The Blog

June 24th, 2008

Got Ink?

Just as Deb loves newsprint, I have a special affinity for the scratching of a pen across fine paper - the kind with a high linen content, and a texture designed to absorb real ink, not the gloppy stuff that oozes forth from cheap ballpoint pens.

For my thirteenth birthday, my mother and my aunt gave me a day in San Francisco, where we hit Tower Records, and also went to a stationery store where I was gifted with a very cool calligraphy set. I was already a fan of ink pens, but that set sparked my love of colorful ink and metal nibs that came in multiple sizes. I was specifically drawn to ink that came in peacock blue and a deep, chocolatey brown.

I don’t have the budget to invest in tons of fancy fountain pens, much as I’d love to, but I have a few that are special: a blue and green glass pen from Italy, an old wooden one an art teacher gave me, to remind me that writing is art, too, and a cheap plastic one that I’ve managed not to lose (probably because it’s cheap), but have had for twenty years.

Earlier this year, I happened across Richard Merritt on Twitter. He doesn’t just sell amazing writing implements, he actually MAKES them, and his work is beautiful and thoughtful. As of this moment, his webstore isn’t really open, but I strongly suggest you visit his blog anyway, just because he’s an all-around neat guy. I’ve got a pink pen on order from him, and I’m excited about it’s eventual arrival.

More recently, my husband fed my addiction, by bringing me this Chinese calligraphy set from Hong Kong. (I’d asked for a fake Rolex, but the shop he was looking in was busted before he could make a purchase, so he brought me something to remind me that even when I feel like a paid hack, I’m still a writer.)

Of course, now that I have this great set, and a new pen coming in the not-too-far future, I need to go shopping again…for paper.

June 23rd, 2008

The Urban Life of a Suburban Girl

I grew up in the suburbs of Ft. Worth, Texas and until 2005, spent 90% of my personal and work life in a twenty-mile radius from my little suburban home.  I may seem like a woman of the world to some folks, but I am truly a small-town girl that wasn’t always accustomed to big cities and subway cars.  As I mentioned on Sunday, I have spent the better part of the last couple of months working in Washington DC.

They (whoever they are) say things are ‘bigger and better’ in Texas, and when it comes to wide open spaces, they’re right.  When it came to going anywhere, I hop in my car (typically alone) and go.  It’s been a bit of a culture shock to be working in a Metro area like Washington DC.  I am talking (mostly) about Transportation.  In Texas, when you want to go somewhere, you get in your car and drive.  Most places have huge parking lots and though the traffic isn’t always pretty, overall it’s manageable.  And the concept of “mass transit” is mostly a concept.

Though I still have some missteps here and there, overall I have taken to the Washington Metro Rail like a duck to water.  I have discovered that I can find myself anywhere in the area in a fairly short amount of time - and typically can get to a destination by rail much faster than if I were to drive or take a cab.  The morning commute into my client’s offices can be spent reading a book or the newspaper and arriving relaxed instead of arriving stressed from the traffic.  And evenings means I can dine at a trendy downtown restaurants if I choose, since areas like China Town, the Alexandria Water Front, Georgetown and Penn Quarter are a short (inexpensive) ride away.

This past Saturday, I spend the entire day out and with a swipe of my SmarTrip card, I traveled around from Old Town Alexandria to Arlington National Cemetery…from the Smithsonian Castle to the Barnes and Noble near The White House….from the National Portrait Gallery to a trendy cafe in Georgetown.  I spent less than $10 on fares, but managed to work my way around a chunk of the city, all the while being able to read or listen to my Ipod…and give myself some needed exercise as well as I walked the short distance to each destination.

I may be the product of a Suburban upbringing, but I think I’m adjusting to the advantages you can only find in the Urban Jungle.

June 22nd, 2008

What does it for you?

The next theme for All Things Girl is, “Spice of Life”. This is an exciting theme because it means you can write about anything that makes life a little more exciting; the types of things that just lift you out of the normal “everyday”. Turn them into a story or poem and share your ideas.

