10/25/2009
See Nitro-Fueled Funny Cars on Sunday! See the Wreckasaurus Giant Fire Breathing Tractor EAT Old Cars on Sunday! See triple-engine rails pull quarter-mile wheelies at 200 mph on SUNDAY!!!!
Or stay home and clean the kid's room and go grocery shopping and write on the computer all day. On Sunday!!!!
I'm banging away at Hummingbird's Daughter II. Any suggestions for a title? Eh? And I am pretty much done with the intro for Across the Wire revised. Yay. Almost done with the intro to David Taylor's book. Yay. And looking at the poems, seeing how they play out, sifting them into a couple of mighty juicy books. Yay. (Haiku, natch, and a general collection.) I have letters of recommendation, an endless tide of requests, and book blurbs, an even more endless tide of demands. Plus class work. trying to get this out of the way before SUNDAY Nov. 1, when I will see you at the Texas Book Festival in Austin. Though thos assholes at UT Austin came after me with a job offer I didn't ask for! See them schmooze us in the back seat of a car! See them offer me a killer job "made for me" for which I am "the right choice at the right time!" See them tell me not to even bother to apply--just send resume and they would "do the rest"! See them wait four months of utter silence then tell me someone better got the job! On SUNDAYYYY!!!!
Ha. It's all a game. Vanity, vanity...and illusion. I'm playing a better game than the English department game right now. U cant touch this!
I look forward to seeing you in TX, amigos. Except the UTA folks--you can stay home.
XXX, L
Workin' It
Or stay home and clean the kid's room and go grocery shopping and write on the computer all day. On Sunday!!!!
I'm banging away at Hummingbird's Daughter II. Any suggestions for a title? Eh? And I am pretty much done with the intro for Across the Wire revised. Yay. Almost done with the intro to David Taylor's book. Yay. And looking at the poems, seeing how they play out, sifting them into a couple of mighty juicy books. Yay. (Haiku, natch, and a general collection.) I have letters of recommendation, an endless tide of requests, and book blurbs, an even more endless tide of demands. Plus class work. trying to get this out of the way before SUNDAY Nov. 1, when I will see you at the Texas Book Festival in Austin. Though thos assholes at UT Austin came after me with a job offer I didn't ask for! See them schmooze us in the back seat of a car! See them offer me a killer job "made for me" for which I am "the right choice at the right time!" See them tell me not to even bother to apply--just send resume and they would "do the rest"! See them wait four months of utter silence then tell me someone better got the job! On SUNDAYYYY!!!!
Ha. It's all a game. Vanity, vanity...and illusion. I'm playing a better game than the English department game right now. U cant touch this!
I look forward to seeing you in TX, amigos. Except the UTA folks--you can stay home.
XXX, L
10/22/2009
My Life in Porn: many nice comments have come in about my cover story in the November (Marge Simpson) Playboy. Thanks, all. It was an amazing El Paso/Juarez jaunt, as those Twitter followers who read my micro dispatches know. You always hate to have your prose trimmed, and the magazine cut out some eccentric stuff to make room for data and quotes backing the story. What-ever, as my kids might say. If I put the essay in a book, I'll put things like Papaburger back in!
As you know, I have been burning it at both ends lately. It has been a great year for short-form Urrealism: stories in two books in the Nior sereies from Akashic Books, a good poem in the premier issue of New Mexico Poetry Review, this Playboy story, intro to the new edition of Across the Wire, intro to David Taylor's new book of photos. Oh, and INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH.
I was in Boston about two weeks ago, speaking at Bunker Hill Community College. Apparently, they decided I had to come back. So I got up at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday, caught a cab at 4:30, jumped a plane at 6:00. I was in the school by 10:30, speaking by 11:30, and on a plane back in the afternoon. Taugh the next day. Some kind of record, since I also spoke at Chicago's Columbia College the night before the trip. I am tired.
But I am happy to say that I'm giving this week's generous paycheck to charity. All of it. Pastor Von is gonna get a li'l Christmas suprise, and we are going to invest again this year in Thanksgiving suppers for needy families. And I'm looking at buying livestocvk for poor families in Africa and Latin America. Yo--eggs and milk are on me!
