Retreat Update
Lovely people! Just wanted to let you know that Anne and I have rejigged our retreat plans to make it as affordable and convenient as possible. The retreat now runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon and the price is only $300 if you register by August 1st ($350 thereafter).
I'm sad we can't do a longer retreat, but a weekend session makes more sense logistically, and we can always do a longer one next year (maybe over Labor Day?) There will be a sweet little consolation though—we're putting together a workbook that will contain way more exercises and inspirational material than we could hope to cover in two days together, which means you can keep doing the deep and juicy work on your own afterward!
Interested? Get in touch!
Live What You Believe In
It's hard to believe I attended Main Street Vegan Academy two years ago already! You may recall that our class got to hear Ingrid Newkirk (founder of PETA) speak at NYU, and later on in that blog post I told you about one of my fellow NYU students back in the day, Lauren Gazzola. Lauren was part of the animal rights group on campus protesting the vivisection of macaque monkeys in NYU labs, and got in touch after I wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Square News in support of the protest.
Well, the internet makes the planet feel a whole lot smaller sometimes! Recently Lauren stumbled upon my 2013 blog post and got in touch on Twitter:
the moment u learn u affected someone yrs ago b4 u thought youd done anything worthwhile (& still wonder) http://t.co/MqevWxWWKS @cometparty
— Lauren Gazzola (@LaurenGazzola) June 23, 2015
That tweet gave me such a thrill. I'd thought of Lauren over the years and wished our paths had crossed again. (Read: I wish we'd become friends back then so her passion and dedication could have rubbed off on me. I know, I know, I have to be gentle with myself, but I will never shake the feeling that I went vegan a decade later than I should have. On the upside, that nagging feeling keeps me squarely on the path, and I do feel awesome about that.)
I asked Lauren if I could repost her letter to the editor (in response to the university spokesman's rebuttal of my original opinion piece, published October 16th, 2000)—to complete that circle, if you will—and she graciously agreed. It's a long piece, but well worth reading to the end if you are at all interested in animal rights and/or university (a.k.a. corporate diploma mill) politics:
Congratulations ought to be extended to Camille DeAngelis for finally invoking words from the hitherto mute perpetrators of vivisection at NYU through her outstanding piece, “Tuition money should not go to animal research.” (WSN, Oct. 11).
Unfortunately, however, John Beckman’s response is only that: words. It is neither credible nor convincing. Beckman makes unsubstantiated, blanket statements such as, “virtually every advance in medicine has been based on research that involves animals,” (WSN, Oct. 12). He offers no support for this expansive claim and fails to acknowledge that many significant gains in medicine were attained without the use of animals. As Dr. Richard Klausner, Director of the National Cancer Institute, stated in May 1998 in the Los Angeles Times, “The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.”
Students for Education on Animal Liberation at NYU (SEAL) has repeatedly challenged the University to a debate on the alleged merits and necessity of experiments being conducted at NYU. Such a debate would certainly allow for the “diversity of opinions and the thoughtful and intelligent exchange of ideas” that Beckman claims are “core value[s] in academia.”
However, it appears NYU holds these values on the bottom of its hierarchy. Beckman claims that animal advocates on campus “care little or not at all about the science involved; the actual value, scientific or academic, of the researcher’s work is never the point.” But that is exactly what we are interested in. For two years, members of SEAL have written to and held meetings with University officials asking for a discussion over the merits of specific animal research taking place at NYU. The University has continuously either rebuffed or avoided our questions. In 1998 they agreed to a forum on “animal research in general,” while expressly prohibiting the discussion of any current NYU animal research at this event.
If higher education is about reasoned debate, why is NYU so afraid of one?
The University has been equally unresponsive regarding any efforts to replace animal research with non-animal methods, such as epidemiological studies, computer modeling, artificial tissue, human skin cultures, autopsy, and non-invasive imaging (MRI, CAT, PET). Eight months ago, Dr. John McArdle, the director of Alternatives Research Development Foundation, an organization committed to replacing animal testing with non-animal based research methods, contacted T. James Matthews, chairman of NYU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. McArdle offered to search for a non-animal alternative to Lynne Kiorpes’s strabismus (crossed eyes) experiments on juvenile monkeys. NYU did not acknowledge McArdle’s letter; the University did not even communicate that it was not interested in his offer.
Even more distressing is Beckman’s claim that “great care is taken throughout the research to prevent suffering...an obligation to reduce suffering is a part of the law that governs the use of animals in research, with which [NYU] strictly compl[ies].” How, we must ask, did such strict compliance result in NYU’s nearly 400 violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), for which the University was assessed a fine of $450,000—the second largest fine ever by the USDA for violating the AWA? (It is important to note that the Animal Welfare Act merely regulates such simple things as adequate food, water, space, exercise and veterinary care, and places no restrictions whatsoever on what can be done to animals in actual experiments.)
SEAL has chosen to highlight Lynne Kiorpes’s strabismus experiments because they are a prime example of the unnecessary, wasteful and cruel experiments being conducted on 50,000 animals in hidden laboratories every year at NYU. Beckman’s claim that we are waging a campaign of “harassment and intimidation” is simply NYU’s attempt to take the attention off the dead and suffering animals by becoming the victim. Who are the real victims here: the monkeys in Kiorpes’s lab who are having holes drilled into their heads, microelectrodes inserted into their brains and are then subjected to hours of brain wave recording sessions, or the person who is having a flyer circulated on campus about her experiments?
