Pinch Me
January 21st, 2007 by eisha
So, when Jules had this idea to start interviewing all our fellow bloggers and featuring them here at 7ITBB, I thought, “Neat. That’ll be fun.” I thought other bloggers would get a kick out of it. I thought we might get a little more traffic, to boot.
I didn’t think it would lead to HAVEN KIMMEL ACTUALLY EMAILING US. Yeah, the Haven Kimmel. The one author we both agreed would be a must-invite to our Fantasy Author Coffee/Wine Extravaganza. The author who shows up on both of our “About Us” pages as an all-time favorite. The author who (speaking personally, but I’m sure Jules would agree) absolutely slays me with her ability to completely immerse herself in the voice and perspective of a child, who writes about the intimacies of small-town life with such warmth and wit and eloquence and grace. The author who has made “speedy-quick” a permanent fixture in my vocabulary. Haven. Kimmel. Emailed. Us.
And in her gracious email, which is a lovely piece of prose in its own right, she enumerated all the reasons why she would indeed be the perfect guest for our soiree:
1. I never diet, and I never say no to anything offered me, with two exceptions:
a. Mustard
b. Mice2. I drink both coffee AND red wine in liberal quantities and am likely to even combine them.
3. If you added martinis to our evening it would go even more smashingly well.
4. I govern my life by surprise, so I am open to peculiar suggestions, such as: “Let’s move this party to a bowling alley,” or “I have these strange friends who live in a cave outside town who would love to meet you.”
5. I believe the laws governing conversation are as sacred as those governing hospitality, i.e., one must be very good at both or be smoted by Zeus.
6. I never, ever forget that at heart I am a white trash child from a collapsing farm town; that my soul is barefoot, unkempt, and riding a bicycle.
If you weren’t already a Haven Kimmel fan, I hope I’ve convinced you to get away from the keyboard right now and go pick up one of her books this minute. And even if you are already a fellow fan, you might want to brush up on her books a little, because she has also ever-so-generously AGREED TO LET US INTERVIEW HER.
I really don’t mean to be so gushy here. Maybe this sort of thing happens to other bloggers all the time. But it’s a new and unexpected honor for Jules and me, and especially coming during a week when Jules got Roger Sutton to agree to an interview, and the SLJ blog mentioned us, and Alan Gratz didn’t hunt us down and stab us over the Badger picture, and we’re having fun getting to know other bloggers whom we dig in our interview series, and there’s another author whose work we really admire whom we’re maybe going to get to interview too but it’s not official yet so I can’t name her… well, there’s been a lot of squealing and oh-my-god-ing and is-this-really-happening?-ing.
I just want to say thanks to everyone out there in the book-loving community for their support and companionship. Jules and I are feeling truly blessed and charmed right now. What a lovely way to start the new year. Thank you all.
I feel honored that you two have even looked at my little, measly, just-started blog–now that you are becoming so famous! Congratulations!
How cool! See, this is what happens when you put yourself out there–not everyone is willing. Congratulations on getting to have some of these conversations you never thought possible.
Heh. Famous? That’s funny. Don’t worry, Kate, I’ll never let it go to my head so much that I scorn my fellow bloggers.
And the R.S. interview is at least in part thanks to you, Robin, since you went and double-dog-dared Jules and all.
I am so totally there…oh, wait, maybe I’m not the “martini” referenced in #3…
(FWIW — Kimmel and I share a publisher. Which made me just squee when I found out.)
Luckily, I’m going to McKay’s in KnoxVegas today with a lovely yellow credit slip burning a hole in my pocket…which of Ms. Kimmel’s books would you recommend be read first?
Oh Tracy, you’ll LOVE her memoirs. Start with A Girl Named Zippy…and then we’ll talk more Haven! (The above cover image of that book is linked to Amazon if you want to see a bigger picture or read more about it, but, Tracy, I can hear you laughing now as you read it. And it is utter perfection).