She-Sheds, Spritzes, and Very Large Bunnies

Here's the She-Shed We Need Right Now

This weekend, the New York Times ran a story about "women's sheds" in Australia, which are a counterpart to a long-standing thing called "men's sheds."

They are not sheds. They are clubhouses, where people get together to make things. To tinker. To socialize. Maybe to take on a community project, or organize a book club or a trip together.

There are thousands of these in Australia and New Zealand, mostly for men, but now there are an increasing number of women's sheds. Here's one example.

It's kind of a community center...kind of a maker space...a bit like a library (many have lending libraries for books and tools, plus resources like computers, scanners, etc)...just a place to go.

We have all kinds of organizations here in the US that serve some of these functions, but perhaps not all of them. I imagine that if you live in Australia and you're new to town, you know you could always join the local shed and get to know people that way.

It's a nice idea. I love a pretty backyard she-shed too, but after a year of isolation, I think the Australians have the right idea.

Yes, I Will Have a Scarlet Spritz, Please

Here's a lovely spring drink from a Portland bartender. And because I am all about simplifying everything, I will tell you (lean close, it's a secret) that if you don't have absinthe or rhubarb bitters, this drink would still be fabulous with nothing but the Aperol, Lillet Blanc, and sparkling wine. Also, you totally don't have to soak the strawberries in a whole bottle of Aperol overnight. Sheesh.

So here's my simplified version:

Combine 1.5 oz of Aperol and .5 oz Lillet Blanc in a cocktail shaker or a large glass.

Add a few strawberries.

Mush everything together with a wooden spoon or muddler, give a good vigorous stir with ice, then strain into a cocktail glass with a fine mesh strainer. 

Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a strawberry slice

This drink is served straight up, but crushed ice would be OK, too. You could also splash in some club soda to make a lighter drink.

Lillet Blanc is fabulous on its own over ice, so that will not be a wasted purchase! Both Lillet Blanc and Aperol are easy to find in liquor stores and good wine shops.

I'm Doing a New Book Club Thing

Whether you're in a book club or not, maybe you'd like to join me for a new monthly chat I'm hosting on Zoom. Here's the idea:

For years I've done Skype visits with book clubs, and of course those have evolved into Zoom chats as book clubs have been unable to gather in person. I've done over 300 of them.

Lately it's getting hard to schedule all of them and coordinate everyone's dates and time zones. So I've decided that I will hold a book club chat once a month, and anyone can come.

I'm happy to talk about any of my books you might be reading, answer whatever questions you might have, and I'll share some recommendations from what I'm reading and invite you to do the same.

These are free and open to anyone. For now I've scheduled three of them, just as a sort of experiment. If people keep showing up, I'll keep hosting them! You can come once or turn up every month, because each one will surely be a little different. Read more about it and register here:

April 20 Book Club

May 27 Book Club

June 23 Book Club

Yes, There's a Pet Detective, and Yes, His Agency is Called Happy Tails

This rabbit has gone missing. It is the world's largest rabbit. The reason it's missing is because I stole it, because I have never wanted to snuggle anything as much as I want to snuggle the world's largest rabbit. Let's just hope I manage to evade Britain's only Certified Pet Detective Agency, which is already on the case, and which is, in fact, called Happy Tails Detective Agency.

Now you might be wondering, how exactly did Mr. Robert Kenny get certified to be a Pet Detective? Well, it says right on his website: "Certified M.A.R. (Missing Animal Response Technician) qualified Fresno, California, USA 2007)"

So I Googled that, and in fact, there is a woman named Kat (yes, her name is Kat) who used to live in Fresno but now lives in Bellingham, WA, and if you take her Lost Pet Recovery Training Course for $400, you can become a Certified MAR yourself.

Some of you may have been waiting your whole lives to find out how to become a Certified Pet Detective. Here it is. This is your moment. Please let me know how your new career is going, and whatever you do, don't tell Mr. Kenny that I have the rabbit.

I'm Loving the Sneaky Artist Podcast

Here's a wonderful new podcast all about urban sketchers and travel sketchers. The host, Nishant Jain, is a terrific interviewer and a very fine artist himself. He's interviewed all the artists I love to follow and learn from. It's also just lovely to hear about everyone's travels around the world! Check it out.

Are you a writer? Do you want to talk about anything and everything writing-related? That's what these free Zoom events are for. Every month, the group decides what we're going to talk about next. In May the topic will be: how to get started actually writing, and how to keep going. I have a lot to say on the subject! I'm also happy to take your questions on anything writing or publishing-related. The next one's happening on May 12. Register here.

We're painting birds this month! Bring your watercolors and your colored pencils and let's make some scribbly little fabulous birds. May 4 at 5 PM Pacific, go here to register and get details.

This Film is an Absolute Delight

I don't know how I missed Searching for Sugar Man when it came out in 2012. It won every award that year. I found it when I went looking for more information about this great song on a Spotify playlist I listen to. I figured the guy must've written some other good songs and maybe I could add them to my playlist.