With increasing numbers of scientists and doctors speaking out against animal experimentation, the availability of non-animal research methods, AWA fines and outraged students and faculty, one wonders why NYU would continue to carry on with these activities. Ms. DeAngelis hit the nail on the head when she claimed NYU profits from animal experimentation. Beckman is correct when he says that animal experimentation costs a lot. But luckily (for NYU) it brings in more. All universities receive sizeable monetary allotments from faculty grants. According to E.H. Ahrens, author of The Crisis in Clinical Research: Overcoming Obstacles, “direct costs support the research of the PI [primary investigator], while indirect costs are paid to meet the overhead costs of the institution in which the PI works.” In his book, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese, Ray Greek, M.D., says, “In some cases the institution receives more money from the grant than the researcher.” NYU receives millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money in grants from the National Institutes of Health—a cycle of vivisectors rubberstamping vivisectors.
SEAL calls upon NYU to begin to address this abuse of research money and animal lives by implementing a program that would reallocate five percent of its annual funding for animal research toward non-animal based research methods. This modest plan would gradually eliminate the use of live animals while freeing up resources for innovative, new technologies. Otherwise, NYU will no doubt remain in the past and continue to hide behind wordy statements.
The animals need more than banter in the school newspaper. They need the electrodes removed from their brains. They need to live outside of cages. Save the PR, we want changes.
—Lauren Gazzola Gallatin Senior and SEAL representative
If you read Lauren's bio on the Center for Constitutional Rights website, you'll see she's been campaigning tirelessly for the rights of non-human people throughout the nearly fifteen years (!) since this letter to the editor was published. We may live in a world in which powerful corporate interests can send peaceful activists to jail, and in which institutions of "higher learning" go on quietly torturing animals by the thousands. But what are you going to do—give up?No way. The animals are depending on us! So thank you, Lauren, for being such an amazing human. We need many more people like you in the world.
Things radicals (self included) should be more radical about: humility; empathy; listening. Wuddya'll say we work on those? — Lauren Gazzola (@LaurenGazzola) July 2, 2015
My New Favorite Restaurant
I've been hearing about Vedge, a gourmet vegan restaurant on Locust Street in Philadelphia, for several years now. Everyone raves about it, but I didn't get my act together and make a reservation until recently. When I was home last month, I took the high speed line into the city with my friends Shveta, Helen, and Beth, and we savored a meal that totally lived up to the hype.
This is definitely a special occasion kind of place—I spent $70 altogether—but with mashed potatoes with a gorgeously cloud-like consistency, seitan that tasted exactly like grilled chicken (which I haven't eaten in more than half my lifetime, but still—so much like "the real thing" it was disconcerting!), melt-in-your-mouth mushrooms, and saffron cheesecake with rhubarb ice cream that set every tastebud alight, oh yes, the deliciousness and the specialness of it was worth every cent.
As I told a new friend over lunch at Veggie Galaxy yesterday, there's a place for every kind of veg restaurant, be it a food truck, a diner with comfort-food classics, a hippie-crunchy place like Life Alive, or a fancypants eatery like Vedge. Whatever the style, menu, or price range, I just want to see more of them!
Dead Boys at Porter Square Books
[This post has been revised to reflect Gabby Squailia as she is.]
"I thought it would end with death," he said to the earth below. "The boy thought so, anyway...the boy who tried to fashion a man out of lace and bluster. But that boy never left the man's bones: he's still here, still as broken as he was at birth, making the same noises, the same messes, only now through time eternal. That cycle of degradation is what I saw so well when I fit the belt around my neck. I see now how ludicrous it was to believe I could escape, but a good joke never really ends, does it? Just keeps on punching."
I'm excited to tell you that I'll be introducing Gabby Squailia at Porter Square Books next Thursday, July 9th, at 7pm! I will paint my face like it's Halloween and go on dropping those puns 'til your groans are audible. The Facebook RSVP is here.
This is how I "met" Gabby:
My #SFF Must Read list includes books by @ferretthimself@gabrielsquailia@s_g_browne@darylwriterguy@cometparty: http://t.co/s23yaMBmu8
— MyBookishWays (@mybookishways) February 12, 2015
I appreciate it when people are kind and responsive on Twitter. Gabby does too, apparently, because now we are friends-who-have-yet-to-meet-in-person. I asked Sarah at PSB if they'd like to host her and that's why I get to make the introduction!
@cometparty This is a bone necklace I bought in Argentina. But I can't wear it. People always see...something else. pic.twitter.com/m9xzhve5Y6 — Gabriel Squailia (@gabrielsquailia) June 12, 2015
More fun news regarding my favorite local independent bookstore: you'll soon be able to order autographed copies of Bones & All and Mary Modern! (Someone from PSB emails me, I come in and sign them. Easy.) I'm working on a design for a B&A postcard to include with the book(s) for extra specialness. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, if you're local, come to Gabby’s reading!
p.p.s.—The Immaculate Heart info page is up!
Comet Party Writing + Yoga Retreat, take 2!
