much cozier yet still small and windowless office. Also, I think because it is windowless it stays toasty warm, I think it also gets heat from the hallway. Methinks I will be spending a lot of time in here while I’m at home this winter.

Also, this made me giggle delightedly:

Roswell in the circus! On the circus? Either way, I love it and you can click it and go read all the splendid stories that Kyle Cassidy’s blog readers came up with, circuses and clockwork and a truly splendid cat.

Am in housecleaning mode, both with the apartment and in my head. Getting ready to go out on my January mini-tour next week. This afternoon I took a walk in the snow and sunshine at the same time.

Now I am going to drink green tea and think thoughtful thoughts and possibly read.

By erin, ago

belated post-tour musings & photos

I am always surprised by these last days of the year. They sneak up on me, hiding behind the holidays with a brand new year in tow. I think, “wait, what?” and then it’s January. Every time.

This year is probably worse than most, though, since the last few months have been so busy, though the fall tour is already seeming like a dream in these dwindling days of 2011. I know there are stories that I meant to share that never made it onto the blog (I had such grand plans to do a blog post per tour stop, I really did) but I suppose this will have to do, a late December post of camera-caught images and a few already gone moments in between.

Being on a book tour is a travel tease, you get to see cities from car windows and rarely if ever have proper time to explore. I found this particularly frustrating since I haven’t traveled much, but at the same time it’s like having a little sampler platter of cities. During my second trip to Toronto I had some free time and actually got to see the city from very high up:

One of many views from the CN Tower. I did get to see a fair amount of the city from the ground as well, including a lot of really good food, but it was the only city where I got to have a proper very high view.

Also falling into the interesting view category, on my second very short trip to London, this was the view from my hotel room window:

For those of you playing along, that is St Pancras station, and I was staying at the hotel that is the former Midland Grand, both of which appear in The Night Circus. Also I don’t believe I mentioned before that during that 24 hour trip to London I unexpectedly met Audrey Niffenegger because we both happened to be having lunch in the same teeny tiny restaurant and this is apparently the kind of thing that happens in my life now and also she is delightful & lovely.

I thought about doing book tour hotel superlatives, like Yummiest Room Service Breakfast (Raphael Hotel in Kansas City: portobello & goat cheese omelet with a parmesan potato cake!) or Largest Hotel Bathroom (the Alexis Hotel in Seattle, I have lived in apartments smaller than that bathroom) but then there were too many lovely hotels and I got into weird categories like Most Swoon-worthy Elevator Doors:

The Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee, all fabulously art deco and you have to pull open those doors, of course. I have a thing for art deco anyway, I think the desk lady thought I was weird when I kept taking photos of the elevators and the light fixtures.

Also while in Milwaukee (in Oconomowoc, technically) I had an event I can’t say was Best or Favorite but it was a particularly nice, something extra thoughtful in the post-reading discussion, maybe I was in a thoughtful mood because I’d found out that Steve Jobs died just before we started (The Night Circus was written on several different Apple computers) and I don’t even remember everything I talked about but it stands out in my memory nonetheless.

There are so many things it seems like too much to have occurred in such a comparatively short amount of time. So many wonderful booksellers and red scarves and readers, it is still so strange to me that people can visit a place that existed in my head for so long, and it is so many people in so many different places. Maybe that’s why I am still dizzy from everything despite the fact that I’ve been post-tour for a while now, though the holidays are always dizzying in their own sugar plum way.

I took this photo in Austin, Texas:

I think perhaps it’s my favorite photo of the tour, for a lot of reasons but mostly because of that “so much” added in different handwriting. That’s what the tour was, really. That’s why it’s difficult to capture in words and pictures after the fact, because it was so much. So much. People and places and airplanes and books and wine and chocolate mice and love.

So much.

By erin, ago