I'm Also Learning Italian

And how we occasionally and affectionately refer to them especially when speaking with or writing to friends:

tumbrl -> il tumblo instagram -> insta, ig (pronunciated roughly: ee-gee) facebook -> feisbuk (we write the actual pronunciation of the word), fb (pronunciated roughly: aeffae-bee), faccialibro (literal Italian translation of "facebook"; no more used probably but there's been a period in which this was pretty common) twitter -> tuitter (we write the actual pronunciation), il social dell'uccellino (= the little bird's social *media*) twitch -> "il social viola" (= the purple social *media*) youtube -> il tubo (= the tube)

This is so surreal to type, but I wrote a novel, and it’s now out in Canada! You can buy a copy directly from my publisher, or from Indigo, or Amazon, or request it from your local bookstore. This is a small book from a small press, so it really depends on word of mouth! If you read it and liked it, it really helps if you tell your friends about it, or rate it on Goodreads, or hype it up on Tumblr, or do any of the normal bookstagram stuff. If you read it and hated it, that’s fair too, just don’t tell me (I’m very fragile).

I started writing this book six years ago, when I was living in Budapest. I never intended it to be a novel; it started because my friend asked if I had anything 10,000 words long I would consider submitting to her chapbook series, and once I started writing I just didn’t stop. I had never really written fiction before and the first draft was a total mess. It went through some massive rewrites. I have to thank my editors Emily Keeler and Martha Sharpe for their endless patience and expertise in putting this book together.

The story is about a twenty-five year old named Lucy who has a severe anxiety disorder and is desperate for someone to tell her the right way how to live her life. This manifests in the form of organized religion, mommy issues, rigid social justice frameworks, kinky dominant lovers, and older friends who seem to have it all figured out. I know it sounds heavy, but the most important thing for me writing this book was that it felt funny and real. There are lots of jokes, and a few slapsticky scenes, and some uncomfortable moments, but the external stakes are pretty low (even as Lucy catastrophizes them in her head) because I wanted to write a book where things get messy and go wrong but the woman doesn’t have to suffer some great trauma in the process. Did I do this successfully? I don’t know! That’s for to judge.

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Occasionally, alms for also left in there.

These ‘buchette del vino’ (literally ‘little wine holes’) are a typical Florentine phenomenon and had been in use until fairly recently; over the last decade people have started restorating and reopening them. There are about 170 of them around Florence. Here are a few ones:

Detail of “Primavera” by Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli