Posted on August 14, 2009 by betsylerner
Dearest darling readers of this blog,
I am going on vacation for a week. Well, if you call a vacation schlepping up to Lake George to defend my title as mini-golf champion of the world.
Future posts you won’t want to miss:
How I Almost Came to Blows With A Writer Over the Use of the Past Perfect
I Love My Kindle: Three Editors Weigh In
The World’s Greatest Copyeditor Reveals Her Pet Peeves
Top Ten Lies Writers Tell
What Publishers Nosh While They Read
See you soon, I hope!
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Posted on August 9, 2009 by betsylerner
Many, many thanks for birthday wishes from far and wide. Here’s what I got, loot-wise:
A check from my mother. Ca-ching.
People Magazine renewed for another year from my sisters.
A Miele vacuum from my significant other. Friends, this is a top of the line appliance.
A ring inscribed sono il tuo Dodo from PLS.
And, from BFF, a small antique frame — inside a rusted razor blade. Genius.
And, for once, when I made my wish I didn’t wish for permanent weight loss or Hugh Grant making my movie. I wished for something real.
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Posted on August 5, 2009 by betsylerner
It became evident early on in my career that I worked with a disproportionate number of writers who suffered from addiction and depression. Coincidence?
Now, when I hear of someone struggling with these issues, I want to run. It wasn’t always that way. I used to be upfront and center. Now, the drowning man terrifies me.
I’m sure you’ve seen me. The girl who stands with her back to the subway wall. I no longer peer into the track. The third rail is always there, magnetic and menacing. But like a child who’s come too close to the stove, I’ve learned not to touch it. And eventually stopped craving it.
Sunday is my birthday and I will celebrate seventeen years of being well, my manic depression miraculously under control thanks to my brilliant doctor, my own vigilance and pure good fortune that medication works for me. Certainly not true for everyone.
And yes, I am dropping a hint that Sunday is the big 49. That’s Sunday, August 9th. I share this great birth date with Alfred Hitchcock and Philip Larkin, and the anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation and Sharon Tate’s murder.
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Posted on August 4, 2009 by betsylerner
We interviewed a new intern today. She just graduated from college, moved from Florida to New York City to pursue her dream of working in publishing. It could just about break your heart. She was nervous, eager, open. I thought of all the kids I’ve interviewed over the years, the bluster and insecurities, the earnestness and ambition. Once, I asked a candidate if he had any special skills. He looked me directly in the eye and said, “I could kill you with a pencil.”
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Posted on July 5, 2009 by betsylerner
I’m not going to say anything about our move, all the things that went wrong, or how Comcast has taken out a restraining order on me. That’s between me and my internet provider.
What I will say is that my new home office is beautiful. It’s a third floor attic room with a pretty alcove just big enough for the sculptor’s stand I found in the attic of my old house. And atop it, my beloved American Heritage Dictionary.
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Posted on July 1, 2009 by betsylerner
When Betsy asked us to write this post we were very estatic to have this wonderful and amazing opportunity. All though we had to cancel a bundle of important events that we had our personal secretaries arrange, we cancelled due to the noteworthiness of this cause. While we were pondering what to write about, we took a stroll down memory lane. We remembered all of the dull novels that were mandatory for us to scrutinize. As middle schoolers, we sensed the library selection was less then acceptable and barely up to par, not to mention the appalling obligatory books. We undoubtably value reading classics, it’s great to read books that have the finger prints our family’s past engraved into the surface of the pages. Reading modern books is appreciable too, but why would we want to read random books that only some ignorant librarian would want to waste their time on. NO YOU DIDN’T. Oh yes we did. With all of the school work we encounter, we need utilize the precious time we have to dive into a well written book that is enthralling as well. Luckily we will be deparating from the from the uninspiring, colorless orbit of nothing… as you can see it might be relatively hard to fathom the dislike that we behold for this selection of literature. But hard to decipher or not, it’s the truth. We believe that people should not underestimate the juvenile community and value their opinions on written works. We have high expectations and they must be met by all of you middle school librarians and teachers out there. So please, value our opinion because we our the future of all literary greatness.
Luv,
Your Best Friendz
M&R (age 12)
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Posted on June 12, 2009 by betsylerner
It wasn’t Take Your Daughter to Work day, but I brought mine. Her school ended on Wednesday and she wanted to come to the city, pledged to help me. Highlights included:
- Our very hot intern took her to Sephora and they both came back looking like hookers; intern also gifted her with free samples.
- Ran into old friend/agent AW at Spoon (our local coffee place) who acted as if my daughter were an Obama first child, swooning over her like mad.
- While walking around the city, my daughter pointed out men who sported “man purses.”
- Okay, I wasn’t going to give her your manuscripts to read or contracts to negotiate it, but she did make a ton of new files for me that had been piling up and, nation, the girl can fire up the label maker.
- The guy at TKTS kiosk described Avenue Q as “muppets with a South Park mouth.” Maybe he can help me pitch my books.
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Posted on May 21, 2009 by betsylerner
Maybe I’m elevating, but NYC, my giant ashtray, looked so beautiful this morning on my walk to work. I take the same route every day, but today everything is in high relief: a 9/11 sky, the baked red bricks of a crumbling building, a beautiful woman whose left cheek twitched as if the cricket from Times Square got in there. Even my shuffle offered up a perfect slate of rock anthems. Something has lifted.
Maybe I’m crashing, but a quick glance at my inbox spells trouble. Agh. What’s worse, so many little headaches or one huge migraine? One piece of great news, though, Columbine goes back up two spots on the NYT bestseller list. The list thing, it’s like an EKG. Of course so is everything else these days: blog stats, bank accounts, Amazon rankings, and of course, the master of all gauges of self worth: the scale.
Tomorrow, I will get back to answering publishing questions. And I also want to talk about the mystery wrapped in an enigma.
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Posted on May 19, 2009 by betsylerner
First of all, I didn’t get picked for jury duty. Didn’t even get to the voir dire stage of the selection process. Painful flashbacks of camp socials watching everyone pair off to Color My World.
Next: what people are reading? Mostly the New Haven Register, USA Today, and the NY Post and Daily News. No one reading on a Kindle. The few books I saw:
- Atlas Shrugged/Ayn Rand
- All He Ever Wanted/Anita Shreve
- The Bible
- The Secret Life of Bees/Sue Monk Kidd
- Invisible Prey/John Sandford
Not a single My Booky Wook or Silas Marner in the crowd. C’mon New Haven!
What did capture my imagination, however, was Judicial Marshall Josh. On the day that he was born, the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true. Beyond his broad sloping shoulders, his powerful chest, his badges, his sexy voice and fully loaded belt, Judicial Marshall Josh wears nerdy glasses. Is Judicial Marshall Josh…bookish? I wonder if Judicial Marshall Josh has an astigmatism, like me.
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Posted on May 18, 2009 by betsylerner
Tomorrow: jury duty.
The last time I was on jury duty, everyone was reading the same book. Everywhere I turned I saw a black dust jacket with the red thumb print. It was 1987 and, of course, the book was Presumed Innocent.
Tomorrow, I will report back on what they’re reading at the courthouse now, in 2009, in downtown New Haven. I know, I can’t wait either.
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Betsy Lerner 
