Another story in this week's DT Halloween series for you...
Matt Blackstone (C'03) is not only a 10th grade English teacher, but he is the author of a new young adult novel, A SCARY SCENE IN A SCARY MOVIE (FSG/Macmillan), which released this summer and Seventeen magazine put it on it's Summer Beach Read list! Yep, this is another story about a Penn alum who is an educator and an author!
One liner is "It's about Rene, a male teen with OCD, and his lingo-inventing friend who tutors him in the art of playing it cool."
And if you're at Penn, you can meet him at the Bookstore at 2 pm tomorrow (this Saturday (10/29)).
After the jump, learn more about the book, Matt's perseverant path from Penn to becoming an author, and a great website for aspiring authors looking for agents!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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| (l to r: ) Michele, Sabrina and Samantha |
Well, not only is their fourth season of "Selling New York" about to debut in October, but the Kleier sisters teamed up with their mom and published a new novel called Hot Property.
After the jump, learn more about the novel and find out how they managed to get Penn into the book and Penn alumni onto their show!
Read More......
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Last time we checked in with aspiring LA TV writer Rob Forman (W'06), he taught us all about "spec scripts" and what you do with them once you're done in order to pursue a Hollywood career.
After his summer hiatus, Rob has now returned back to work as a writers assistant on "Army Wives" and is sharing some great tips for anyone thinking about writing a TV script.
After the jump,
- learn what writing accomplishment Rob achieved this summer
- what his job as writer's assistant is on "Army Wives" (minute 2:45)
- why his wrist hurts
- read Rob's original pilot spec and act 2 from his "Glee" spec
- listen to Rob's words of wisdom about "structure" and how to approach specs using colorful notecards.
Read More......
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Recently, I covered Penn alum author Laura Dave (C'99) and her books The Divorce Party
We've learned that she doesn't write with one of these, but that seems to be okay because her book just got put on a prominent list you may have glanced at this past week!
Find out which list after the jump!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
, London is the Best City in America and now her new book The First Husband (read an excerpt here).After the jump, check out a new video from Laura and find out:
- how she does research for her books before she starts writing
- her alternate approach to writing without an outline
- how long (and how many drafts) it takes her to write a book
Read More......
Thursday, May 12, 2011
and London is the Best City in America
were going Hollywood and being developed by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon's production companies.Today, Laura's new novel, The First Husband
comes out and it's another novel that I'm sure will catch the attention of Hollywood again!After the jump,
- learn more about her new novel
- read a passage from her book
- discover where the story of this book came from, and
- find out what exciting things are going on with her previously mentioned titles!
Read More......
Monday, May 2, 2011
If you haven't heard by now, Penn alum Jennifer Egan (C'85) won a Pulitzer prize for her very creatively constructed novel "A Visit From the Goon Squad
What you may not have heard is that Hollywood has already knocked on her door regarding the book.
After the jump, find out more about the book, and where you'll be able to see an adaptation of this novel in the year/s to come.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Over the past few years, DT has followed the great journey Brian Yanish (C'95, Mask and Wig) has been taking with his his Scrap Kins childrens property.
What started out as a few sketches from Brian's childhood has turned into a NYC-based Creativity program for kids based on the adventures of a group of monsters that live in a recycling center and build their world out of the things we throw away.
For you parents and educators out there, after the jump find out about Brian's fantastic new book that will keep your children occupied for hours.
...And see how actress Brooke Shields got involved with The Scrapkins!
Friday, October 15, 2010
" and the baseball film 61
, then you're a fan of this Penn alum's work.More about this alum and his new project with Paramount after the jump!
Read More......
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
You're on the road and stop to grab a burger at McDonalds or Burger King. You know what you're getting no matter what city you're in. But have you ever stopped to think about how and when these fast food chains started?
One Penn alum did and wrote a compelling book about it.
