So, I’m about to reveal a secret: I’ve been working on a novel for eleven months now and I’m probably at the half-way mark.  I spent six whole months trying to figure out how to approach, conceptualize, and package the story I wanted to write, and then I just dove into it.  I have about 50,000 words written and *fingers crossed* I think some of it is actually quite good.  (I’m surprised, honestly, because I only recently (like within the last year) started reading really quality fiction and masterpieces of literature, and almost all of my formal education on writing has focused on journalism).

So, I’m playing around with the idea of publishing excerpts from my novel-in-progress here, but I didn’t want to do it without getting some feedback.  Is that cool or is that silly?  Like, sometimes I think it’s weird when first-time novelists publish pieces of their writing that hasn’t been shown yet to their agents (or who haven’t gotten an agent yet), but when James Frey started publishing bits of his new novel on his blog a year or so ago, I personally savored it.  

What would we think about that?  Also, is it a good idea or a bad idea to share the title?  IDK, I feel a little weird about divulging too much too soon, but then again, seeking out feedback is almost always a good thing!  What do you think?

I have an article up at Ypulse today about how my friends and I are always throwing extremely poorly-attended parties… and how this happens to everyone at least once!  While I think many young people today are occasionally flake-y and just forget about their commitments, I sense that the culprit is Facebook: people are always organizing their parties with Facebook’s events tool, and people on Facebook don’t take the events seriously and don’t think twice about not showing, even if they RSVP-ed affirmatively.  Which causes huge problems for hostesses trying to organize dinner parties.  Ugh.

Anyway, check it out!  And tell me, have you ever thrown a poorly attended party?  Did you send out the invys via Facebook?

BTW, I’ll probably be in a food coma on my couch all day tomorrow, so Happy Thanksgiving in advance!!

I am really intrigued by the Twilight mania and I definitely plan to weigh in on it soon, but I wanted to highlight this hilarious article from New York magazine about people defacing the Twilight movie posters in the NYC subway system… and going beyond the usual penis drawings (well, there is one penis drawing) and actually writing SPOILERS on the movie posters.  I think it’s funny that New Yorkers find these creative outlets to take out their pent up frustrations.  Props for my friend Frankie for posting this on Facebook–I was seriously laughing at this for five whole minutes last night.

And speaking of penis drawings, I can never decide whether it’s funny or completely misogynistic when people draw penises next to the mouths of women in advertisements.  The penises always appear, regardless of whether it’s a really high-brow ad (such as the photos of Renee Fleming for the new ad campaign for the Metrpolitan Opera), a normal ad (such as for Katie Couric’s evening newscast), or a low-brow ad (I remember when Employee of the Month came out two years ago, almost every advertisement with Jessica Simpson on it was just COVERED in phallic graffiti). 

Anyway, check out the NY mag article!  And what is the funniest (or most ironic) ad that you’ve seen defaced in your city?  For me, I think the Renee Fleming one is the most ironic; it’s like when someone drew a mustache on Carrie Bradshaw’s bus ad on Sex and the City.

In the spring, I am going to be spending a great deal of time in my hometown of Albany, NY.  I find that I get really distracted and exhausted when I’m living in New York, and I am going to have some major work to do between promoting my book and touring, so I’d rather be based mostly in Albany for the spring.  As such, my fast-paced, rather social lifestyle I have in the city is going to slow down quite a bit.  But before I leave New York there’s one thing I really want to do:

I want to get my belly button pierced.  I think belly button piercings are really attractive and really cute, and I’ve wanted my belly button pierced for YEARS (since the eighth grade, I’ve wanted mine done).  I was going to get my belly button pierced when I turned eighteen, but I was really nervous about how much it was going to hurt (and I thought it would be kind of a cliche, coming home from college with a piercing that my mom didn’t want me to get).  But it’s time now!

