#buy love haiku amazon

[romilly-jay]

Didn't QUITE make the landing (for me): what's that about?

***spoilers***

Last post was about a movie that hinged around a Seeing My Best Friend With Fresh Eyes story arc (and had fun pushing the edges/ expectations for the New Best Friend But He's Gay bonus plotline).

This is also a Finding Her Way Back To Her Best Friend which - *for me, mind!* - started really well and ended pretty well and went wonky at the two thirds mark (but top marks for sticking to the plot logics).

Another similarity? The lead female actor wrote the script. (Okay, for the other movie, it was the lead female actor as co-writer and perhaps this is the kind of thing that benefits from a writing partnership? That call to tread the line between ludicrous and heart-warming. Always a balance. So hard to stay exactly on target.)

Things I particularly liked - that the female MC's business WASN'T failing, at least, not until AFTER she committed to some of the madness of the Chase The Exposure plot - and that she at one point has a moment of realisation: What am I doing? We were okay - why am I risking everything for this mad possible step up??

And, given the kind of movie we're in, it's both inevitable and also pleasing that everything comes round in the end.

Actually, scratch that - really pleasing that this movie serves a HEA without requiring the female lead to give up her Silly Little Notions of self-sufficiency. [Yay for a female writer i.e. a writer who empathises with the female MC's desire to be a rounded, independent person i.e. a writer who has more respect than that for the character!}

The other thing I like is that the male MC is - and remains - a Didn't Make It Yet musician whose main gig is as a wedding singer. She's an ordinary person (admittedly with a Special Gift she's temporarily refusing to listen to, which seems... illogical...) and - so is he. <3 <3

Things that pleased me less - the Big City girl being all like Use Your Gift for me oh but get me THAT guy specifically (i.e. don't use your gift the way it's supposed to be used) and she's like NO PROBLEM.

And - the feeding lines to her Magazine client to help her catch the former best friend / obviously supposed to be HER love interest. NO.

And - they drifted apart. Like, okay, but he's loved you for years. Surely, without some Incident he would at least remember to email?

Re movie production co -

This one actually IS Hallmark - I rarely get to see these due to being Too Mean To Subscribe Directly - but apparently Amazon Prime is more inclined to buy in from Hallmark these days, so *shrug*?

[In the past, most of them seemed to be - Reel One - which, by the way, I didn't hate but were reliably teeny tiny of budget and thus struggling every time they couldn't avoid shooting a "crowd" scene.]

More importantly - look at that MOON. The huge, dreamy, slightly apricot-tinged full moon that's painted into the titles - from the colour (which of course is faked/enhanced as needed) it super reminds me of the way the full moon looks whenever it's rising over the sea and not yet very high above the horizon. Exaggeratedly large and often a fake-looking peach tinge to the disc and the light trail.

I went off idly looking for content about how much poets love writing about the moon (seemed to be a Thing from when I was writing quite a bit of poetry and in the rounds of submitting to online journals).

Didn't really find anything - there was a Too Serious analysis of Walt Whitman on the American Academy poetry site and a subscriber-only Medium essay - and I was genuinely a little surprised that I wasn't INUNDATED by poet moon takes and bad poetry moon jokes.

What I did find, instead, and thought was super cute (if perhaps unlikely to lead to v successful poems??) was the following guide to writing astronomically accurate moon haikus. Thank you, NASA <3.

By contrast, someone who did both astrophysics and poetry extremely well was the physics prodigy Rebecca Elson - who I came to know about originally through The Marginalian and I'm delighted to see that an extract of one of her poems being read, and by Patti Smith no less, is still available on their website - from a 2022 event.

PS lowering the tone but when I was going through some old screengrabs, I found this one, which - I guess - could be positioned as "poet moon obsession critique"??

PPS not a moon poem, rather a moon joke - but a good one IMO:

[holofoiltowercard]

The Journey of The Tarot Haiku

XI: Justice - Laws

Today's post will be about the legal aspects of Kindle Direct Publishing, or what I did in the course of signing up and self-publishing my book.

First, I printed out the entire user agreement, which was like seven pages in teeny tiny font. It didn't tell me about every single thing that I needed to know to publish, but it did allow me to ascertain the following:

how massive Amazon's influnce is over the content, which is where Kindle Create becomes crucial in order for your manuscript to look the way you want it to (I imagine that otherwise submitting something less formatted will undergo formatting for ebook or print that could possibly make the manuscript fall to pieces);

how public domain works are not eligible for Kindle Select, and Tarot was indeed considered public domain, so I could ignore those parts entirely now.

The rest I was fairly familiar with from work experience, so I could proceed to link a bank account and figure out taxation - which was thankfully easier than I first thought it might be, I answered the questions and it figured out the rest, so to speak.

Pretty much everything else on the rules of how to publish I got from KDP's different guidelines and from searching for other people's articles to cross-check what I was doing. The copyright came from following formats that aligned with what I was aiming for, for instance.

I think that's it for the genuinely legal side of it, because I didn't go for a pen name on account of it sounding rather difficult, and not knowing what I ought to do about copyrighting it. Everything of this sort is often written with Americans in mind, and I'm Hungarian, so I kept asking myself, does this apply to me? Is that how I should be doing this despite being based in a different country? And in the end I dropped it. There is a wealth of articles on the subject, but few are straightforwardly helpful, so be prepared to read a lot of filler.

As for the rest... be prepared for the laws of capitalism to have Instagram in their clutches. 99% of my interactions there so far have been with people desperate to promote or review my book for a fee. I did pay for a bit of advertising on there, but I would not call it a pleasant experience: I'm sure they are rendering a service that has the potential to be helpful, and I hope to everything that it will, but it is very clear that everyone on Instagram is marketing themselves very desperately, and when you say you cannot afford to pay them, which is completely true, I'm not a multi-millionaire turning starving orphans from my door but a single person who is losing their job to funds drying up everywhere, people can get bitter. And all I can do is sit there and empathize. It is terrible that nowadays we feel forced or compelled in some other way to monetize everything about us, including our hobbies or passions. When I turned down a reviewer, he typed, "okay bye flop author" in response, then deleted it in a hurry, and first I laughed, but then I sat there thoughtful and sad, not because it was an insult that could hurt me, but because it genuinely felt frustrated and bitter, and I wished for better things for both of us. I was not prepared to find this much hunger and desperation on Instagram, but it is out there. I wonder if anyone talks about it much amid all the glitter and glamor everyone is trying to project, and which itself is becoming sort of terrifying to me. The more I look at Instagram videos, the less I want to ever make videos. I guess you could say it's sort of a lawless land of shilling, and I can't even blame those who are genuinely desperate. I'm one of them after all.

If you love Tarot, consider checking out my book or telling others it exists. It would be lovely to talk to people who love Tarot.

Buy the ebook

Buy the paperback

Buy the hardcover

[cottagethings]

self-quarantine activities

1. Complete a puzzle: The more pieces the better! Feeling extra saucy? Take on a Rubik's Cube. More of a word person? Crossword puzzle!

2. Start a journal or blog. Sure, it can be about the coronavirus, but it could also be about a specific interest from chess to cheese. 

3. If it won't bother your neighbors: Dust off that old instrument and practice.

4. Text all your exes just in case you have one more thing you wanted to get off your chest.

5. Write poetry. Perhaps you can craft a haiku for Mother's Day, or something without a specific structure. Just try it!

6. Watch all the really long movies you’ve avoided until now.

7. Download Duolingo, or a similar app, and teach yourself a foreign language.

8. Finally read “Infinite Jest,” “Les Miserables” or even “The Stand.” Go all in and read “Ulysses.” You got this. 

9. Meditate. Try lying down with your eyes closed, palms up and while focusing on your breath. Or spend 20 minutes sitting crosslegged and repeat a soothing word to yourself in your head. (The latter is more like transcendental meditation.)

10. Face masks, moisturizer, oh my! Treat yourself to a 10-step skin care routine you don’t have time for during a normal work week.

11. Look at pictures of puppies.

12. Put together the most attractive charcuterie board possible, but you can only use foods you already have in your fridge and cupboard.

13. Take note from "Tangled" star Rapunzel, who has an entire song about how she's spent her days alone in a castle. Activities included in her ditty: Ventriloquy, candle-making, papier-mâché and adding a new painting to her gallery.