More about this Penn alum author and his new book after the jump.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Allison Winn Scotch (C'95, Kappa Alpha Theta, Theater productions, DP) explores this concept in her 3rd novel, The One That I Want
that she's currently touring the country with. More about her book, how she got her start and how and where you can attend her book reading tonight (Thursday) in LA...
Read More......
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A few years ago, Paul Provenza (C'79, Mask and Wig) showed us an inside peek of the comic world when he had his celebrity comedians deliver their own versions of the world's dirtiest joke in his film, The Aristocrats
.Starting this week, Paul serves up a lot more "celebrity insider" comedy that you'll want to check out...
Read More......
Friday, November 6, 2009
While living in Washington DC as a speech writer, Grant Ginder (C’05, 34th Street, Beta Theta Pi) began to notice how the politics of the town began taking its toll on all the people around him.
From his experiences, a juicy novel came to fruition...and this weekend, Grant is coming back to Penn this weekend to talk all about it...
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Now, as part of our "Winning Women" series, I've got news that Julie recently released her second book, After You.
This novel will surely resonate in the heart of anyone who's had a best friend, a love lost, or a past full of regrets...
Read more about the synopsis of After You HERE +/-
The complexities of friendship. The unraveling of a neglected marriage. And the redemptive power of literature...Julie Buxbaum, the acclaimed author of The Opposite of Love, delivers a powerful, gloriously written novel about love, family, and the secrets we hide from each other, and ourselves.
On a cobblestone street in Notting Hill, Ellie Lerner's life-long best friend, Lucy, is stabbed to death in front of her eight-year-old daughter. Ellie, of course, drops everything - her job, her marriage, her life in the Boston suburbs - and travels to London to pick up the pieces of the life Lucy has left behind. While Lucy's husband, Greg copes with his grief by retreating to the pub, eight-year-old Sophie has simply stopped speaking.
Desperate to help Sophie, Ellie turns to a book that gave her comfort as a child, The Secret Garden. As the two spend hours exploring the novel, its story of hurt, magic and healing blooms around them. But so, too, do the secrets Lucy kept hidden, even from her best friend. As Ellie peels back the layers of her friend's life, she's forced to confront her own as well - the marriage she left behind, the loss she'd hoped to escape, and the elusiveness of the place we choose to call home.
Read an Excerpt from After You HERE +/-
EXCERPT
Chapter One
Let’s pretend that things are different. That in the last couple of days, I haven’t become the kind of person who resorts to wishing on eyelashes, first stars of the night, and the ridiculous 11:11, both a.m. and p.m., in earnest and with my eyes closed. That Lucy and her family haven’t transformed into tabloid stars with a full picture on the cover of the Daily Mail with the headline Notting Hill Murdergate!, and the lead story on the BBC evening news. Let’s pretend that I am home, on the right side of the Atlantic, the one where I understand the English language, and that tomorrow will be just like early last week, or the week before that one, when the days were indistinguishable. That it’s not necessary to resort to memories—to a time before—when I think of Lucy.
How about this: Let’s just pretend that Lucy is not dead.
That she will not continue to be dead now, even though that’s what that means—dead.
“Want some more?” I ask Sophie, Lucy’s eight-year-old daughter, but she seems uninterested in the elaborate bowl of ice cream I’ve doused with concentric circles of whipped cream. She sits with her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. An upright fetal position, a pose that has been as reflexive for her as irrational wishing and pretending has been for me. Striped pastel pajamas ring her legs—pink, blue, yellow stripes—and on top, she wears a long-sleeved T-shirt with a decal of a purple horse with a silver mane. Her socks have abrasive soles that scratch and swish along the kitchen tiles, a sound I haven’t heard since my own childhood and that I associate with my younger brother, Mikey, asking for a glass of water before bedtime.
She shakes her head no.
“Is it good?”
She stays noncommittal. Her tiny glasses slip down her nose and are caught by her finger, pushed back up with an efficient tap. They are tortoiseshell frames, brown on the outside, pink along the inner edges, like an eyelid, and they magnify her already large brown eyes, so that she always looks just a tiny bit moony.
