Win copies of Cecil Castelluci's new book, BEIGE (out in March, I think) and her smokin' hot DC comic, PLAIN JANES -- by going here!

I am starting Beige today. I got a copy at a conference. I lost it for a while and now I found it. I am all over it.

Well, if you read my story "Bake Sale" in The Jealousy Book, then you know that I wrote a story with cupcakes that look like boobs. And here are some mighty excellent ones, in honor of Superbowl Sunday -- from my favorite food blog, The Amateur Gourmet.

(oh, by the way, these are cupcakes in the shapes of breasts, not actual breasts -- but this is maybe a PG-13 link)

xo
E

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

Our last two Teen Author Reading nights were so packed they've moved us to a new East Village location for even more awesomeness the next three times:

6 - 7:30 PM at the Tompkins Square Branch of the New York Public Library
331 East 10th Street (at Ave. B)

• 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

• MARCH 7th •
Maryrose Wood, Why I Let My Hair Grow Out
Justine Larbalestier, Magic's Child
Leslie Margolis, Price of Admission
Eireann Corrigan, Ordinary Ghosts
and readers from the 21 Proms anthology (don't know who is reading but the book includes me, David Levithan, John Green, Daniel Ehrenhaft, Holly Black, Cecily von Zegeisar, Libba Bray, Sarah Mlynowski, Brent Hartinger, Melissa de la Cruz, Ned Vizzini, Jacqueline Woodson...)

• APRIL 4th •
Cassandra Claire, City of Bones
Judy Goldschmidt, Will the Real Raisin Rodriguez Please Stand Up?
Mary Hogan, Perfect Girl
Micol Ostow, Getting Lucky
Jen Calonita, Secrets of My Hollywood Life
Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser, Foreign Exposure
Randi Reisfeld, Starlet

(thanks to Maryrose Wood for posting this and letting me gack it)