1/26/2009
Back under ice after a quick jaunt to Denver for the librarians' national hoedown. I think it went well--the first glance of Into the Beautiful North. We distributed over 100 signed copies. I was quite moved by the general enthusiasm. All right--I lost my iPod and Bose headphones in the friggin' hotel, and they said I didn't. There's a maid at the Magnolia feeling really happy today! Or her kid is. Hope he likes Bob Dylan and rock in Spanish. So I guess I'm not all that damned delighted.
I want to thank everyone for their kindness and generosity--for the laughter and tear the librarians generously showered on my breakfast talk, and for the fine good time we all had together. Next stop: Salt Lake, followed by San Diego. With a couple of classes in between.
Gonna be a long dull bunch of flights with no music!
Grumble,L
PS movie folks are apparently reading the new book this week. But if you have followed this blog long, you know how full of beans the whole movie thing really is. Still, you know--Salma? I NEED AN IPOD!
Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush
I want to thank everyone for their kindness and generosity--for the laughter and tear the librarians generously showered on my breakfast talk, and for the fine good time we all had together. Next stop: Salt Lake, followed by San Diego. With a couple of classes in between.
Gonna be a long dull bunch of flights with no music!
Grumble,L
PS movie folks are apparently reading the new book this week. But if you have followed this blog long, you know how full of beans the whole movie thing really is. Still, you know--Salma? I NEED AN IPOD!
1/22/2009
It's always exciting when an unexpected project turns out unexpectedly wonderful. Here's a look at the cover for Luis's "comic book" -- a graphic interpretation of his short story "Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush." The artist is the incredible muralist Christopher Cardinale who takes an important social justice stance in his work. He actually traveled to Rosario, the small town where Luis's family is from, to see firsthand Luis's inspirations.
Published by Cinco Puntos Press out of El Paso, "Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush" is scheduled for release March 1. You can preorder it at amazon.com
and read more about it (and other wonderful books) at Cinco Puntos Press.
and read more about it (and other wonderful books) at Cinco Puntos Press.
1/20/2009 History
1/19/2009
What can you say that isn't fatuous, pompous, or cliched? Of course, we in Chicagoland are doubly astounded about the inauguration--south side! White Sox! And I'm not sure my kids get it--they are not in any way as damaged by America's racial history as we are. But, you know, it's hard to believe. Who won't be weeping? I'm making my classes stay home to watch. I hope you're watching, too. Cynics, and I am a political cynic myself, maybe the boost in hope and rejoicing will help tip the ship back upright. Just a little. Ah, to heck with it. I told you I'd sound silly.
L
-51
L
1/16/2009
It ain't the heat, it's the wind-chill. On the TV, they were demonstrating for us, as if we didn't know how miserable it is, how miserable it is in the Chicago area. They threw a cup full of boiling water in the air, and it was frozen by the time it hit the gound. They were also going to do the frozen soap bubble-that-shatters-like-glass-trick, except the bubble fluid froze. But hey--we're tucked in here. I'm in the best room in the house (barring my writing loft and the bedroom, ahem), the library! Surrounded by books, my best friends. On their new oak shelves. Ed Abbey and Sherman Alexie and Diane Ackerman and Margaret Atwood and Clive Barker and Nevada Barr and Rick Bass and Ambrose Bierce and Chuck Bowden to the left of me. A whole army to the right--T.C. Boyle and Ray Bradbury and James Lee (God) Burke and Truman Capote and Joan Didion and Annie Dillard.... Man, I get excited just looking at them.
Well, here come those new books of mine. You've seen the beautiful cover of Beautiful North (below). What you might not know is there's a book coming out before that one. My graphic novel. Yes! Luis--The Comic Book. It's Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. The amazing artwork is by Chrisopher Cardinale. We will post that cover here this week. Also coming this year is the Phoenix Noir anthology. I'm excited to be in that with some of my heroes.
I am trying to start Hummingbird II. You probably need to prod me. I'm so fried from the constant touring, and the other books (working on lots of poetry right now) and teaching... But I also shy away from the massiveness of the Teresita mythos. (Listen to me. I'm like H.P. Lovecraft with his Chtulhu Mythos.) But it's so powerful and mind/soul shredding for me to re-enter her sphere...I have kept to myself in thos areas for a couple of years. You who know my story and know me will also recall that as soon as the Work begins in earnest, shamans and curanderas and ghosts and strangeness will follow. No kidding. For example--when I first moved to Chi (we had settled on the far west side--before we came out here to the farm/burbs of Turkeyville), I was bemoaning my distance from the mystical southwest and the eerie deep south of the Bayou Country. I was sure no wild magic/medicine could happen in Chicago. No more teachers appearing mysteriously on my doorstep. As I was complaining to Cinderella about this, I looked out my window. There was an Indigenous man out there in the back yard, waving for me to come out. He turned out to be a medicine man. He wanted to talk about what I was working on. And he wanted to tell me how to summon snow when there is a bad thing about to happen and you want the angry people to be forced to go home. I kid you not.
I'd like to ask him today how to get the snow to go home.
It will be hard, what with movies starting, and the Perpetual Book Tour revving back up in two weeks, and the real book tour for the new novel. But Teresita and Tomas and all of them are clamoring to come back to meet you again and tell you what happened to them when they left Mexico.
Help me. Once in a while...drop me a note. Tell me to keep working.
I need to tap into my mystical Mexican side again--but I will reach deeper and grab some of that rampaging Visigoth gene buried in there. Need the strength!
