PopBetty

A Love Letter to Pop Culture

NaNoWriMo 2011: Are You Doing It?

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Coffee and notes
Photo by Rainer Tenhunen.

For those who’ve never heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it’s simple: NaNoWriMo is a free event where participants try to complete 50,000 words of a novel in one calendar month (November).

I’m doing it this year, and I’m excited. Even though I already write professionally, it’s too easy to get swept up in immediately gratifying projects like paying freelance work and blogging, and thus avoid the long-term slog of writing a book. In the words of Tom Spurgeon:

There is, however, a distressing trend culture-wide for a lot of people to aim low, to be perfectly satisfied with delighting the 40 people that follow you closely on Facebook with your clever remarks as opposed to finishing that novel. (link)

Pretty much.

My personal goal for NaNoWriMo is 1000 words a day, for a final word count of 30,000. If I hit 50,000, so much the better, but I’ll be satisfied with the lower number (I’m not a wordy writer, and have a Thanksgiving road trip and other paying & side writing projects coming up). Also, while blogging here will continue as usual, and I won’t bore you with novel updates, I will be posting writing inspiration & advice each Monday.

So…are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Halloween Week: Scary Reads

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Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party

Do you read holiday-themed books? As a bookseller, I always wondered who the audience was for them (especially around Christmas, when we’d get 26 copies of Dating Mr. December).

Well, turns out that audience includes me. In anticipation of Halloween, I picked up Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party for 10 cents. The purchase got me thinking about good Halloween reads, and about making a short Halloween book list for the blog. Being a book nerd, my “short” list quickly turned into 50+ titles.

Halloween Book List

So I’ve created an Amazon aStore of my recommended Halloween books. I approached this list as a former bookseller, meaning it contains both books I love and books that aren’t really my thing, but might appeal to others (for example, I don’t like zombies, but zombie books are on the list).

I’ve also divided the list into 6 categories (see the left hand column) for easier browsing. And I’ve included only one or two titles per author (e.g., there’s only one title by Stephen King), trusting you to fill in the blanks. Click the image below to visit the store.

PopBetty Halloween Books aStore

Disclaimer: I made an aStore because it’s the easiest way to make a book list with images, links & reviews. That said, I’m an Amazon associate, and do get a tiny percentage of the profit when you buy something through the aStore. It’s a teeny-tiny amount, though, and I encourage you to shop around. Remember, there’s the library. There’s Paperbackswap.com. There are your local bookstores. There are free eBook versions of all public domain titles. And of course, there are your local thrift stores (my Halloween book was 10 cents!).

Bonus: Online-Only Treats

Here are a few more scary links that I came across before I decided to make an aStore:

Emily Carroll - Margot's Room

Emily Carroll’s work: Carroll (who also wrote the disturbing His Face All Red) has a new webcomic called Margot’s Room. Each Friday leading up to Halloween, a new part of the story comes out, with the link to that story part hidden somewhere in the room above.

Teeny-Tiny & The Witch Woman

Teeny-Tiny & The Witch Woman: An animated version of Barbara K. Walker’s book, Teeny-Tiny & The Witch Woman is a classic, and one of my childhood favorites. I linked to it in the aStore (and still think children will love it), but it’s also on YouTube if you want a quick nostalgia fix.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - Cheek Spiders

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: I’m not going to lie–this book (also in the aStore) scarred me as a child. As Brian Miggels put it,

“That sh*t damaged me. Honestly, that picture of the girl with baby spiders coming out of her face haunted me for years.”

And it’s not just the cheek spiders, it’s the whole book. If you don’t believe me, here are more scans & comments; that Scary Stories has been one of the ALA’s most banned/challenged books for more than 20 years is another testament to its power to disturb. Be sure to get the out-of-print versions illustrated by Stephen Gammell, however; his illustrations make the book.

Fall Frame of Mind: 1 to 3

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I know I said in this post that I was excited for fall. It’s true, and yet…I’m dreading the season too. Not for it’s own sake, but for the cold winter it promises. While I tend to throw myself into fall and winter festivities, it’s largely an act of willful resistance–to the cold, the darkness, and the sense of another year gone.

