Poem on Verse Daily (2020)

I have a poem on Verse Daily which you can read here. It is my third time on the site. Thank you to Verse Daily for featuring this poem, and for their support over the years. You can read more here and here.

Also, I want to say thank you to Daniel Handler, the NEOMFA, and everyone who watched on zoom for such a wonderful event last week! 

Online Event with Daniel Handler, Hosted by the NEOMFA (*This* Friday)

Online Event with Daniel Handler

Hosted by the NEOMFA

Friday, December 4th

7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Zoom Link

Cyber Monday (For Readers)

Update (12/2/2020):

For some reason, videos are having trouble playing on blogger/blogspot lately. I looked into it and a lot of people are having this problem. All the videos on this blog (at least from the last several years) are also on my website so you can view them there if you would like. Hopefully google will fix this issue with videos on blogs.

Book Sale!

Find out more here.

Vine Leaves Press Black Friday Online Sale (Nov. 23-27)

Vine Leaves Press has some really great deals happening right now (online, of course), which you can check out here. The book discounts go through Friday, November 27th.

Stay home. Stay safe and healthy. Help other people stay safe and healthy. 

November 14, 2020 (Various Topics)

This post will be about a mix of things, so it might seem a bit disorganized. 

Last weekend was amazing. Historic. Biden-Harris! It feels like more than a week ago because of the coronavirus surge. I've been thinking about this video. These poems were first published in an online lit mag last Inauguration Day (January 2017), and the video of me reading them is from February 2017. 

You can currently vote in the semifinal round of the Goodreads Choice Awards. If you voted in the opening round, you can vote for a second time. If you missed the first round, you can vote for the first time in this round. I think you can vote until late Sunday night. 

There is a review of Without: Body, Name, Country in Portland Book Review. If you would like to read it, you can check it out here.

I recently read Dark Horses by Susan Mihalic. It was one of the most disturbing books I have ever read in terms of subject matter (abuse). The author kept drawing me into the book by making the esoteric equestrian world (which I know little about) feel familiar and almost homey to me. It is sort of like how I felt about chess when watching The Queen's Gambit. I know nothing about chess, but the way Beth visualizes the chess board above her (often before she falls asleep) from childhood through adulthood, made me think about my childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and the process of visualizing dance/choreography/performing and writing/editing (as well as the inner monologue of writing). 

Next up I am going to read The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon.

Over the course of the pandemic so far, I rewatched the entire series of the TV show Episodes. (The BBC/Showtime show.) In terms of pandemic era TV watching, watching this show for a second time cheered me up more than other funny shows.

Somehow, the Vine Leaves Press team found time to make even more videos.

First up...

I'm the frickin' Lorax.

Here's the rest of the videos...

Update (11/15/2020):

Another video...

Another Video from Vine Leaves Press (& Other Info)

My book, Without: Body, Name, Country, is a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee.

If you would like to order the book from an independent bookstore, check out Bookshop and IndieBound. The UK now has Bookshop too. 

For various ordering options (some indie, some not) for both the paperback and the ebook, check out the Vine Leaves Press site. In the UK, you can also order it through Waterstones.

The vote count is still going in the United States... Go Biden-Harris!

Vine Leaves Press (Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee)

 Without: Body, Name, Country nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards.

Nomination (Goodreads Choice Awards)

I found out on Tuesday (Oct. 27th) that my book Without: Body, Name, Country is a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee. Thank you so much!

It was a nice surprise in the middle of election anxiety and pandemic anxiety.   

Six New Videos (9/22/2020)

 More videos from Vine Leaves Press...

Without: Body, Name, Country

Thank you!

Thank you for a great release day! If you click on the screenshots, you can view them in a larger size.

Goodreads Giveaway for Without: Body, Name, Country (& Other Updates)

Thank you to everyone who entered the Goodreads giveaway for Without: Body, Name, Country. All 2,922 of you. 

Congrats to the ten winners. The signed copies have been mailed. You should receive your copy well before the official release date (September 15th).

I hope everyone who didn't win a copy knows that the eBook is only $2.99 and the paperback is only $12.99.

I'm relieved to be back online. I recently didn't have power for seven days because of the derecho in the midwest. Because of the pandemic and being severely immunocompromised, I couldn't go to public places that had power restored before I did. It was...rough... At one point during the outage, I had a dream that a group of people I didn't know were forcing me to perform 1930s-esque tap dances to try and win them money. (What?) I'm glad the outage is over. I felt really tired afterward for a few days.

I hope everyone is doing as well as possible right now. I hate knowing that there are so many people who are sick and/or unsafe right now. Some people are living in tents now because of the damage of the derecho. I don't understand billionaires who don't donate significant amounts of their money to people who need help. There needs to be a redistribution of wealth in the United States. 

Hope you have a good weekend.

Lately (Late July 2020)

The screenshots below are from the evening of Friday, July 24th. You can view the images in a larger size if you click on them. I was peeking at my book on different retail sites online.

I peeked again the next day. (Saturday, July 25th in the afternoon.)

I stopped peeking after that. I don't want to be obsessive. I am glad that presales have started.

Some copies of the book arrived, even though the official release date isn't until September 15th. I wasn't expecting to see Without: Body, Name, Country until August, at the earliest, especially because of the pandemic. Vine Leaves Press made the production schedule before the pandemic and it hasn't been delayed at all. I'm really happy about the book.

I feel like I'm in a daze. Three books. Two nephews. A pandemic. Being severely immunocompromised during a pandemic. 

I'm shocked by the number of deaths. Shocked by people who don't take it seriously. Upset that millions of people could be evicted. Upset about the extreme cruelty of the GOP. I feel sick about what the United States has become.

While trying to write this post, I keep finding myself staring off into space. I listen to the sound of a box fan as if it will tell me the right thing to say.

New Videos!

Without: Body, Name, Country

Around this time last year, I was getting ready to go to Fairhope!