In my previous post, I made my annual bid for You! Write! My! Content!, with your brilliant incisive questions about L/tU/aE (points for geekery decoding there). Here, I will begin to answer them, as they come. Got your own? Ask it down there, a minion will be with you shortly. Let us begin.
If you had a parental birthday present coming to you and were planning to request gift certificates to exciting New York restaurants so that you could take your boy out to really cool places you might not go to otherwise, which restaurants would you choose?
- Jenn
This is the best question ever because boy, do I love eating on OTM! Other’s People Money! So here are the places I’d suggest:
1. Otto but for the love of god, if you don’t get at least one pizza, three gelatos, the parmesan reggiano souffle, and a cheese platter, just get out already. I have a friend that went there on my recommendation and ordered NONE of those things and I was shattered when he didn’t like it. But don’t be fooled by its “casual” and “inexpensive” listings – you can drop over a hundred bucks in the blink of an eye, for two, and you’ll enjoy every penny of it.
2. Tabla, or, more to my style, the Bread Bar at Tabla, is something I’ve only had the pleasure of enjoying once, with friends who were as awesome about sharing a dozen small plates as I was, and man, was it a blast. Take the boy there and explore your way through delicious little treat after treat and if you don’t try the Bacon Naan, you’re dead to me.
Frankly, those two are so great and personally recommended that I’m going to leave it at that (and I’m assuming your parents aren’t Rockefellers so asking for roughly 100-150 greenbacks for either of those meals won’t insult them with your insane spendy ways, who did they raise you to be anyway?).
I’m curious about this apartment-hunting that you’ve alluded to. Is that still happening? If so, what prompted the move and what are you looking for?
- Jaimie
Um, ha ha, I meant to put a disclosure at the top of the call for questions saying something to the effect of how I have a gag order on all things related to this, a self-enforced gag order of superstition, so you will all have to bear with me for a little while longer until I can spill some excited beans and use many, many capital letters. Mmkay? Pinky swear? Sweet.
Things I Actually CAN Answer (and one more I can’t) In the Extended View…


Scrivener looks awesome! And congrats on reaching 20,000 words. I suppose a question I have for you is: should I break down and spend the $35? Is it so much better than Word (it seems to be)? And how did you land the nymag gig? It sounds fab.
- Nicole
Scrivener IS awesome. I’m not sure if it’s just the novelty of a new program, but I like it better than word. I like attaching keywords, like tags, to different sections, so that I can search all sections that have “fire monkeys” in them which if I were Connie Willis writing The Promised Land, WOULD BE A LOT OF SECTIONS. I also like being able to say, “hey, that felt like the end of a chapter!” and start a new scrivening. It works for my ADD writing style.
Also, a good friend of mine did a web design stint there and passed my resume on to someone who passed it on to my new editor – he asked me for a sample review on spec and I wrote one, and he liked it! Be ye wise – friends are good. Friends who know you repay in baked goods for professional favors are better.
Spending next week in New York. Can you please recommend a) your favorite restaurant, genre and price not important and b) your favorite place for pizza? Thanks!
- s
Okay, definitely see above for mouth-watering mentions of Otto and the Bread Bar at Tabla, I would certainly rank those two restaurants as my favorites, if price isn’t too much of an issue.
As for pizza, OY! VEY! You want to get six opinions out of five New Yorkers? Ask about pizza. Basic primer on pizza in New York:
1. You’ve got your New York-style pie. We’re talking what Domino’s is an aberration of – dough, with marinara-style sauce, and some mixture of melted cheeses on top, served by a greasy taciturn man at 4am on Bleeker. For that, I’d suggest Famous Ray’s or Two Boots, both interesting and usually good slice joints.
2. You’ve got what I call Italian-style pie, or coal/brick-oven pie (or, in the case of Nick’s in Forest Hills, perfect perfect gas oven pie). Usually these have a thinner, more salty dough, with a tomato sauce that remembers being tomatoes recently (unlike NY-style marinara) and real, actual chunks of fresh mozzarella on top. For this, if you have to stay in the city, head to Lombardi’s or even Patsy’s in a pinch. And then there’s Grimaldi’s, of course, if you want to head into Brooklyn. Grim’s is amazing when they’re on target but too often, lately, their crust has been too soggy for me.
3. Then, there’s DiFara. I don’t know what to say about DiFara’s. It’s probably closer to NY-style slice in looks, but TASTES like Italian-style slice. The one guy, Dom De Marco, has been making this pie at this one place for 40 years or something, and it’s still him who makes every. single. pie. twelve hours a day. That means, yeah, you wait an hour for a slice. But jesus CHRIST is that slice worth it. It’s the tastiest pizza I’ve ever had. Ever. Ask around to any slice-obsessed chowhound, and they’ll tell you the same thing.