[Edit: This retreat has been rescheduled for May 20th-22nd, 2016. Updated details here.]
Remember how I'm offering my first retreat this September at lovely Bethel Farm? Alas (for me, anyway, haha), Stephen's son is getting married that week, so I needed to find a new partner. I have two very dear Jivamukti yoga teachers at Karma here in Boston—Fiona McQuade and Anne Wichmann—and Anne is going to co-teach the retreat. We are so excited we can't even tell you! Friday Thursday, September 10th 11th through Sunday, September 13th!
Here is the new flyer, which we'll be posting alllllll over Boston very soon:
Cost is $350 $415, inclusive of all but travel ($300 early bird!) Visit the Bethel Farm website to get a feel for the atmosphere! Please note that accommodation is dorm style. If you're without wheels, we'll most likely be able to hook you up with a ride share, so no worries on that account.
I should also clarify that while the yoga classes will be suitable for beginners, I'd say adventurous beginners will be most comfortable. I define "adventurous beginner" as someone who is determined to feel good about what their body can do for them in the present moment. (So you see, absolutely anyone qualifies with a bit of positive mental prep!)
I'll post the retreat schedule in a couple weeks to give you a sense of the rhythm of our days, how the intuitive writing modules will work, and how Anne's yoga classes will complement and deepen the work we're doing in our notebooks and mind maps.
Please feel free to leave a comment below or email me with any questions or to register. Space is limited to 12, so definitely get in touch soon!
Wild Cherry Tartlets
My mom has wild cherry trees in her backyard, and my niece and nephew enjoy picking berries this time of year. When I was home a couple weekends ago Olivia slept over and we baked muffin-sized pies on Sunday morning.
The flavor is pretty good for wild fruit—tart but not too tart.
There isn't a recipe as such: we used about 1/3 of a classic Julia Child pie crust using Earth Balance butter and shortening (bearing in mind that recipe yields two double crusts), which I'd tucked in the freezer the last time I baked an apple pie; four heaping cups of pitted cherries, and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Baked at 350º for about 45 minutes. Yields a dozen.
Even sweeter than dessert, of course, was getting to spend QT with my not-so-little-anymore niece. She is so can-do and independent!
Riding bumper cars at the carnival with my niece: "I don't want to run into anyone, I just want to DRIVE!" She's 8 and ready for her permit!
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 14, 2015
36 Hours in the Emerald City, part 2
36 Hours in the Emerald City, part 1: http://t.co/pEbjrm9XS4#vegan#YAlit#seattlepic.twitter.com/3F61qZo9RF
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 17, 2015
Magical glass at @chihulygg. #seattle (cc @cyndyaleo) pic.twitter.com/rxmZOgLU9G
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 10, 2015
After landing in Seattle I grabbed a falafel sandwich and headed to the Chihuly Exhibition, which Cyndy Aleo recommended. It's quite pricey at $25, but it's such a unique and wonderful place that I still have to talk it up.
After the Chihuly I decided to hop on an uptown bus to my AirBnB, shower and rest for a bit before heading out to dinner at the Wayward Vegan Café (see previous post).
The neighborhood is so charming, it was a treat just walking around taking photos of the flowers in people's front yards.
The next morning I took a leisurely walk around Green Lake. The circuit is 2.8 miles long.
Totally living this definition of gratitude on my flash vacation. #seattlepic.twitter.com/j2DX7Om5xt — Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 10, 2015
Randomly beautiful. #seattlepic.twitter.com/PmSVIpquZK — Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 17, 2015
36 Hours in the Emerald City, part 1
Last week I visited Seattle for the first time, and I am IN LOVE.
(Oh, Seattle. So sad to have to love you and leave you.) pic.twitter.com/TcGcQPWTkL
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 11, 2015
I was there for a YA group event at the University Bookstore with Stephanie Kuehn and Martha Brockenbrough, two authors who are every bit as smart and insightful as their novels. Stephanie and I have the same editor, and Martha and I got our virtual introduction through Mackenzi, but this event happened because Nova had a dream she did an event with a bunch of author friends (!):
...and @cometparty was there and @stephkuehn was there and if only this could this come true, right? #dreams@courtney_s — Nova Ren Suma (@novaren) February 14, 2015
Martha and me.
...And Caitlin at the UW bookstore replied with "we can make that happen." Oh, the magic of Twitter! Sadly, Nova couldn't join us, but she was definitely there in spirit. I mentioned her name and everyone went all smiley and giddy. (Nova is so humble that she has no idea how much of a rockstar she really is in the YA world!) I also got to meet Alias Anna from Peace, Love, Teen Fiction, who has been wonderfully excited for and supportive of Bones & All even before the ARCs came out!
I'll blog a couple more pics from the event next week, but for now here are the obligatory photos of what I ate and where I ate it, haha. Unfortunately I didn't make it to Plum Bistro, which seems like the city's most highly regarded vegan restaurant, but it will be my first port of call on trip #2.
I absolutely loved the Wayward Vegan Café, a 15-minute walk from where I was staying near Green Lake. You know you're in food heaven when the waitress brings your plate and asks "Would you like some nutritional yeast?" the way any other server would offer you parmesan. I got a "nutlet," which was served more like a Sloppy Joe (except with the best mushroom gravy EVER), and steamed kale with garlic and sesame seeds. Yum yum yum.