I am grateful for the chance to do something meaningful. Thanks to y'all, who keep reading the books, who keep the institutions, bookstores, universities and city councils interested in having me come. Fairfield, CT and Plainfield, IL have selected Into the Beautiful North as all-city reads. So now we have three books in play--three in the rotation. Going to buy lots of food for lots of kids.
I'm thinking of doing my 2010 touring as the Save The World Tour. Will you join me? See how much good we regular people, we who are not BONO, can do to ease the pain.
It's raining here. Stay warm. I'm thinking of you....
Mr. Soul
Phoenix Noir and the Gathering Storm
As you know, I have been burning it at both ends lately. It has been a great year for short-form Urrealism: stories in two books in the Nior sereies from Akashic Books, a good poem in the premier issue of New Mexico Poetry Review, this Playboy story, intro to the new edition of Across the Wire, intro to David Taylor's new book of photos. Oh, and INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH.
I was in Boston about two weeks ago, speaking at Bunker Hill Community College. Apparently, they decided I had to come back. So I got up at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday, caught a cab at 4:30, jumped a plane at 6:00. I was in the school by 10:30, speaking by 11:30, and on a plane back in the afternoon. Taugh the next day. Some kind of record, since I also spoke at Chicago's Columbia College the night before the trip. I am tired.
But I am happy to say that I'm giving this week's generous paycheck to charity. All of it. Pastor Von is gonna get a li'l Christmas suprise, and we are going to invest again this year in Thanksgiving suppers for needy families. And I'm looking at buying livestocvk for poor families in Africa and Latin America. Yo--eggs and milk are on me!
I am grateful for the chance to do something meaningful. Thanks to y'all, who keep reading the books, who keep the institutions, bookstores, universities and city councils interested in having me come. Fairfield, CT and Plainfield, IL have selected Into the Beautiful North as all-city reads. So now we have three books in play--three in the rotation. Going to buy lots of food for lots of kids.
I'm thinking of doing my 2010 touring as the Save The World Tour. Will you join me? See how much good we regular people, we who are not BONO, can do to ease the pain.
It's raining here. Stay warm. I'm thinking of you....
Mr. Soul
10/08/2009
I slept in late today. Yes! After the recent orgy of public speaking, I felt really tired, not so much in my body but in my mind. To do the Urreashow, I think you have to pump oxygen into the reactor and reach some level on incandescence. It's hard to explain. But I have this need to reach the farthest seats in the house. Is this ego, or is it the old missionary zeal? Maybe I think I'm Bruce Springsteen or something. I feel awful if I see someone bored or distracted. But all that contact tends to pull a bit of the pep out of the core.
We are hunkering down for the first snow of the year. Oh nooooo! If it comes, it will be the earliest measurable snow recorded in Chicagoland. Can you believe that? Snow, along with sub-freezing temps. So much for our Fall plants we bought!
I got an award from the Secretary of State here in Illinois. A few of us were singled out--Latino authors. I am grateful to be honored, and a bit rueful--I had to fly out of town on the day of the ceremony so I didn't even get to go to it. I don't know if we got plaques, or certificates, or just brunch.
I am working semi-hard on the sequel to Hummingbird's Daughter. Those who follow on Twitter have gotten some running commentary on the process. It's so easy to pop 140 characters onto the cell phone! I think it's good.
I wanted, though, to tell you about the new PHOENIX NOIR. It's in the noir series that Akashic Books has been releasing to such acclaim for the last couple of years. This one has heroes in it--Lee Child! Don Winslow! And good buds, too, like David Corbett. When I was invited, I had to try. So I wrote a nasty story called "Amapola." It's an antidote to those who make fun of me for writing "fell-good new age" stuff like Hummingbird.
You know: sex, dope, rock and roll, high school and mudering narcotraficantes. What's not to love?
The book hits the stands soon--and I hope you'll get it. Publisher's Weekly just reviewed it, and they gave the book a star. That's special. I am insanely proud that they singled out my story as a high point. I always felt too obtuse to write a good mystery, and that's a good thing or all I'd be doing would be detective books about hard-boiled border sleuths. Hey...wait a minute....