Not sure if DiFara is worth the trip for you, all the way out to Midwood. I just wanted to verbally drool all over it.
ok, my question, by way of explanation… I am an admitted country mouse when it comes to NY. I have travelled around the world, but New York City scares me for some reason. Maybe I don’t like to look out of place. Maybe I have deeply rooted Yankee prejudices, I am originally from the South after all. Maybe I feel like I could never really take it all in on a short visit. So, how about you? Are you ever scared to live/walk/be in New York?
- Becky K
I gotta ask, Becky, what is it about you that would look out of place in New York? Is it the fourth head growing out of your spine, because seriously, the first two extra ones wouldn’t even be that weird.
No one is out of place in New York. That’s the thing about it. You could run screaming down the streets wearing yellow leather and a giant dragon tail and then set yourself on FIRE and max, you’d get an amused cameraphone picture of yourself on flickr later that day. It’s New YORK!
You can’t take it all in, not in a lifetime, either, so no visitor should really think they can try. I’ve lived here for nine years and I’ve barely etched away the plastic wrapping on the city. That’s why I love it so much. I’ve lived in the South, too, and I love it for its own reasons but trust me when I tell you this, there’s no place you can feel more a part of the great, wild, unexpected, far-flung, exotic tide of humanity than here in New York City.
No, I’m never scared. Only exhilirated.
I know, I’m always So deep…
but Friday night is pottery painting night, and I’ve already done a NYC skyline cappuccino mug, a paper-scissors gang cappuccino mug.. what to paint on the next mug… inching closer to a set?
- Stephanie
Man, I don’t know, are the first two related? Like, when I think NYC skyline and then Paper (Rock?) Scissors, all that then follows is Sarah Brown for some reason that I can’t quite explain. NYC + Paper-Rock-Scissors = Sarah Brown is the math lesson for the day. So maybe you should do a Sarah Brown Mug.
What kind of skin products do you use? And hair. Because, girl, you are gorgeous.
- Tristin
Woo, flattery! Okay, I hate to be That Asshole, but I really don’t do anything to my skin except years of Ortho Tri Cyclen and a nice dose of Mediterranean blood. Sometimes, I don’t even wash my makeup off before bed. I know! At 26, I say this – in twenty years, I will be kicking myself. However, I AM partial to Loreal’s Ideal Balance Foaming Cream Cleanser with Kaolin Clay, paired with the matching toner and their Active Daily Moisture lotion, with SPF 15. Also, I just fell in LOVE with L’Oreal’s new Infallible Make-up – it goes on like a cream base but it feels like a powder on your skin and it’s really light and wears all day, no shit, when they say 16 hours they mean it.
And my hair, well, I’m a John Freida’s Frizz-Ease devotee – their serum, the Secret Weapon creme, and the Dream Curls spray every day. Never leave the house without it. When my dry curls need a midday boost, I like Frederick Fakkai’s Wave Boost spray stuff.
First off–AWESOME about the NYMag reviews!
2. Thanks for the Scrivener link.
3. You teach first grade?? So do I :) Aren’t they sometimes the funniest people ever?
4. Congrats on 20,000 words.
QUESTION: What are you writing about?
- Christina
Damn, lady, I can’t answer that! How come two people have asked me questions I can’t answer? Okay, at least I’ll tell you WHY I can’t answer it – because it’s nowhere near finished and smart people who are writers have always said, don’t TALK about your novels, WRITE them. But I can say I’m dabbling in some fantasy? Maybe? And that perhaps, at least, it feels like it’s currently pointing its nose towards a younger audience.
There. That’s all I can say.
I have a novel-sized email to you saved in my drafts folder about several things including but not limited to your awesome storytelling capabilities, my thank yous for the special New York condom and the Risotto I Will Never Forget and also the fact that your charming husband bowled me over even more than I thought he would. God you are The Awesome. It’s cool that I knew that before I met you. Also my apologies for my idiocy (I have to mail something to you)
My question: What is the single most defining moment in your life thus far?
(This is the longest comment I have ever written. Somebody get me a blog.)
- Kristin (of AWESOMENESS, is how I’m going to refer to you until you re-bloggify)
Single most defining moment? Okay, well, isn’t it just like me to have a few?
My two personal ones are, well, one is private, but I told you about it on our walk through the village and is all about family and the lengths they will go to for you and why that makes them the best thing in your life.
The other, of course, is when I met Stuart. Hate to be a sop here, but life-changing moment. OBVS.
Professionally, there are also two: deciding not to go to law school is what made me stop being a chicken-shit and admit that I wanted to be a writer. Desperately.
The most recent one was leaving my job last July. Again, OBVS.
What motivates you when you feel down? If you could spontaneously become fluent in any language, which one would you choose?
- Ky
Ky! Great questions. Things that motivate me when I’m down: actually doing the thing I’m avoiding, calling my mom and dad, going for a walk, talking it out with Stuart, relaxing in our giant armchairs with a book and a cuppa, playing with silly putty, or cooking a great meal. It all depends on what’s getting me down.
Man, ONE language? I’d have to say Welsh. DUH. I mean, monkey is spelled MYNCI! Seriously. How much would I love to speak Welsh? Like a million bucks much.