Down in the University district the next day, after a morning at Zoka soaking up the famous Seattle coffee culture with the one vegan item at the bakery counter (a raspberry oat tart thingy, and fortunately it was tasty), I went to Chaco Canyon for lunch: a raw salad with kelp noodles and sesame ginger dressing and a house juice (carrot, apple, ginger, orange). Standard hippie-crunchy menu and atmosphere, but then again, that is kinda my thing!
(Would that it were "standard." But ah, someday it will be...)
I also managed to get to my first-ever all-vegan grocery, Vegan Haven, which supports a local pig rescue.
How psyched was I to see Miyoko's Creamery products? (Not to mention that there is a whole refrigerator case stocked with various brands of vegan cheese??) I'll be blogging about my kitchen adventures with Artisan Vegan Cheese in the next month or so, by the way.
Next time: the Chihuly Exhibition and geeking out over all the adorable little Craftsman houses!
Somerlovin': or, my Summer 2015 Bucket List
Here are some lovely neighborhood pics I never got around to blogging last summer. I feel like last summer kinda passed me by—not that I didn't do cool stuff, I just wish I had done even MORE cool stuff. So for accountability's sake, here are my travel-sightseeing-culture goals for summer 2015:
Pickle Factory Read-Aloud Picnics on a monthly basis (Facebook invite for the next one is here)
Swimming at least once a week (hopping on the blue line to Revere Beach after a good writing session at the Room, if nothing else!)
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival with Miranda's Hearth (last year I volunteered, but this year I bought a ticket. My plan is to hang out on the lawn listening to music and drawing ALL DAY.)
At least one camping trip besides Falcon Ridge (which doesn't really count, right?)
A day trip to Concord and Walden Pond (finally!)
Cape Cod (double-finally!)
Finally getting to the ICA with the free passes I won from 826 Boston.
Not to mention all my culinary goals for this summer—along with posting the first few recipes from Vegan Cookery & Pastry, I'm planning to eat 90% raw for the month of August (apart from Falcon Ridge) just to see how I feel. RAWGUST, ha ha!
On Love, Tempeh, and Irresolvable Paradoxes
You may recall that Caryn Hartglass had me on her radio show to talk about Bones & All and veganism a couple weeks back. If you listened to the segment, you heard me say—quite emphatically—that I believe eating animals is immoral.
As I spoke those words, I felt a little cosmic tug on my sleeve: You have to explain this. How can I assert that eating animals is immoral without implying that all the omnivores I know are immoral too?
I do think eating animals is wrong, yet I dearly love many people who do. My parents. My grandparents. Almost all of my family. My friends: Seanan. Kelly B. Alex. Ailbhe and Christian. Shelley and James. Liv. Mackenzi. Elliot—one of my very favorite people in the world—celebrated his thirtieth birthday last weekend with a backyard pig roast. Dude ain't going vegetarian anytime soon, but he'll always be the brother I never had.
Am I silently judging my loved ones? Do I love them in spite of their diet? Do I tell them I love them while in my secret heart believing that I am a better person than they are? More evolved than they are?
Nope.
We just have to chalk this up to an irresolvable paradox. I claim the right to be able to say these two things to the same person:
You are one of the VERY best people I know.
AND
I hope that someday you will extend your love and compassion to all sentient creatures, not just our fellow humans.
I know it's hard not to feel like I'm judging you when we talk about veganism. I know it can feel awkward when the conversation wanders toward my diet, philosophy, and worldview, and how it contrasts with yours. But please know that I don't love you in spite of our differences; I just love you.
That's the point of veganism, after all: unconditional love.
The Good Karma Diet: Green Smoothie Recipe + Book Giveaway!
My dear teacher Victoria Moran's new book, The Good Karma Diet, is now on sale! You'll find my transformation story on pages 166-167. I'm delighted to host Victoria on the blog today with an excerpt from the book along with a green smoothie recipe (I'm really psyched about this; I have to confess that throwing kale and a few odds and ends in the Vitamix usually results in a smoothie that's a bit too healthy tasting, if you know what I mean. I actually need a recipe.)
And of course, you can enter win a copy of the book below!
From The Good Karma Diet by Victoria Moran
Good Karma eating is as simple as can be: comprise your meals of plants instead of animals, and most of the time choose unprocessed plant foods, meaning that they got from the garden or orchard or field to your kitchen with minimal corporate interference. This way of eating gives you good karma in two ways. The first is self-explanatory: by eating foods of high nutrient density and avoiding the animal products and processed foods your body can have trouble dealing with, you’ll reap the rewards of improved health. The second is a bit more mystical: you do good and you get good back.
As is true for life in general, it’s probably better to do this with unselfish motives, but even if your motivation is to become thinner, healthier, or more youthful, you’ll be doing something modestly heroic at the same time. This way of eating and living could lessen the suffering of billions of animals. I know it’s hard to think in terms of billions, but if you imagine counting the individual beings one at a time, you get some of the impact. In addition, ninety-eight percent of the animals raised for food suffer horrifically on factory farms before being slaughtered, often in adolescence. Every time you eat a vegan meal, you’re voting for something different.
