News, a Wish and BitchBuzz

Criminy: it's December! How the time has flown by this semester, even though I haven't been in class. My sympathies to my colleagues knee-deep in exams and grading. I know how it feels -- and couldn't be happier that I am not.

Sorry! But it's true.

NEWS: 

It's a Curse: Drunk on the Moon, Book 7 by moi should be about tomorrow from Trestle Press. Thanks again to Mr B for inviting me to have fun playing with his werewolf PI, Roman Dalton. I hope I did him justice -- it sure was fun :-) I will have a book trailer up soon: just waiting on the cover art.

I'll be on the G-ZONE blog radio show, AKA Gelati's Scoop tomorrow night to talk about It's a Curse. You can listen live and call in, or listen to it later online. I'll be on about 4.30 pm Eastern time, which is about 9.30 pm here.

I'm interviewed in the latest Broadly Speaking from Broad Universe which is about mentors and teachers in literature, so I talk about Owl Stretching and Pelzmantel a bit and my own teaching experiences a little bit.

Next Tuesday is my talk at the Moore Institute at NUIG. I keep thinking about trying to add a Guy Fawkes mask to their logo just for a lark, but I lack the requisite skills.

My column for BitchBuzz this week is on gifts that won't steal your soul. Give something genuine if you're gift-giving this holiday season.

WISH:

It's my birthday month, so I want to ask you for a gift. Nothing expensive -- all it costs is a little of your time. I don't need stuff: I spent some harried weeks this summer trying to get rid of a lot of my stuff. What I would really like is some attention: not for me, for my books. My wish is for any who have the time to "like" my books on Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing etc. and offer them reviews. They need not be elaborate; they need not be glowing. But books without reviews seem chancier to potential readers. No one wants to be the first to do something; they want to see that others have trod the path before them and it's safe. So if you have a few spare moments, can you help out a fellow American who's (okay, not really) down on her luck?

Soundcloud

A new way to spread sound -- well, newish. It's been getting a boost, mostly via other social media outlets and DJs. Of course now that people like me are starting to use it, the DJs are looking for something new. Way to suck the cool out, eh?

My page at Soundcloud features things you might have heard before: a couple of the conceits and an early reading of "Rothko Red." I got a new digital recorder, so I'm going to put more things up with luck a little more regularly. Maybe even some music...

Yes, still working on getting the Rome photos online. A good number added since you last looked. I'll tell more about my adventures when I get a moment. Still catching up from being gone and working on a million and one things. Life may slow down a little by, oh let's see -- May?

Flash Vacation

After dropping Gene off at work Friday morning, I made a quick escape to Connecticut (I blame the midterm craziness!). I tore through the Berkshires in some thick fog, filling up on cheap gas. My first stop in Willimantic was to surprise Perilous Cheryl, but the surprise was on me. I stopped by her office and they told me she was out sick. I was just about to call her when the QoE called me and mentioned that The joey Zone had been sick, too, so I decided maybe I ought to leave them alone and let them rest and recuperate.

Instead I decided to annoy Marko at the Punk Rock Jukebox -- hee hee! I got to pick the tracks from the Swill of the Day CD (so yes, blame me for "Rhinestone Cowboy"!), and to make him crack up on the air as well as distracting him so that he didn't realise there were no songs cued to play next. Always willing to do my part to make things a shambles. The new WECS studio is swanky and huge. As always, I came away with some recommendations on new music to find.

The QoE arrived before the end of the show, so we both picked on poor Marko and then headed off to the pub for lunch. I was pleased to notice they had free (albeit s-l-o-w) wifi at the pub, yee ha! So I got to show off Ianto some more. This was when I discovered my nice new leather bag is so thick that it muffles the ringer on my phone. I didn't realise that I had missed the calls from Miss Wendy until I got out my phone to take a picture of the Queen (but what a great picture, eh?).

Off to Miss Wendy's next, who took me to services at her temple which were very welcoming and relaxed. They said a kaddish in remembrance of her father Norman, who was a very sweet man. After the service -- which also had a young man reading who was becoming a Bar Mitzvah -- we shared food and drink, including some really good chocolate chip cookies.

Next we were off to the Aloha Alcohula AKA the best damn tiki bar in Connecticut® for some Żubrówka and a variety of cheeses and other snacks. It was a girly night, although one without any nail painting or home perms (we did, however, talk about boys). You can see Wendy's post for the possum update. We finally made our way back to Wendy's, where she and I sat up for a bit longer chatting, finally going to bed sometime after 3, so no surprise we slept late Saturday and then watched movies.

