Welcome, Springtime!
How's everyone doing? Over here, I'm torn between wanting to get out to experience the brisk cold first thing in the morning and wanting to snuggle down between the covers and plow through some of the literal hundreds of submissions we got in our latest submission period for Tahoma Literary Review. It's nice to spend some time cosseted in story to start your day. It's equally nice to get out and play first thing in the day. One day I will be able to tell you which I value more. For now, it's a toss-up. Onwards, to this month's newsletter.
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Things What I Read This Month
This month's featured bookstore is Cloud & Leaf, in Manzanita, OR. I sure liked it in there. They have a ton of wonderfully curated stuff, and it was cosy and wonderful and on a rainy Saturday afternoon, it was full of people. This made me very happy. If you want to buy one of the books I list below, call Cloud and Leaf here: (503) 368-2665, or e-mail them: cloudandleaf@gmail.com. Their web site says they can usually ship for free.
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Wonder, R.J. Palacio
I am so woefully behind everyone else. I finally read this book at the beginning of this year and really enjoyed it. Yes, I cried. Yes, you probably will too. The number of line extensions this book has now is out of control, but it's still a really enjoyable read. It was well worth the couple-of-hours investment, and I'll happily pass it on to someone else.
In fact, if anyone wants it, let me know and I'll put it in the mail for you. I liked it so much I want someone else to enjoy it. :)
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Feynman, Ottaviani and Myrick
I'm about as interested in physics as I am in sharks: I'm really, really interested, but not willing to get too close. Mostly this is because I don't like feeling stupid. I'll confess about a quarter of this book made me feel pretty dopey, especially the bits that crib off of Richard Feynman's physics lectures.
Still, he had an interesting life, and I'm glad I borrowed this graphic novel from a friend.
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Modern Girls, Jennifer S. Brown
I met Brown at AWP, a huge writers' conference I go to every year on behalf of our literary magazine. She told me a little bit about her book, and I knew I had to read it.
I so enjoyed this take on mother-daughter relationships. And, anyone who's ever watched "Call the Midwife" will enjoy this one. I read it pretty much in one sitting, over a cross-country plane ride and then on the way home from the airport in the car. Really enjoyable.
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Quotidien Object I Love: Burned Matches
I don't know what it is about burnt matches, but I find them utterly weird and beautiful. Depending on what kind of matches they are--kitchen, waterproof, or otherwise--their heads will burn differently; are of varying colors, and the type of flame and length of time you let them burn will shape the way the wood burns. While I was lighting candles in the little seaside house we were in this past weekend, I noticed that these particular matches held a hot ember at the core of their head for quite some time after you blew out the match--and that, too, was interesting to look at. |
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Where to Find Me This Month
Riverside City College, 3/26: Yes, yes, it's already gone by. But I'm putting this right here because it was such a beautiful experience to talk to a class of young people who are putting together a literary magazine as part of their college classes.
Twitter, 3/27: Another one gone by, but hey! I did this thing at 5AM my time, so you wouldn't have been awake anyway. Here's the Twitter chat I did with the Scott Polar Research Institute on what it was like to be a working writer using their archives for research.
Online at The Writer Magazine: I wrote this essay on what it's like from the editor's side of the desk. My editor titled it "The Editor, The Excavator," and she's so right about that part of the job. What a lucky gig it is, though.
Book Soup, Los Angeles, 4/6: I'll be celebrating Tabitha Blankenbiller's first book of essays, Eats of Eden. Come visit with me!
Claremont McKenna College Center for Writing and Public Discourse, 4/6 & 4/13: Call me lucky girl: I'm "writer in residence" as part of CWPD's offerings to their students. I'll have office hours for students at the Claremont Colleges, and we'll be doing some work around effective workshop techniques.
Oak Glen, CA, 4/20: I'm moderating a chat between writers Jo Scott-Coe and Rachel Howzell Hall as part of the invitational writer's retreat my friends and I put together. Jo is celebrating the publication of her new book, Mass, and she and Rachel and I will be in conversation about strong women and their place in our collective narrative. It's open to the public, and you can come visit, too. The flyer for it is below (thanks, Roz!), and here are the details:
20 April, 7PM
Luther Glen Conference Center
39136 Harris Road, Oak Glen 92399
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The Last Word
It has been a very, very busy few months. I took a lot of time to see friends and make new friends, and I even tried something new--a treetop obstacle course!
Here's what I learned from the trying something new: When you challenge your body in freeform ways, you learn new things about yourself. When you do it with friends, it's all the better. For this year--okay, I'm a little late when it comes to New Year's Resolutions--I'd like to keep on trying new things, with new and old friends. I think this is a worthwhile pursuit.
What about you? What's your springtime-New-Year's resolution? ;)
Have a great April, everyone. Speak to you soon.
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