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January 2, 2006
Introducing... Eileen Rendahl!
Combining coffee, tattoos and Antonio Banderas to serve you better. Don't thank us now. It's our pleasure.
As part of our launch week for the new and improved LiteraryChicks.com, we're doing a series of cross-interviewing so y'all will have a chance to get to know our newest Chicks, and to find out a little more about those of us who've been here for a while. We get to ask each other ANY FIVE QUESTIONS WE CHOOSE. Yeah, baby... So let's get started, shall we?
It is my incredible pleasure to get to introduce you guys to the lovely and talented Eileen Rendahl, whom I adore with every little itty bit of my being. Not only is she a fabulous writer, but she's probably one of the sweetest people I will ever meet in my life. I just finished her most recent book, Balancing in High Heels, and I'm here to tell you - I LOVED it! Part of the story revolved around the Butterfly Brigade, a group of lingerie-clad, butterfly-tattooed women who go about righting wrongs, vigilante-style. It's a great, great book. If you've read it, or any of Eileen's books, feel free to leave comments for her here on this blog, and if you haven't read any of Eileen's books, get thee to Amazon, sweets!
Now, for the 5 Questions I got to ask Eileen...
LDR: What are your addictions?
ER: Coffee, coffee, coffee. And have I mentioned that I like coffee? I am on my fourth espresso machine in six years. This time we splurged on one that is almost all stainless steel after the last one's little plastic doohickey exploded and shot hot steam across the kitchen, nearly scalding both my fiance (whom I shall christen Cowboy for all future blogs) and one of the cats. Luckily both of them have excellent reflexes.
And running. In "Empire Falls", Richard Russo says that everyone should fall in love with doing something they're bad at because it keeps them humble. Running keeps me very very humble. I suck at it. I'm slow. My stride is terrible. I never get any better at it. I started doing it as a weight control thing and it has clearly not worked and yet still I'm out there three, four, five times a week, pounding around. If miss two days in a row, I get cranky.
LDR: What's your favorite place to be and why?
ER: San Carlos Beach at the Breakwater in Monterey, CA. We have had so many wonderful days there with my children (heretofore to be known as Things One and Two) playing in the sand and the surf and the tide pools while Cowboy scuba dives and I watch the waves and the kids and read. I love the ocean. I love fighting the seagulls to keep them out of my potato chips and having sand everywhere and my hair being so wind-whipped that it looks like it's been styled with an egg beater. I just love it. Seriously.
If I can't be there, I want to be on the couch in my living room with my family snuggled under a blanket watching movies. Some popcorn and a little red wine wouldn't be turned down.
LDR: If you could pull a Butterfly Brigade, what would you do?
ER: My, oh my, do I ever have a list.
Let's see. I would do something about the people who arrange the clothing displays at stores and make the aisles too narrow for me to get my mother's wheelchair through them. Dangling a clearance sign in front of my mother and then making it impossible for her to get to that rack may be one of the cruelest things you could do to that woman. She'd rather die than pay retail.
Then I'd tackle my local school district who sees fit to let the first through third graders out at two-thirty in the afternoon and the fourth through six graders out at three so that if you have two kids, you have a half hour in your totally maxed out day where you can do NOTHING. We might have to kidnap them for a half an hour each day and lock them in a closet. Of course, all the elementary school kids get out at one-thirty on Wednesdays which is great until you have a junior high student, too, and that one doesn't have to be at school until nine-thirty on Wednesday making Wednesday a completely pointless day in your schedule where you're lucky if you can even get to the grocery store so maybe those folks have to spend Wednesday in the closet, too.
Oh, and that guy at the post office who wouldn't get out of the doorway so I could leave so the next person in line could be helped? I totally want to duct tape him to the door frame.
LDR: What's your favorite word and why?
ER: Oooh. I think it might be 'penultimate'. Or maybe it would be 'eponymous'. I didn't learn those words until I was an adult and was blown away by the fact that there were actual specific words for those things. Plus, penultimate has all kinds of associations with reading poetry in college for me in a way that was wildly self-indulgent and pseudo-intellectual and great fun. I had kind of a Mallarme thing for a while.
LDR: If you had the opportunity to kiss any man without it having any impact on a current relationship, who would it be and why?
ER: Antonio Banderas. Wait. No. Maybe it would be Keanu Reeves. No. It's Antonio. Definitely Antonio. Just a second. Can I change to John Stamos? No. Don't let me do that. I'm sticking with Antonio.
So, there you have it, a little more insight into Eileen Rendahl's Antonio Banderas-lovin' soul. Got questions for Eileen? Leave 'em here in the comments! And be sure to come back on Thursday, January 5th for Eileen's inaugural blog in which she interviews me!
Posted by Lani at 6:00 AM | Comments (19)
Comments
Very cute, honey. Accusing me of leaving you stranded on the beach while I go have my way with the mermaids.
Ok, so maybe that's the way it really is, but don't make me look too bad, please.
Posted by: cowboy at January 2, 2006 1:08 PM
No, sorry, Cowboy. Significant others are definitely not allowed any editing privilege to posts on our site. If so, Navy Guy would have been in here with red pen flying months ago . . .
