Jennifer Traig Interview

mf: Does any of your OCD behavior still linger?

JT: It does, though I didn't know that until I started doing research for the book. I'd thought of these behaviors as harmless personality quirks. But yes, I'm still a little compulsive. I don't worry about my mortal soul anymore, but occasionally I spend a little time checking the electrical outlets and the locks. People hate to travel with me.

mf: It seems the intensive summer crafting that your mother put you and your sister through took hold. How much do you attribute your Crafty Girl books to this start?

JT: Oh, completely. Because of my upbringing I can't stand to sit and do nothing - I have to be knitting, or sewing, or gluing rhinestones to things. After grad school I wasn't working very much so I was spending all day decoupaging collages of Cher. An editor friend thought my time might be better spent working on craft books, so she very kindly gave me the Crafty Girl assignment.

mf: I love that your mother encouraged you and your sister, Vicky, not to hold back in your artwork, even when it spawned a variety of lewd projects. Do you still have any of these and do you inspire the same when you lead workshops?

JT: Oh yes, we still have all of it. I've been taking the tackiest stuff to show at readings. People love Vicky's profane ceramics. When she comes with me, they place orders.

In my own workshops we tend to be a little tamer. Since I usually work with children I encourage this behavior very carefully. I'm afraid to send a child home to his parents with a creation like "Hand Giving the Bird."

mf: After a childhood of intense conflict as polar opposites, you ended up writing Judaikitsch with your sister -- no small feat, it would seem. How do you two get along in adulthood?

JT: We get along really well, actually. We're collaborating on another book right now, a guide to unhealthy living, which is something we both know a lot about. In our 20s we found common ground in doughnuts and margaritas and now we're thick as thieves.

mf: How do you move from writing craft books to writing a memoir that reveals the most embarrassing moments of your childhood?

JT: Sadly, these were not the most embarrassing. There were other moments that were just too embarrassing to share. But yes, it was a little hard to switch gears from light craft how-tos to the memoir. Most of the work was in learning how to stretch out in the text. Crafty Girl typically runs to 10,000 words and here I needed eight times that much, so I had to unlearn the bare-bones writing style you use in craft books.

mf: How did your family react to Devil in the Details?

JT: They're really good sports. I was worried they'd feel exploited but they actually seem pretty tickled by the whole thing. They're hoping it gets made into a movie and are spending a lot of time casting themselves. My father is requesting he be played by Danny DeVito; my mother, by Angelina Jolie. I'd pay ten bucks to see that.

mf: I'd love to hear more about what you're doing with McSweeney's and what you've got planned for the future.

JT: My cousin and I are still solving our "Shut-In Detective" mysteries - or will be, as soon as November ratings sweeps are over and we finally get them done. Other than that, I'm working on a few other projects: humor, essays, knitting, that sort of thing. And my sister's book, Mini Mart a la Carte, comes out this spring. It's disgusting, and very very funny.