14. Write actual letters to family and friends. After that? Write thank-you notes to service people who you remember went out of their way for you.

15. Learn calligraphy. YouTube can help.

16. Finally read the rules to those long and intense board games you've never played with the family. Encourage the family to play.

17. Put on a soap opera. Mute the sound. Create your own dialogue.

18. Have a space in your home where all of the tupperware goes? Organize it and actually match lids to containers.

19. Try on all your clothes and determine whether they “spark joy” á la Marie Kondo.

20. Better yet, go through this process with your junk drawer and supply shelves. 

21. Have a roommate meeting about how to be more considerate of one other, especially while you will likely be spending more time together. Bring baked goods.

22. Bake those goods.

23. Watch the films that won Oscars for best picture.

24. Watch films that won Independent Spirit Awards for best picture. 

25. Watch films that critics say should have won those aforementioned awards.

26. Read all the New Yorker issues piled on your desk.

27. Will Tom Hanks into recovery from coronavirus by watching every Tom Hanks movie chronologically. 

28. Knit or crochet.

29. Use Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts or Marco Polo to video chat with your long-distance friends.

30. Try out at-home aerobics or yoga videos. Consider downloading a fitness app with curated workout playlists.

31. Look at yourself in the mirror. Attempt a self portrait with pencil and paper.

32. Take a bubble bath (bonus: Add a glass of wine).

33. Make a classic cocktail, from negronis to Manhattans and aperol spritzes. Don't forget the garnish.

34. Coloring books: They’re not just for kids.

35. Take time to reflect: What have you accomplished in the last year? What goals are you setting for yourself in the next year?

36. Write a short story or get started on that novel.

37. Actually try to reproduce something you see on Pinterest. Probably fail. Try again.

38. Clear out the family room and camp indoors with all blankets, popcorn and scary movies.

39. Finally get around to fixing that broken door knob and loose tile or cleaning scuffed up walls. 

40. Acquire a foam roller and treat yourself to some physical therapy. 

41. Pretend you're 13 years old and fold a square piece of paper into a fortune teller you put your thumbs and pointer fingers into. Proceed to tell fortunes. 

42. Learn how to braid (fishtail, French, etc.) via YouTube tutorial..

43. Throw out all your too-old makeup and products. (Tip: most liquid products have a small symbol on them noting expirations, usually six months to a year. This includes sunscreen!)

44. Interview your grandparents (over the phone, of course) and save the audio. Can you create an audio story or book with that file?

45. Go through your camera roll, pick your favorite pics from the past year and make a photo book or order framed versions online. 

46. Go on a health kick and learn how to cook new recipes with ingredients you may not be using already, from miso to tahini.

47. Create a Google document of shows or movies you’re watching and share it among family and friends.

48. Make a list of things for which you are grateful. 

49. Have your own wine tasting of whatever bottles you have at home. Make up stories about the journey of the grapes to your mouth.

50. Work on your financial planning, such as exploring whether to refinance your loan or ways to save more money. 

51. Perfect grandma’s bolognese recipe.

52. Make coffee, but this time study how many beans you use, which types, how hot the water is, how long it brews and whether any of that makes a difference.

53. Buy gift cards from your favorite local businesses to help keep them in business while we quarantine.

54. Watch “Frozen 2,’ which went up early on Disney Plus. Another new movie on the streaming service: "Stargirl." 

55. Write a book with your family. Pick a character and each member writes a chapter about their adventures. Read aloud to each other. 

56. No March Madness? Have a Scrabble tournament. Or Bananagrams. Pictionary, anyone?

57. Get into baking with "The Great British Baking Show," but your technical challenge is baking something with the ingredients you have on hand (that you didn't already use in the charcuterie board).

58. Indoor scavenger hunt.

59. Alternate reading the Harry Potter series with your kids and cap each one off with the movie.

60. Dye your hair a new color. No one else needs to see it if you don't like it.

61. Read Robert Jordan’s 14-book “Wheel of Time” series before it streams on Amazon starring Rosamund Pike. 

62. Write a play starring your loved ones. Perform it via a video call app. 

63. Go viral in the good way by making a quarantine-themed TikTok.

64. Rearrange your sock drawer. Really.

65. Stop procrastinating and do your income taxes.

66. Make lists of all the museums, sporting events and concerts you want to visit when they finally reopen.

67. Get into comics with digital subscriptions on your tablet, like Marvel Unlimited. 

68. Rearrange your furniture to make it seem like your home is a totally different space. 

69. Practice shuffling playing cards like a Poker dealer. Be ready for employment opportunities once all casinos open back up.

70. Organize your spice rack alphabetically or get crazy and do it by cuisine.

71. Teach your dog to shake. Hand sanitizer optional.

72. Memorize the periodic table. You never know when that will come in handy.

73. Order and put together some IKEA furniture. Time yourself.

74. Get a free trial of a streaming service and binge-watch as much as you can before it expires. 

75. Apply for a new job. You have remote work experience now. 

76. Learn a new style of dance via YouTube, from bellydancing to breaking.

77. Update or write your will and organize your affairs. Yes, it sounds melodramatic and morbid but let’s face it: This is a task many of us avoid because we never have the time. Now we do.

78.The parades have been canceled but you can still make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day.

79. Bring out the Legos. Build your house inside of your house.

80. Watch the "Star Wars" movies in this and only this order: Rogue One-IV-V-II-III-Solo-VI-VII-VIII-IX.

81. Two words: Coronavirus beard! Grow it, moisturize it, comb it, love it.

82.  Learn the words to "Tung Twista." Get them so ingrained in your brain that you can rap them as fast as Twista can. Impress everyone. 

83. Been meaning to get some new glasses? Try on new frames virtually on sites like GlassesUSA.com.

84. Attempt things with your non-dominant hand, from writing to brushing your teeth. Prepare to be frustrated.

85. How many words per minute can you type? See if you can get speedier by taking a typing course.

86. Prepare to verbally duel a bully who wants to discuss the evolution of the market economy in the Southern colonies, by memorizing Matt Damon's "Good Will Hunting" speech. 

87. Learn origami. Make cranes for your loved ones.

88. Stretch. Work on your flexibility. It's possible to get the splits back, right?

89. Try to speak in pig Latin. Or, "ig-pay, atin-Lay."

90. Talk to your plants. How are they doing? Make sure they are getting the amount of sunlight they should be. Check their soil. Water if necessary.

91. Deep condition your hair and put paraffin wax on your hands. Enjoy your soft hair and nails.

92. Consider donating money to food banks to help families struggling to get meals.

93. Write a song. If you want to make it about your time inside and put it to the tune of "My Sharona" and replace "Sharona" with "Corona," do what you have to do.

94. Study the art of beatboxing.

95. Try moving in super-slow motion. It's OK to laugh at regular speed.

96. You know how there are dozens of ways to wear a scarf, but you only wear it the one way? Learn the other ways.

97. Learn Old English words. Pepper them into your conversation. Wherefore not?

98. Try on a new shade of lipstick. See how long it takes your partner to notice it.

99. Take deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

100. Sleep. Get lots of it.

[masterhaiku]

Haiku Book for Self Love

Hello Everyone. I have a message for everyone who is going through something in life. No matter who you are or what you have been through, you are loved beyond imagination by someone. When you think you can’t make it or go any further, you are loved. When you are feeling your life is an endless struggle, you are loved. When you think all luck is against you, you are loved. When you feel like you…

[jenroseyokel]

Books I Loved This Spring

Welp, as often happens when I do a series thing on the blog… I dropped the ball. I didn’t write about the books I loved in April. And now June is almost done and I still don’t have a May books post either. But hey, it’s fine. My reading life? Well, I guess I’ve sorta made some headway. I no longer have five books in progress! Also, my Transformational Listening class AND Rabbit Reads book club wrapped up this month, so I don’t even have homework. Whuuuut. So, I fully anticipate to spend this summer catching up on some non-fiction books I’ve been putting off, spending some time in Middle Earth, and maybe delving into some poetry too. But first, here are some books I really enjoyed in April and May…

PS: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase a book through one of these links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you!