I was thinking of all the special and exciting things in my life and it occurred to me that everyone would be passionate about different things. Now one of the things I love to do is write (which may come as no surprise). It doesn’t matter what it is: articles for newspapers, poems (my passion) short stories, novels. I just really enjoy the time spent writing. It takes you away from real life - drains and the like! A friend of mine has a passion for words. She knows a phenomenal amount of obscure and seldom used words, which she drops into every conversation. Then there are people who have to climb mountains or swim the English Channel, both activities far too adventurous for me. Some people are passionate about food (ok I’ll own up to that one) and others are fashion fanatics. Royal Ascot has been on the television all week and you can forget the racing. There were ladies walking around with bushes and aerials on their heads.

The new edition of All Things Girl is not far away and there are some really good pieces to look forward to but the writings section are still taking submissions, so if you have an urge to share your writing, why not take a look at the submissions page. Send in your stories and poems. We love reading them!

June 22nd, 2008

For the Love of Newsprint

I’m a long time fan of newspapers, especially on Sunday.

It began, of course, with the comics when I could barely read, but soon bled over to such sections as “Arts” and “Style” and, of course “Travel”.  From my suburban home in Mansfield, Texas I could gaze upon photos of far-away places and follow the adventures of writers who visited exotic places like Greece, Paris, and New York City.  My parents were daily subscribers to both the Dallas Morning News, which was in the front yard when we woke each day and the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which was delivered around 5 PM during the week.   The weekends meant two papers to dig through.  An early riser, I often spent a good hour with the Sunday Paper before others in the house awoke.  As I grew older, I began to read other sections of the paper, and not just on Sunday.  The front page told me what was going on in the world, and the metro section told me what was going on in my immediate surroundings.   It was how we, as a society, got the details of our world.  That was long before Cable News and the Internet.

There was nothing like laying on the floor, reading page by page…and finding at the end, my hands black from the newsprint.

The busy pace of life and responsibilities, and the availability of immediate gratification on information has changed how the average person finds out what is going on in the world.  I, too, am apt to check out CNN.com during the day to keep up on the world, and though I subscribe to the local paper, it often ends up in the trash.  Except on Sunday, of course, where I dig through the ads and, as I did as a child, devour sections like “Arts”, “Style” and “Travel”.   In the last year, I’ve noticed, however, these sections have shrunk to much smaller proportions.   Lagging advertisers, and the availability of immediate information has had an economic effect on my local newspaper, and it’s with sorrow that I see the book section reduced to one small page, where it used to be spread out to four.

I still make my home in the Dallas area, but the last couple of months have found me in Washington DC more.  In the pace of hurry-up-and-go world, I have discovered again the comfort of the daily newspaper.  The Washington Post, an institution in itself, is still a robust publication.  As with all newspapers, The Washington Post can be found on line, but to me, there is still nothing like spreading out the paper and allowing the events of the world and the opinions of columnists unfold.   Some mornings, I only have time to glance at the headlines.  Often I will take a section or so of the paper to keep me company as I ride the Metro to the office.  Newsprint on my hands is only inconvenient when I’m wearing something white.

On the weekends that I stay in the city instead of traveling home, I spend the first hour of my day indulging in the love I found as a child:  The Sunday Paper.  It hit me today, when I was reading the book section (a small pull-out section of lengthy reviews and recommendations), that this childhood love and habit was so much a part of my being.    I’ve written a lot this year about spending time on things I am passionate about…and I can say that for the newspaper reminds me that no matter the form, I still have a passion for the written word.  And love the need to wash my hands clean of newsprint after a well spent hour (or two) indulging in my love of the Sunday Paper…..

