Wendy McClure

Author and Professional Obsessive.

Menu
  • Home
  • About Wendy
  • Books
    • Books for Adults
      • The Wilder Life
      • I’m Not the New Me
      • Other Books and Anthologies
    • Books for Kids
      • A Garden to Save the Birds
      • It’s a Pumpkin!
      • The Princess and the Peanut Allergy
      • Wanderville
      • Wanderville 2: On Track for Treasure
      • Wanderville 3: Escape to the World’s Fair
  • More
    • Media and Publications
    • Wanderville Extras
    • Book Clubs and School Visits
  • Contact

Archives for July 2004

Honk

July 28, 2004 by Wendy

So how is your day? Maybe you’re having a lousy day today. Or else, maybe you’re having a very good day today. Perhaps today your day is so good that you can hardly stand it�SO good that you feel almost silly, silly and happy, like the biggest, bestest balloon you ever saw nudging higher and higher in the brilliant sky, and you’re wondering if there’s anything that’s ever going to bring you down.

So will it help if I tell you there is a DYING GOOSE right outside my office at the moment?

Update: make that a dead goose.

Yes, I work in the suburbs.

Filed Under: General

Lame-ass checks in

July 23, 2004 by Wendy

This photo and caption made me laugh and laugh this morning. I really should try to meet the guy who does this Big Happy Funhouse site, whoever the hell he is.

It’s been quiet here this week, and it’s going to be like this for awhile longer, I think, since I have a big deadline next month that I’ve been working towards even as summer rages. I’d go on hiatus but I keep hoping Bootsy will provide all kinds of highly amusing freshwater fish anecdotes. So far I’ve got “Bootsy Continues To Live” and that’s about it.

He has a bigger tank and specially treated water now. I tried to get him a filter but I think it’s too big for the tank, because when I plugged it in he started to swim differently and with a certain grim determination, like a child sitcom star. I thought, lighten up, fish, but then it occurred to me that maybe the filter was too strong, and when I dropped in some food pellets and they stuck to the filter tube, I realized I had to turn the thing off. Bootsy wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the day. Now I change the water once a week and Bootsy lives.

Filed Under: General

What?!

July 19, 2004 by Wendy

The guy I’m now dating just complained that I haven’t updated my site lately. Like it’s MY FAULT or something.

Filed Under: General

Where I'll be Saturday

July 16, 2004 by Wendy

…at the Abbey Pub, watching pretty ladies at the Gurlesque Burlesque show . (The show’s going on tonight, too.)

Be warned that the above link is slightly “not safe for work.” Remember, Corporate America hates tits!

Filed Under: General

Bootsy bulletin

July 15, 2004 by Wendy

More than one reader has written in to inform me that my fish is a guy.

Well, good, because I like guys.

Filed Under: General

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

July 14, 2004 by Wendy

Paula Danziger died last week. I read three or four of her novels when I was a kid. Sometimes, because of my job, I get to meet the authors of books I loved as a kid, and I always hoped I�d meet her.

I don�t know how old I was when I first found The Cat Ate My Gymsuit. The main thing I remember is that the book had a fat girl on the cover. I can�t recall if this made me want to read it more or less; at various times in my life either reaction was possible.

I know I read the book more than once and I liked the story, which was about a lot of things, but what struck me most is that it wasn�t all about the fat girl being fat. And the cover mesmerized me. My memory made Marcy fatter than she really appears in that illustration; in my mind she was really fat, and when I looked at her face I could see that her size was both the worst thing in the world and utterly unremarkable, as ordinary as the typeface on the front of her English textbook. There were plenty of details to contemplate. I didn�t want to be as big as her but I liked her I-don�t-give-a-shit expression. And she had that rumpled look about her that a lot of the protagonists of 70s teen novels seemed to have: on the covers of Paul Zindel and Norma Fox Mazer books, kids were always thoughtfully slouching around in grubby-looking jeans and seemed somehow more compelling than their 80s counterparts.

I know I�m talking more about the cover than the book here, but the book didn�t disappoint. I remember she got a new outfit that she liked even though she was fat; one night she turned down a bowl of ice cream and kept checking the mirror to see if she was thin. I loved that. And I think it’s worth noting that Marcy has never been shown as fat as she was on that old cover in subsequent editions, and that reviews and summaries often say she thinks she’s fat; funny how that sort of changes everything. I wish I could have asked Danziger about that. And what does it mean that I didn’t think the girl in There’s a Bat in Bunk Five was the same Marcy–that I didn’t buy that she was suddenly thin for the sequel? I didn’t feel cheated but I simply chose to disagree. But I think I am going to have to re-read these books now.

(Thanks so much to Eliza Lou for providing a nice big scan of the much-sought-after old Gymsuit cover.)

Filed Under: General

Next Page »

Archives

  • March 2016
  • January 2014
  • December 2012
  • July 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004
  • April 2004
  • March 2004
  • February 2004
  • January 2004
  • December 2003
  • November 2003
  • October 2003
  • September 2003
  • August 2003
  • July 2003
  • June 2003
  • May 2003
  • April 2003
  • March 2003
  • February 2003
  • January 2003
  • December 2002
  • November 2002
  • September 2001
  • July 2001
  • May 2001
  • February 2001
  • January 2001

The Wilder Life on Flickr

Recent Press and Links

  • Essay: A Little House Adulthood For the American Masters documentary on Laura Ingalls Wilder, I contributed a piece to the PBS website about revisiting the Little House books.
  • Essay: The Christmas Tape (At Longreads.com) How an old audio tape of holiday music became a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
  • Q & A With Wendy McClure Publishers Weekly interview about editing, Wanderville and more.

Connect with me

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On Instagram

Where else to find Wendy

  • Candyboots Home of the Weight Watcher recipe cards
  • Malcolm Jameson Site (in progress) about my great-grandfather, a Golden Age sci-fi writer.
  • That Side of the Family My semi-secret family history blog
Copyright © 2023 by Wendy McClure • All Rights Reserved • Site design by Makeworthy Media • Wanderville illustrations by Erwin Madrid