Posted in: Uncategorized
Siblings leave Mom's body to rot for seven years. "A 100-page state police case file, recently released to the newspaper, details how the brother and sister made biannual trips to their mother’s Middlefield home, stepping over her mummified remains on the floor."
Here's a nice PW column on my brilliant publicist at Norton, Winfrida Mbewe. And here's Winfrida on video.
A piece in today's T & G. I'm off to South Hadley and Worcester this week. Be back online Monday. We had a great time last night at Books & Books--thank you all for coming. It's good to be the home team. And thanks to Mitchell and the gang.
Trouble for Mitch Maidique. The Herald pulled this one from it's website--can't imagine how that happened, but it's cached. And the latest lamentable chapter.
Just when you thought airline service couldn't get worse. Better think twice about flying Air Tran.
Here's an interview I did with Tom DeMarchi in the latest Southeast Review.
Has some sweet things to say. Thanks, April.
Betsy Williford's review in the Miami Herald. My favorite Latina rock star and critic Emma Trelles comments in the Sun-Sentinel. Requiem is a People magazine four-star pick of the week this week. Get your copy before I buy them all. It's not online yet, so I can't link to it. When it is, I will. Requiem will be an August Indie Notable Selection. Here's a mention in Bookcourt. My pal Wayne Maugans has something to say at Theater Arts Network. Tina Koening in MiamiArtZine gets personal. And here's John Hood, who may end up as a character in one of my stories if he's not careful, in the Miami Sun Post. In the interest of fairness and full disclosure and because my Catholic self needs a taste of humble pie, I present this scathing review by the book editor in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He runs the country's thirty-fifth best book page. (Sorry, I couldn't help it. But I'm sure he's trying.) This Hoover fellow hated my darlings and my sentences. I was so upset that I went out and wrestled the bougainvilla and cut up my arms and legs, but now I feel better and the front yard looks a little neater. Some folks like their plots applied with trowels, I guess. I'm thankful that other people have a more sensitive and nuanced understanding of storytelling. From Book Page. And here from Monroe, Louisiana. Hoover, I learned, doesn't like blogs either, by the way. He promises in his rant, you'll note ". . . to stick to the traditional standards of accuracy, proper grammar, attribution, but I'll leave out my phone number." (Emphasis added.) Maybe then he can see the two grammatical errors in this single sentence from his review: To which I add, "Why do we need to read 'Requiem, Mass?'"
Two new short-shorts from Merle Drown.
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The most heartbreaking story I've ever read is William Trevor's "The Ballroom of Romance." "But someone else had got Patrick Grady, a girl from the town who'd never danced at the wayside ballroom. She'd scooped up Patrick Grady when he didn't have a chance." The story has been made into a film and now has inspired a play which will be staged in Brockagh Lower in the very ballroom that inspired the story.
I'm leaving in the morning for the Taos Summer Writers Conference, and so I won't be posting till I return.
The Requiem, Mass. Book Tour is around the corner. I’ll be reading at:
· 07/15/: **TAOS SUMMER WRITERS CONFERENCE, Taos, NM, at the Sagebrush in Conference Center at 5:30—reading and signing
· 07/22: Ft. Lauderdale 7:00 PM **BARNES AND NOBLE 2051 N Federal Hwy
-- reading and signing
· 07/23: Coral Gables 8:00 PM **BOOKS AND BOOKS -- reading and signing
· 07/24: South Hadley, Mass. 7:00 PM **ODYSSEY BOOKSHOP -- reading and signing
· 07/26: Westborough, Mass. 1:00 PM **TATNUCK BOOKSELLER -- reading and signing
· 07/29: Monroe, LA 7:00 PM **WINDOWS: A BOOKSHOP -- reading and signing
· 07/30: Oxford, MS 5:00 PM **SQUARE BOOKS -- reading and signing
· 07/31: Jackson, MS 5:00 PM **LEMURIA -- reading and signing
· 08/12: Fort Lauderdale, FL 6:30 PM ** CINEMA PARADISO -- reading and signing
· 09/04: Fort Lauderdale, FL 2:00 PM ** MAIN LIBRARY –reading and signing
Also down the road a piece, I’ll be reading at the Louisiana Book Festival, October 3 & 4 in Baton Rouge; at The Eudora Welty Symposium in Columbus, MS, October 16 & 17; at the FIU/Hutchinson Island Writers Conference, October 22-25; at the FGCU/Sanibel Island Writers Conference, November 5-8, and at the Miami Book Fair International, November 15-16.
On her final book, the Nobel, Robert Mugabe, and other matters. (Thanks to Mollie in Austin)
Works for me. Look in Phillip's eyes. (via BoingBoing)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in9mpY8keG8]
Literary agencies to avoid.
This one you just might find in your Funk & Wagnalls. The word of the day.
