Toothy Gift Horses
and the mouthy recipient of same
Smiles, everyone, smiles!
So quite some time ago, I had one of my very favorite stories published in a fiction magazine that has become one of my very favorites. It’s called After Dinner Conversation and they publish only stories that they call “philosophical” by which they mean, “people will want to talk about this and/or will have strong opinions on this.”
My short story “The Heaven/The Earth” is about an aging man who can’t get his head around the emptiness he feels.
The magazine has interviewed me, and through some colossal universal coincidence, the interview goes live on May 26th - my birthday!
Why is this information in the blog part of the newsletter and not the “writing” part? Because have a look at the graphic that their social media person sent me.
I laughed when I saw it - laughed even harder when I saw the subtitle was “a bite-sized interview.: I politely asked whether she might move the text lower to cover my breasts instead of my face and she said no, I could go on Canva and do it myself.
Well. That was new.
So then I followed the clickable link and (are you sitting down?) the image on the actual website looks like this:
I swear to you that my face is in the original. In fact, here it is— I asked if she might want to crop the image. She replied that the website wouldn’t show what the preview shows(above) - but what she is asking is for me to promote the site by spreading the clickable link to my birthday interview (they didn’t know it would run on my birthday, just happened that way).
Anyway, this shot was taken by Luba Grosman who is an excellent photographer.
WRITING NEWS:
if you want to actually subscribe to the After Dinner Conversation newsletter and read the interview when it goes live on May 26th, the link is here.
I was also interviewed by CanvasRebel - an online interview website/podcast. I do not think that has gone live yet.
And in REAL writing news: I made the top 10 of a writing contest!! Yes! Women-on-Writing’s Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest honored “Gabriel García Márquez didn’t have to do laundry” with a short-list nomination! They still haven’t picked top prizes but it was fun to write this utterly strange little flash essay and I was delighted that I made the top ten!
(Winners are announced….at some future date when they announce them.)
Oh! I went to see Water for Elephants and it was TERRIFIC. The Circus performers are outstanding. The Flash has a meta moment in the middle of the show where you get to see Grant Gustin’s audition reel (not really but the joke will be a good one after you see the show). The book by Rick Elice is really great - excellent storyline. The only part that felt a little off was the music/lyrics. I kept thinking if only they had not composed the songs by committee, it might have been a perfect show. Now it feels like the lyrics were suggested by AI and voted on.
Nevertheless it is a show that is absolutely captivating and worth seeing.
Also it has the best logo currently on Broadway.
Random Final Thought:
Why do we sit in chairs but on sofas?
Happy Day of Whatever-Spring-Renewal-Rebirth-Live-Again-Holiday You Prefer!
Well. That’s… something. But the photo without the, uh, editing is great!
Well, the photo of your face is great!