Why We Broke Up

My interview with Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman is on Newcity!  I really loved this book - it was so enjoyable and I fell in love with the characters.

One regret I have is using the word "morality" in my question about sex - I should have just said "message".  I have this occasional dumb habit of referring to out-of-wedlock-sex as an issue of "morality" even though I don't even BELIEVE that people who have unmarried sex are in any way immoral.  But, I was raised in a very religious household/community where especially teen-sex was inextricably seen as a question of morals.  It's dumb, but, for some reason it's stuck in my head that way.  It's funny how, when you learn something as a child, it is very difficult to un-learn it.  For example, my mom told us that if the car door opened while the car was in motion, the force of change in pressure would suck everyone out of the car where they would be smashed on the side of the road.  To this day I COMPLETELY freak out if a car door cracks open when the car's moving.  Anyway, it's just a lesson to me to think more carefully about my word choice and I wanted to put it out there that I do regret using that particular word.

They were fun to interview - it was nice talking about a book I really enjoyed with the author and illustrator, right after I finished reading it.  I'm a big Daniel Handler fan - if you haven't read him, check out Adverbs or, better yet, Watch Your Mouth.

BTW, the book has an accompanying tumblr which is kind of amusing - you can read about breakups by people of all ages or add your own.  I wish I had a good break-up story, but most of them were just like, I don't like you anymore.  Oh, except for that one guy I dated in college who I found out was married.  Then, I broke up with him.