June 22nd, 2008

QuillPill.com: Novel Writing for the Cellular Generation

It should be obvious after a few months of my presence here at ATG, that I am the geekiest of the “girls.” From my unabashed love of genre fiction and sci-fi television (yes, I confess, I watched the free download of The Middleman that was released via iTunes long before the show ever aired, and I further confess that when I was seventeen I had a crush on Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. And yes, I mean Data, the character, not Brent Spiner, the actor who played him.) to my funky pink hair which matches the funky pink cover on my MacBook, I embrace the nerdy side of life, albeit with killer fashion sense, and mad grammar skillz.

My love of a new website, QuillPill, then, should also be unsurprising.

What is QuillPill? And why do I love it?

It’s a web-based interface where people can post their novels (or short stories, journals, etc.) in 140-character capsules. If that sounds a bit strange, consider the popularity of social media sites like Twitter, which also imposes 140-character limits on each entry. Why this number? Because it’s the lowest common denominator of character thresholds for a single SMS message sent from a cell phone.

Microblogging came first, and now we have micro-novel-ing. It’s ideal for when the perfect line strikes you just as you’re about to put that biodegradeable cardboard carton of store-brand organic non-fat milk in the grocery cart. Instead of searching for a pen, and scrawling unintelligible letters across the back of your grocery list, you whip out your phone, press a few buttons, and voila! You’ve written a “chapter” of your novel.

QuillPill is free to use, as a writer or a reader, and offers versions of itself for standard and mobile web browsers as well as a dedicated interface for the iPhone/ iPod Touch users among us.

The “browse” interface, for finding people to read, isn’t as intuitive as it should be, and the FAQs are still under construction, but the fact that other people can read your contributions make it much more fun than the 20th Century equivalent: scribbling notes on the backs of napkins.

(Oh, and, in case you’re wondering, my own work-in-progress, Illusions of Motion, can be found under the name MissMelysse.)

June 19th, 2008

What Are You Doing?

It’s the question you ask a million times a week to your family and your friends. But did you ever wonder what we are doing here at All Things Girl? Follow us on Twitter, then you will be in the know.

Don’t forget to tell your friends…

June 19th, 2008

MORE Book Winners!

In April, we offered copies of Lauren Henderson’s KISS ME KILL ME to five random readers who left comments. Those winners have finally been chosen.

Becca, Brigita, Cathrine, Erin and Julie, should all have an email from me, Melissa, asking for your mailing address so we can send your copies.

Let us know when you have them!

June 18th, 2008

Expansions at ATG

If you are familiar with All Things Girl, then you may notice a couple of new navigational links.

First of all, we have created a “Links We Love” page.   Now, this isn’t a simple link exchange, but a compilation of links from folks we have featured, breadcrumbs to the business websites of our staff as well as some long-time contributors, and websites we are going to on a regular basis and simply want to share.  Well, that and some links for shopping.

Shopping is another addition to our navigation, by the way.  We’ve had a Cafe Press store, where you can get ATG Gear for awhile….but we have also added an Amazon “ATG Recommends” page that gathers products that you have read about in the Reviews Section as well as here in the blog.   Yes, we make a small percentage, but since we’ve done the test-driving for you, we know you’ll like what you find….

Check it out!  And, as always…let us know what you think!

June 17th, 2008

MagCloud

We are big into self-publishing, obviously, and for some time (*ahem* a few years) we have talked about doing a print version of All Things Girl. Each time we broached the topic, things got in the way - mostly the lack of time and not really knowing where to even begin in going print. What would be the best approach? What should be included? Would anyone actually buy a print version? Would anyone be even remotely interested?

There’s just something about holding a magazine, or a book, or anything printed really, in your hands. There’s some sort of magic that happens between print and fingertips. I love the feel of a photo, a new book, or a crisp mag, and of course I would love it even more if that mag was All Things Girl and filled with the great content I know we deliver every issue. Well, it seems we may now be a step in the right direct with the launch of MagCloud.

Derek Powazek (our upcoming Man of the Moment for September) recently announced the launch of MagCloud which he has been working on with HP, and we are very excited about what this may mean for All Things Girl. We’ve got our hands on a beta account (thanks Derek!) and will be trying things out in the coming weeks. We’ve got a lot to think about in this whole process, but we are really hopefully that this is just what we need to get All Things Girl from the screen to our hands. No doubt we’ll be chatting to Derek about MagCloud more in our September issue, along with his other projects such as Fray and Magazineer, so definitely don’t miss our interview with him.