This choice also lightens the burden on the planet. Raising animals for food in the numbers we do today calls for an exorbitant amount of water and fossil fuels. It leads to vast “lagoons” of animal waste, and the release into the atmosphere of tons of greenhouse gases, mostly in the form of methane.
What you have here is holistic dining at its finest – body and soul. Eating whole, plant foods is scientifically validated as being both nutritionally adequate and anti-pathological. In other words, it cures stuff. Not everything. But reversal of such scourges as coronary disease and type 2 diabetes among people on this kind of diet has been repeatedly reported in the scientific literature; and the preventive potential of this way of eating is supported by ample research.
If this sounds great but going all the way seems impossible right now, go partway. Americans’ consumption of animal foods has, as I write this, been decreasing annually since 2007, primarily because non-vegans are making vegan choices some – or much – of the time. They fix a veggie-burger or black beans and rice, or they order their latté with soy, or have a green smoothie for breakfast so they’ll look prettier and -- what do you know? -- the statistics get prettier, too.
Once you’re fully vegan, celebrate! The only thing you need to “do” nutritionally that you weren’t doing before is take a vitamin B12 supplement of about 100 micrograms a day as a tiny, tasty, melt-in-your mouth tablet. B12 is not reliably found in plant foods unless they’ve been fortified with it, and lack of B12 is dangerous. This single missing element in a plant-food diet pains many vegans. If this is the perfect diet, it ought to be, well, perfect. But this is life on earth: extraordinary, magnificent, and absolutely not perfect. Bacteria in our mouths and intestines do make some B12, and maybe at some point in evolutionary history we all made enough, just as our long-ago ancestors made their own vitamin C and now we don’t. I look at taking B12 as a tiny surcharge for the privilege of being vegan.
If you hear yourself saying “I could never give up ice cream” (or something else), realize that you may just be short on vegucation. There are lots of rich, luscious nondairy ice creams on the market, and you can make exquisite homemade ice cream with only a DIY gene and an ice cream maker.If you have the information and you’re still saying “I could never give up. . .,” listen to yourself. You’re affirming weakness. You’re bigger than that. You can eat plants and save lives. You can give your life exponentially more meaning by living in a way that decreases suffering just because you got up and chose a kind breakfast.
Without this commitment, the Good Karma Diet would be, as much as I hate to say it, just a diet. To me, a diet is: “Eat this and don’t eat that, and feel guilty when you screw up, which of course you will because you’re only human, for heaven’s sake, and nobody can be on a diet forever.” That doesn’t really make you want to say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Understand and embrace the compassion piece, the conviction that you’re here to make life easier for others, regardless of species, and then everything else – whatever tweaks you might make because of an allergy, a digestive peculiarity, a personal preference -- will come with little effort. This lifts that word “diet” from the deprivational depths and restores its original meaning from the Greek diaita, “a way of life.” And this particular way of life is one replete with meaning and fulfillment and joy.
Excerpted from THE GOOD KARMA DIET: Eat Gently, Feel Amazing, Age in Slow Motion by Victoria Moran, with the permission of Tarcher/Penguin, a division of Penguin Random House. Copyright © 2015.
* * *
Green Power Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients:
1 large celery stalk, chopped
1 frozen banana, or 1/2 cup other frozen fruit (peaches, pineapple, berries, etc.)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 to 1 1/2 cups water
About 1 cup kale, spinach, or romaine lettuce, tightly packed
Optional:
For a greener smoothie: 1 to 2 teaspoons spirulena or barley grass powder, and/or a handful of fresh cilantro or parsley
For a sweeter smoothie: 1 teaspoon maple syrup or 3-4 drops stevia
For a heftier smoothie: 1/2 small avocado, and/or 1 scoop vegan protein powder
For a spicy smoothie: 1/2-inch knob of fresh ginger, or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
For a super-duper smoothie: 1 to 2 teaspoons maca powder and/or ground flaxseeds
Loving Preparation:
1. In a blender, blend celery, banana (or other fruit), lemon juice, greens, water, and any optional ingredients, until liquefied.
2. Add greens of your choice and blend until completely liquified.
Taste and adjust if necessary. (Go easy on the greens at first. The time will come when you’ll fill the blender with them.)
3. Serve immediately.
Makes 1 to 2 servings.
Excerpted from THE GOOD KARMA DIET: Eat Gently, Feel Amazing, Age in Slow Motion by Victoria Moran, with the permission of Tarcher/Penguin, a division of Penguin Random House. Copyright © 2015. Photo and recipe by Doris Fin, CCHP, AADP.
Giveaway!
The usual guidelines:
You get ONE entry for a Facebook comment
TWO entries for a share, tweet or retweet
and THREE entries for leaving a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite smoothie combo!
Contest ends Friday, June 5th at 5pm ET. Randomly-chosen winner also receives a round of Taza chocolate. Smoothies are kind of hard to send through the mail, after all. ;)
No Good at Juggling
I never learned how to juggle—literally or figuratively, as you can tell by all the balls I've dropped over the past several months. I have a bad habit of getting really excited for new projects and forgetting about the ones I haven't finished yet.So, mostly for my own benefit, I'm putting them down here so I can get to work on wrapping them up:
Can-Do Vegan: Now that I've finished the definitive revision on the 2016 novel (it's been accepted! HOORAY!!!) I can get back to work on this baby.