The Way of Discernment by Elizabeth Liebert

Discernment is a theme that keeps popping up in my life… so when I saw this was the homework for my Transformational Listening class, I was intrigued. Discernment is so much more than decision making or self-help though, and Liebert offers a practical and prayerful approach with suggested spiritual disciplines to help cultivate a discerning spirit. I’d love to revisit this one soon.

(Buy on Amazon)

Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

I just noticed I added this to my good reads list, oh… two years ago? And it’s been on my radar even longer? So grateful to have finally read it. Nouwen’s gentle wisdom has secured him as one of my new favorite spiritual writers, and his meditation on Rembrandt’s painting and the parable of the prodigal son is so kind, moving, and thought-provoking. Loved it.

(Buy on Amazon)

Glory Happening by Kaitlin Curtice

Oh, Eastertide. I want to follow the liturgical calendar, but it’s hard to know what to do with fifty days of Easter. (I’m so much better at Lenten angst.) These fifty very short meditations on perceiving the glory of our commonplace world were the perfect companion to the Easter season.

(Buy on Amazon)

I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown / The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

Combining these two because I think they should be read together. In Tisby’s book, we take a broad historical journey through the history of racism in America and the ways the Evangelical church has supported racist structures, or at least looked away from them. In Channing’s book, we are invited to spend time considering a young black woman’s experience in white American Evangelical culture. These books changed me.

(Buy I’m Still Here) (Buy The Color of Compromise)

Yes Please (audiobook) by Amy Poehler

Read Harder: A Humor Book

Celebrity memoirs are not really my jam.* But Hoopla had the audio version, I was looking for a humor book for the Read Harder challenge, and I like Amy Poehler. And hey, it turns out celebrity memoirs are WAY more fun as audiobooks.

Also, special guests! Sir Patrick Stewart reading plastic surgery haiku made me lol.

* disclaimer: this opinion about celebrity memoirs is based solely on my "meh" response to Bossypants.

(Buy on Amazon)

Green Glass House by Kate Milford

Read Harder: A Cozy Mystery

I’m kiiiiiiiiinda fudging on the “cozy mystery” distinction, simply because I’m not doing so hot with the Read Harder challenge. But come on… oddball strangers snowbound in an old inn? Disappearances and legends? Two intrepid kids trying to solve the mystery of disappearing items, only to discover bigger secrets in the shadows? Sounds cozy to me. (It was also a nice palate cleanser from all the Super Serious Books I’ve been reading.)

(Buy on Amazon)

***

Phew! There were more, but this is plenty long enough. As always, you can see the full list of what I’m reading over at Goodreads (let’s be friends!) and you can check out the rest of my 2019 reading life posts here.

Cover Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash

[aliberationbroadcast]

Once upon a time I wrote a book of haikus. It would make a pretty stellar Christmas gift to the poetry lover in your life. So, if you love poetry or me please buy this book 💜

P.S. If you’ve already purchased it, thank you so much. Please be sure to leave an honest review on Amazon.

[feed-my-reads]

Subha Murugan Author interview

A little introduction:

I am Subha Murugan, author of Glimpses Of Hues, a book on collection of Haikus. I am a cheerful mom and a passionate woman, currently living in USA. I was born and brought up in India, obtained Bachelor of Engineering degree from Anna University and later worked as an IT professional. I took a break from my profession explored my deepest passion in writing, now in the process of discovering myself through my poems.

When did your love of books begin?

I do not remember exactly when my love towards books began. May be those childhood days when I woke up early on weekends, waited for the weekend magazines, rushed to the door before my parents, grab it and read it at a go even before I finished my daily chores; may be those middle school days, when I started reading my academic books, completed the whole book even before my teacher proceeded with the next lessons; may be those college days, read novels the whole night without sleeping and struggled to focus during the class hours. Even though my preference towards genre changed over the period, one thing never changed, the love towards reading.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?  

While I pursued writing as one of my hobbies from my young days, my wish to become an author started two years back. In 2019, I started a blog on my own and started posting my blog posts. The appreciation from my family, friends and neighbors kindled my passion, motivated and directed me to take this new journey in my life.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

It is an evolution. The process of becoming an author does not end once the manuscript is submitted for editing. It is just a starting phase. An author has to travel different phases, undergo different emotions and finally when the book is published, a thought might flash as a sigh of relief, ‘Yes! I am done’. But it is not, the process continues: book promotion, getting the book in the hands of readers, waiting for reviews and parallelly coming up with an idea of writing a new book and again the cycle repeats. As an author, I love all those phases and enjoy the pleasure of bringing my book to the outside world.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?  

Do not stop. Never give up. Go ahead. Write… You are there.

Tell us about your book/books:

“Glimpses of Hues” is the collection of Haikus revolving around the nature and physical world that can be interpreted and related to one’s life and existence. These haikus expresses feelings, emotions, inward thoughts including positive and negative aspects of life.

It is for the readers and nature lovers to feel and understand, ponder and wonder in what the haiku expresses. It could be seen from the readers point of view and hence no right or wrong in the way one interpret. The book is dedicated to all who sees life through nature.

It is available now worldwide in Amazon for everyone to buy, ultimately delight in reading and fathom the depth of haikus.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

I feel great being part of writing/reading community, getting to know other author’s work and helping to explore new books on different genre. The community is supportive and well-connected network that helps each other grow, evolve and progress.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

A book is completed only in the hands of readers. First, I would like to thank the readers for reading my book and supporting me in this long journey. I would also request them to support the authors by providing their valuable feedback/reviews and encourage the author’s creativity.

Where can people connect with you?  

Website: https://subhamurugan.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SubhaMurugan_19

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petrichor_the_scribbler/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Subhamrgn

[arckhaic]

favorite poetry blogs?

hello! yah, you can check out my tumblr poetry tag & that has a lot of lovely, lovely poems. 

specifically, though, @julykings, has a raw kind of barefoot boy crawling through creeks and scraping knees and eating sunrise vibe that i love. it’s very standing in your backyard and yearning for something. his poems are short & hard and wonderful. i personally really vibed with this one.

@humaintain is just, god. GOD. reading madina’s poetry is like just having everything you’ve ever wanted to say just neatly and precisely said and you’re just gasping, realizing that oh holy shit, that’s it. that’s it. she wrote a poem for me & i’m still muttering pieces of it. buy her book contact light on amazon today. 

@babymoonpoet has various styles that they experiment with and every single one is punchy and new, like midday burst of energy and you’re excited and humming and i just love seeing what they come with next.  they have two chapbooks out that you should absolutely check out. i particularly love this one and this one. 

@avolitorial writes with such grace, it’s so moving and lovely and makes you wish that you knew the secret behind each one. not like in a writing sense but yes, i wish i knew, but like who it is these poems are, the breath of life behind each of them. i love love love this one.

@teethbearer writes in ... i guess you would call it long form haiku, and lord. LORD. i think about their poetry a lot, it’s haunting in the way that heat is. it’s a bite inside each poem — into fruit, into flesh, something that you just sink into. lovely, lovely, lovely. i adored this one. 

@dustseeker has just absolutely wonderful poetry. the kind that feels very quiet, something soft. it unfolds slowly and then you’re just at the end of the poem and realizing that you’ve been touched. absolutely wonderful. i really loved this one and this one. 

@aphelionbruise has the kind of poetry when your days just feel like the color black. something you read when you’ve bitten your lip and you taste blood and you linger right there for a moment. absolutely pulls at you. i loved this one.

and obviously, there are a lot more. you can find several through the other poets that you’ve asked & i agree wholeheartedly that those poets are wonderful as well. these are just the few that i’ve been reading lately and have really been enjoying. 

[duendeliterary]

Next in our Meet an Editor series here at Duende we have our Senior Editor, Odin Halvorson. This is his fourth and final semester on the Duende team! He also has a great voice and fantastic hair. 

What genres do you prefer to write?

I write science fiction and fantasy when I do prose work, but I also write poetry and non-fiction (the latter being mostly essays, but I'd like to delve more into creative nonfiction someday).

In one word how would you describe Duende?

Necessary

What’s the most rewarding part of being involved with Duende?