And, for anyone concerned, we have always maintained that ATG will remain an online magazine, but we would love to do special print editions. So, although we may do a print issue of ATG, you’ll always find us in your browser. With that in mind, we’d love to hear your thoughts, and while you are at it, check out MagCloud and perhaps consider your own self-publishing project.

June 14th, 2008

Ducks and Drains

A few months ago two ducks were swimming past my kitchen window. Not because we live by a river (I wish) but because our newly gravelled drive had flooded. Last week the post woman couldn’t deliver the mail and I had to paddle to my car to get to work. Perhaps the most poignant part of these events is that we had to build stepping stones from the back door, across the drive to the garden, so that the cats could get out. They used them very carefully!

I have many interests, but the one subject that switches me off is drains. My lack of interest is even part of a family joke. Of course I appreciate that without drains I couldn’t have baths, showers, use a washing machine, etc and I accept that they are a wonderful invention, but I do feel that drains should work in life’s background, like the virus checker does on my computer.

On Tuesday the two men came along to sort out the problems with the driveway flooding. My husband went off to work and left me to it. You have to show an interest when people are working so hard to help you, so I peered down black holes, watched rod after rod being shoved down, discussed which way the water was flowing and even followed the dye that was added to the water to make it all clearer. I learned about the diameter of drains, the need for the fall, the difference between house and land drains and so much more. The end result was that nothing could be done with the existing network of drains and a large drain (9 inch diameter) had to be planted right across the front garden to get rid of the water. It had to be 9 inch to collect water from a 4 inch pipe and a 6 inch pipe (apparently).

I was proud that I had listened and (mainly) understood the many discussions, even though I would have preferred to do almost anything else. The new drain has now been installed and I am looking forward to the next downpour. Will it work or will the ducks be back?

This episode just made me think, what things do other people really not want to do and doesn’t it all make life richer?

June 13th, 2008

Book Winners!

In celebration of Felicia Sullivan’s book, The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here being optioned for film, we offered our readers a free copy of this wonderful memoir! Congratulations to Dawn for being randomly selected to receive the free copy.

We also offered our readers a chance to received a free copy of The Boss of You: Everything a Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business by Emira Mears and Lauren Bacon. Lauren guest blogged on ATG about Embracing your inner Good Boss. Every woman starting their own business, thinking about starting their own business or in their own business already needs to get their hands on this book. Seriously. Congratulations to Serena for being randomly selected to receive the free copy! Hopefully this book will help you get started.

Keep checking in on the blog for future opportunities to win free books!

June 10th, 2008

Upcoming covergirl and man of the moment

I have just finished the interviews for the cover girl and man of the moment for July — actress Francia Raisa and singer-songwriter Crosby Loggins. I am so excited to share them with you.

Francia is, at just 19, a grounded, mature and forward thinking woman, with a promising future. The young star of the The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream, and the new ABC family drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager, she talked to me about racism, abortion and acting.

Crosby is the down-to-earth, introspective and talented man who recently won MTV’s newest reality talent show Rock the Cradle. But don’t let that put you off, he had released an album long before MTV came calling. We discussed his album, We All Go Home, his father Grammy winning rock-star Kenny Loggins, and growing-up “privileged”.

You can learn more about both these fabulous artists in July’s issue of AllThingsGirl.