I know a lot of people think belly button piercings are stupid and trashy.  So, if someone questions my judgment, I’m going to say that my piercing is a social statement: overweight women are chronically desexualized in our society, and getting my belly button pierced is a loud and proud statement that I am both overweight and sexual.  Even though the main reason that I want my belly button pierced, even though it’s admittedly not my style (I embrace of more classic model of femininity, of full skirts and dresses and Carrie Bradshaw–not Britney Spears) is that I really like how they look.

So, who wants to go with me and hold my hand?  I’ve heard from some girls that it doesn’t hurt at all, but one of my best friends got her belly button pierced during my sophomore year of college, and she said it felt like being punched–hard–in the stomach.

Anyone with pierced belly buttons out there want to weigh in on the pain factor?  Can anyone recommend a good piercing salon in New York City?  The ones on 6th Avenue in the Village are a little intimidating, but that’s half the fun, right?  And what do you think of my idea of belly button piercings as a social statement in defense of overweight women’s sexuality?  Personally, I think it works!  Haha…

I meant to mention early how much I loved this story that I saw in the Times.  How cool–a girl in her junior year of college winning a county treasurer position!

I love Twitter.  When I first got a Twitter account, I thought it was totally creepy and I had a really hard time getting into it.  But now, I think it may be one of the most underrated web-sites out there.

(For those who don’t “tweet,” Twitter is like Facebook, except the entire site is just peoples’ status updates.  Dedicated Twitter users update their status between eight and twenty times a day.  I average between five and ten during the weekdays (weekends are more private!)).

And while I have some fun people that I follow and a great group of followers, most of my college peers aren’t on Twitter, and a lot haven’t even heard of it!  Which is illogical, because I think if anyone wants to know the constant whereabouts of their friends for organizing random get-togethers or for pure curiosity, it’s college students!  So why does it seem that Twitter hasn’t caught on amongst college kids?

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/LizFunk.  And if you haven’t used Twitter, join!  It’s free to sign up at www.Twitter.com

My friend Jessica Wakeman–a rather prolific feminist freelance writer–has just published a really fascinating article about how the Huffington Post is dominated by male bloggers.  Definitely worth a read, and the article is getting tons of attention from around the media.  Go Jess!

I wanted to give a quick shout-out of congratulations to my agent, Wendy Sherman, and her client, Wendy Chant.  Wendy Chant’s book Crack the Fat Loss Code is officially a New York Times bestseller and it’s generating a ton of buzz on diet blogs and in women’s magazines. Let’s hope that bestsellers within literary agencies come in sets of threes!  :)

I meant to mention earlier, I am a member of Ypulse’s Youth Advisory Board; for those of you who don’t know about Ypulse, it’s this really fantastic company that focuses on media and marketing for Generation Y, founded and run by journalist Anastasia Goodstein.  I’m really glad to be involved!

Part of what I do in my work with Ypulse is write for the Ypulse web-site!  So, last week I published a review of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  I had pretty high hopes for the movie when I saw it, but Nick and Norah just didn’t deliver.  I’ve pasted my review below!

One thing that I forgot to mention in my review is another really troubling element of this movie: the movie is about New Jersey teenagers on a wild quest in Manhattan to find their favorite band doing a secret midnight show.  And there is this sub-plot of Norah’s hard-partying best friend being extremely, extremely drunk for the whole movie.  As such, the girl thinks she’s been kidnapped when she wakes up in the back of a dark van, she throws up in a public bathroom and ruins her cell phone, and finally she gets stranded in the seedy Port Authority Bus Station with no money to get back to New Jersey, and she’s so drunk that she can’t handle the situation.  This element of the plot is presented as something that’s supposed to make us laugh, but it’s not funny… at all.  Not only is this setting a terrible example for young people who see the movie, but I think it’s a really offensive thing to women to illustrate.  Having no money, no phone, and failing critical faculties (because of a few too many drinks, naturally), and being stranded in Port Authority is not a thing to joke about… it’s every tri-state girl’s worst nightmare! 

Anyway, if you’re headed towards the box office, the better movie to see is Role Models with Judd Apatow-regulars Paul Rudd and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.  I saw the movie last night and it was HILARIOUS!

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