I love being able to explore people. Whenever someone submits a piece of work, I first read through their work, then I go back and look at their biography, and I can really get a sense of who this person is after that. What do they focus on in their writing, what do they choose to put in their bio? I love that. There's also this great access to raw work coming from young writers, and that's something really exciting. I remember being a teen and wanting to send my work out there, and I always wished that someone would send back even a quick note of advice. When dealing with young writers I always try to send back short personalized messages, to lift their spirits and offer constructive advice, if possible.

What aspect of Duende enticed you to join?

Originally it was simple logic: I'm doing a BFA, I want to one-day teach at the college level, and I need all the experience in the literary world that I can get. I knew that two years of work with Duende would sit well on my future resume. However, I stayed because I fell in love with the process. It's fun to be involved in a teamwork-oriented project, and the actual reading of submitted work is fun and inspiring.

Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote? If so, what was it?

Gosh, the first thing I wrote... probably the first thing I ever really set my mind to, as anything that could be deemed "writerly" were campaign settings and character descriptions for Dungeons and Dragons games when I was a kid. But I was telling myself stories ever since I was little, and that's really where I find my grounding passion when it comes to the work -- storyteller first, writer second.

What’s your philosophy in life?

Like Jean Luc Picard says: "We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity". That's my ultimate aspirational philosophy. On a more personal level though, this is true too -- I want to always be learning and improving, and I strive to do that while at the same time learning to live, love, and laugh more earnestly and more often.

Any favorite books you’d recommend?

So many books I could list here... I'd recommend Patrick Rothfuss's "Kingkiller Chronicles". Two excellent books. "DUNE", for sure. Every writer should read Stephan King's "On Writing". I also highly recommend Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces". For something life-changing, go read "Meditations" by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Essential writing tool…

Laptop or tablet/keyboard; pen and paper

In a previous life I was…

Randomized particles of matter.

List a few of your favorite things…

Good science fiction shows (my list is quite strict, and does not include the new Battlestar Galactica). Kittens. Martial arts. Rainy days. The Great British Bake Off.

Name a hidden talent…

Who knows.

Any personal things you’d like to promote?

My website is OdinHalvorson.com, you can find out more about me and my work there. I have three published chapbooks (which you can find on Amazon): Hart Unedited, Wist, and Hart Haiku. I love it when people who buy my books leave a short review of them, too!

Odin Halvorson is a writer, philosopher, and filmmaker, based in California's Northern Bay Area, where he works as the director of the Pacific Zen Institute's Audio­/Video department. He focuses his artistic efforts around self­-betterment and awareness, and strives to affect a positive change in the way society perceives the importance of art. To this end, he blends politics, philosophy, and optimism for the future into his work, ever aiming for a day when the goal of "bettering oneself and all of humanity" becomes the common baseline for our social lives. 

Follow him on Twitter and Tumblr as @indubitablyodin

[cutsliceddiced]

New top story from Time: 45 New Books You Need to Read This Summer

As many of us usher in a summer unlike any we’ve experienced before, the pleasure of reading remains a comforting constant. Many of us may not be able to relax on a beach or gather around a pool with friends, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still escape to somewhere far away — or realistically close. The best new books coming in June, July and August, from veterans including Kevin Kwan and Masha Gessen to exciting newcomers like Megha Majumdar and Kelli Jo Ford, offer welcome respite from our immediate troubles, while still asking urgent questions about the world that surrounds us. Whether your heart calls for romantic diversions, page-turning thrills or thought-provoking nonfiction, here are 45 new books to read this summer.

The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett (June 2)

After moving to New Orleans as teenagers, twin sisters who shared a traumatic childhood in the Jim Crow South split ways. Brit Bennett’s twisty new novel The Vanishing Half finds Desiree and Stella Vignes years later as adult women with very different lives. Desiree lives as black, while Stella passes as white. The sisters haven’t seen each other in decades and Stella, now in California, is married to a man with no knowledge of his wife’s familial history. As she follows the estranged duo’s journey, Bennett creates a striking portrait of racial identity in America.

Buy Now: The Vanishing Half on Bookshop | Amazon

The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border, Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo (June 2)

After Rosayra Pablo Cruz’s husband was murdered in their home country of Guatemala in 2018, she decided to venture north with her two sons in search of a better life. But their suffering was only beginning: when they arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, her sons were seized and placed in detention centers, while Pablo-Cruz spent 81 days in a cell. Their agonizing odyssey is captured in Cruz’s memoir, which sheds light on the plight of the countless families who have been separated while attempting to cross the border.

Buy Now: The Book of Rosy on Bookshop | Amazon

Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan (June 2)

The debut novel from Naoise Dolan centers around a 22-year-old Irish expat living in Hong Kong, caught in a thorny love triangle. Ava is torn between two very different people: emotionally guarded banker Julian and affectionate and ambitious lawyer Edith. Should Ava be with the person who fits more easily into her life, or explore something new? In examining her protagonist’s options, Dolan crafts sharp commentary on the intersection of longing, class and power.

Buy Now: Exciting Times on Bookshop | Amazon

Surviving Autocracy, Masha Gessen (June 2)

New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen’s latest book asks how the Trump administration’s language will impact the future of governing in the U.S. Gessen, who won a National Book Award for The Future is History, inspects how American democracy has shifted in the past few years, and connects it to the rhetoric of the President. Having grown up in the Soviet Union, Gessen provides a personal perspective on the rise of autocratic leadership, which the author uses to understand the relationship between Trump, the media and the American public.

Buy Now: Surviving Autocracy on Bookshop | Amazon

A Burning, Megha Majumdar (June 2)

Jivan is an English tutor from the slums of India who is wrongfully accused of aiding a terrorist attack after posting a comment on Facebook that criticized her government. Her only alibi is the outcast Lovely, who would be risking everything to help set Jivan free. Complicating matters more is PT Sir, a power-hungry gym teacher who is lured into helping the right-wing political party to ensure Jivan takes the fall. Set against the backdrop of contemporary India, Megha Majumdar’s debut novel focuses on these three characters as Jivan’s trial threatens to upend each of their lives.

Buy Now: A Burning on Bookshop | Amazon

The Lehman Trilogy, Stefano Massini (June 2)

The Lehman Trilogy was one of the most anticipated plays to open on Broadway this spring: it charted the long rise of Lehman Brothers, once an American financial powerhouse before its spectacular collapse in 2008. Broadway shut down while the play was in previews, but disappointed would-be audience members and other English-language readers can now enjoy the novelization-in-verse that playwright Stefano Massini first published in Italy in 2016.

Buy Now: The Lehman Trilogy on Bookshop | Amazon

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, Wayétu Moore (June 2)

At five years old, Wayétu Moore escaped her home in Liberia with her family as the emerging civil war threatened their safety. They fled by foot and, assisted by a rebel soldier, made it to the neighboring country of Sierra Leone. Moore’s mother lived in the U.S. at the time, and the family eventually reunited there, relocating to Texas. In her bruising new memoir, Moore describes the perilous journey as well as her experience of being a black immigrant living in the American South. Through it all, she threads an urgent narrative about the costs of survival and the strength of familial love.

Buy Now: The Dragons, the Giant, the Women on Bookshop | Amazon

Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America, Stacey Abrams (June 9)

Time will tell what role Stacey Abrams will play in our national consciousness by the end of the year: her name is frequently bandied about as a potential vice presidential pick for Joe Biden. Regardless of whether she holds a position of power then, there will be plenty to learn from her book, which focuses on her major cause: voting rights. In it, she explores the history of voter suppression in the U.S. and her own experience of running for governor of Georgia.

Buy Now: Our Time is Now on Bookshop | Amazon

You Exist Too Much, Zaina Arafat (June 9)

The unnamed protagonist of Zaina Arafat’s debut novel, a bisexual Palestinian-American DJ with literary ambitions, finds herself caught between several poles: her two countries; virtue and desire; family and personal ambition. The fragmented novel crosses from Jerusalem to New York to Jordan to Iowa as she attempts to find love and uncover the roots of her long-held trauma that extends out of her volatile maternal relationship.