June 10th, 2008

Pad Thai

I’m no cook but I do love food and taking photos of food. I’m a food enthusiast. My husband loves pad thai, so yesterday I attempted to make a quick chicken pad thai (replace the chicken with prawns or tofu if you are not keen on the chicken) and it was semi-successful. I learned a few things in the process and I’m hoping the next time it will be better.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 skinless free-range chicken breasts
2 x 200g packs straight-to-wok rice noodles ⁽¹⁾
75g beansprouts
2 free-range eggs
1 heaped tablespoon tamarind paste
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
2 teaspoons caster sugar ⁽²⁾
Fresh coriander (cilantro for our US readers)
Natural roasted peanuts ⁽³⁾
Spring onions
Limes

In a large wok or frying pan heat the olive oil over a high heat. Slice the chicken breasts then stir-fry the chicken in the wok for 5 minutes until golden brown. Add the noodles and beansprouts. Stir-fry for 2 minutes more, then make a clearing in the centre of the noodles. Crack in the eggs and scramble using a spoon to mix. In a small bowl, mix together the tamarind paste, fish sauce and sugar⁽⁴⁾. Add to the pan, mix well to coat, then add a splash of water f the noodles look a little dry. Remove from the heat, stir through a good handful of the coriander leaves (keep some to top the dish at the end) and squeeze over 1/4 lime (the recipe calls for 1/2 but we found that too much). Serve sprinkled with a few chopped peanuts, spring onions and a lime wedge.

⁽¹⁾ I’d advise getting 5mm uncooked rice noodles instead and cooking these yourself before adding them to the wok. Soak the noodles for 3 minutes in clean cold water, then boil them until they are soft, but still firm, then add them to the wok as the recipes indicates.

⁽²⁾ I used Splenda instead since we didn’t have caster sugar and it worked just fine.

⁽³⁾ It’s really easy to roast peanuts. Get them in the shells so they are unsalted or processed in any way. Remove them from the shells (don’t worry about the “skins”) and place on a baking dish. Bake until you see them turning a nice rich brown. The “skins” will come off really easily once they have been roasted.

⁽⁴⁾ I’d suggest doubling the sauce and adding to taste. We definitely needed some extra sauce.

This recipe is from the July 2008 issue of delicious. If you are looking for a good foodie magazine - this is it! Wonderful articles, great recipes and really lovely photos. I’m thinking of trying my hand at a few other recipes. Perhaps I’ll finally get the knack for cooking and upgrade to being a real foodie. Maybe…

June 10th, 2008

A Paradox?

A few months ago, I switched from tracking everything in Outlook only to using the old “daytimer” method. My system of choice is from Franklin Covey (original pages, classic size). I know that folks swear by the use of all the electronic gadgets, but for me, there is comfort in putting pen to paper. I am much more organized in my head since I did this, by the way.

What brings that up here, though, is that each day, there is an inspirational quote. Most of the time, the quote gets lost in a flurry of need-to-dos and already-did-dos, but today when I was on hold, my eyes settled in on today’s quote and I wanted to know if it was something you agreed with – or disagreed with.

Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found. (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)

I see the paradox, right there in green and white, but in my life?

Fear seems to be the factor that keeps people from making changes in their lives, but when you let go of the fear and take a leap, you often find the security in your life that you have been longing for. Maybe it’s because I took the leap about four years ago and started my own business. I know that I am still fearful of many things and it keeps me from leaping to some changes, but I do prefer to to keep some momentum going. It’s why I chose “Courage” as one of my words for 2008. I have discovered that making changes, growing as a person, reforming my life is truly the way to give me what I need in order to believe in myself.

Paradox? At first glance. But true in my reality….. what do YOU think?

June 9th, 2008

Thoughts Inspired by “Army Wives”

I am not a military wife, and my grandfather was retired from the Army and working on post with the civil service when I was born, and retired completely not many years after, so I’m probably the last person who would be interested in, and later addicted to, a show depicting military spouses living on a fictional base, and yet, ever since the very first episode of Lifetime Television’s show Army Wives last summer, it has captured my interest, and sometimes moved me to tears. My last direct experience with the military was at his funeral, when my grandmother was too grief-stricken to accept the flag from his coffin, and that duty fell to me. It was sixteen years ago, and “Taps” still makes my throat swell.

