The Burrow

Saturday morning, an hour before the first session of the first day of the TFOB, I was comfortably ensconced in the front row, feeling somewhat lonely. Forty five minutes later, I was feeling the crush. I listened to Tim Stellar and Joe Conason  discuss covering the news in the 21st century. "It's much harder to print fake news in a print paper than on-line," Conason said.   "They get most of it right most of the time."   His advice to the media - "You don't need to repeat every nonsense tweet" - seemed like a delusion, television being the ratings driven business that it is.  But the man used the word tendentious , a lovely, rarely used word, and for that I can forgive a multitude of sins.   Before I left for Penelope  at The Rogue Theatre , I shared a moment with Ron Fournier .  During his love story about his relationship with his son, he shared a fact I know is true:  Michelle Obama is the best hugger! Sunday mornin...

It's my favorite weekend of the year... and Tucson has a lot of really good weekends. It started on Friday night with The Rock Bottom Remainders Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Scott Turow were just a few of the authors who should keep their day jobs. What they lacked in skill they made up for with enthusiasm. Amy Tan has some dance moves, and Dave Barry has a love affair going on with the harmonica, and I'm still hoarse from singing along. The concert was over by 9:30; we were told that clapping for an encore would be to no avail. They had played all the songs they knew. The next morning dawned sunny and warm. I parked where I wanted to end my day, and strolled past the circus performers  and down the UofA Mall. It was lined with those ubiquitous white tents... tents which captured the heat as Valerie Plame and Michael McGarrity interviewed one another.  The moderator had nothing to do but enjoy the repartee.... which, except for a grammatical faux pas or ...

"Were you a teacher in Chicago like the rest of these girls?"  was the first interrogatory from my right.  We had been strangers until we played mah jongg together last Monday .  Now, we're old friends. And yes, we are girls , because, as we agreed over the clacking tiles this morning, somehow it's the right word to use when playing mah jongg.  Rosemarie, to my left, was reminiscing about the sounds the women who played when she was a girl, and we laughed about the perfectly polished nails and the extra long Virginia Slims which were part and parcel of what mah jongg was to us, as young onlookers. Now, as a much older but not much wiser player, I'm enjoying the fact that I can make a mistake and Scarlett, a veteran of NYC and Floridian games, tells me "not to worry... girls who've been playing forever mistake flowers for one bams." I promise, in the context of the game that makes sense.  It would be a lot simpler if the tiles were congruent bet...

The Tucson Festival of Books has much more than books.  Early in the morning, it looked like this. But by mid-day this was more usual.  Everything is so well thought out at the Festival. The recycling is next to the garbage and both are recyclable containers.  There was no trash on the ground.   This vertical garden was an interesting idea, but the droopy leaf up there at the top made me question its efficacy in the desert.   When questioned, the grower couldn't disagree.  I moved on to the books. passing Authors Helping Authors and this friendly fellow who happily smiled for a picture in The Burrow. I gave him my card; I wonder if he'll comment and let us know that he's out there?   Of course, there were authors, too, Robert Dugoni, John Lescroart, Mike Lawson and I was able to sit up close to some old favorites and some new discoveries.  Mike Lawson and I shared a brick ledge on Saturday aftern...

The fourth or seventh or something largest book festival in the USofA is coming to Tucson this weekend.  The tents have been up for ten days.  Volunteers have been publicizing and strategizing and organizing and the authors are arriving as you read this.  There's a dinner tonight and then session after session after session of writers, creators, designers, thinkers..... and tens of thousands of people. Brenda Starr doesn't like crowds; she won't be joining me.  Elizibeth has plans, as 16 year olds will, so I won't be picking her up on my way downtown.  JannyLou is nursing an ailing daughter-in-law in Phoenix; she's not returning until Sunday.  I'm on my own, and that's just fine. There's something quite wonderful about wandering around a space where wandering is not considered bizarre. I can stop and visit my friends at the Humanities Seminars booth without worrying that I am boring a companion.  I can choose to sit in on what interests me, and onl...

