In my novel Fly on the Wall,
which comes out in paperback in November with this new cover,
Gretchen Kaufman Yee collects a whole lot of things,
from plastic chinese food to comic books to collectible toys from Kid Robot.
All the things she collects are real things, except the one that features most in the story -- Bean Curd Babies. I made these up. There are actually Tofu People toys-- or there were, my sister used to have some --
(although googling Tofu People does not turn those up at all but instead leads me to this really unusual website involving Tofu People Olympics, yes you heard me right)
but I invented my own similar kind of thing and gave them pets and various qualities from my imagination.

Well, Fly on the Wall is being translated into Italian, and my charming Italian translator emailed me because she'd been searching everywhere for Bean Curd Babies, poor thing, when they don't exist!
(Another translator once emailed me about Reginald in The Boyfriend List. She had been working for hours and hours to try and find a context in which my use of the word made sense. And that's because my use of the word doesn't make any sense at all.)
Anyway, my Italian translator sweetly emailed me this photo, asking -- is this the thing you're talking about!?? And really, it IS a Bean Curd Baby.

And a mighty cute one, too. Though it is plush, and the ones Gretchen collects are plastic.
Anyhow, a long, rambling post. Have a great week!

--E

PS Don't forget to go on Wednesday to the Tomkins Square Library in NYC for this event:
FEBRUARY 7th
Erin Downing, Prom Crashers
Aimee Friedman, Hollywood Hills
Robyn Schneider, Better Than Yesterday
Thu-Huong Ha, Hail Caesar
and readers from This is PUSH anthology