Last night, I spent a quiet hour sitting on the couch flanked by my two dogs, watching the second season premier. It picked up a few days after the cliffhanger season finale from last year, in which a distraught husband (and officer) strapped a bomb onto his chest, and went to the bar where the central characters hang out. We were left wondering who would survive.

The question of who lived and who died was answered in the 2nd season opener, of course, and I won’t go into details, because there may be some people who read this and haven’t seen it yet, but it’s definitely a tear-jerker, jumping back and forward over the four days between the bombing and the “present,” with everything book-ended by the radio show hosted by Pamela Moran (played by Brigid Brannagh), who offers these words: “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

Counterpoint to the bombing story is the b-plot - character Roxy’s (Sally Pressman) worry over her husband Trevor, who shipped out on the same day, and who may or may not be part of a unit that was ambushed upon arrival.

I’m not a military wife, but I am a member of a group called Soldiers’ Angels, a non-partisan organization that supports men and women serving in harm’s way (and recuperating after) by sending letters and packages. You get to know the soldiers assigned to you – from their return letters written in cramped script on notebook paper, or whatever paper they could find at their local PX, from two line emails letting you know they’re still alive when you haven’t heard from them in a month, from their MySpace and Facebook and Blogger pages. Some of their stories are sad - parents who can’t get past the politics and refuse to correspond with their kids serving in the Gulf, or Afghanistan, or Korea – spouses who really do write “Dear John” letters when waiting for their deployed partner to come home gets to be too much. You start feeling like a surrogate parent, older sister, best friend. You are the voice in the darkness that doesn’t judge and just says, “Hey, I care about you.”

Army Wives is, of course, meant to entertain, and so if they push the edges of plausibility at times, it’s to make good television, but the thing about good stories is that if they begin in a place of emotional truth, the audience will take the journey anyway.

This television show has that truth.

A few weeks ago letters to one of my soldiers, sent in February, began coming back. I know, from checking the sources available, that his unit is not on mailstop. I can’t say I was as terrified as his wife must have been, but I can honestly say that after finding out today that he’s alive and well after all, my tears during the new episode of Army Wives were as much from relief as because the show was sad.

“To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.”
Pretty good words from a tv show…don’t you think?

June 8th, 2008

All Kinds of Yumminess

At times, I know we seem very quiet here at All Things Girl, but it doesn’t mean that we aren’t working on all kinds of yummy and fabulous things for your future enjoyment. I am very excited about our upcoming feature interviews, cover girls and Men of the Month as well as the peek at the wonderful submissions.

But let’s talk yummy - and by yummy, I mean SEXY men. Every woman has a different view of what is sexy so to meet the different views of our staff and our readers, here is what we have in store for you this year:

• July: Singer Crosby Loggins. He’s the son of Kenny Loggins and was recently seen on MTV’s Rock the Cradle Series.
• August: Writer George Pelacanos. He is a novelist, screenwriter, TV series writer and producer. He is also intelligent, funny and very engaging. I recently did a telephone interview with him and he has an amazingly sexy voice and a fabulous laugh.
• September: Web Phenom Derek Powazek. He is a web pioneer, a publisher, a writer and so much more.
• October: Writer Brad Meltzer. he is a novelist, comic book writer, and TV series creator.
• November: UK Chef Jamie Oliver. Is there anything better than this cuter-than-pie chef when our theme is Naughty & Nice?
• December: Iron Chef Mario Batali, who is all kinds of sexy to many of us….

The remaining Cover Girls for 2008 promise to be engaging, exciting and inspiring.

• July/August: Actress Francia Raisa. Her new TV Series “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” for ABC.
• Sept/October: Writer Shelia Weller. Her best selling novel “Girls Like Us” gives us a biography of three amazing female song writers: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon.
• Nov/December: Iron Chef Cat Cora. She is sexy, intelligent, and inspirational. She is the only female Iron Chef and is also the founder of Chefs for Humanity.

We also have some wonderful interviews coming up in the next few months. I’m looking forward to each issue unfold and I hope you are as well! So, what do you think?