ellenkushner: (FurCoat)
ellenkushner ([personal profile] ellenkushner) wrote2012-03-25 08:37 pm
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The Boys With Champagne

A lovely dinner last night at Paul Witcover's with Terri Windling & Christopher Schelling (our mutual agent) and assorted friends, for visiting author friend Liz Hand  . . . one of those dinners where the wit and wine flow free, and you wish it would never end (and that you could stop yawning after midnight!). The talk ranged from reading books to writing books to reviewing books (we are nothing if not consistent).  

Much champagne (well, sparkling white from various countries) was drunk to celebrate the publication of Liz's second Cass Neary novel, AVAILABLE DARK (which, if it is even half as good as the first one, is very, very good indeed!). Bottles kept popping open. I drank more than I normally do, but it was over the course of many hours, and accompanied by lots of terrific food. We stayed out later than we normally do, and came home late and happy on the subway.

As Terri & I said good night to each other at opposite ends of the hallway, we remembered the way we used to sit in the scruffy kitchen on 110th St. (yes, the very kitchen in the apt. in my last post), wondering at the fact that here we were, young 20-somethings already successful in publishing, living in New York, and yet . . . and yet . . . . 

Where are the boys with champagne?

we used to cry.  Because surely, once you'd been published, won awards, etc., your life would be an endless feast of beautiful young men pouring champagne - and you'd never have to do the laundry or the dishes or take out the trash or scrub the catbox again?!  And yet.

So; last night.  We were back in the midst of the Glamorous Publishing Thing together. It was just the way we'd always hoped it would be.  And we realized, that, now, finally - and I swear we both shouted this out at exactly the same moment:

We'd found the boys with champagne!

Available Dark

[identity profile] nancy werlin (from livejournal.com) 2012-03-26 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
>>Liz's second Cass Neary novel, AVAILABLE DARK (which, if it is even half as good as the first one, is very, very good indeed!)<<

I read it a week ago -- it's even better! But now I have to wait for the third.

Re: Available Dark

[identity profile] ellen-kushner.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
How do you manage to read so much??

Sent Delia off to ICFA with Elizabeth Wein's CODE NAME: VERITY. Because I am a very nice person.

Now she's back, and I must finish it!

Your taste, as always, impeccable.

Re: Available Dark

[identity profile] nancy werlin (from livejournal.com) 2012-03-26 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Thing is, I had so loved the first Cass Neary book and never thought there would be another, so I had to pounce on the e-book the second I realized it existed. It was VERY nice of you to let Delia have CODE NAME VERITY, which is astonishing. (I had reading time for that on the plane back from the UK last week... I think it might single-handedly revive interest in US YA publishing in historical fiction.)

Re: Available Dark

[identity profile] ellen-kushner.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
>>I think it might single-handedly revive interest in US YA publishing in historical fiction<<

. . . along with THE FREEDOM MAZE, of course!

[identity profile] rubygirl29.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
I think I have a new mantra! I want the boys with champagne, too.

Congratulations on your successes! You've done Cleveland proud.

Hometown Girl Makes Good

[identity profile] ellen-kushner.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
May you find the boys with champagne . . . or may they find you!

Boys champagne

(Anonymous) 2012-03-26 10:45 am (UTC)(link)
I am too old to find them, send them here!!!

Jane

[identity profile] csecooney.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 11:42 am (UTC)(link)
Frikkin love this. May it flow in fountains ever freely.

[identity profile] tithenai.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
*love*