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FIRE SEASON

BOTH METAPHORICAL AND LITERAL

As I wrote on the Fictator last week, rarely have I felt so incompetent to the task of my own life as I did this month. There was a lot to do, and only a month to do it in. Some of that time, we were breathing smoke and manically refreshing Twitter; some of that time, I was carrying enough of our possessions from one house to another to almost wish they would burn to ashes. 

Somewhere in the last month or so, my book appeared on Amazon. Even though I was impatient for it to happen and certain it would, the link makes it feel realer than I expected. Quiet reminder that if you CAN order directly from my press, please DO. Amazon is great for lots of things but bad, bad, bad for small presses. 

I took the month off from reviewing books, which I didn't think would work, but which had to happen. That doesn't mean that none of my reviews were published this month; in fact, traffic was pretty good, as you'll see below. For November, perhaps less so. We'll see. 

One review in particular did really well this month: of If I Don't Make It, I Love You, a collection of writings by school shooting survivors, which was exceedingly difficult to read and to which, the editors and some of the contributors assure me, I did justice. I hope every member of Congress reads at least some of it. 

Two interviews I conducted went live this month. One was with my mentor and friend Christopher Higgs, and that's been in the works for about two years. I'm happy it found a home at Berfrois, which didn't make me cut too much of it. 

The other was with new friend Cameron Dezen Hammon, whose memoir was just published last week. Ravishly made our conversation look lovely and find an audience, for which I'm grateful. 

And of course there was a Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like) interview, with LA resident and writing community champion Colette Sartor. She's a true pro. 
 
Recent Book Reviews:
  • For NPR, Burn It Down, edited by Lilly Dancyger. A whole bunch of writers I know appeared in this essay, but I tried to be unbiased while still championing their (amazing) endeavor.  
     
  • For Pleiades, Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow. Because this went in the print edition only, you can't read the whole thing without a Project Muse subscription, but you can read some of it.  
     
  • For Book & Film Globe, The Undying by Anne Boyer and Five Windows by Jon Roemer. Boyer's was exactly what I expected (stunning, difficult, radically Marxist) and Roemer's was just...really good. 
For Locus, four reviews, in order of positivity. 
  • Air Logic by Laurie J. Marks. The final installment of, truly, one of the best book series I've ever read. I'm envious of people who get to read it for the first time. As I wrote on Facebook, I don't care if you're allergic to fantasy; take a Benadryl and read these books.
     
  • Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. Totally charming dark fae novella. I highly recommend this for precocious tweens and heavily read adults who need a break.
     
  • If, Then by Kate Hope Day. A promising literary debut with some fantasy elements. Day is a Portland author and friends with some of my friends, so I was pleased to review this one well.
     
  • Necropolis PD by Nathan Sumison. A bad book. 
What I'm thinking about:
  • This marvelous essay by Heather Sellers, which I read in True Story and is now available on Longreads. I have an exceptional sense of direction, and I didn't understand until I read this that it was a gift rather than a skill. 
     
  • This retrospective assessment of John Updike, which I feel multiple ways about. It's got some delicious dissing of Updike, but it inflates his talent too much, in my view. The response online has been mixed, and I've had some good conversations about it. 
     
  • Harold Bloom dying. I generally don't celebrate the deaths even of bad people, but I'm so glad he's out of the world. I'd like to dance on his grave, while reading Valerie Solanas and teaching Audre Lorde. 
Upcoming:
  • An appearance on the Other Stories podcast on behalf of Ceremonials. 
     
  • A review of Ceremonials in Foreword Reviews, which I think is going to be in print and not online? Unclear at this time. 
     
  • The official launch of the 2020 debuts website, which I worked very hard on at the end of October. 
Recently on the Fictator:
  • "I don't know whether to lean into stuff that I'm good at and makes money (legal work, detail management), or to keep limping along at what I like."
      
  • "There's a reason I never want to leave California again; the climate is a matter of emotional survival for me."  
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