So, just as Miss Moss had to psyche herself up for summer, I’ve decided to do a series of posts to get myself (and readers) psyched for fall. Think of it as a to-do/photo inspiration list. Here are 1-3:

PopBetty Fall Inspiration - Pumpkin Foods
Row by row: Starbucks pumpkin spice latte copycat recipe by Angie McGowan; pumpkin shake by Martha Stewart; pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin spice pancakes by Joy the Baker.  

1. Pumpkin-based foods: Something about pumpkin and its attendant spices says fall in the coziest way possible. I’ve only ever had sweet pumpkin dishes like the ones above; this year, I’ll also try branching out into savory pumpkin dishes like this pasta with pumpkin, pancetta, and broccoli rabe.

PopBetty Fall Inspiration - Pile of Books
2. Reading books under a blanket: Thanks to the Borders’ liquidation sales, and as a former bookseller & a frequent thrift store shopper, I have hundreds of unread books in my house. While I believe personal libraries should have lots of “to-read” books (that way you can shop your own shelves, a wonderful feeling), it’s getting ridiculous. My current goal is to get rid of 50 books by the end of October (donated, posted on PBS, or sold on Amazon). Which means lots of reading to figure out what goes.

PopBetty Fall Inspiration - Halloween
From left: Luella Bartley AW2008 witch from Vogue.co.uk (love the orange tights!), vintage Betty Grable Halloween photo, and Grandin Road synthetic pumpkins (no longer available, but good D.I.Y. inspiration).  

3. Halloween/Día de los Muertos: It’s time to announce it: next week is Halloween Week on She’s A Betty. From Monday to Friday, it will be all Halloween, all the time. I know some of you might not find that exciting, and I hear you–I’m personally not so into Halloween. But even I’ve had a blast assembling Halloween party concepts, costume ideas, vintage Halloween inspiration, scary book lists, and a few original D.I.Y. projects for the occasion. Can’t wait to show you everything!

What about you guys? How are you dealing with the new season?

Industrial Bookshelf Inspiration

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PopBetty - Industrial Bookshelf Inspiration

Clockwise from top left: photo by Douglas Friedman, for Domino; pipe bookshelves via Lark & Linen; French industrial shelves, $799 from Wisteria (no longer for sale); bookshelf stairs from Locati Architects & Interiors; industrial closet shelving by D.I.Y. Diva (includes tutorial); sconce bookshelves, 2 for $139.00 from DirtyBils. All images via Pinterest (click through for specific credits).

Lately, I’ve come across striking examples of industrial shelving. Something about dark metal piping and rich-colored woods hits me square in the gut, and luckily, it’s a look that can be recreated without too much money or effort. See the links above for great retail options and D.I.Y. inspiration/advice. Not pictured, but also helpful, are these D.I.Y. industrial shelving instructions from iVillage.

P.S. There’s less than a week left to enter the Mad Men: The Illustrated World giveaway. The contest closes at 12:00 AM September 28th, and the winner & October’s giveaway book will be announced later that day. Thanks to all who have entered so far!

Book Links: 08/03/11

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Multitasking Print by Brittney Lee

Multitasker print by Etsy seller Britsketch, aka Brittney Lee.

Happy Book Wednesday! Here’s a quick round-up of book-related links:

  • I love graphic novels, but as a bookseller, I constantly encountered parents who didn’t consider graphic novels “real books,” or at least assumed that regular books, no matter how silly or poorly written, were better than any comics. Manga, in particular, got the side-eye. So I was happy to see two posts lauding graphic novels for kids, one by a former contributor to Cookie and the other by The Pioneer Woman.

Better Book Titles

  • I recently read Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris, one of the best odes to reading ever written. She mentions her father, Clifton Fadiman, several times throughout the book, which is how I discovered Information Please, the witty & intellectual radio show he hosted in the 1930s & 40s.

Old-Fashioned Gothic Romance Covers