Buy Now: You Exist Too Much on Bookshop | Amazon

Rebel Chef: In Search of What Matters, Dominique Crenn with Emma Brockes (June 9)

When Dominique Crenn was 19, she realized that in order to pursue her dreams of becoming a prominent chef, she would have to leave France. Although her home country was ostensibly the culinary capital of the world, it still operated on sexist assumptions. Crenn writes about her winding journey to achieve her dreams through an Indonesian kitchen, a victory on Iron Chef and eventually her first restaurant, Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, which would win multiple Michelin stars.

Buy Now: Rebel Chef on Bookshop | Amazon

Pizza Girl, Jean Kyoung Frazier (June 9)

The 18-year-old pizza delivery girl at the heart of Jean Kyoung Frazier’s debut novel is not ready for her life to change, but it’s about to in a big way. She’s pregnant and not exactly planning for her future — until she drops off a pizza at the home of Jenny Hausler, a 30-something stay-at-home mom. The two forge an unlikely bond, but it soon teeters into strange territory when the narrator becomes obsessed with her new friend.

Buy Now: Pizza Girl on Bookshop | Amazon

Broken People, Sam Lansky (June 9)

The buzzy debut novel from Sam Lansky, TIME’s West Coast Editor and author of the memoir The Gilded Razor, is a work of autofiction following Sam, a cynical depressive in Los Angeles. On the brink of emotional collapse, Sam turns to a shaman who promises to perform “open-soul surgery” and heal all that ails him in three days — and in the process, takes him into the darkest recesses of his past loves and losses.

Buy Now: Broken People on Bookshop | Amazon

The Secret Women, Sheila Williams (June 9)

In Sheila Williams’ fifth novel, three seemingly different women meet at a yoga class and bond over the recent passings of their mothers. The trio comb through their mothers’ possessions and are shocked to discover unread diary entries and letters that reveal secrets about the women who raised them. As they navigate their grief, the three daughters dig deeper into their mothers’ pasts to better understand themselves.

Buy Now: The Secret Women on Bookshop | Amazon

Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic, edited by Alice Quinn (June 9)

Isolation has long been an essential poetic theme, from Basho haikus to Neruda poems—including the one that gives the title of this timely anthology its name. Eighty-five new poems document life in the strange new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, by writers like Pulitzer Prize winners Vijay Seshadri and Yusef Komunyakaa as well as Li-Young Lee and Jane Hirshfield. The book will be released as an ebook and audiobook this summer, and hardcover later this year.

Buy Now: Together in a Sudden Strangeness on Amazon

Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think, David Litt (June 16)

Speechwriter David Litt was known as “President Obama’s joke writer in chief”: he spearheaded the writing of many of the President’s sarcastic speeches, including many delivered at White House Correspondents’ Association dinners. Litt’s book laces his signature humor into his exploration of American democracy and how it has transformed over the years.

Buy Now: Democracy in One Book or Less on Bookshop | Amazon

Party of Two, Jasmine Guillory (June 23)

An innocent meet-cute evolves into a complicated secret relationship between a white politician and a black lawyer in hit romance author Jasmine Guillory’s fifth book. When Olivia Monroe meets Max Powell at a hotel bar, she has no idea he’s a senator. They hit it off and initially choose to keep their dating life private due to Max’s job, but soon the secret’s out. As the media starts picking on Olivia, she has to decide whether her boyfriend is worth bearing the brunt of painful scrutiny.

Buy Now: Party of Two on Bookshop | Amazon

Death in Her Hands, Ottessa Moshfegh (June 23)

In this era of social distancing, Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a biting portrait of self-loathing and solitude, feels particularly prescient. But her latest work of fiction is just as relevant. In Death in Her Hands, a widow takes a walk in the woods, where she finds a note that announces the killing of a woman named Magda. There is no body to be seen, but Moshfegh’s isolated protagonist is determined to solve this curious murder mystery, which may not be a murder at all. As many of us find ourselves spending less time with the outside world, Moshfegh’s narrative of loneliness and uncertainty is all the more haunting.

Buy Now: Death in Her Hands on Bookshop | Amazon

Sex and Vanity, Kevin Kwan (June 30)

Kevin Kwan’s follow-up to his hugely popular Crazy Rich Asians trilogy draws inspiration from A Room With a View, and centers on a young Chinese-American woman trying to determine what kind of future she wants. Lucie, an old-money New Yorker, is engaged to a white and wealthy man who will complete her dreams of life as a society power couple. But when she unexpectedly runs into a Chinese-Australian surfer from her past, she starts to question those ambitions. In pages that move between the island of Capri and the Hamptons, Kwan takes another humorous and heartfelt look at wealth, love and identity.

Buy Now: Sex and Vanity on Bookshop | Amazon

Memoirs and Misinformation, Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon (July 7)

The semi-disclaimer that Jim Carrey has made about his debut book says it all: “None of this is real and all of it is true.” The quasi-autobiographical novel from the actor follows a fictionalized Jim Carrey who also happens to be a movie star. This Carrey is feeling both lonely and unsatisfied in his middle age, leading him on an odd path toward creative fulfillment. In depicting his difficulties, the real-life Carrey and his co-author Dana Vachon craft a wild narrative about the lengths some will go to stay relevant.

Buy Now: Memoirs and Misinformation on Bookshop | Amazon

Notes on a Silencing, Lacy Crawford (July 7)

In 2017, the state of New Hampshire opened a criminal investigation into the elite prep school St. Paul’s after reports of decades of sexual misconduct at the school began to surface in the media. Former student Lacy Crawford kept her alleged sexual assault in 1990 at age 15 a secret until that moment. Crawford connected with the detectives on the case and wrote Notes on a Silencing, which details not only her attack but also the forces that allowed predators to operate at the school.

Buy Now: Notes on a Silencing on Bookshop | Amazon

Want, Lynn Steger Strong (July 7)

Following her 2016 debut Hold Still, Lynn Steger Strong’s second novel examines a woman who once had dreams of professorship, but now seems to be hurtling towards bankruptcy and a mid-life crisis. Unmoored and unmotivated, she finds solace in novels as well as a long-lost childhood friend, who harbors lost aspirations of her own.

Buy Now: Want on Bookshop | Amazon

Mother Daughter Widow Wife, Robin Wasserman (July 7)

On a bus to Philadelphia, a woman is found with no identification. She doesn’t know where she came from or where she’s going. The state gives her a name — Wendy Doe — and diagnoses her with temporary amnesia, though it may not be so temporary. Mother Daughter Widow Wife finds Wendy on a harrowing plight as she becomes a subject in a research project run by a doctor with questionable intentions. In Wasserman’s timely examination of memory, womanhood and power, Wendy’s daughter sets out to find her mother — and their situation only grows more grave.

Buy Now: Mother Daughter Widow Wife on Bookshop | Amazon

Crooked Hallelujah, Kelli Jo Ford (July 14)

Kelli Jo Ford, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, follows four generations of Cherokee women as they persevere through poverty, broken relationships, wildfires, tornadoes, oil busts and acts of violence in her debut novel. In a 2018 interview, Ford described the roots of her work: “Very nearly all of my inspiration in writing and life comes from the women who raised me.”

Buy Now: Crooked Hallelujah on Bookshop | Amazon

The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (July 14)

Horror writer Stephen Graham Jones has published more than a dozen novels and hundreds of short stories. His latest, The Only Good Indians, combines mortal danger with social commentary, as it follows four men trying to escape revenge for their actions during an elk hunt long ago. The protagonists, like the author, are part of the Blackfeet Nation.

Buy Now: The Good Indians on Bookshop | Amazon

Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell (July 14)

Given how David Mitchell loves sweeping, fantastical and self-mythologizing narratives (as in his previous novels Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks), it’s fitting that he would turn to psychedelic rock for source material. Utopia Avenue stretches nearly 600 pages to tell the rise and fall of a 60’s British rock band of the same name — covering, in Mitchellian fashion, a blend of drugs, truth, ego and schizophrenia.

Buy Now: Utopia Avenue on Bookshop | Amazon

Sex and Lies: True Stories of Women’s Intimate Lives in the Arab World, Leila Slimani (July 14)

Leila Slimani is known for exploring riveting taboos in her fiction. Her latest book, Sex and Lies, explores them in real life. In 2015, the author visited her native Morocco while on tour for Adèle, a novel that offers readers the chance to sympathize with a duplicitous, sex-addicted wife. The tale inspired women in that country — where adultery and sex before marriage are punishable crimes — to tell the author about their own struggles navigating desire and social norms. These confessions became the backbone of her new nonfiction work, an appeal for change, originally written in French, that is given some extra heft by Slimani’s position as an official representative for French language and culture.