All in all a very relaxing trip and much fun. There's always time to steal a little vacation even in the middle of the semester.

Podcast: Dear Friend

Slouch on over to Radio Wombat for a new podcast, "Dear Friend." Is this podcasting going to be a regular thing? It just might.

On the Air!

What the -- three posts in one day?!

Yeah, well you never know when inspiration might strike. And now, we have sound -- yes, after months of farting around doing nothing, I finally put up a podcast, which is a fancy way of saying a low-tech recording of me reading a flash fiction piece. Wander over to the THIRD blog, Radio Wombat for a taste and let me know what you think. The story is "Rothko Red" and it's not yet published, so consider this a sneak peek.

New Book Store!

Always a reason to celebrate! There's a great new book store in the area, East Line Books. The proprietor, Robyn Ringler, is just a wonderful and enthusiastic woman -- and writer! You may remember her from my radio show, Prose at the Rose, where she talked about things like being Ronald Reagan's nurse when he was shot.

Robyn is determined not only to have a terrific and well-stocked store -- with determined book sleuthing skills as well -- but also to make the store a community gathering place. She's got books to suit all interests and tastes. There are comfy chairs scattered throughout the various rooms, coffee and tea, and best of all a meeting room for book clubs, writing groups, and writing classes. There's already a book club for the suddenly ubiquitous Twilight series. Getting kids to love reading is one of Robyn's chief aims.

She has ambitious plans for readings, including a program very much like Selected Shorts. Yes, she asked me if I was interested in doing a reading (didn't have to ask twice!), so I will probably be launching Unikirja there this fall. I finally got my copy of Lynda Barry's What it Is from East Line -- thanks, Robyn! Support the independent bookstores:

East Line Books
Old Village Plaza
1714 Route 9
Clifton Park, NY 12065
(Just north of Rt. 146 on Rt. 9 across from Snyder's Restaurant, between Clifton Park Pizza and Captain's Treasures -- Exit 9 off the Northway [87])

Hours:
Tues - Fri: 10AM - 5PM
Sat: 10AM - 4PM
Sun & Mon: Closed

On the walk this morning, new sightings: a wee turtle and a water rat (as opposed to my birth sign, the metal rat). City wildlife! And then there was the ABBA House of Prayer down the street which I never noticed before (mama mia!).

Prose at the Rose: Fulwiler

On line now: the latest interview and reading from Prose at the Rose, my podcast on local writers and writing at the College of Saint Rose radio. My guest this episode is colleague Megan Fulwiler who reads a wonderful essay on the challenges of buying a house as a single woman. We have fun talking about writing and teaching writing and her essay will make you laugh even as you share her anxiety in the face of intimidating paperwork and byzantine processes.

Radio, Radio

My essay on the Roundtable program of WAMC is officially scheduled for Monday morning about quarter after ten. It's me talking for a couple of minutes about medieval Yule celebrations. I start out with the Anglo-Saxon world, but because so little is known for sure about that time, I have to move forward, finally ending with the (late medieval) boar's head carol. It's an opportunity to read a little Old English, a little Latin, and a chance to get medieval on the WAMC audience.

"Learn from a professional, kid!"

I walked through the ice and snow over to WAMC studios to tape my mini-essay on Anglo-Saxon yuletide today. We're not that far from the station, but with all the ice on the sidewalks I took my time (it was particularly bad by SUNY not just because of the frozen surface but because the surface was so uneven and ill-kept!). I got there and idled a few minutes, looking up at all the awards lining two walls of the studio as people buzzed busily around and the Roundtable crackled through the room. I met the producer, Andy, and we went into one of the little cubicle studios to record. He explained their procedure and I asked how close to be to the mic (at Saint Rose we tend to be right on top of them). I only had two pages so there wasn't much paper shuffling. I read a few sentences to set the levels and then he pushed play and we were recording.

When it was through he looked kind of surprised. "That was great. It usually takes more than that." I was tempted to say, "call me one-take Laity!" -- instead I told him I do a podcast at Saint Rose (not to mention being a practiced performer of my own stories). Of course it was nice to be complimented, and I walked back to campus and my grading feeling cheered.

The piece is scheduled at present to appear on December 17 at 10.20 am (yes, you can listen on line). Nice birthday present, eh?

Today's post takes its name from a piece of dialogue by Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons episode 1F12, "Lisa v. Malibu Stacy" [written by Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein] where the family's precocious middle child tries to fight the corrupting power of an insipid fashion doll:

The next step is for Lisa to record what her doll will say. She stands in the recording studio in front of a microphone.

Techie: Talking doll, take eight.

