Rachael

(East Bay is pig latin, don'tcha know.)

I'm reading this Saturday at A Verb for Keeping Warm, and I would REALLY love to see you.
2703 7th St #147, Berkeley.

The reading's at 2pm, and then we'll just hang out for a bit, I think. They'll have books for sale, as well as great fiber and yarn and there might even be light snackage and there will be plenty of laughing. There always is.

Okay, business is over. Now I have to confess something.

You know how I feel about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). And by association (let's call it that), I have that tiny intellectual crush (let's call it intellectual) on Chris Baty, its founder. I've confessed it here before. It's not a national secret.

However, then he had to go and bring up the knitting. And there is now documented fiber-talk. Ha!

/swoon.

Drum roll, please!

For the $25 Barnes&Noble gift certs:

Peacecat30
RC C
Sarah St.

And for the Love Song Sweater:

Acluther!

 - Edited to add – Acluther is Anna, and it's her birthday TODAY. What a fun present! And I'll get to give it to her in person when I meet her for the first time in Maryland at MDSW! I heart the internet, dudes.

If you have any interest in cinema verite, here's the actual drawing. This is me, from bed, up and at the desk. It's not pretty, but it's GRITTY and REAL, people. (Snerk.) This is what a writer looks like. (No, really. I wear this sweater every day. Every. Single. Day.)

At last, SOMEONE does. Finally, a review that really gets at the REAL heart of what my book is about. Here's an excerpt of Lynn's exceptionally insightful review:

How to Knit a Love Song  by Rachael Herron is a novel with a
little bit of everything. It’s primarily a book about emergency dispatchers,
with a few love scenes, sheep, trucks and yarn thrown in to attract a broader
audience. Don’t mistake me; those sections of the novel are not slighted in the
least, but the scenes with the emergency dispatchers were what kept me riveted to
the pages. I could easily picture the dispatcher clutching her headset, focused
on extracting all the details of the call, and with lightning quick responses,
calling in the services that would be needed to bring about a happy ending.

Yes. Really, it's a ponderous tome about emergency services, difficult to parse, and I'm glad Lynn was able to get to the heart of the matter. It should be noted she posted it on April 1st. I suppose that might have something to do with it. Ahem.

A winner has been drawn for Adrienne's book, Sweater Quest: CCR in MA – I've emailed you privately, congrats! The BIG DRAWING for the sweater and the bookstore gift certs will occur on Sunday.

And that, my ducks, is all for now. I have a Digit on my lap who is demanding all my attention.

knowing every day that you would make the same decision you made then.

Four years and counting. You want to do it again soon, lovey? It's been a while since the last wedding. I'm ready. I love you. Happy anniversary.

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday?

An extra copy of Sweater Quest! That's a great thing, because I wasn't willing to give away my copy. I wanted to keep my greedy hands on it. But I *will* give this copy away.

Leave me a comment here, telling me about the most difficult thing you've ever attempted to do in knitting (or if you don't knit, tell me about another difficult thing you attempted and how it went). I'll randomly draw a winner of the book on Friday.

Also, don't forget about what else you can win! My drawing is coming to a close! You could win one of three $25 Barnes&Noble gift certificates or THE LOVE SONG SWEATER itself! Link to How to Knit a Love Song somewhere and give it a review (your blog, Facebook, Goodreads, etc.) and make sure I know you've done it so I can be sure you're in the big hat. (If you're unsure if you're entered, feel free to shoot me an email.)

A review gives you three entries. But if you haven't had time to read the book yet, you can still be entered to win just by finding the book and taking a picture of it, posting it somewhere (or just emailing it to me). Or posting a picture of YOU with the book gives you two entries! 

There aren't that many entries, darlings, not in the big scheme of things. You have a good chance. (As of now, there are only 125 entries for four prizes. Looking good.)

And I'm extending it by three days — I'll draw on April 4th, since I'm slammed until then, and won't have a chance to do it right. And you want me to do it the best way possible, so YOU can win, yes? Yay!

Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously
by Adrienne Martini

Adrienne's a blog-pal of mine, and I've known her virtually for years. But you know what's better than having good friends in the knit-world? Having friends who are good writers. Even better, having friends who are great writers.

I loved this book. In it, Adrienne decides to make Mary Tudor, Alice Starmore's Fair Isle classic, in a year, and while she's a knitter, when she makes the decision to do so, she's not really a Starmore kind of knitter. She's never done a steek. She's not really sure how the now-unavailable yarn substitutions should be made, or what they will do to the authenticity of a Starmore.

People, she's Julie, working her way through the cookbook. Let's face it. It's awesome. It's for us.

And she's funny as hell. She knows how we bond. It's kind of like how moms bond (although she knows knows that not even all moms bond, just mention breastfeeding in a room full of mothers).

HAHAHAHAHA. Seriously. I almost fell out of bed laughing.

So today, I'm over at her blog, answering questions about my book, and I'm hosting her here, answering some questions about hers.

Welcome, Adrienne!

In your introduction, you said that for a knitter who had only been knitting for thimbleful of years, "Mary Tudor would be a foolish, humbling choice to attempt." Have you always been someone who has chosen things that might be right outside your grasp or was this something new for you?

I've been pondering this questions for almost 12 hours now and still am not sure I've hit on the perfect answer. In short, I've always been of the go-big-or-go-home school but am also not much of a danger junkie. tackling a sweater that is just above my skill level is a low-risk endeavor that suites my personality well. Jumping out of an airplane strikes me as total madness. If I fail at the sweater, life will most certainly go on. It will still be a story, just not one that will keep you warm on cold days. Fail at skydiving and, well, the result are almost certain to be catastrophic.

I don't think you can really learn anything if you always stick to your comfort zone. You have to keep reaching or else you stagnate.

Which came first, the idea for the book, or the idea for the sweater?

The idea for the book came first – but only by microseconds. Once the idea popped into my head, the Mary Tudor sweater popped up next, which caused me to think about all of the issues surrounding Alice Starmore, Fair Isle and Fair Use. Then I was dashing out of the shower to write it all down before I forgot it all.

Where is the sweater living, right this very moment?

It's in a magnetically locked briefcase that I keep handcuffed to my wrist. No, not really. It's someplace far less glamourous, which is on the top shelf of my closet in a plastic bag from "Discount Liquors." I'll be bringing it with me to signings and whatnot, though, and I've been toying with the idea of raffling it off for charity. Not quite sure I'm ready to part with it yet, however.

What is your daily (or weekly) writing process?

I'm probably not the best person to ask about process, since I don't know that I really have one. I do blog everyday, which I don't really consider part of process as much as an eclectic diary of pictures and stories that I would otherwise lose track of. In terms of actual work – I worked for newspapers (and still frequently freelance for my local rag) for long enough that I can sit and write on queue and with little preamble. My work may lack gravitas and poetry but it is, usually, concise and quick. It's a skill that I was happy to have after having my first baby, when writing time was thin and my need to write was great. Now, with two kids and my day jobs, I appreciate those years knocking out copy even more.

Thanks, Adrienne! (Pop on over to her blog to read my interview and more importantly, to see pictures of her Mary Tudor! And pick up your copy today!)