May 16, 2012

What Saffron Means

Writing is an art and a science, and so is cooking. Which is why I named some of the characters in my young adult novel after the world’s most valuable spice. In How Good It Can Be, Emma Saffron rises above expectations and finds out how good it can be to be true to herself. It’s sound advice for any teenager, especially when they’re being treated less well than they deserve. Emma is every girl realizing how valuable she is.

My own last name Zaffino, is Italian in origin, from the Old Sicilian zaffina meaning ‘precious stone’ perhaps as a nickname for a jeweler or dealer in gem stones. For us, however, Saffron has been a pseudonym for Zaffino, ever since my brother Mike discovered that Saffron is what MS Word suggests in spell check for our last name. Maybe at some point saffron spice was as valuable as jewels?

So whenever I need inspiration for writing (I’m currently revising How Good It Can Be), I bring alchemy into the kitchen and infuse some of the magical saffron spice into my cooking. This week I made Braised Halibut with Saffron & Fennel Broth, Potatoes and Mediterranean Olives. Read the rest of this entry »

May 2, 2012

Barbara Gordon-in-Training

Reprint: This was my University of Pittsburgh MLIS FastTrack Statement of Intent, written four years ago. Apparently, I’ve just graduated.

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Some people play doctor or teacher as children—I played librarian. Wielding my own date stamp, I cheerfully checked out books from my own library to my friends. I also created a modest card catalog for my little collection. When I wasn’t encouraging others to read, I was reading voraciously and never really stopped.
Read the rest of this entry »

April 11, 2012

What You Looking At?

The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco really speaks to you. While standing in the crowded room, taking in all the fabulous fashion as if I were at the best cocktail party ever, one of the models looked directly at me and said We Love You.

At first I thought it was clairvoyance going off the charts, until my friend Heather came over and commented, “freaky!” You can hear the mannequins talking above the ambient music, eyes directly on you, then flitting away again. Their faces are animated by projection beam and they’re reading audio scripts that embody a person who loves and lives in Jean Paul Gaultier.

That’s just the intro to this incredible exhibit whose centerpiece is the cone bras and other boudoir-inspired costumes that Gaultier created for Madonna’s Vogue-era Blonde Ambition tour. It’s a retrospective of classic styles subverted by suggestions from the underground—street, punk, urban, bondage, graffiti, and more.

His fashions push boundaries, imagine the unimaginable and make it all break through into the everyday experience. They’re wearable in the way that a person can put them on and feel something different. It’s subversive style with staying power.—Michelle Zaffino

April 4, 2012

The Public Bike @ Velo Vino

March 28, 2012

The Bike Helmet that doesn’t Look Like a Bike Helmet

The Yakkay Smart Two with an interchangeable cover in Tokyo Denim.

March 21, 2012

How Goode It Can Be

For the last eight weeks, I’ve been workshopping my first two teen novels, How Good It Can Be and The Love Quad at the SF Writer’s Grotto. The amazing Laura Goode, author of Sister Mischief (watch the In the Stacks video book review) taught the class, called Coming of Age on the Page. Incidentally, she’s currently producing a film she co-wrote called Farah Goes Bang, which is pretty damn exciting.

I’ve rewritten both of my novels from 3rd to 1st person (a total of 138,500 words) and about to begin a page by page revamp. I’m making the Emma Saffron character’s personality into a more completely fictional one, because although it is true she’s somewhat inspired by my own experiences in high school and college, none of the events happened the way they do in the books (she works at a coffeeshop and as a deejay). Both books are going into a fresh framework, in an attempt to tell the story in style that’s entirely new.

Thanks to Laura and everyone in my workshop for an extremely valuable experience that’s really taking these books to the next level. Learn more about other classes offered here.—Michelle

March 14, 2012

All These Things About Me

The Joy Formidable played The Independent in SF this week.—MEZ

March 7, 2012

The Public Bike in Chartreuse

Finally. I think I always knew what kind of bike I would end up getting and here it is, the Public D8. An added enticement is that they just don’t make them like this anymore—the color has been discontinued. So I had to snap it up in my signature citron green that proves biking is sexier in the stacks as well.—Michelle Z. from In the Stacks.tv