Lisa: "When I get married, I'm keeping my own name." Oh, no, that should probably be "If I choose to get married."

Techie: Uh, look, little girl, we got other talking dollies to record today.

Krusty: [barging in with cue cards] All right, you poindexters, let's get this right! One: "Hey, hey, kids, I'm Talking Krusty." Two: "Hey, hey, here comes Slideshow Mel" -- again -- "Here comes Sideshow Mel". "Sideshow Mel". Three: [does a Krusty laugh] Budda-bing, budda-boom, I'm done. Learn from a professional, kid.
[walks out, squeals his tires away]

Into the Quagmire

No, not that one: Facebook.

My pal and colleague, Kim Middleton, blogged on the topic and I thought well, I ought to try it. It is (or was) an academic networking site, so perhaps it would be useful in that way.

HA HA HA!

Blogging seems to some folks a kind of time suck, but it's not a patch on Facebook. The latter seems all about the constant connection, because the default is not only to record everything you do, but everything your friends do, too. Yes, of course you can ignore them, which I do for the most part (sorry to everyone who invited me to become a slayer, partake of movie trivia, or share what I'm reading).

At least it's not as unremittingly ugly as MySpace.

It's simple enough that anyone can figure it out; in fact it's probably easier for someone who knows very little about how the web works. The content doesn't have to be self-generated like a blog. Blogging is great for people like me who never run out of things to write; it's less useful for people who prefer interacting with others more.

However, that's also one of the things that gives me pause: that interaction. Do I want my professional and personal lives overlapping that much? I have a professional website and a personal one. I originally envisioned Facebook as a part of my professional life, but as friends link up and interact that boundary gets more and more porous. Not sure how I feel about that. I have chosen to make my profile available but to hide certain parts from casual viewers (i.e. non-friends in the Facebook universe). Do I really want all my students to know me 'personally'? Not really. But is it avoidable in the interconnected world of the intarwub? Probably not.

Not that this connectivity is a bad thing; I treasure the multitude of friends that I have gained from the web, some of whom are very close to me now and all of whom add so much to my life. Besides, I like being able to have a conversation about canned laughter with Graham Linehan or watching an old video I have longed to see for years. That wouldn't be possible without the 'net.

But I am still wrestling with the issues involved and probably will for a while. We all will be, I suspect. The weight of information is the best protection -- you have to go out and find information for the most part and this will only increase as we approach full steam.

My experience has been that the web is wonderful on the whole: without it I wouldn't be heading to WAMC Monday morning to tape a piece on yuletide celebrations in Anglo-Saxon England.

Prose at the Rose: Tramontano

The latest episode is now on the air. Check out my interview with Jan Tramontano. Her work has appeared in Poet's Canvas, Chronogram, Mom's Literary Magazine, American Intercultural Magazine, Knock, The Culture Star Reader and Women's Synergy to name a few. She is currently working on her first novel and is a member of the advisory board for the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and is a member of the International Women's Writing Guild. Jan reads her story "The Landlady."

Prose at the Rose: Ringler

My interview with Robyn Ringler is on-line now at Saint Rose Radio. Robyn has been an attorney, a nurse and a lobbyist for gun control as well as a freelance writer. She had a number of stories to tell, including being a key nurse on duty at GWU Hospital on March 30, 1981.

Tangible Accomplishments

After I finished grading the medieval lit exams (exam grading goes soooo much faster than paper grading), I took some time to begin the Halloween cards. I'm taking a slightly different approach this year, and more work is involved, but I found the "assembly line" process kind of soothing (I guess that's my heritage after all). It's pleasant to see tangible results pile up on a table; so often what I do remains ephemeral, or the tangible part is long delayed (i.e. most publications). I also spent some time yesterday updating the website for Femspec, a journal -- as the name suggests -- for feminist approaches to speculative fiction. I offered to do some work on website maintenance because it hadn't been updated in a while.

I also recorded the first episode of Prose at the Rose for the fall with Robyn Ringler, a woman who has been an RN and a lawyer as well as a freelance writer (and a member of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild like me). She has had some really interesting experiences and we had a great time talking. I'll let you know when it's on-line.

Prose at the Rose -- on the Air!

Listen to the first broadcast of my new show hosted at the internet radio station at the College of Saint Rose. I'm interviewing Hudson Valley Writer's Guild president, Donna Miller, about the Guild and about her writing. I haven't had a chance to hear it yet, and probably won't as I have my usual crazy Tuesday schedule and Hélène Cixous tonight (more on that later). Although the schedule for the program will be irregular for a while, it will be an on-going series.