Sophie has not been speaking much since the accident. That’s what we’ve been calling it—Greg, Lucy’s husband, and I—“the accident,” a comforting euphemism despite the fact that there is nothing accidental about what happened. The word homicide is one that no eight-year-old should ever have to hear. Using accident makes us feel better too. As adults, we can handle an accident; that’s in our repertoire.
I am not sure when Sophie last spoke out loud. She was interviewed by the police on Thursday, right afterward, and somehow Lucy’s little girl found the strength to use her words and describe the unspeakable. When I arrived less than twenty-four hours later, blurry from grief and the red-eye, she said, “Hi, Auntie Ellie,” before putting her arms around my waist and burying her face in my shirt. But since then, since that first greeting, spoken in her crisp British accent, I can’t remember the last time I heard her voice. Did she say good night to Greg before he went upstairs and knocked himself out with Xanax?
“Soph?”
A shrug.
“Where did you get that shirt? It’s pretty. And that horse has really cool hair.”
Another shrug.
“Soph, sweetheart, are you not talking?”
Sophie just looks at me, her eyes burning in a silent protest.
Shrug number three. She looks impossibly small and thin, the stringiness of her arms and legs exaggerated by the unforgiving cotton of her pajamas. I wish she’d eat more. I want to feed her cookies and sugar cereal too. Tomorrow, first thing, I’ll replace their two percent milk with full fat.
My mother, a therapist, warned me this might happen to Sophie. That kids often go quiet for a while in the wake of a traumatic loss. Their only way of exerting control in a world in which they clearly have none.
It’s been only twenty-nine hours since Lucy’s funeral, an event so improbable that pretending still works. Surreal, too, like the news vans that are idling out front of her house, waiting for a sound bite. I want to scoop Sophie up into my arms and let her cry into my shoulder, but she is not the sort of kid you just scoop up. She would know that I was doing it more for my comfort than for hers.
“Okay,” I say, as if she’d actually answered me. “It’s all right if you don’t want to talk for now. But not forever, right? I love that voice of yours. Cheerio. Let’s take the lift and go to the loo,” I say in my best British impression, which used to be a surefire way to make her laugh.
“Speak like me, Mummy, Auntie Ellie!” Sophie used to demand of Lucy and me when I would come to visit, and the two of us would go back and forth, spitting out all of the British expressions we knew. Even after nearly a decade in London, and despite a husband and child whose inflections were as posh as the Queen’s, Lucy’s Boston accent had barely softened. She always paa’ked her caa’ in Haa’va’d Yaa’d.
Today, Sophie ignores me and looks around like she’s not sure whose kitchen this is. We are in the breakfast nook, with its Americana diner style, the sort you would see in a cornflakes commercial: two kids, two bowls of cereal, and two glasses of orange juice, with two parents—always two cheerful parents—rushing everyone out of their red pleather seats and off to school after their nutritionally balanced breakfast. I can picture Lucy deciding to put a booth in the corner, knowing that making your house look like a home is the first step.
“We’re going to be okay, you know,” I say, and run my fingers through Sophie’s curly dirty-blond hair; they get caught on a knot. I remember the first time I held her, when she was less than a week old, bald and tiny, and how she would sleep with her mouth opening and closing against my arm, her dreams, no doubt, filled with glorious imaginary milk. She had seemed so fragile then, so far from a real person, that looking at her now, a fully formed little girl, beautiful and tough and exerting her power in the only way she can, makes me glow with a vicarious pride for Lucy. My best friend did a lot with her thirty-five years on this planet; her exposé on the corruption in the Chilean government should have won her a Pulitzer. But of one thing I am sure. Making this creature, this fierce mini-Lucy, is my favorite of all.