See you in San Diego, Salt Lake City, Denver...
Hlutwig Aethelbert Urias
Just A Thought
Well, here come those new books of mine. You've seen the beautiful cover of Beautiful North (below). What you might not know is there's a book coming out before that one. My graphic novel. Yes! Luis--The Comic Book. It's Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. The amazing artwork is by Chrisopher Cardinale. We will post that cover here this week. Also coming this year is the Phoenix Noir anthology. I'm excited to be in that with some of my heroes.
I am trying to start Hummingbird II. You probably need to prod me. I'm so fried from the constant touring, and the other books (working on lots of poetry right now) and teaching... But I also shy away from the massiveness of the Teresita mythos. (Listen to me. I'm like H.P. Lovecraft with his Chtulhu Mythos.) But it's so powerful and mind/soul shredding for me to re-enter her sphere...I have kept to myself in thos areas for a couple of years. You who know my story and know me will also recall that as soon as the Work begins in earnest, shamans and curanderas and ghosts and strangeness will follow. No kidding. For example--when I first moved to Chi (we had settled on the far west side--before we came out here to the farm/burbs of Turkeyville), I was bemoaning my distance from the mystical southwest and the eerie deep south of the Bayou Country. I was sure no wild magic/medicine could happen in Chicago. No more teachers appearing mysteriously on my doorstep. As I was complaining to Cinderella about this, I looked out my window. There was an Indigenous man out there in the back yard, waving for me to come out. He turned out to be a medicine man. He wanted to talk about what I was working on. And he wanted to tell me how to summon snow when there is a bad thing about to happen and you want the angry people to be forced to go home. I kid you not.
I'd like to ask him today how to get the snow to go home.
It will be hard, what with movies starting, and the Perpetual Book Tour revving back up in two weeks, and the real book tour for the new novel. But Teresita and Tomas and all of them are clamoring to come back to meet you again and tell you what happened to them when they left Mexico.
Help me. Once in a while...drop me a note. Tell me to keep working.
I need to tap into my mystical Mexican side again--but I will reach deeper and grab some of that rampaging Visigoth gene buried in there. Need the strength!
See you in San Diego, Salt Lake City, Denver...
Hlutwig Aethelbert Urias
1/13/2009
The Sanskrit root word
for "war" means literally
"desire for more cows."
--Hayden Carruth
Nifty Tidbit
for "war" means literally
"desire for more cows."
--Hayden Carruth
1/12/2009
Got a note from Cinco Puntos Press, my pal Bobby Byrd's fine publishing house in El Paso. (They published my Six Kinds of Sky, Ghost Sickness, and the book of photos/poetry, Vatos.) Anyway--Bobby's about to launch a graphic novel of one of my stories, Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. We will be posting the cool cover here very soon. Watch for it!
But the funny news was that Fox apparentl has a new show called Lie to Me. Or is it called, Tell Me a Lie. Uh...there's lying in the title! They are going to be using VATOS as some kind of prop on the set, and might even use a VATOS promo poster on the set! Ah, the high life.
Back in the real world, we are under a blizzard watch. We've been shoveling for days. I'm here trying to get my syllabi done for class. But hoping, just like my third grader, for a snow day!
See you in Tucson, Salt Lake City, Denver, San Diego. Can't wait.
L
January Tenth
But the funny news was that Fox apparentl has a new show called Lie to Me. Or is it called, Tell Me a Lie. Uh...there's lying in the title! They are going to be using VATOS as some kind of prop on the set, and might even use a VATOS promo poster on the set! Ah, the high life.
Back in the real world, we are under a blizzard watch. We've been shoveling for days. I'm here trying to get my syllabi done for class. But hoping, just like my third grader, for a snow day!
See you in Tucson, Salt Lake City, Denver, San Diego. Can't wait.
L
1/10/2009
Another year begins. A year of dread, fear, melt-down, violence and war. Maybe--am I being foolish?--a year of hope? I keep telling the writers I work with that this will be a good year because we choose to make it a good year.
I dread this day: 32 years ago today, my father died in wicked border Mexico. I look out at the relentless snow. My daughter's expedition to dntn Chicago thwarted: tears. All the sorrows and delights of a normal life. Part of me rebels: this is bullshit! And part of me wants to kneel and pray--this is a normal life. How did I get here? I go out and shovel as much as I can with my rusted back. I read 100 books. I wear sweatpants all day. I do push-ups. It feels...it feels...like grace.
Lately, we have been enjoying Smith magazine's six-word memoirs. A bunch of my friends are writing them. I wrote: Father killed: forced to grow up. But then I realized that might be true, but it's all in how you take life. So I wrote this instead: Suffered early: chose to live joyously.
Let us make this a good year. It starts, after all, with us.
I hope.
XXX,L
I dread this day: 32 years ago today, my father died in wicked border Mexico. I look out at the relentless snow. My daughter's expedition to dntn Chicago thwarted: tears. All the sorrows and delights of a normal life. Part of me rebels: this is bullshit! And part of me wants to kneel and pray--this is a normal life. How did I get here? I go out and shovel as much as I can with my rusted back. I read 100 books. I wear sweatpants all day. I do push-ups. It feels...it feels...like grace.
Lately, we have been enjoying Smith magazine's six-word memoirs. A bunch of my friends are writing them. I wrote: Father killed: forced to grow up. But then I realized that might be true, but it's all in how you take life. So I wrote this instead: Suffered early: chose to live joyously.
Let us make this a good year. It starts, after all, with us.
I hope.
XXX,L
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