Corbett and I have just finished a new story for LONE STAR NOIR, the next in the series.
Finally, my big ol' El Paso story runs in the November Playboy. I hope you like it. Don't look at the pictures.
Baby, it's cold outside--
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, L
And Boy Are My Arms Sore
We are hunkering down for the first snow of the year. Oh nooooo! If it comes, it will be the earliest measurable snow recorded in Chicagoland. Can you believe that? Snow, along with sub-freezing temps. So much for our Fall plants we bought!
I got an award from the Secretary of State here in Illinois. A few of us were singled out--Latino authors. I am grateful to be honored, and a bit rueful--I had to fly out of town on the day of the ceremony so I didn't even get to go to it. I don't know if we got plaques, or certificates, or just brunch.
I am working semi-hard on the sequel to Hummingbird's Daughter. Those who follow on Twitter have gotten some running commentary on the process. It's so easy to pop 140 characters onto the cell phone! I think it's good.
I wanted, though, to tell you about the new PHOENIX NOIR. It's in the noir series that Akashic Books has been releasing to such acclaim for the last couple of years. This one has heroes in it--Lee Child! Don Winslow! And good buds, too, like David Corbett. When I was invited, I had to try. So I wrote a nasty story called "Amapola." It's an antidote to those who make fun of me for writing "fell-good new age" stuff like Hummingbird.
You know: sex, dope, rock and roll, high school and mudering narcotraficantes. What's not to love?
The book hits the stands soon--and I hope you'll get it. Publisher's Weekly just reviewed it, and they gave the book a star. That's special. I am insanely proud that they singled out my story as a high point. I always felt too obtuse to write a good mystery, and that's a good thing or all I'd be doing would be detective books about hard-boiled border sleuths. Hey...wait a minute....
Corbett and I have just finished a new story for LONE STAR NOIR, the next in the series.
Finally, my big ol' El Paso story runs in the November Playboy. I hope you like it. Don't look at the pictures.
Baby, it's cold outside--
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, L
10/05/2009
Just flew in from Oregon. (Rimshot. Thank you, Ladies and Gennermen.) The general blitz has now abated. Where'd I go? I don't remembere. I was in Northern CA, and I was in Kentucky, and I was in Boston and I was in D.C. The Eugene library event was amazing and slightly cosmic, with folks whispering in my ear as they came by for a hug after the talk. I get hugged a lot. As a correlative, I get kissed a lot too. Nice job if you can get it. I also get photographed a lot with my arm around someone--well, a woman--that I don't know. There must be 1,000 senior prom pix of me with people I don't know huggin' in out. I wonder what Cinderella thinks of that. I'd better not look at Facebook too much.
So much I want to get to! So much to do around here at the website! And writing...gee. Remember when I wrote books? Wasn't that cool?
I have a few things left on my plate in '09: Arkansas, and Austin, TX.
The rest is teaching and trying to get some quality time on Hummingbird II. Whatever it will end up being called. We call it Queen of America right now, but that's not going to cut it.
OK, amigos. I have to go to work. UIC is waiting patiently for me to return. But I will spend more time with you here with new blog projects and Hummingbird updates. Check out the new PHOENIX NOIR. It got a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and they singled out my humble story! Funny, but INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH didn't get a star, and it's 40 times better than my li'l mystery story. Just goes to show, you can't believe the hype, or the non-hype. Go with what you love. Damn the torpedos!
See you here soon.
Luigi
So much I want to get to! So much to do around here at the website! And writing...gee. Remember when I wrote books? Wasn't that cool?
I have a few things left on my plate in '09: Arkansas, and Austin, TX.
The rest is teaching and trying to get some quality time on Hummingbird II. Whatever it will end up being called. We call it Queen of America right now, but that's not going to cut it.
OK, amigos. I have to go to work. UIC is waiting patiently for me to return. But I will spend more time with you here with new blog projects and Hummingbird updates. Check out the new PHOENIX NOIR. It got a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and they singled out my humble story! Funny, but INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH didn't get a star, and it's 40 times better than my li'l mystery story. Just goes to show, you can't believe the hype, or the non-hype. Go with what you love. Damn the torpedos!
See you here soon.
Luigi
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