News, publications and blog for the author of AM/PM (Featherproof Books) and Museum of the Weird (FC2).
Good morning, world. Please find a triptych of new stories at 52 Stories today. Thanks owed to Cal Morgan for the opportunity.
It’s forever morning in this blog post. The cat is looking out the window at the street sweeping machine. The squirrel is sitting over his drey, holding his heart. The sun has found all the windows. I am sleepy, working, thinking about oatmeal, forever, in this blog post.
It’s going to be 77 degrees today in Austin. All writers should come here and drink wine with me on my invisible porch. All non-writers too. Let’s clasp hands.
Some good news comes in from the internet today, starting with a kind review of Museum of the Weird
from The Collagist.Yesterday was a busy and good day at the bookfair. Mike Graupmann helped me set up and organize through the day. We had 15 readers go up, and met loads of cool local press people. Letterpress was involved. It was a small group of sellers but a happy one, with a steady crowd all day. It seemed like everyone had fun, and our treat table raised a chunk of cash for Dean Young.
Today was a fine mail day and I decided to blog about it because the only other thing that happened today is that I went running for too long and threw up tuna sandwich. Dealbreaker!
I got the issue of Yeti 10 and saw my face in it as drawn by Jing Wei. The illustration looks great. I am the leader of the trees. Thanks to Jing and thanks again to Toby.
I hold the clock so that you trees can know the time
Also I got a great Christmas card from my friend Ryan, who did it up Semi-Homemade style with some laser-eye embellishments.
bless this mess
Last I got Jacob Wren’s novel, which came out looking just gorgeous and feels nice under the hand.
nice cardstock man
And that’s what you would have seen if you had committed a federal offense and opened my mail today. Dealbreaker!
I am on five allergy medications. Five! Two up the nose, two down the hatch, one in the eyes. I feel like my brain has been wrapped in plastic and squeezed into a balloon. Just now I was standing at the large window of the allergy clinic, watching a fish extend his tail above the water as he swam in his shallow pond. I watched him kiss some green off a rock. The woman at the allergist put a burning shot in my arm right when the other woman walked into the room and asked how my day was. I said MY DAY IS FINE
My personal key to enjoying the holidays is turning off the radio whenever a Christmas song plays. I have to save up my tolerance for Christmas Eve, when I help my dad with the service at the Presbyterian church where he is an usher. Imagine me handing out candles to families, etc. Usually I have bathed. I operate the lights during the light-dimming the ceremony like old times. I sit back in the secret room by myself and hold a hymnal on my lap and try to sing all four parts of the hymns.
It's the most wonderful time
What else. We’re in the home stretch preparing for this show on Sunday. I’ve got to pick up tables today and transport them to the venue. I think I’m going to make some baked goods for the volunteers, maybe buy some egg nog.
I figured out a big element in the thing I’m writing. Looking forward to getting some downtime next week. Right now my brain is a sponge in the world. It’s a bag of frozen peas. A woman across the room is unwrapping the wax paper around her sandwich. The receptionist said, “Nobody is here today. Nobody is here today. We are invisible.” I have been sitting in this clinic room an hour longer than necessary now. I like to be a bag of frozen peas around people.
The Enter key on my keyboard snapped off again. Too many short paragraphs. I am fingering its nub until a replacement arrives. All I want for Christmas is a functional Enter key.
Excitement this morning when the cat threw up what looked to be a small green squid. Everyone was embarrassed.
Trips upcoming to Tucson, Ann Arbor, Chicago. A new year is almost here. I want to invent a hot cocoa that can be sipped by ghosts.
Check out the preview article about this week’s Indie Lit Roadshow weekend in today’s Statesman. Also, listen to yesterday’s KOOP radio interview about the show with David Moses Fruchter, plus bonus readings by Mary Miller, Mike Graupmann, and myself, right here:
I was interviewed by Tobias Carroll for YETI 10 and by Blake Butler for HTMLGIANT, talking about books, fate, routines, America, etc. Thanks to both for the good talks.
If you’re in Austin or you know someone who is, check it out:
December 10-12, Austin hosts a weekend-long series of shows at The ND at 501 Studios (501 N. I H 35, Austin, TX, 78748) culminating in a day-long reading and bookfair. Join us on Friday, December 10th at 7:30pm for The Encyclopedia Show; Saturday, December 11th at 8pm for Teleportal 2.2; and Sunday, December 12 from 12-9pm for the mashup reading and bookfair. It’s a weekend of readings followed by a best-of show bringing Austin’s most exciting readers, authors, presses, and booksellers under one roof.
More info here, pass-it-on Facebook invite here.
I feel like Kim Jong-Il looking at things.
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