That's when I realized that there's an amazing story behind this musician, Rodriguez. The film is heartwarming and inspiring and a little sad (wistful/bittersweet sad, not cry-yourself-to-sleep sad) and it just reminded me that the world is just full of incredible people making beautiful things, and we'll never know about all of them, even in this internet age.

If anything, the film made me miss the pre-internet era, when a guy could be sitting in a bar in Detroit, playing his guitar, and maybe you'd happen to stop in and experience something unexpected and marvelous that did not come out of your smartphone. You would not be able to Google him, or follow him (except in real life, which would be creepy) to find out more about him. You'd just have to ask him. And the only way to tell your friends about him would be to actually tell them, using words that come out of your mouth. I do miss that.

It also made me think about the vicissitudes of fame and recognition. He got some lucky breaks--the record executive who happened to catch his set, the girl taking a record to South Africa (this will make sense when you watch the film)--but he also missed out on what could've been an extraordinary musical career, which means that we missed out on all the records he could've made after those first two.

There are all kinds of reasons why such a good musician might miss fame and fortune. In 1971, a name like Rodriguez would not have been as well-received as a name like Dylan or Donovan (this is meant as an understatement). It seems to me that the record company chose the wrong songs to release as singles. Perhaps other mistakes were made, or perhaps the records just didn't land in the right hands at the right time. It's impossible to know exactly.

I'm enjoying his music now, and I only wish he'd had the freedom and support to make more of it. You can stream the film for a few bucks on YouTube and many other platforms.

Have You Painted a Picture of Your Cat Lately?

I would love to teach you how to paint animal portraits! Go here to read all about it.

Asked and Answered...

Ask a question/win a book is on hiatus this month because I'm doing a different giveaway! But it'll be back, stay tuned.

This month's winner is Jennifer from Alexandria, VA. She asks:

My question is about writing endings for your stories. Do you know what you want your resolution to be before you start writing? Do you have any advice for how to wrap things up in fiction writing? (Love the Kopp sisters and all their adventures!)

This is such a challenge, especially when I'm writing about real events and real people. The classic three-act structure that we're so accustomed to--you see it in plays, movies, novels, everywhere--demand that events go a certain way, and that the protagonist undergo some kind of change or transformation as a result of those events. Stray too far away from that structure and your readers will be bothered by it, even if they can't articulate why.

That means that novels (and memoirs and much narrative nonfiction, really) need to start with a protagonist who WANTS something, or who has something wrong in their life that needs to be fixed. 

By the end of the book, that thing ought to be fixed. So the events happen, your characters are challenged and flummoxed and changed by those events, and by the end, the thing that was broken or missing in them is fixed, or restored, or maybe they were wrong about what they really wanted (the dream job! the perfect husband!) but along the way they found out what they did in fact long for and now they have that.

This would be a great thing to talk about in more depth in one of our monthly writers' chats, so feel free to join in if this intrigues you! We can make it a topic for a future chat.

This Month We're Doing a Different Kind of Giveaway

I'm doing a different kind of giveaway this month. I have five copies of Kate Lebo's new book, The Book of Difficult Fruit, to give away, AND I'm doing an event with her on April 22 and I'd love it if you could join us. 

I've never met Kate, but her publisher sent me the book to blurb, and I thought it was such an interesting blend of...well, fruit and memoir. I'm always impressed when people can write about one thing but they're actually writing about something else. So if you like weird fruit and weirdly honest personal storytelling, this book just might be for you. It's about as edgy as a book on fruit can be.

Go here to enter the giveaway, and please join our event!

I love these art prompts on Instagram

The Still Here Still Life page posts a still life image for artists to paint, and the Room Portrait Club does the same for interiors. Even if you don't paint them, it's fun to follow along and see how artists interpret these images. Some people add random elements, like zebras or cats or cupcakes, which is crazy and awesome.  (And if interiors intimidate you, I have a class on that.)

New Art in My Shop

I guess I'm really ready to travel, because I'm painting a lot of Italian vacation scenes these days. Feel free to stop by my little art shop anytime and have a poke around. You can always see new stuff on Instagram, too.

Virtual Events? I'm Available!

In addition to hosting my own Zoom events, I'm also doing actual presentations, like the sort of thing I used to do on the road in the Before Times. So if you run a lecture series or any sort of event series and you need a virtual speaker, you can go here to see the types of virtual events I'm doing now. Feel free to pass this on if you know someone who's putting on these types of events right now.

I Can Send (Some) Signed Books to You

Would you like a signed Kopp novel? I have small quantities of a few titles...or rather, my husband does. Supplies are limited, so get them while they last, and thank you sincerely for your patronage. Go here to browse and order.

What Are You Reading?

I've been in a major reading slump again, unable to finish anything...so I turned to the always-reliable genre of light, women-centered, vintage British fiction. Begin Again, set in the 1930s, is a look at four young women trying to figure out how to make their way in the world, or get married, one or the other. It is light and friendly and warm and welcoming in the middle of the night, when I'm awake and wish I wasn't.