Vegan By the Seat of Your Pants: This one's on the back burner for the time being.
Vegan Cookery & Pastry: Same deal. (I wish I could clone myself at least three times.)
The Boston Independent Bookstore appreciation series: This one is resuming in the next couple of weeks, I promise!
Uganda and Rwanda 2013: I stopped blogging this trip because I didn't know how to write about the genocide and the landmarks we visited, or if I should. But I have to get over that, because there are great pics and stories left to share.
Israel and Jordan 2014: Stopped blogging out of sheer laziness, I suppose!
#100happydays of drawing: I finished this challenge last summer but never tweeted the rest of my sketches. I'll probably blog the highlights sometime soon.
I need to add yet another project to this list, haha: I audited Intro to Hinduism at Tufts this past semester, and I promised my professor I'd do a blog series in lieu of turning in assignments or taking the exams. I'm aiming to post the first installment tomorrow.
All this is in addition to actual book projects, of course. I have something big to share with you, hopefully later on this summer!
Spreading the Vegan Love
I'm back! I may have sounded bummed out in my last dispatch, but I'm actually doing really awesome right now. When I focus on the work itself, there's no bandwidth left over for worrying about the stuff that doesn't ultimately matter.
(At right: with Victoria Moran and Char Nolan at Victoria's book launch for THE GOOD KARMA DIET last Wednesday night in NYC. Photo by Carmella Giardina.)
What does matter: speaking my truth and enjoying every minute of it. Recently I had another guest post on the Main Street Vegan blog called "Veganism and Personal Evolution," and it'll give you a taste of future writing projects for sure.
My old pal Neilochka wound up sharing the link on Facebook, which was really nice of him:
Unfortunately, many of Neil's friends who commented didn't appear to have read my piece before replying with things like "I need meat" and "I could never go vegetarian." As you can see above, even Neil had a strong negative reaction to the concept of raw-food veganism. But the whole point of the blog post is breaking free of a fixed mindset! How do you know you're operating under a fixed mindset? When you start sentences with phrases like "I can't" and "I could never." But you're not ready 'til you're ready, and I suppose no amount of irony is going to clue you in.
On a happier note, Bones & All has been getting lots of love from the NYC vegan community. Not only did Victoria Moran give me TWO shoutouts to a standing-room-only audience at her launch, but Dianne Wenz interviewed me and Katie Dawson did a book review for Chic Vegan, Paula Burke gave me a lovely review over at Our Hen House, and Caryn Hartglass interviewed me for REAL Worldwide, her weekly radio show on the Progressive Radio Network. I may be "preaching to the choir" here, but they are more than happy to represent!
Next week I'll be hosting Victoria on the blog—we'll have an excerpt from The Good Karma Diet, a yummy green smoothie recipe, and a book giveaway! I might even include a round of Taza chocolate...
Quiet Time
I'm in the middle of one of those spells when blogging doesn't feel like a productive use of my time. Sometimes it's easy, because I'm trying to be useful but I'm ultimately doing it for my own amusement, so I don't mind so much that my sister is usually the only one leaving comments.
It's not amusing right now though. The never-enoughness, the needing-to-be-seen-ness, the ultimate futility of social media and book promotion is really bumming me out.
Most of the time I consider myself an optimist. Not today though, and that's okay.
I'll be back when it's fun again.
Where Have You Been All My Life?
Here she is, in all her spiffy fire-engine-red glory: my new Vitamix, a present from my mom and sister! People rave about how a Vitamix changes your life (provided you enjoy spending much of your waking time in the kitchen), and I'm here to tell you it's TRUE. There's something sort of magical about throwing whole kale, ice cubes, and a few other things into a blender, flipping a switch, and ending up with a perfectly smooth and refreshing beverage that also happens to be packed with nutrients. Once you start making smoothies at home, grocery products like Bolthouse Farms smoothies taste unpleasantly sweet (and they often have weird additives besides the sugar). The Vitamix is easy to clean, too—you just fill it up partway with water and let it run for a bit longer.But wait! There's more!
1. Non-dairy cheeses. I'm having so much fun with Artisan Vegan Cheese. Post forthcoming.
2. Raw desserts. I'd been looking forward to making Kathy Patalsky's Boston Cream Pie recipe for ages! (Oh all right, two years.) There's also a frozen-dessert setting on the Vitamix: fresh fruit + ice = almost-instant sorbet. Sweeeeeeeeeeet.
3. Nut butters and milks. They say there's absolutely no comparison, that you can never go back to store-bought almond milk once you've made your own. I want to try Kathy's method, which is here.
(There is more, oh so much more!)
I'm also excited at the prospect of no-waste juicing. While I'm not necessarily using the Vitamix to process the pulp to make other foods, I can say that I'm probably not going to be doing green juicing anymore now that I can do a smoothie. I'll just use my juicer for combos like carrot-apple-ginger—and, inspired by the Vitamix offering no more fiber waste, I'm going to use the pulp to make carrot crackers, fruit crumble, and whatever else I can think of.