***
When did I start speaking a language I don’t recognize as my own? I dismiss the stalking reporters with copied phrases I’ve learned from watching TV, please respect our privacy during this very difficult time; reassure Sophie with silly platitudes, we are going to be okay; lie to all the well-wishers at the funeral Greg and I hastily planned, Lucy spoke so highly of you. I guess when your world blows up, when you lose the person you were closest to for thirty-one years—almost my entire life—language skills are the first to go.
Here is what happened: Lucy woke up a few days ago, happy and healthy, trapped in a tent of all the clichés of a perfect modern adult life, with the international glamour of an American ex-pat thrown in to boot, and one hour and forty-five minutes later, while walking Sophie to school, she died. Just like that. No, she didn’t die, just like that. She was murdered. Apparently, there was a knife and a meth-head overly interested in her two-carat diamond ring, some idiotic resistance on Lucy’s part, and then it was over.
And, yes, there is a worst part of all: Sophie saw the whole thing.
I am not surprised Lucy fought back—she’s always had an inhuman amount of courage—but I am surprised she fought back for that ring. She hated that ring.
“Who buys a diamond-shaped diamond?” Lucy would say. It was one of her favorite bits when Greg wasn’t around. “I mean, seriously, a diamond-shaped diamond? It’s so redundant. I swear, all men think about is size.”
And now I am here, in her kitchen, sitting next to her daughter—my goddaughter—trying to adjust to this new world we have entered. After Lucy. I am sipping tea because, from my experience over the last few days, that seems to be what the British do in situations like these. As if consuming mass quantities of flavored hot water with a spot of milk and sugar will make everything better. But it’s too late for stopgap measures. The grief has started to burrow into my skin like a parasite, slow and steady, in inverse proportion to my disbelief.
“Soph, what do you want to do? You want me to be quiet, too, for a bit? We can just sit here.” I get a nod, slow, as if she wants to say, Yes, please. I can tell simply by looking at her that we both want exactly the same thing. For it all to stop for a little while.
And so the two of us do the closest thing I can think of. We sit in the booth and stare straight ahead at nothing in particular. I pull her in closer, and her head rests against my shoulder.
We pass the next hour this way. Silent and watchful. Like we are waiting for a bus that may never come.
Excerpted from After You by Julie Buxbaum Copyright © 2009 by Julie Buxbaum. Excerpted by permission of The Dial Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Julie's path to becoming an author is an interesting and inspiring one..especially for anyone who has dreamed of quitting his/her days jobs to pursue their passion.
Julie's path from Penn undergrad to author HEREGet After You HERE
More Penn authors HERE
More "Winning Women" alumni HERE
Read More......
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
As reported on DT, stand-up Aaron Karo's (W'01, Pennfest 2006) multimedia empire seems to be growing rather quickly.Thus far, Aaron's achievements include:
- 2 books
- live performances through the US
- a hot website dedicated to everyone's "Ruminations"
- a great appearance on "The Craig Ferguson Show"
- An itunes comedy Top 10 CD: "Just Go Talk to Her"
Read More......
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
John went to Penn hoping to write for the Daily Pennsylvanian and become a journalist, but left as primarily an author of fiction. Thanks to the mentorship of Max Apple and the nurturing community of the Kelly Writers House, John just finished three years of work as their Assistant Director of Development and has now left to pursue his MFA in Creative Writing at American University.
John has written a story called "Baby Blue" which is included in a new short story collection of Philadelphia-based fiction by Philadelphia authors called Philly Fiction 2: A Second Collection of Short Stories Highlighting Philadelphia as a City of Literary Inspiration . His story is about a guy who meets up with a former high school teacher several years after graduation. And it turns out his teacher isn't the great guy he remembered him to be. Per John,
"The story centers on our narrator, who is working through becoming an adult via this renewed relationship with a former teacher. They meet by chance and wind up making plans to see a Phillies game, and our narrator winds up seeing an odd side of his former teacher."
Check out an excerpt from it below: +/-
More Penn authors!
Read More......
Thursday, August 20, 2009
It seems like a guy who wrote a book about fatherhood should also know a thing or two about how to cook.