Buy Now: Sex and Lies on Bookshop | Amazon

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close, Aminatou Sow, Ann Friedman (July 14)

The co-hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman reflect on more than 10 years of friendship in their new book. From struggling with communication to the realities of being in an interracial friendship, the authors are candid about how they’ve been able to maintain such a strong bond. Along the way, they prompt readers to consider how they communicate with and fight for the people they hold close. In sharing their personal story, alongside research from social scientists, Sow and Friedman highlight what it takes for a friendship to last.

Buy Now: Big Friendship on Bookshop | Amazon

The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue (July 21)

Spanning just three days, the author of Room’s 11th novel captures the chaos and devastation inside a Dublin hospital maternity ward during the 1918 flu pandemic. There, the hospital’s staff is being pushed to their breaking points to deliver babies from infected mothers. Eerily reminiscent of our current global health crisis, The Pull of the Stars brings readers intimately close to a world where health care workers risk it all to keep their patients alive.

Buy Now: The Pull of the Stars on Bookshop | Amazon

The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life, Alex Trebek (July 21)

Alex Trebek has been a fixture in American culture for more than 30 years, guiding Jeopardy! contestants through everyone’s favorite trivia gauntlet with the reliability of the sun. And so it felt as if the earth had spun off its axis when the longtime gameshow host announced in 2019 that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Audience members have always been fascinated with Trebek — what opinions rage behind that unflappable facade? — but the news brought a fresh wave of adoring obsession. It was this outpouring of support that helped inspire Trebek to finally write the memoir people have been asking for for decades. What else could it have been titled but The Answer Is …: Reflections on My Life?

Buy Now: The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life on Bookshop | Amazon

Let’s Never Talk About This Again, Sara Faith Alterman (July 28)

Would you pay good money to watch adults go on stage and read cloying, illogical journal entries they wrote as teenagers? If the answer is yes, then, welcome to Mortified, a much-loved live show and podcast for which Sara Faith Alterman is a producer. Given Alterman’s career trafficking in abasement — as well as her background in comedy writing — it is perhaps not shocking that she had the gumption to write a memoir about a deeply awkward situation: discovering that her father has a secret career as a pornographic novelist. Let’s Never Talk About This Again is Alterman’s third book, one that tenderly explores family dynamics and the pain of loss as well as the nuances of humiliation.

Buy Now: Let’s Never Talk About This Again on Bookshop | Amazon

No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories, Jayant Kaikini (July 28)

It is a challenge to capture a city, to tell a story that sums up a place where countless hopes and fears spark and clang against one another. In writing about Mumbai, a metropolis of 20 million, poet and lyricist Jayant Kaikini overcame this, in part, by telling 16 stories instead of one. Translated from the southern Indian language of Kannada, No Presents Please is an award-winning collection told through characters like a cinema worker and bus driver. “It is a view from the margins,” a judge for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature said, “and all the more poignant because of it.”

Buy Now: No Presents Please on Bookshop | Amazon

Must I Go, Yiyun Li (July 28)

When 80-something grandmother Lilia Liska discovers the diary of her former lover Roland, she’s thrown into an unexpected exploration of her past. Fascinated by Roland’s memories, Lilia delves into his recorded history, and starts writing on the pages with her own interpretation of the moments they shared. In doing so, she unveils secrets from long before and reflects on the grief she feels over her daughter who died by suicide decades earlier. In illustrating the evolution of that loss, Yiyun Li, author of Where Reasons End, takes a searing look at the strength of a mother’s love.

Buy Now: Must I Go on Bookshop | Amazon

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir, Natasha Trethewey (July 28)

Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey contemplates the traumas of her youth in her aching new memoir. At 19 years old, Trethewey’s life erupted after her stepfather brutally killed her mother. Memorial Drive unpacks that moment and all that came before it, ruminating on Tretheway’s experience growing up in Mississippi and later in Georgia. Fixating on her mother’s past as well as her own, Tretheway constructs a moving reflection on racism, abuse and trauma.

Buy Now: Memorial Drive on Bookshop | Amazon

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, Laura van den Berg (July 28)

The third short story collection from Laura van den Berg features 11 unnerving and nuanced narratives on contemporary womanhood. In one, a grief freelancer describes her work impersonating dead wives for widowed husbands. In another, cracks begin to form between a married couple who just moved to Florida. And in one of the collection’s most heartbreaking tales, the sister of a comatose gunshot victim remembers a trip they recently took to Iceland. Throughout, van den Berg’s voice is disquieting and aware as she picks apart the culture that both surrounds and suffocates her female characters.

Buy Now: I Hold a Wolf by the Ears on Bookshop | Amazon

The Death of Vivek Oji, Akwaeke Emezi (August 4)

The second adult novel from Akwaeke Emezi, the award-winning author of Freshwater, begins with a death. Vivek Oji’s mother finds her son’s body at her front door, and she’s forced to finally get to know the child she never understood. Though she was an overbearing presence in her child’s life, her husband was not, and as Emezi describes Vivek’s coming-of-age in Nigeria, the author reveals the difficulties the titular character faced in realizing he was queer. By exploring themes of loss, identity and community, Emezi reaffirms a thoughtful voice in unveiling the mystery of Vivek’s passing.

Buy Now: The Death of Vivek Oji on Bookshop | Amazon

Luster, Raven Leilani (August 4)

Twenty-something Edie is an aspiring artist who moves in with the man she’s been seeing after she loses her job. The man is married, but his wife has agreed to keep their relationship open and welcomes Edie into their home. There, Edie is encouraged to bond over her black identity with the couple’s adopted teenage daughter. Spinning fresh commentary on both race and class, tensions in the house rise as Raven Leilani propels her lost protagonist on a darkly funny journey of self-discovery.

Buy Now: Luster on Bookshop | Amazon

Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World, edited by John Freeman (August 4)

Climate change is such an enormous and unwieldy thing that it often feels hard to see, like trying to comprehend the Titanic while standing six inches away from its hull. In Tales of Two Planets, writer and editor John Freeman tries to make the danger clear by offering readers a range of views — fiction, essays, even poetry, spanning locations from Florida to the Himalayas — while zeroing in on the way that global warming intersects with disparities. Writers in the collection, edited by Freeman, include Margaret Atwood and Edwidge Danticat.

Buy Now: Tales of Two Planets on Bookshop | Amazon

Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (August 4)

In Begin Again, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, draws parallels between racial tensions in the U.S. today and in the years following the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the way those years were navigated by renowned essayist James Baldwin. Now, as then, communities of color experienced profound disillusionment about how just America was and claimed to be. But, Glaude writes, Baldwin still found ways to “reimagine hope” in the face of historic adversity.

Buy Now: Begin Again on Bookshop | Amazon

Love After Love, Ingrid Persaud (August 4)

Ingrid Persaud’s novel Love After Love, like her award-winning short story “The Sweet Sop,” is centered on her birthplace of Trinidad and told in the dialect of people who live there. Persaud’s colloquial style is part of what sets apart her depiction of those everyday, everywhere things like the relationship between a parent and a child. In Love After Love, she tells the story of a mother who escapes domestic violence and forms a makeshift family with a male friend and her son, only to have that more tranquil existence disrupted by unearthed secrets.

Buy Now: Love After Love on Bookshop | Amazon

A Saint from Texas, Edmund White (August 4)

Edmund White has explored humanity through many media — in travelogues and novels, through satire and self-interrogation. He published his first major work in 1973 and has written more than 30 books since, becoming a prominent figure in queer literature along the way. His latest novel, A Saint from Texas, follows twin sisters from oil-rich Texas, bound for different lives. One is pursuing indulgence in Paris (where White lived for years) and the other, salvation in South America. Despite the distance, and plenty of drama, White explores how the bond of twins is hard to break.