Here's a quick recipe (if we can even call it that) for banana chai sorbet (I used a spice mix we found at a grocery store in Uganda):
five ripe bananas (chopped and frozen)
1/8 tsp. masala spice (or just cinnamon, cardamom, whatever you like)
1 tbsp. maple syrup
dash of salt
Add all ingredients and process on the frozen dessert setting. (Next time I'll use 1/4 tsp. of spice and a bit less maple syrup.) Yields about three cups. Oh, and Happy Veganversary to me! Four happiest years of my life so far. (ICYMI, here's last year's Veganversary post.)
Transformational Writing + Yoga Retreat!
[Update: This retreat has been rescheduled for May 20th-22nd, 2016. Details here.]I am over-the-moon excited to announce my first-ever writing and yoga retreat! Squam has been a catalyst for me in so many ways, and I've been dreaming about leading a writing retreat to help other people enjoy the same sort of life-changing experience. When I attended a yoga weekend at Bethel Farm in February and met Stephen Bethel, I knew this was the perfect place and the ideal teacher with whom to partner. Stephen is so open and loving and kind, and gives the juiciest dharma talks!
The First-Ever Comet Party Transformational Writing + Yoga Retreat
Thursday, September 10th through Sunday, September 13th, 2015 Bethel Farm, Hillsborough, New HampshireA transformative experience requires three simple factors: time in nature, a diversion from routine, and the intention to surprise yourself. If you've been feeling anxious about growing in a new direction, this is the ideal set up in which to work through your fears and become the person you know you're meant to be. Through a magical combination of writing, yoga, and meditation in a safe and supportive environment, you'll be able to delve deep into unprocessed emotions and ultimately create your own epiphany (or maybe more than one!)We'll begin each day with a Jivamukti yoga class taught by Stephen Bethel. Workshop sessions will include intuitive mind mapping, ego management, and using symbols and archetypes to reframe our challenges, all of which are flexibly designed to make skill and experience levels (happily) irrelevant. You can be someone who doesn't write at all, or you can be an aspiring or published author. You can be an experienced yogi, or you can be making your way to the mat for the very first time. We'll spend time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine, sweat out what no longer serves us in the pond-side sauna, and savor gorgeous vegan meals from the Bethel Farm kitchen. 
Camille is a Boston-based novelist, travel writer, and certified vegan lifestyle coach and educator. She has experienced greatly enhanced creativity and emotional and spiritual well being through her asana and intuitive writing practices, and wants to share that joy with as many people as she can.
About Stephen Bethel
Stephen Bethel is an advanced certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher, who honors his teachers Sharon Gannon and David Life through every class he leads. Ten years ago, he began teaching yoga classes at Bethel Farm, and soon after offered the first day long retreat. Since then, he has overseen the development of a complete yoga farm and retreat center on 50 secluded acres in acres in rural New Hampshire. In addition to hosting the top talent in yoga and the living arts, Bethel leads yoga classes, workshops, and teacher trainings at the Farm, and internationally.
Price, Registration, and More Info
Cost is $415, inclusive of all but travel. I'm really psyched to be able to offer a four-day (three-night) retreat at such an affordable price. Visit the Bethel Farm website to get a feel for the atmosphere!An intimate group is best given the work we'll be doing here, so registration is limited to about 12. Registration link coming soon. In the meantime, you can email me at cometpartyATgmailDOTcom or leave a comment below to let me know you're interested or to ask any questions you might have!
Upcoming Events
I'm updating my events page regularly. Here's the next awesome thing on my calendar: a panel discussion at the Derry Author Fest in New Hampshire on Saturday, May 2nd!
Followed a few days later (May 6th) by my event with Nova Ren Suma and Maria Dahvana Headley at McNally Jackson in SoHo, NYC. This is going to be AMAZING.
I'm also thrilled to announce that I've been invited to participate on a YA panel at the Boston Book Festival! More details coming over the summer. (But the event I'm MOST excited for will have to wait until tomorrow...)
The Vegan-Cannibal Conundrum
Maren keeps a diary with stories and images in an attempt to make sense of who she is.
The first question on everyone's lips when they hear about Bones & All is,
WHY WOULD A VEGAN WRITE A NOVEL ABOUT A BUNCH OF CANNIBALS???
Fortunately, I've had the opportunity to answer this question at every Q&A (in person and online) I've done so far. But I'd like to answer it here in case you're hearing about the novel for the first time and are having a (totally understandable) WTF moment.
When you first start writing a story, you're not thinking about how or why you came up with the idea or what the underlying point of it all is. If I set out to write a novel about something, then it isn't really a piece of art anymore, is it? It's a vehicle for a particular agenda.
But I didn't have an agenda when I started writing Bones & All. In the beginning I was only teasing out a scenario that made me laugh— "cannibals in love!" —which in turn grew into an equally hilarious situation: a vegan writing a story about people who eat other people the way a giant or an ogre or an evil witch does in a fairy tale.
It will surprise no one to hear that unlike my first two published novels, I did not particularly enjoy writing this book. It felt like a story I needed to exorcise more than anything else. I had to write it just so I could move on to happier projects, and it was only during the revision process that my subconscious intention became clear. I was perusing an 18th-century Scottish cookbook with a mind toward veganizing some of the more accessible recipes, when one of the headings in the table of contents stopped me cold:
FLESH.
