In Praise of Literary Friendships
Let the back scratching commence!!
Ho there my deep-reading friends:
I’m in a state of delight and joy right now - dunno what happened. Calendar page turned? Kids getting ready for summer adventures? Unknown. I had a lovely meetup this week with one of the accountability groups I lead through Pen Parentis and one of the writers thanked another of the writers for penning a great letter of recommendation for an upcoming grant. This resulted in an all out love fest as we all mentioned the surprise returns we have all received from our circle of writer friends (and I would also include all of you - my friendly readers) because it is truly astonishing how many of you give back - first of all, this blog passed a milestone this week - it earned $1000!
Not all at once of course, and mostly because a few of you - I’m looking at you, J — have been incredibly generous. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the support — it’s inspiring me to write more!
Secondly, I am thrilled by those of you (Charles!) who wrote reviews on Amazon for my birthday - thanks! But not just those - I am also slowly becoming aware that while I write new stuff, some of you are catching up on your reading and YOUR blogs are rife with mentions like this one (Thanks Richard! It’s a lofty goal to read all the TBR books your friends have written!)
A Flash of Darkness: Collected Stories of M. M. De Voe (Borda Books): This book of short stories by M. M. De Voe, the latest one I’ve finished in my reading of books by people I know, is a joy to read. The tales are funny, quirky, scary, and wonderfully twisted. They take me back to when I was a kid and loved to read science fiction and other so-called genre magazines, but they play with that form in such interesting ways that, for me anyway, they erase the hierarchical distinction that the term “genre” is usually employed to establish. The first story, for example, “Shutter,” is an unconventional revenge story involving a serial killer and the ghost of one of his victims, but it is also an easy-to-miss, very subtle, biting and in some ways devastating critique of patriarchal manhood and masculinity. That kind of political/social justice critique wends its way through most, if not all of these stories. This is a book well-worth reading—and, I would dare say, worth teaching as well. — Richard Jeffrey Newman
I guess the whole point of this post is just to thank you all. For the birthday greetings, for taking me out, for texting, for picking up the phone when I call, for the cards and notes, for showing up at my readings, for reading my writing, for buying my book, for reviewing it publicly, for sticking with me these last many years and for keeping the faith even when I was a little bit wavering there for a moment.
Thanks for tossing me a line.
I appreciate it.
Writing News:
I have the immense pleasure of interviewing the excellent John C. Foster on stage at Shade Bar in the Village this evening (Sunday June 2 at 6pm, 241 Sullivan Street) - he and many of his author-friends, me included, will be doing readings in honor of the big day. (Scott Adlerberg, Nicholas Kaufman & Ben Francisco if you need to vet the list!) John’s newest book, Hate House, is an excellent twisty psychological thriller set on a rocky island off the coast of Maine—move over Stephen King!
BOOO! LATE BREAKING NEWS: JOHN HAS COVID! THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED. Maybe I’ll still go and just hang out …
Visit the Facebook Event page for updates!
oh - and get this - I’m going to be a panelist at the Nebula Conference this year! June 8th - Dipping into the genre community, maybe up to my knees, maybe up to my neck, we shall see….
Panel: Older heroes and protagonists
Ava Kelly (moderator)
Rhonda S Garcia
Lydia M Hawks
Me
and Barbara Krasnoff
And you guys - I’m working! Really. It’s slow - small chunks - but I’m writing again.
Random Final Thought:
Friend of mine gave me a five-leaf clover, apparently even more rare than a four-leaf clover (1 in 100,000 instead of 1 in 10,000) and signifying wealth and easy transitions. I looked it up and discovered incidentally that the four leaves on a “lucky” clover represent faith, hope, love & luck. If that’s true then the five-leaf clover hanging on my wall is a… “success” clover?
By the way, clovers with three leaves are the only ones called shamrocks. Now you know.
Wishing you wealth & easy transitions!