Buy Now: A Saint from Texas on Bookshop | Amazon

Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women, Lyz Lenz (August 11)

In Belabored, Iowa-based writer and editor Lyz Lenz delves into one of the great ironies surrounding pregnancy: as women do the work necessary to bring a child into the world, they are often infantilized themselves — by lawmakers who decide what medical care they are allowed to seek, by baristas who refuse to serve them. With wit and deadly seriousness, Lenz draws attention to the rising rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. and calls for an update to the way people view pregnancy in America.

Buy Now: Belabored on Bookshop | Amazon

This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire, Nick Flynn (August 25)

At seven years old, Nick Flynn’s life was upended after his mother set fire to their house. Nearly a decade and a half later, she took her own life. In his new memoir, the playwright and poet returns to his hometown with his young daughter to better understand his upbringing. As he digs up his painful past, Flynn realizes how he’s carried those memories with him and asks how they’ve impacted his roles as both partner and parent.

Buy Now: This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire on Bookshop | Amazon

The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media—from the Founding Fathers to Fake News, Harold Holzer (August 25)

Harold Holzer is an expert on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era. He’s written and edited more than 30 books that go deep on that stretch of American history. But his latest work is in a different proportion, offering a broad survey of the relationships between presidents and the press that spans from George Washington to Donald Trump. Tensions between the White House and the media may be more public than ever today, but, as the scholar reveals, they go back as far as Commanders-in-Chief do.

Buy Now: The Presidents vs. the Press on Bookshop | Amazon

Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald (August 25)

In 2015, naturalist Helen Macdonald’s debut memoir H is for Hawk cemented her status as an essential writer on nature, humanity and loss. Now, Macdonald dives into similar themes in Vesper Flights, which features essays both old and new. From reflecting on the childhood where her love for animals grew to her sharp observations on the migrations of songbirds, Macdonald fills her narratives with vivid descriptions of the wildlife that surrounds us. Vesper Flights reminds of the intricacies of nature’s creatures and underlines the importance they serve in our lives.

Buy Now: Vesper Flights on Bookshop | Amazon

Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, Brian Stelter (August 25)

Brian Stelter, chief media correspondent for CNN, conducted more than 250 interviews in his quest to shed new light on a relationship that is shaping the course of American history: that between President Donald Trump and Fox News. In Hoax, Stelter focuses on the interplay between the country’s leader and its most-watched cable news network during the COVID-19 pandemic, delving into the power of personality, the lure of lies and the impact on a susceptible nation.

Buy Now: Hoax on Amazon

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

[spajonas]

July 2018 Goals

I’m on vacation! But it’s still time to set some goals. June flew right on by! Before I know it, it’ll be the end of the year.

What Happened With June’s Goals?

Finish writing new Miso Cozy Novella. This is done done done! It’s been proofread and it’s now with my second proofreader. My beta readers loved it, too, so I feel confident everyone is going to enjoy this little tale.

Publish one post per week about my trip to Japan. I almost reached this goal! I think I took one week off, but still got plenty of posts up there!

Make it through this month. I made it through and it was actually a lot easier done than said!

Continue to keep away from sweets and keep practicing intermittent fasting. So I did well with this about 80% of the time. I faltered while I was in Japan but then got back on the horse for most of the month.

More of the same: walking, reading, knitting. Walking, reading, and knitting all happened this month!

A Look Back At June

Business Goals For July

Get back to my for-fun writing project and finish it. This is the first book in the Flyght series, though I don’t have a title for the book yet. It’s at 33,000 words of the expected 56,000 I plan to write. I’m going to start by going back over what I’ve written, make some adjustments that I’ve thought of in the last few months, and update my outline. Then get back to writing!

Start selling direct. I’ve figured out how I’m going to sell direct, through PayHip which is out of the UK. They take PayPal, so this is going to be a great option for people who want to use their PayPal monies to buy books. I will be hooking it up to BookFunnel too and letting them do the delivery. To start out, I’ll be pulling all of my short stories plus FACE TIME and SUMMER HAIKUS off all vendors, and I will be selling these exclusively direct. Then I will port over all of my other books too WHILE still selling those on other vendors. Basically, I’m just leaving my sci-fi and mysteries plus the short story omnibus for sale on Amazon, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. I’ll make decisions about what to sell direct exclusively.

Personal Goals For June

Continue to keep away from sweets and keep practicing intermittent fasting. Keeping strong on this!

More of the same: walking, reading, knitting. Once I’m home from my vacation I plan to walk and read more. I need to listen to more audiobooks and take the time to read. It does wonders for my peace of mind.

Have a great July everybody!

July 2018 Goals was originally published on S. J. Pajonas

[humanoid-lovers]

like 4, at least There are at least four ways to read this lovely book: Go to Amazon

The perfect icebreaker for all of your guests. Starring CATS! This book is the perfect icebreaker for every occasion. "Welcome to my home! Would you care to enjoy some lesbian haiku and gay cat illustration while I get you a refreshment?" In all seriousness, this book is amazing. What seems like a one-time humor read/cat illustration perusal is actually a well written poignant, and often heartfelt collection of insights into the mystery of relationships and love between women with a very healthy dose of laughter and of course, CATS! The cat illustration is insane. Who knew Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon would look so good and accurate as felines? This definitely not just a one-time read book. I am positive that everyone will be able to enjoy it many times over and ALSO enjoy using it as that icebreaker I mentioned earlier. We should probably make a signature drink for the reading... any suggestions? Thanks Anna & Kelsey for a highly entertaining, educational, and heart warming book! Go to Amazon

Hell yes, this book is rad. Anna's writing and Kelsey's illustrations are both brilliant. It takes a deep self-awareness, a keen eye, shrewd observation, intelligent humor, and a healthy dose of confident self-deprecation to dive into the inner workings of "lesbianica" the way The Lesbian Sex Haiku Book (with Cats!) does. I'm so excited to share this book with all the queer ladies in my life. It truly is a masterpiece. This is a tiny book (like in actual size -- it's like a 7 by 5 inch book), but I'm hoping that when they re-release it after its wild success, they'll release a coffee table-size book with bigger illustrations (and MORE! of them) so that it can share the weight of such coffee table books as Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag's "Women" and other lady-forward works of pictorial and literary genius. Well done ladies! So excited for you! Go to Amazon

Hysterical, endearing, insighful, and educational For a pretty niche genre, this collection of poetry and cat illustrations might just have something for everyone. If you love cats, check. If you are a lesbian, check. If you are a cat or love lesbians, check. Also if you are titillated by puns, love stories, craigslist missed connections section, witches, sex toys, or just love a good ole hardy har, buy this book. Go to Amazon

Hilarious, important work. I've been a fan of Anna Pulley's writing for a long time. She writes with honesty, poignancy, and humor-- yes poignancy, even in a haiku book about lesbian sex. This book will hilariously entertain you and leave you feeling surprisingly enlightened. And the illustrations are fantastic. Beyer and Pulley clearly make an amazing team. All the stars! Go to Amazon

Yes! Beautiful. Anna Pulley has a writing style that makes you feel like you are sitting right there in conversation with her, and the book flows very well, setting up each string of haikus seamlessly to the next. Kelsey Beyer's illustrations make the book come alive, and together, they have done something for haikus that I wish I had when sitting in 7th grade English.. They made them enjoyable, fun, and highly relatable. Go to Amazon

I love it!!! SO CUTE. Clever, funny, sweet, and not too self-serious: it’s the perfect coffee table book for cats and people of all adult ages. And the illustrations! They’re STUNNING. I'd love to have one of the less racy ones hanging on my wall. 5 stars!!!! Go to Amazon

most superior lesbian-themed haiku collection on the market Quite clearly the most superior lesbian-themed haiku collection on the market today. With cats! Oddly mesmerizing, lesbian cats! Go to Amazon

Five Stars Hilarious! Buy it! Five Stars A very funny book for Lesbians of all ages Funny Funny but sometimes puzzling. Five Stars Hilarious and fun! Brilliant, Hilarious, Gay, Clever. This is a must read for all, LGBTQ or not. Don't hesitate!

