Instead of talking about actual trash (composed of milk cartons, banana peels, and smelly tuna cans—UGH) I’d like to discuss the very high-brow topic of trashy novels. Stay with me.. you know you want to. After all, this IS a blog for writers and readers, so I think it would be appropriate. For some reason, the second I think about trashy novels and/or trashy novelists, the first name which pops into my head is Nora Roberts. I’ve probably read more of her books than I care to admit (Mom, I hope you are not reading this) and it all started with a copy of “One Summer” that I picked up for 75 cents at a yard sale. I remember being way too young to be reading such “filth” -as my mom would refer to it- but I knew I was immediately hooked like a kid on rock candy. My other Roberts favorites include “Hot Ice,” and “Affaire Royale” (Lord knows if it’s still in print!) Dominick Dunne’s novels are also a guilty pleasure.. particularly “An Inconvenient Woman” which I will still pick up from time to time, especially when I’m suffering from writer’s block and I need a seductive distraction. Let’s face it..we all need a little glamour, sex, and cheesy suspense from time to time. 
Now when I’m looking for a really trashy “jolt” I pick up some Roxanne St. Claire. I’m always quite amused by her covers featuring men’s nude torsos (“Hunt Her Down,” “Make Her Pay”) but it does go along with the territory. “Take Me Tonight,” (which unfortunately doesn’t feature a nude male chest on its cover) left me utterly transfixed (and needing a tissue for my drool).
No, I am not proud of myself for reading junk when I should be learning something important about politics, finance, or the environment. But oh..it feels so good to be naughty. 
July 29th, 2010
| Posted by Maria Garcia-Kalb | 2010 Debs
| 4 Comments
First, a couple brief announcements …
The talented Dave Tavani produced and directed a super-cute, enticing book trailer for Simply From Scratch. Thank you so much, Dave. And thank you to the lovely Lola Culp-Osborne for lending her voice as Ingrid. Turn up your volume & enjoy!
If you’d like to read the first chapter of my book, visit the Book page of my website, and click “Excerpt.”
And now, onto this week’s theme: Trash.
I learned more about life while yardsaling with my friend Jen than I did in four years of high school. Accompanying Jen on her hunt for the perfect coffee table to decoupage was a lesson in perseverance, character (both a person’s and an object’s), quality, map-reading, map-folding, and usefulness.
In my opinion, Jen’s most impressive score of all time was a door handle for her used Jetta, which she found after roaming through rows of wrecked cars in a junkyard. As you might guess, she comes from a long line of fearless and thrifty Yankees.
South Jersey also boasts a fair share of brilliant yardsaling sharks, including my mother-in-law, who once staked claim on a set of pristine woolen Ethan Allen area carpets, and haggled the seller down to $30, right in his own driveway.
I don’t have that kind of tenacity. However, I am proud of one item that I trashpicked during summertime in college. I was driving home (coincidentally, from Jen’s house) when I spotted — on the curb next to a row of trashcans — an old wooden letterbox that had been antiqued. After inspecting it in my headlights, I tossed it onto the passenger seat and headed home. One man’s trash ….
I scraped the gunk off, sanded the wood, and stained it a warm oak color. Then I crafted little velvet pillows for the inside, and voila: the letterbox was transformed into storage for Matt’s chess pieces.
In Simply From Scratch, my narrator, Zell, treasures the very last items that her beloved, Nick, trashpicked before he died. But you’ll have to read the book to find out what those items are ….
~Alicia Bessette
July 28th, 2010
| Posted by Alicia Bessette | 2010 Debs
| 8 Comments
On the top of my computer armoire is a stack of writing books. One of my favorites is Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s part memoir, part “toolkit,” as King calls it. The horror master reveals his tricks of the trade, and talks about how the love of writing gripped him as a child.
But my favorite anecdote in this beautifully-written book?
It’s the story of how King began the book Carrie. He was dead broke, married with a few kids, and working as a schoolteacher. He wrote in every spare second, like a lot of us do. The idea for his novel about a teenager girl who had the power of telekinesis came to him, and he typed up a few pages – before realizing they were awful. In frustration, he crumpled them up and threw them in his overflowing trash can.
Later his wife, Tabitha, spotted the pages. She brushed off the cigarette ash, smoothed them out, and began to read. Then she handed them back to King. “You’ve got something here,” she told him. “I really think you do.”
Carrie launched King’s career and proved that wives really do know best. Er, I mean that before trashing a work in progress, it’s always a good idea for a writer to get a second set of eyeballs on the page.