Craig Boreth (C‘91), author of How to Feel Manly in a Minivan: The Desperate Dad's Survival Guide has a new project he's wants you to follow.
That is, to follow on Twitter.
Check out Craig's "Recipitos: A Complete Gourmet Recipe In A Tweet" where you'll find some of Craig's favorites including:
- OLIVE OIL GELATO: Whip 4 yolks & 1/2c sugar 5min til very pale. Beat in 1/2c olive oil, then 2c milk, 1c cream. Freeze in ice cream maker.
- SEA URCHIN (UNI) CEVICHE: Plate pieces of uni (from good Asian mkt.). Lots of olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper. Good bread for dipping.
- BACON DATE BOMBS: Wrap dates in bacon. Pack snugly on cookie sheet, seam down. Roast at 400 til browned, ~ 12 mins. Turn, cook 10 min more.
- TIRAMISU: Whip 1.5c cream, 2tsp vanilla, 1/3c sugar. Fold in 1lb mascarpone. Layer boozed-sugared-espresso-soaked ladyfingers, cream, cocoa.
And Craig is no stranger to cooking. A few years back he also published The Hemingway Cookbook and went on to become a food writer for the Boston Globe and elsewhere. The cookbook is a culinary bio of Hemingway, featuring more than 120 recipes from his life and writing. Per Craig,
"I started the book after traveling to Paris and Spain after graduation. It started as a travel guide to The Sun Also Rises and morphed into a cookbook."
Favorite recipes include:
On a food related note, Craig has been been developing a story about three fictional meetings between Hemingway and another famous foodie, Pablo Neruda (first in Paris in the 20s, then Madrid during the Spanish Civil War and finally on the coast of Chile in the 50s). Per Craig, "Food, obviously, will play a key role in their tempestuous encounters."
Delicious nuggets from my "Penn Foodies" series HERE
More posts about Penn alumni authors HERE
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
In continuing my "Penn Foodies" week, after yesterday's story about this restaurant entrepreneur, today I bring you a post about yet another set of Penn alumni working together.
Great story here. Two friends (and now dating!) write blog at Penn, get approached by publisher and now have book!
Continue Reading...
Alanna Kaufman (C'08, DP, City News Editor, Kite and Key Tour Guide, Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor) and Alex Small (C'08, DP Photo Editor) published a new book called The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: 200 Gourmet Recipes for Any Budget which features high-quality recipes at low costs, and is aimed at cooks at any skill level (or no skill level!). The idea for the book stemmed from their food blog, Two Fat Als, which they began writing while at Penn. Both the blog and the book include anecdotes about their experiences cooking at Penn and in Philadelphia.
How did they get started?
Per Alanna,
"After finishing our editorships at the Daily Pennsylvanian, Alex and I had a lot of free time on our hands, and we began cooking. Though our kitchens were tiny and poorly equipped, we starting making dinner each night and recording our dishes on our blog, Two Fat Als. The blog was designed to show other college students that it was possible to create tasty and sophisticated dishes on a low budget. Alex has always been a great chef -- his Colombian mother and Jewish father put him to work in the kitchen at an early age -- so he taught me basics and we continued to develop our skills together.
Cooking for the blog moved us to explore different food markets in Philadelphia (the farmers markets, the Italian market, Redding Terminal), and we would often have friends over multiple nights per week for dinner.
After a literary agent found the blog online during our senior year and suggested that we write a book proposal, we found Adams Media and The Frugal Foodie Cookbook was born!"
Alanna and Alex's favorite meals for friends at Penn which they served pre-Walnut Walk their senior year (from their book):
Apricot Brandy Baked French Toast +/-
Per Alana, "The day we first heard from our literary agent was the same day as our Walnut Walk during senior week. We were hosting a huge pre-walk brunch for our friends -- we made the apricot brandy baked French toast from the book, as well as cinnamon buns and an asparagus frittata. That was one of our favorite meals for friends at Penn and everyone stuffed themselves in preparation for a long day."