Welcome to the madness!!
Alesia
Posted by: Alesia Holliday ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.literarychicks.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 2, 2006 2:06 PM
Hey, Hi Eileen,
Cute interview. And I agree with Lani about your books. Love them. I bought three of each and gave them to friends of mine. Of course, I don't give away the ones you signed for me. And I admire your strength in sticking with Banderas. Mucho, macho hombre. Aye Caramba!!! Keep doing the writing thing you do and stay as sweet as you are.
ginny
Posted by: Ginny at January 2, 2006 5:11 PM
Welcome Eileen! I'm glad to see you blogging. *evil grin* . . . And yes, Antonio is fabulous . . . Or Orlando. Or Johnny Depp. Though I can't seem to get the image of Johnny on 21 Jump Street out of my head, and now I'm too old for him . . .
Posted by: Allison Brennan at January 2, 2006 7:47 PM
Ginny,
You are too sweet yourself! Thank you!
Allison,
I know what you mean about Johnny Depp. Although Chocolat pretty much erased the 21 Jump Street image for me. Still, he and Orlando are just a little too pretty for me.
Posted by: Eileen at January 2, 2006 10:39 PM
Hmmm . . . Cowboy and Navy Guy . . . I'm going to have to think of a cool nickname for George, so that he doesn't feel left out.
Posted by: Whitney at January 3, 2006 8:49 AM
Well, Adam's nickname is Fish, because we met over bix boxes of frozen salmon in a fish processing plant in Alaska. So don't feel it has to be something all alpha-male.
Posted by: Lani at January 3, 2006 8:55 AM
What's a "bix box"? Is that something unique to salmon?? Sounds intriguing. Could be a book title - FROM BIX BOXES TO LOVE.
Posted by: Alesia Holliday at January 3, 2006 11:58 AM
Um... actually, no. A bix box is what happens when you can't type. Actually, it's a BIG box. Big. Or, when you combine "big" and "box" in the addled mind of a writer, you get "bix." So... yeah. Just big boxes, that's all.
But I like the title idea. ;)
Posted by: Lani at January 3, 2006 12:05 PM
Please don't pick something like "lawyer guy" or "thinning pate guy."
Whitney's first idea was "Buttercup." Fantastic. It is sure to instantly convey the impression that I am (a) substantially overweight and (b) likely a homosexual. The Princess Bride herself was named Buttercup.
I'm thinking something along the lines of Longhorn.
Or Mr. Potency.
Posted by: George at January 3, 2006 1:55 PM
I thought Buttercup was sweet . . .
Posted by: Whitney at January 3, 2006 2:12 PM
Princess Bride is Navy Guy's favorite movie! He can quote the entire dialogue, I think. Welcome to the madness, Buttercup!
Alesia
Posted by: Alesia Holliday at January 3, 2006 3:11 PM
That's Prince Buttercup, thank you.
Posted by: George at January 3, 2006 3:54 PM
You realize you've sealed your own fate, don't you, George? Buy Whitney something pretty and shiny and maybe she'll shorten it to something more manly, like P.B. ;) Welcome to the Literary Chicks family, George!
Posted by: Lani at January 3, 2006 3:58 PM
What a great interview! I love your books and think they're just as sassy and funny as you are. Keep them coming!
Can I wave to Cowboy? Um, okay, I'm waving now.... :)
And can I ruffle the heads of Thing One and Two? What, you don't recommend it? Okay, but I'm waving at them too!
:)
Delilah
Posted by: Delilah at January 3, 2006 11:22 PM
Delilah,
Cowboy says hello back. Things One and Two still have ruffleable heads although Thing One will probably then go fix his hair.
Posted by: Eileen at January 4, 2006 11:35 AM
Hi Eileen,
Regarding Lani's BUTTERFLY BRIGADE question, I am wondering...what would you do if Tigger bounced by on his coiled tail in front of you at this very moment. Or what if Tigger were allowed, say, a drivers license? And he cut you off in traffic? Honest answers please.
;) Susan
Posted by: Susan Hatler at January 4, 2006 1:34 PM
Susan,
You know full well that I hate Tigger. If he bounced by me on his coiled tail, I'd run for a hammer so I could clobber him over the head. If he cut me off in traffic? Well, let's just say I drive an already heavily-dented minivan. One more little fender bender isn't going to kill it.
Posted by: Eileen at January 5, 2006 4:37 PM
Even though I do not know what a HTML tag is, nor a typekey identity, and URL for me is a crossword puzzle answer, I will attempt a comment. Eileen--I so much enjoyed your answers all the way through this blog. The way you write is absolutely genuine. If I did not know you, I would believe that all of the clever, hilarious, smart repartee was the result of laborious writing and re-writing. Though it might be (I know what a serious writer you are) It is just as likely to be a breezy response. Eileen is as clever and funny in person as she is in her wonderful books. Further, she is a much better runner than she lets on. My hero.
Jolly R.
Posted by: Jolly R. at January 9, 2006 8:55 PM
