The official release date for A Body at Rest is Thursday, March 26. Please come and help me celebrate the release of my first novel at Mac’s Backs, Cleveland’s awesome indie bookstore, located at 1820 Coventry Road in Cleveland Hts. (Phone: 216-321-2665.) The reading will start at 7:00, with time to chat afterwards. Don’t forget that you can download a pre-order form from Drinian Press HERE.
A Body at Rest has found a publisher!
I am delighted to say that A Body at Rest is going to be published by Drinian Press, a small regional publisher located in Huron, Ohio. I just received the contract in the mail from them a couple days ago. I don’t have any details yet about the publication date, but will certainly share them with the rest of the world as soon as I have them.
New article
I have the lead article in this week’s issue of Cool Cleveland. It’s an interview with Cathy Boyle, the Director of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, which is a regional arts and culture district funded by revenue from a tax on cigarettes. It’s a controversial tax to some, even though it was passed by the voters. Read more about it HERE
What happened to the oral tradition?
I did a reading last night with my friend and fellow fiction writer, Toni Thayer. We read at Heights Arts (Cleveland Heights, OH) as part of Dobama Theatre’s First Mondays series, which usually features play readings and occasionally poetry readings. We were the first fiction writers to be featured. There were only about 15 people, but they were incredibly attentive and receptive. We each did a short question and answer after each story and people actually asked questions. All in all, it was a good evening. I only knew a couple of people in the audience, so it’s always nice to have your work be introduced to new people.
I’ve gone to a number of readings in the past few months as an audience member. Most recently, I went to a reading/book signing with Mary Doria Russell at The Lit in Cleveland. Now this is a woman who’s published four novels that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. She’s been nominated for a Pulitzer Prizer. And I think there were about as many people at her reading as there were at mine. Why is it that you can get a ton of people for a play reading or a poetry reading but only a handful for a fiction reading? Is it because we think of fiction as a solitary occupation? I admire poets’ economy of language, but personally I’d rather hear fiction read than poetry. I think that’s because I “get” fiction in a way that I don’t “get” poetry.
I wish I had some amusing anecdote to share about the reading, but I don’t. I guess that’s probably best, since amusing anecdotes frequently involve personal humiliation, and personal humiliation is kind of a drag, you know?
Enough listening to me whine and babble. I’d much prefer if you went HERE and read some of my work. If you like it (or if you don’t), feel free to drop me an email.