In my second novel, Skipping a Beat, my main character, Julia Dunhill, sees bits of her life in scenes from the world’s great operas. One is Cavalleria Rusticana. The backstory to the tale of tenor Turiddu and his love Lola is just as fascinating for me as the actual opera. Composer Pietro Mascagni was a dirt-poor piano teacher when he wrote it for an opera competition, hoping a win would reverse his fortunes. Like so many artists, he was incredibly self-critical, and he ended up despairing of his work. But his wife believed in him, and she secretly mailed it to the judges (again the wife!) He won, and just like that, in the snap of a finger, his life turned around.
The moral is clear: Don’t trash your work. Set is aside. Re-read it another day, or better yet, ask Stephen King’s wife to read it for you. Sure, the work might belong in the trash can. But you also might be sitting on something pretty spectacular.
July 27th, 2010
| Posted by Sarah Pekkanen | 2010 Debs
| 9 Comments
Growing up in New Jersey, we had “junk week,” I think twice a year. It was when you could put anything you didn’t want anymore out on the curb, and the city would come pick it up. It turned the whole town into one giant free yard sale. Amazing!
My two favorite junk week memories:
1) My elegant mom dragging a mattress across the road calling triumphantly “It’s a Beautyrest!!”
2) Our next door neighbors, rumored to have some association with the Rite Aid drugstore chain, throwing away a mountain of still-in-wrappers cosmetics. I am not kidding when I say the mound was as big as the kind of autumn leaf pile kids gather to jump in, or those drifts of snow made on the side of the road after the plow goes by. Mascara, blush, coconut scented sunscreen, hairbushes, all brand new and untouched. Treasure, I tell you!
It’s not on the same scale, but I like when a whole street gets together to do garage sales all on the same day. That way people who don’t have enough stuff to bother doing a sale of their own still get to go for it, and for buyers it’s fantastic. Twenty years ago I hit one of those for my first apartment, and I still use the baking sheet I got there for 50 cents.
Just yesterday we bought two used DVDs for cheap in a local charity shop: Alien and Spiderman. Movie night tonight!
What are your favorite finds from stuff that other people have discarded?
July 26th, 2010
| Posted by Emily Winslow | 2010 Debs, Emily Winslow, The Whole World
| 10 Comments
Simply From Scratch is a bestseller in Germany! Weiß der Himmel von dir entered the Spiegel Bestseller list at number 35 last week. Additionally, Thalia, a German bookstore chain, chose it as its Book of t
he Month for August. Simply From Scratch’s official sale date in North America is August 5. To pre-order, click here. And to view the German trailer, click here. (The text reads, “Two happy people/An unhappy accident/The end of the world/A new beginning/With a special ingredient: friendship/For all fans of P.S. I LOVE YOU.” The music is a loop from “Hawks in the Orchard,” a song off Alicia’s second album, Orchard.
July 25th, 2010
| Posted by admin | 2010 Debs
| 8 Comments
Our guest today is author Eve Marie Mont.
Her debut novel, Free to a Good Home, is about a young woman who rescues dogs for a living, even though she’s in need of rescue herself. Set in a small New England town over the course of one year, the novel chronicles each month in the life of Noelle Ryan, a veterinary technician searching for a place to call home. When she discovers she cannot have a baby and her husband leaves her, Noelle has only her Great Dane, Zeke, to comfort her. To add insult to injury, Noelle’s ex asks her to act as a caretaker for his elderly mother, who blames Noelle for the breakup. But when a carefree musician named Jasper gives Noelle a second chance at life—and at love—Noelle learns that home is truly where the heart is.
Eve Marie Mont lives with her husband in suburban Philadelphia, where she teaches high school English and creative writing. She drew inspiration for the novel from her relationship with her own mother-in-law and with her adorable shelter dog, Maggie.
Thanks Eve, for stopping by the Debutante Ball!
********
What Our Pets Can Teach Us
In writing Free to a Good Home, I spent a lot of time thinking about what makes the human-animal bond so extraordinary. How do pets seem to know instinctively what we’re feeling and how to make us feel better? Why do they seem to enjoy life so much while the rest of us seem content to lead lives of quiet desperation? What do our pets know that we don’t? Perhaps it is that they still have a sense of innocence and wonder about the world. They are like children who never have to grow up. And when we learn to see life through their eyes, it restores our humanity. 
Our relationships with our pets are among the least complicated and most rewarding of our lives. Pets ask so little of us, yet they give so much. They listen without judgment. They play with us when we need to decompress from life’s human stresses, but they know how to be gentle and still in our moments of sadness and grief. With their soulful eyes, playful paws, and wagging tails, they enter our homes and hearts, leaving our lives changed forever. I cannot imagine a life without pets, just as I cannot imagine a heaven without my dog.
