Is it tempting to be too open on your blog?
My blog isn't very personal. I talk about experiences I have, but I don't talk about relationships, I don't mention my friends that often if at all. I guess it's intimate in that it's inside my head, but at the same time, it maintains a certain vagueness. At least I hope it doesn't get too personal.

How is your blog different from your novel?
Well, I write my novel longhand. And I think just that difference, the physical act of putting a pen on notebook paper makes me write in a totally different way. It's entirely psychological. It's not like the pen is affecting the way I write. So that is the main thing, once I get the pen in my hand, it's totally different from blogging.

What made you start writing it longhand?
I don't know, I guess it was just that it felt more productive to create a physical page with writing on it, as opposed to a page on a screen that could be deleted. Oh, I forgot another project! I'm illustrating a children's book. My little brother wrote it, and I'm illustrating it. He's a really good writer.

What is your average day like?
I wake up really early. I keep a farmer's schedule. I get up at 6:30, or earlier. And then I do morning calisthenics, then make myself a nutritious smoothie. I usually write from about eight until four. And that also includes research and making phone calls and things like that. To keep my sanity, I have to keep a pretty strict schedule, otherwise I feel like I am just frittering away my time. I'm in bed by 10. Sometimes I make it to 11, if it's a really wild night.

Do you write at home?
Sometimes, I usually work at the local public library in Chinatown. There are usually old men outside doing tai-chi.

Did you always plan on being freelance?
It was sort of a natural fit, I've always been driven and also really hesitant to do much of the same thing over and over, if I can help it. So being freelance is the perfect compromise, and I've also been pretty lucky, like having 12 different projects going on, and nothing makes me more anxious than having less than 12 projects going on.

What have been some of the coolest things that you've gotten to do?
The Where the Wild Things Are blog has been really fun, because it's working with really interesting people. And I wrote a really fun piece for N+1 about fashion week. N+1 is really literary, but I really wanted to go to fashion week, and so I had the absolute worst seats. I understood very little, but it was really good to see it from a complete outsiders perspective, and I got to write an article about it. I interned for them in college.

I also got to write this article about celery soda for this Jewish magazine. It's a really popular celery soda amongst old Jewish people, so I tracked down the deli owners who sold it and they were really cranky and drank a whole bunch of celery soda.

You've published two books. Did you publish them yourself?
Yeah, I just made up a press name. They both sold out, and they were really fun to make. Again, it's just this compulsion to always be making things.

What are your goals for this year?
I want to finish my novel. The concept is 100 percent, but the writing is only like 25 percent done. So I guess if you average that out, it's like 40 percent done.