So, Wednesday night was my first night at the new job, working overnights at a group home, which is the kind of thing I did years ago (and which, ironically enough, fed directly into the writing of my latest book, An Age of Madness). The shift went great, the guys living in the house are terrific, my co-workers are impressive, and the house itself is beautiful. So that's all great.I went home and crashed out for an hour or two before reviving myself and tooling off with Uzee to nearby Turners Falls, hoping to score a couple of funky mugs for our breakfast tea/coffee. We had our sights set on a thrift store in town which we'd been told harbored no shortage of funky stuff, and we informed correctly. To wit:That's right: You are looking at not one but two Lava Lamps, the first a handsome blue filled with glittering silver stars that twirl hypnotically, and the second the more familiar magenta/pink that gurgles with vaguely organic lumps of waxy substance that rise and fall in the reddish murk. They are both totally awesome. I'll put mine (the red one) in my study once I get some furniture to put it on, and Uzee plans to relocate hers to her office at work. Damage: $8 each.Careful observers will note also the set of 6 pristine beer steins in the foreground. These are made of wafer-thin glass and I think had never been used -- they still had their manufacturer stickers on them. We cleaned them up nicely and, uh, tried them out last night. And they do a fine, fine job of holding beer in place long enough to consume it, which is pretty much everything you want in a beer stein. Damage: $2.We are looking for more thrift stores in Amherst today. This is a mighty fun way to spend a sunny afternoon.
The Next Best Book Blog has seen fit to deliver a five-star review to the new book, which I appreciate trremendously. Click the link to see the whole review, which does contain something of a spoiler, but which is awful sweet nonetheless.I'm glad TNBBC like the book, as they are the sponsor of my upcoming events in New York City, on 7/14 at Book Thug Nation in Brooklyn and on 7/16 at KGB Lit Bar in Manhattan. TNBBC's head honcho Lori will be there at both events, and will say a few words, so if you can stop by you can not only say hi to me but also to her, and you can tell her what a fine job she's doing on her blog. And she is indeed doing a fine job, recently receiving tweets from literary bigwigs such as Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood and Christopher Moore.
Clearly, Lori is on the verge of something big here. I think it's safe to say you can trust her judgment, in this as in all things lit-related. Of course, I'm biased...
I've gotten some timely details from the fine folks over at Wordstock, the big literary fair/festival in Portland, OR this October. I will be participating with a reading on Sunday, October 14, at 1:00 in the afternoon, and I'll be reading from the new book, An Age of Madness.I'll be sharing my hour-long time slot with a fellow named Gregory Spatz, who has written a mighty interesting-looking book called Inukshuk (even the title's a killer), which you can read about on Amazon. This sounds like a pretty trippy book, and it will be fun to meet Gregory and hear him read.So if you're going to be in the area, please stop by and say howdy. I am still waiting on confirmation/details about other events in the NW/California area, but this seems definite now and will serve as sort of the anchor for the rest of my time out there. Hope to see you somewhere along the line...
First of all, you're probably as confused as I was. But "Mobile Book Fair" is a misnomer -- NEMBF is actually a bricks & mortar book store in Newton, Massachusetts, that has been around for a very long time. In the old days they used to send trucks out to different neighborhoods, or something. Hence the "mobile." Or something. I admit to being slightly confused (slightly?), in this as in so many other things.You can read more about them on their website here.BUT: The important thing is that I will be doing an event there on Friday, October 26 at 7:00pm. Mark your calendars, etc. I gather NEMBF is a pretty rocking place -- they claim to stock over 1,000,000 books, all new, all discounted, and they seem very enthusiastic about what they do. So even if the thought of hearing me read from my totally excellent new novel leaves you shrugging, you should come check out the place anyhow. It sounds pretty majestic.On a less-thrilling note, my event at Millrace Books in Farmington, CT (aka "my hometown") has been postponed. This is because the shop itself is closing up/has closed up. After 40-odd years, the lovely Jan Owens decided that keeping the place open was just not viable anymore. BUT! The space is still home to Jan's other project, the Farmington Valley Literary Arts Council, which continues to host events and workshops every month. It is very possible that I will be able to do some sort of Madness-related event there in the fall or winter. It's just a question of working out the logistics. Stay tuned.
With all the frenetic activity engendered by moving several thousand miles, from Hawaii to Massachusetts, I have been sadly lax in keeping loyal readers up to date with my offerings over at PopMatters. My weekly column, Don't Open That Door!, has racked up three new entries since I last highlighted it here. To wit: 1955 space opera This Island Earth, which features, among much else, decent special effects and blazing-hot color! Followed by: Another John Agar camp-fest, The Mole People, showcasing not one but two species of semi-humanoid underground dwellers; and finally,the ultra-awful Prehistoric Women, which isn't quite as funny as it should be but is nonetheless fascinating in a weird, awful, watching-a-car-crash-in-slow-motion kind of way. This is the 1950 movie, by the way, not the 1967 entry.So take a look, Like 'em and Tweet 'em and G+ 'em and whatever else you like to do. I'm having great fun with these & I hope you are too...
(...well, apart form us, of course...)...must be the fine guys over at Element Brewing Company. Pictured below is the ever-helpful Dan, who kindly welcomes Uzee and myself into town the other other day, set us up with a few mightily tasty beer shots, gave us an impromptu tour of the brewery (a converted Post Office, I believe) then chatted with us for a while before sending us on our way, burdened only with a couple of bottles of excellent dark beer and a seasonal oatmeal ale. Plus a couple of T-shirts. It was, in all, a terrific little interlude and a sweet way to feel slightly more at home here.In fact, there seems to be piles of great beer here, much of it produced by tiny little hole-in-the-wall microbreweries, which have their own devoted followings: The People's Pint in Greenfield, the Berkshire Brewing Company, and many more. Not sure what's contributing to this density of breweries in such a small area, but believe me I'm not arguing.
We're still in the process of settling in here in the sometimes-sunny northeast, but we have the good fortune of living in a town with its own microbrewery (more on that tomorrow). Meanwhile, the sensible folks over at the Not Another Book Review blog have seen fit to give An Age of Madness a fairly stellar review, despite calling it "thinking woman's chick-lit" -- um, okay -- and saying that "Maine has written a commercial novel by blasting the formula." I think that's a compliment. That's a compliment, right? Elsewhere, the reviewer states: "The author's brilliance is to show not just the tortured conscience of this profoundly ethical woman but her unexpectedly generous heart." Hey, that's definitely a compliment!Many thanks to NABR for the generous review. I recommend the site to anyone seeking out thoughtful reviews of serious books, as this person seems to take the whole writing/reading/thinking about stuff seriously...