Yes, I am a dog person. That is not to say I don’t like cats because I do. But dogs move me. Dogs like me. To paraphrase Jerry Maguire, dogs complete me. So when my husband and I were first thinking of getting a dog, we decided to adopt so we could repay the favor—complete a dog’s life by providing shelter, food, companionship, and love to a dog in need. Maggie had been discovered on the edge of a farmer’s field, covered with ticks. She’d also been adopted and returned three times before we found her. Thank God the shelter had a no-kill policy, as otherwise, Maggie’s fate might have been three strikes, you’re out. For us, it was love at first sight. Like meeting my husband, finding Maggie seemed like fate.
Since the day we brought Maggie home, she has been an integral part of our lives. She’s experienced all our joys and sorrows right along with us, ready to offer support and love whenever needed. She’s been sick and has had to be rushed to the vet, and she’s comforted us through our own illnesses. Watching a movie just isn’t the same without her sitting between us on the sofa. Sadly, I must confess, she also sleeps with us on the bed. I get an inordinate amount of pleasure watching her roll around on the grass in our backyard or trying to catch water coming out of the garden hose. The sight of Maggie eating bubbles is ridiculously funny.
Sure, she is older now and suffers from arthritis, and her eyes are getting cloudy with age, but she still manages to act like a puppy at least once every day. While we still have her with us, I hope to keep learning from her how to live in the moment, play well with others, embrace life fully, and most of all, how to love unconditionally. Maggie knows that lesson well.
What is the best lesson your pet has taught you? I’d love to hear your stories.
Regards,
Eve
*To enter a drawing for a free copy of Free to a Good Home, please leave a comment below!
July 24th, 2010
| Posted by admin | 2010 Debs
| 14 Comments
I think it’s pretty clear from my author pic that we’re cat people here. When we first moved to Canada, we brought two with us, Sophie (in the pic) and Grinder. Six days in the car really pissed Grinder off and the second day we were here, my husband smoked up the house with the wood stove (we were new at it) and so he opened all the doors, forgetting the cats were under house arrest. The next time we did a head count, we were short this adorable mug.
Grinder had flown the coop.
He’d always been a wanderer, so at first we just hoped for the best, but after three weeks, our hearts were pretty much broken. Without going into a whole long story about the day we returned the moving van to the US (had to take it back across the border), I will say it was right up there with my top ten worst days of my life. However, when we got home, there was a message on the voicemail.
“Hi. We saw an orange cat down by the ferry and when we tried to go after him, he ran over the rocks and down to the water. If yours is still missing, you might want to check it out.”
It was ten o’clock at night, raining, and pitch black. Not to mention the ferry terminal was four kilometers away – a long ways for a cat to stray. My husband still had a tiny bit of common sense left after our horrific day (mine had been shredded) and refused to go down to the ferry with me saying that we’d never find him that night, but we’d go first thing. The next morning, in driving rain, we went down there and called and called Grinder, to no avail. Finally, we gave up and went to Village to hang more posters. Then the weather broke, so we went back down there and I stood on the rocky cliffs and did that kitty-kitty-kitty trill thing that women in my family seem born knowing how to make, and all of a sudden I heard a meow. And then another. It sounded exactly like MOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!
Luckily, Grinder’s head popped up just in time to save me from throwing myself over the cliff and trying scramble down the side. He was purring before I’d even lifted him off the ground.
I ran out into the street, and on one side, all the cars were lined up, waiting for the next ferry. My husband had gone who knows where. In spite of all the spectators, I stood in the road, clutching that scrawny orange body to my chest, screaming, “VICTOR! VICTOR! I FOUND HIM!” Tears streamed down my face.
One of my worst days ever, followed by one of my best. I seriously can think of very few days when I’ve had such a rush of emotions like that. Until last year when that knucklehead cat sideswiped us again.
Grinder left us last May. In typical fashion, he just let out a howl and died right there in front of us. That’s how he did things. It was horrible and heartbreaking but so much like him, it kind of makes me smile now. I miss that little guy. One of my most favourite essays that I’ve ever written was inspired by Grinder. So here it is:
Ten things I have learned from Grinder
1. Sleep in the sunshine whenever possible.
2. Drink lots of fresh water.
3. Go on at least one adventure every day – three or more is better.
4. Have lots of friends, but be your own self too.
5. Accept love, and give love, but don’t let anyone hold on to you too tightly.
6. Do a few things you know are “against the rules” every day.
7. Pay attention to wildlife.
8. Eat when you’re hungry, sleep when you’re tired.
9. If you want something, be patient and stay after it. If you feel frustrated or it gets away, move on to something else. You can always come back to it.
10. Every once in a while it’s natural to forget what you were doing. Who cares? That just means it’s time for another nap.
July 23rd, 2010
| Posted by Joelle Anthony | 2010 Debs
| 11 Comments
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