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So: last week I went to City Center to see their concert staging of the musical Titanic. I’d seen the original Broadway production over 25 years earlier, and I remember being struck this time around by the way that this new production seemed to emphasize a certain death-haunted quality of the play. To say that a musical depicting a tragedy that killed over a thousand people is death-haunted is, perhaps, a bit obvious, and yet. What I’m less sure about is whether that death-haunted quality was there all along or whether I was just more attuned to it this time…
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And that’s a wrap on the book tour. I’m currently in a rest stop on the Ohio Turnpike, catching up on some freelancing and drinking coffee. There’s going to be one more post in this series, I think, in a more “what were the lessons we learned along the way” vein, but for now… Last night’s reading at Book Suey was fascinating, not least of which was because I learned about the relationship between Detroit and Hamtramck. Book Suey itself was a terrific spot, and it was great to see the esteemed Sean Madigan Hoen – who set the whole…
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Holy shit, Youngstown. That was a heck of a time. Terrific readings, my first time seeing an old friend in a few years, a great bar, and music playing by the likes of Abner Jay and the John Cale/Terry Riley combo. So good. So very good. Fan Now I’m in Ann Arbor for a few days, catching up on some things and working on revising the next novel, which is tentatively titled An Efficient Machine, though who knows how long that’ll last. Or if it’ll even be readable? But there’s no way of knowing except to do the thing.
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I’ve been on the road for about a week now, and have added around 1,700 miles to the odometer on my trusty Honda Fit. As I’ve traveled, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts – including getting my feet wet in writer Julian Simpson’s Pleasant Green universe. I’ve read Simpson’s newsletter Cartoon Gravity for a while now; while I’ve dug his thoughts on storytelling, it took me longer than expected to get into his actual audio storytelling. [Mild spoilers ahead for Who Is Aldrich Kemp?] I opted to begin with Who Is Aldrich Kemp?, which follows an intelligence agent…
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I got to Chicago late last night, after Google Maps routed me through some of the loneliest roads in the state of Illinois. Today was relatively quiet: before heading over to Pilsen Community Books, I caught up on some work and chatted with Ben Tanzer for his podcast. The event was truly heartwarming; I owe tremendous thanks to Juan Martinez for his questions, which made me realize a few things about In the Sight that were not apparent to me while I read it. It was also fantastic to actually spend time in Pilsen Community Books; I did a virtual…
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I’ll have a lot more to say about this year’s AWP in a later post. For now? It was great to catch up with friends in Kansas City from all walks of life. Sadly, there was no barbecue in the cards for me due to bad planning and the substantial popularity of Nate Bargatze. Now I’m in a Starbucks in southern Illinois, on my way to Chicago. Pilsen Community Books tomorrow! See you there?
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Some impressions on Columbus, Ohio from someone who’s never visited it before: Currently holed up in New Castle, Indiana catching up on some work en route to Kansas City. Which will be a slightly longer drive than I anticipated. Am also trying to figure out if one of my phone chargers imploded overnight, which I am currently classifying a problem to deal with in Kansas City.
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Hello! I’m touring again. Solo, this time. The last time I did anything on this scale it was 2017 and duncan b. barlow and I got in his manual transmission Honda Fit and drove from Santa Fe to Chicago. This time around I’m alone, the Honda Fit is (a)mine and (b)an automatic transmission, and the trip is from Brooklyn to Brooklyn, with a drive out to Kansas City and back for AWP. Day 1 involved leaving from my parents’ place in central NJ, the thinking being that getting to central PA from there would be easier. Stopped a couple of places…
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Every Christmas for the last few years I’ve contributed a story to Jon Solomon‘s 25-Hour Holiday Marathon on WPRB. This is this year’s. Thanks to Jon and WPRB for this; if you’d prefer to listen, you can do that as well. What do I remember from my childhood? Well, to begin with, this: there was a book and in this book was a drawing and in that drawing was a window on Christmas night and in that window was a face. I remember asking my mother and my father about the face in the window and about traditions, and I…
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InterviewsDoug Melville on Invisible Generals (InsideHook); Hannah Carlson on Pockets (InsideHook); Douglas Brunt on The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel (InsideHook); Chris Hadfield on The Defector (InsideHook); Bethanne Patrick on Season 2 of Missing Pages (Vol. 1 Brooklyn); Sean Michaels on Do You Remember Being Born? (Vol. 1 Brooklyn); Andrya Ambro of Gold Dime (Vol. 1 Brooklyn) Features The Very International, Very Local History of NY Pancyprian-Freedoms (U.S. Soccer) ReviewsBaron Wormser, The Road Washes Out in Spring (Portland Press Herald); Tananarive Due, The Reformatory (Tor.com), Christelle Dabos, Here, and Only Here (Tor.com); Michael Cisco, Pest (Vol. 1 Brooklyn); Jesi Bender,…
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Notes, thoughts, & miscellany 