And one of Alanna's favorite recipes (from their book):
Black Bean Soup +/-
...And this isn't the first Penn alum who wrote a blog about saving money as a student at Penn and then got discovered. Remember THIS Penn alum whose blog got turned into a book and then was hired to write on "Scrubs"?!
Get in touch with Alex and Alanna! twofatals at gmail.com
More posts about Penn alumni authors HERE
Other money saving tips from my "Pinching PENNies" series HERE
Read More......
Monday, August 10, 2009
During this year, I've done posts about Allison Winn Scotch's (C'95) book The Time of My Life and how it was optioned by the Weinstein Brothers, was reviewed in People Magazine, made The Today Show's top 10 books for the fall, and made the New York Times Best Seller List! (#31).
Now news that last week, her book came out in paperback!
The Time of My Life (per Allison) is about an unhappy housewife who has been “whisked seven years back, back to her old life, her old self, back to the moments in which she made decisions that charted her future course. And now that she’s back, she’s faced with the same roadblocks and obstacles, only this time, armed with hindsight, she can choose a different path and finally lay to rest all of her "what ifs.”
Read a full synopsis of The Time of My Life here...+/-
But after an ethereal massage in which her therapist releases her blocked chi, she wakes up to discover that she’s been whisked seven years back, back to her old life, her old self, back to the moments in which she made decisions that charted her future course. And now that she’s back, she’s faced with the same roadblocks and obstacles, only this time, armed with hindsight, she can choose a different path and finally lay to rest all of her "what ifs."
Much more than a story about a real life desperate housewife. Instead, it speaks to so many of our tiny, lingering doubts, the same doubts that send us googling old friends and exes or wistfully pulling out pictures of days gone by. And through Jillian’s journey, in which she rediscovers the mother who abandoned her, reacquaints herself with the strengths she once deemed important, and may literally rewrite her future, we all get a chance to peek inside the windows of our own "what ifs," and consider if the path we took was the one that has granted us the most happiness.”
Read Allison's insider's advice on how to become a published novelist
Get The Time of My Life (paperback)
Get Allison’s The Department of Lost and Found
Other Penn authors!
Read More......
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Julie Kraut (C'04, Bloomers)'s new book SLEPT AWAY comes out today and if you went to sleepaway camp, I'm sure you'll relate to/appreciate this.
This is Julie's second book since HOT MESS: SUMMER IN THE CITY and it fits into that "chick lit" category I covered with another Penn alum author HERE.
Check out the synopsis below and note that the camp in her book "Camp TimberTrails" sounds like a conglomerate of camps "Camp Timberlake" and "Trails End"...2 very popular sleepaway camps for Long Islanders like myself..(although I went to Camp Wayne!):
"Laney Parker is a city girl through and through. For her, summertime means stepping out of her itchy gray school uniform and into a season of tanning at rooftop swimming pools, brunching at sidewalk cafes, and—as soon as the parents leave for the Hamptons—partying at her classmates’ apartments.
But this summer Laney’s mother has other plans for Laney. It’s called Camp Timber Trails and rustic doesn’t even begin to describe the un-air-conditioned log cabin nightmare. Laney is way out of her element—the in-crowd is anything but cool, popularity seems to be determined by swimming skills, and the activities seem more like boot camp than summer camp.
Splattered with tie dye fall out, stripped of her cell, and going through Diet Coke withdrawal, Laney is barely hanging on. Being declared the biggest loser of the bunk is one thing, but when she realizes her summer crush is untouchably uncrushable in the real world, she starts to wonder, can camp cool possibly translate to cool cool?
Summer camp might just turn this city girl’s world upside down!"
What inspired Julie to start writing? How did the Kelly Writers House help her? And what advice does she have for you...? Find out from her HERE!
Get SLEPT AWAY
Other Penn alumni authors and their advice! HERE
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