It hit me then: I used to be a flesh eater. And then: I used to be a predator. A predator by proxy, I suppose, having never hunted or slaughtered with my own hands—but a predator nonetheless.
I can't get used to this idea. It never stops making me shudder. And maybe that's the way it should be, if I want to be an agent for peace in this chaotic world.
Here's the thing about Maren, my anti-heroine: she "does the bad thing" despite her very best intentions. She wants real friends, a real home, real love, but this horrible compulsion traps her in an endless cycle of devouring and remorse. It's our best intention to nourish our families when we sit down to a meal together, and yet we prepare and serve the food with little if any thought given to who that food used to be, whom it was taken from, how many beings had to suffer for your steak, your wings, your macaroni and cheese. You just want to feed your children, right? Well, so do they.
Many reviewers and readers have praised this novel for its metaphorical take on feminine sexuality. I'd be pleased if you wanted to read Bones & All through a feminist lens, although the more you learn about the way animals are treated in the dairy and livestock industries, the more you'll come to understand why we need to develop our consciousness of female oppression regardless of species.
Of course, you can read the novel with no attention to or interest in "the vegan angle." You are perfectly free to read Bones & All like a straight-up horror story, a deliciously perverted coming of age. But folks keep asking, and this is my answer.
MindFUEL, part 2: Saturday, May 16th!
[EDIT, May 2015: due to Brynne's impending nuptials and cross-country move (sob!), we decided to cancel this workshop. I'll definitely be doing more of these with another of my favorite Karma teachers, so stay tuned!]
Brynne and I offered the first MindFUEL Writing + Yoga workshop on March 7th, and we both felt really good about how it went. We created a safe space and offered tools for self reflection, and every single yogini in our group of eight dove right in. (And of course, the cupcakes were a hit!) A lot of Karma regulars were out of town that weekend for spring break and whatnot, so we got a lot of "Please do it again, I'll come next time!" Brynne included a quick survey at the end of our handout, so we also received helpful feedback for making this next session even better than the first. One suggestion was to offer a series of writing exercises rather than one extended exercise, and I am definitely taking that on board. We focused on mind mapping the first time, and I'll still have the supplies on hand for session #2, but we'll focus on brand-new exercises in case anyone from the first session wants to take it again.
Jasmine and Fiona.
So the next MindFUEL Yoga + Writing workshop happens Saturday, May 16th at Karma Yoga Studio at 338 Newbury Street, Back Bay. $30 advance sign up, $35 at the door. We hope to see you there! As for cool workshops you can take in the meantime, check out my dear friend and teacher Anne Wichmann's hip- and shoulder-opening workshop at Karma Harvard on Saturday, April 11th. I'll be there!(I have another yoga post planned for next week. BIG announcement!!!)
A Unicorn and His Lady
Photo by Aram Comjean.
You may recall that I have a bit of a thing for Spoonflower. Check out my latest obsession: I love that this fabric is inspired by the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Musée de Cluny in Paris (which I visited on my only trip to France in November 2003). The design ("A Unicorn and His Lady" by Nicole Buxton—I just noticed she lives in Boston!!!) is a few years old, but I only recently ordered my yardage (cotton poplin; the voile is sadly no longer available)—I'd been plotting and planning this entire time, looking for the perfect pattern. Because who doesn't want a dress with unicorns on it?
I joked that I was only making it to make Mackenzi (who is usually wearing a ridiculously adorable dress) jealous, only I wasn't kidding, really. I am pretty sure it worked. Between my garment-a-month challenge and wanting a new handmade outfit for my book launch, I knew this dress was going to happen even if it came down to the wire (and needless to say, it almost did).
The seven-piece bodice is from The Party Dress Book by Mary Adams (one of my Harvard Books warehouse sale finds), and the skirt is adapted from Simplicity 2591 (which I had on hand for another dress project on hold for over a year now). When I was in New York visiting Victoria I stopped by Mood Fabrics to pick up some pale gray rayon for the skirt lining (the bodice is self lined, meaning I used the same fabric as on the outside of the dress; I didn't want to be doing that much piecing with such slippery fabric. I'll pick up a can of fabric stiffener spray at some point.)
Considering that I took a bit of a seat-of-my-pants approach (so what else is new?? I had to take in the bodice because, well, my bosom is on the modest side, but I left it to trial and error), I was amazed at how smoothly this project proceeded from start to finish. As you're sewing (or knitting) you dream of the moment when you slip your new garment over your head, look at yourself in the mirror, and marvel at how awesome you look. This, thankfully, was one of those times.
I've been doing a lot of blog Q&As, and one of the questions I answered today was about what I wanted to be when I grew up. For a long time, kindergarten intermittently through high school, I wanted to be a fashion designer; then I realized that I didn't want to design clothing for anyone else, I just wanted to express my personality through my own wardrobe. I'm choosing colors, textures and patterns that make me really happy to wear (and to be seen in, to a certain extent), and this is infinitely more satisfying than choosing a garment off the rack. I got loads of compliments at the launch—this dress made me feel even more confident.
(I have to confess something. When I wore this dress the night of the launch, various unsubtle jokes were made as to the lady's carnal knowledge of the unicorn. I LOVE MY FRIENDS.)
Photo by Mary Bonina.
I'll blog about my new blue bolero in the next week or two!