And now for something completely different
I’m in California!
No one told me California was cold!! Hello from the Golden State, where people claim there is a beautiful ocean
(If there is an ocean under that weird foggy V of birds, I do not see it.)
A thing about publishing today—though travel is as easy as getting to an airport and waiting six years for your flight to take off—in today’s publishing world it isn’t as common to meet your editor or publisher in person as it used to be.
I had the opportunity to visit with some beloved cousins on the West Coast and took it —bringing me across to the other side of the country where I had imagined everyone would look beachy and day-go and fun, straight from an Elvis movie from the 60s. Instead of Gidget I found…fog!!
That’s right, fog. Long pants, zip up hoodies (but being California both of these are always pale colors and always labeled with some sporty brand like Spyder).
Taking the stupidly early 6:11am train from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara was not the “whale watching included” train ride I expected. Instead I was faced with endless walls of white fog and also with huge swaths of farms. With migrant workers. Welcome to economics and poverty and all the issues that comfortably-off-people would like to ignore as they put out grapes with they cheese and crackers by the pool. Leaving aside illegal immigration and how it folds into the farm economy, are there any non-hyphenated Americans who would do this very exhausting, temporary, manual, and swift-to-end work? Up before dawn to follow an automated truck thing for almost no pay?
I passed shantytowns not far from luxury homes that surprised me—and plenty of people living bumper-to-bumper in RV parking lots that literally had not a single yard between wheels. And there were odd prefab homes in the middle of nowhere that looked straight out of a horror movie - especially in the fog.
The fog made even the stunningly beautiful white shops of luxurious Santa Barbara seem ghostly
What a strange country we live in. People go on and on about the beauty of California’s beaches and how clear and gorgeous the skies are (and they are!! But only in the afternoon!) and the sunsets are stunning as well, but a lot of people get up early out here and this is easily half of their day. How do they forget to tell the rest of us they live in pale glaring pearly gray the whole time they’re not living in emerald and fuchsia?
Selective memory. I’m sure that Californians visiting NYC are similarly horrified by the head-high piled up refuse on garbage day and/or the shocking bang of the trucks driving over metal plates and/or the occasional shockingly mean street person who shuffles in and out of doorways all the time day and night.
What do you daily overlook in your own community, neighborhood or home?
Maybe it’s time to notice it.
WRITING NEWS:
Hey! My interview was published as a big email blast by After Dinner Conversation! I love this online journal - they only publish stories you are meant to discuss—particularly stories with a philosophical bent. I wish all literary journals had this inclination!
(I am not thrilled that the link begins with a self-serving ad, but do scroll down for the content of their interview with me)
It was a good weekend here in California, with a five hour writing session with excellent West Coast Writers from the Santa Barbara Writing Workshop who allowed me to join in their crit session yesterday! Fred, Nick, Max, Rick & Avery — thanks for opening your doors to me.
Afterward off to Carpinteria for a visit at Lantern Books - stunning location! Great taste in fiction!
and if you’re reading this on Sunday, I am right this minute having a lovely lunch with my editor, Silver Webb, right outside of Chaucer’s Books—live nearby or visit? Pick up a signed copy of A FLASH OF DARKNESS! Here’s to more bookstore signings and placements.
Thanks for buying my book! I’m also enjoying hearing from all of you who bought it when it came out and are just now reading it - I love how surprised you are! Don’t forget to tell your friends or get them a copy if they’d like it
RANDOM FINAL THOUGHT:
This is a huge flip flop but…where’s the other one?
More photos from my trip will be on my Facebook.com/mmdevoe page
Hang ten, dudes.
And Now for Something Completely Different.
"There's a penguin on the telly."
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,”- variously attributed to Mark Twain, Horace Walpole and a variety of other people -