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