I sat in a room with  Elmore Leonard telling  Bill Buckmaster  that Hemingway didn't have a sense of humor and talking about writing books because he liked the names of places (Djbouti, Tishimingo) and selling a 4500 word story called  3:10 to Yuma  for $90. I wrote that on March 15, 2010, in my post  about the Tucson Festival of Books.  After hearing him speak, I went to the library and began a tour through his entire oeuvre.  I reserved the books.  I read ancient paperback editions and decrepit hardcovers and I paid for one or two at Bookmans.   I was left hungry for more.  And now there won't be any more. I'm inexpressibly sad.  That sentence was a lot longer but the PS from the  cast of  Justified   shut me right up:    We wrote longer versions of this statement, but as Elmore always said: Leave out the parts people tend to skip.     There was never a reason to skip a...

I reread the notes in my Moleskine last night, as I regaled Big Cuter with my day at the Tucson Festival of Books.  He's a fan of Patrick Rothfuss in particular and fantasy in general; I tried to make it real for him.  As I revisited the day in my head, I realized that there were many more pearls of wisdom hidden in the talks and that yesterday's post only scratched the surface. So, today, I bring you The Best of Ashleigh's Notes: ***** "Research is so seductive." "Writing from history is the best: you are given a great story  and you don't have to make anything up." "I have a folder full of Books I Never Wrote." The Loch Ness Theory:  If people are making money off the legend,  they will lie to keep it so. On the main players at the OK Corral: Wyatt Earp had a "deep, cold well of rage, which he kept hidden." "Old Man Clanton was a real son-of-a-bitch." John Grisham's prodigious o...

It was a busy weekend in Tucson.  The Wildcats were playing softball and basketball on campus, even though it's Spring Break and the kids are supposed to be gone.  That's the premise behind scheduling the Festival of Books for this weekend; the campus and the parking garages are supposed to be empty.  It's also supposed to be warm and sunny; it's March in Tucson, after all. The best laid plans, as they say.... the kids and I headed out through sprinkles, wearing sweatshirts and polar fleece, parking much further than my achy hip appreciated.  We were there before the festivities officially started at 10am, which is how we could be up close and personal with the Mad Scientist whose coloring book with the appearing and disappearing pictures gave Messers 7 & 9 the giggles. He was "messing with our minds" and we couldn't decide if that was a good thing, or not. Elizibeth's new phone timed the teen who was saying the colors instead of reading th...

Not-Kathy signed on to SuziSit at the Tucson Festival of Books last Saturday.  Her mom, Ernie, came along, too.  The three of us, along with about 40,000 other Tucsonans, wandered through white tents and books in print and electronic books and jugglers and mariachis and The Berenstain Bears.   The sun was out, a breeze was blowing, and the UofA students were on Spring Break, leaving their beautiful campus for us to enjoy.   Just another wonderful reason to be in Tucson. Parking was more onerous than any of us had expected, but Not-Kathy took charge and thanks to Ernie's yellow Sam Hughes permit, we were on the Mall only 10 minutes later than we'd hoped to be.  Entering through the kids' area, a school chorus provided the soundtrack as we strolled/rolled past a hands-on physics experiment involving a giant yellow I-beam and a movable fulcrum.    It was full but not crowded until we got to the Arizona Star's tent.  They were three ...

I went to the Tucson Festival of Books this weekend, and I am a happy girl. There were many many people on the mall at the UofA and in the classrooms and ballrooms and we were all wearing shit-eating grins.  There's no other way to describe it.  Here were thousands upon thousands of people who liked to read.  Who loved to read.  Who lived to read.  Who had read what I'd read or things I wanted to read now that they'd told me about them and we all were smiling.  Every one of us, from the middle school girl questioning Alice Hoffman and Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Charles de Lint about their motivation and plot structure and sparking a conversation between panelists and audience that left us all feeling satisfied.  And smiling.  We were sitting around in a small auditorium, with authors holding their pony tails back with a scrunchie and recommending Matt the Electrician as music to write to .  They gave advice - I write what I'd like to ...