[masterhaiku]

Love Haiku: Olivia Tatara 9781387338399 Lulu.com Books

As human beings, we are all searching for love and acceptance. I have finally found true love for art and poetry and I wish to share it with all of you. Experience true love in my eyes through my photo haiku.  Allow your heart to experience poetry like never before. When the heart opens, the inner flame starts to ignite everything in the life of the individual and miracles happen on a daily. From…

[carot-dj]

WELCOME BACK I am delighted to see this form of poetry making a comeback. This is a particularly fine collection Go to Amazon

We loved it. Gave it to my husband for his birthday. H e's from NYC and a word smith. He loved it. I do to. Go to Amazon

Love it!! How could I not love it! They picked one of my haikus to include in it! Go to Amazon

Marvelous read which really captured the essence of NYC This is a great little book filled with plenty of haiku gems. Go to Amazon

Five Stars Some gems as expected! Go to Amazon

Four Stars I'm not a big Haiku fan, this was a gift for a friend. Go to Amazon

I know one of the authors of the Haiku. ... I know one of the authors of the Haiku. I was present when he penned his Haiku. Had to have book so he could sign. Since receiving the book I took time to read the other 149 Haiku's and I am now a fan. Book is well laid out. Go to Amazon

If you love New York City and poetry, then you will love this neat little book When I was in high school, I learned how to write Haiku poetry and it quickly became one of my favorite forms of poetry. So when I saw New York City Haiku, I knew I wanted to read it. In 2014, The New York Times invited its readers to write about NYC in 3 lines. What happened? The readers responded to the challenge by sending in 2800 submissions in ten days! Go to Amazon

Buy the volume of HAIKU IN ENGLISH. The First 100 Years I'm in a book!!! fun poetry Small and Wonderful Book on NYC For the haiku-loving New Yorker

[klforslund-blog]

Good News, and some Haiku

This week, I became a published writer.  In two places.  Yay.  And both are Hurricane Harvey related.  I received the extra news this morning, which kind of jacked up my plan for writing this week’s blog.  Bear with me.  I have links I want you to follow, and some haiku-craziness in the rest of this article, because as much as I like talking about me, I like giving you some fun stuff to read.

Spider Road Press is a Houston organization that fellow WWG member is a part of.  They asked for Haiku from local writers about their experience during Harvey for their blog.  There’s a lot of excellent contributions and noteworthy local authors.  They accepted my Haiku about watching it all.

Check them out at:

http://spiderroadpress.com/hurricane-harvey-healing-through-creativity-a-haiku-collaboration/

Last year, I started my journey to become a published author just in time to submit to the Woodland’s Writing Guild’s 2017 Anthology.  The theme of Flood was chosen due to the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods that hit our area hard.  Compound that experience with Hurricane Harvey, which arrived right when the book was due to be released.  The stories and poems reflect a variety of topics around Flood.  For me, my humorous short story and rappish poem are my debut pieces.

Today, I left the WWG meeting, where we voted and unanimously agreed to donate proceeds from the sale of the book to the Montgomery County Food Bank for the next three months.  Many people lost everything in this area, and help with food is just as important as clothing and shelter. It means a lot if you would buy a copy of the book.  The stakes are much higher than seeing what I wrote.

Buy it here from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Rising-Waters-Woodlands-Writing-Anthology-ebook/dp/B074NBW4JK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506190442&sr=8-1&keywords=woodlands+writing+guild

Still here?  Great, let’s get onto the Haiku hijinks.  In case you forgot, Haiku is a Japanese style of poem writing.  Three lines, 5 syllables, then 7, then 5 again.  Traditionally about nature, or at least invoking it while still being about something else.  When Jody pointed me at the Harvey Haiku opportunity, I went nuts and wrote a few extras.  Some from the perspective of friends, some about whatever struck my fancy (HumpDay included).  The last one, is a traditional style Haiku with art, written with a real Japanese brush pen I did a few years ago.  

Yeah, I dig Haiku. Please enjoy responsibly. Oh look! Another!

We all love haiku It is so easy to do Count your syllables

curses, foiled again traditional formatting is my enemy

There's no hot water side effects often include aromatic pain

Offering held high Mother and child anointed Flood water rising

My late night surprise Below float my belongings From my attic perch

Haikuing at work A taboo activity My guilty pleasure

Don't smoke a Camel Lung cancer isn't much fun Phillip Morris sucks

Hark! The end is nigh! The Aesir own your week now This is Odin's day.

Do the humpty hump Get off that wall, take the plunge Week's not over yet

Beautiful Singles! Really want to chat with you Spam for your hump day

Corporate weasel Halfway through the weekly slog Waiting for Friday

Haiku obsession Leads to Wednesday depression Look, I made it rhyme

Who is this Jolene With auburn hair and green eyes Why she done you wrong?

Tonight is Write Night Two Writers and no words barred In the WWG

By Odin's one eye This sandwich shall be eaten My humpday lunch oath

Taco Tuesday's Gone Somebody should write a song Don't eat outside. Wind.

Its always HumpDay Said the dog, to the man's leg Good to be a dog

Waffles on Wednesday papercuts and revisions Must be critique night

General Mahone Rebel become black man's friend Where is his statue?

Stuck in haiku mode Must be very annoying For other people

Visit New Zealand No Weta, skip the Shire? What is wrong with you?

[wyrdwordsandeffigieshaunt]

I always need more poetry in my life. Always. I do read poetry online, and I’m immensly grateful for poetry online. But it can’t give me that same strong sense of deep satisfaction that holding a book does.

It used to be easier to indulge my curiosity when there was that little bit more money coming in. If there was a book that sang to me, I’d be on it like an owl on a mouse at twilight.

Now, I mostly make lists of book I will buy when there is some spare change. It was my birthday recently, 31 I am, and I’ve been mulling over and over collections, trying to decipher which one I would appreciate most, which one I would continue to return to until it was soft and dog eared.

I have been meaning to buy Ophelia Wears Black since it was first released in 2015 but I remember the cost of P&P from the states was outrageously high and at the time it was impossible to afford. Like hundreds of others, Segovia is a favourite poet of mine, and I do find myself wondering where she is wandering these days, as her silence has lasted, it seems, for the longest time. All of the other collections here have been found mostly by seeing what ‘customers also bought’ on Amazon. What a fantastic little feature that is.

If you’re in the position to get your claws into any of these, or if you’re read any, please do let me know what you found past the cover page.

  Segovia Amil / Ophelia Wears Black

“Ophelia Wears Black is a collection of poetry and prose focusing on the shadow aspects and dark side of the human experience through the eyes of a young girl. Divided into four parts, each mirroring the cycling seasons, we follow Ophelia into her own re-imagined Underworld where she learns to make sense of and find the perfection and necessity of her own inner darkness.” – Segovia Amil

Salt Is For Curing / Sonya Vatomsky

“SALT IS FOR CURING is the lush and haunting full-length debut by Sonya Vatomsky. These poems, structured as an elaborate meal, conjure up a vapor of earthly pains and magical desires; like the most enduring rituals, Vatomsky’s poems both intoxicate and ward. A new blood moon in American poetry, SALT IS FOR CURING is surprising, disturbing, and spookily illuminating.” – Small Press Distribution

Earthsongs / April Green

“for years, i was searching for a land i remembered. a language i understood. and then. in solitude. i found it – within.” Simple, soulful, thought provoking poems and haikus describing the inescapable sorrow we often endure before we understand why the birds still sing every morning. Beautiful and raw; Earthsong takes the reader through a lyrical journey of love, grief, depression, survival and healing.” – April Green

  At Night / Lisa Ciccararello

“Poetry. Told in an age we can’t quite put our finger on, the poems in Lisa Ciccarello’s debut collection twist up from tales of witchcraft and the punishing morals of the Newgate Calendar. Vulnerable in the darkness as the dead watch behind salt-lined windows, we are led to explore a world of simple objects through a complex fog of cruelty and longing, strength and feebleness, folklore and familial traditions. Violence, love, death, jealousy, sex, and shadows fill the pages of AT NIGHT. If you seek comfort, you will find none here.” – Amazon.co.uk

Learning To Speak / Kate Savage

“In Learning To Speak, Kat Savage draws the parallel between the loves we experience and how we often lose our voices in the process. From the beginnings both heartbreaking and hopeful, to the loss, to the “aha” moment when we realize we are going to be okay, her first collection of poetry is meant to be a journey. She hopes we will all ask ourselves: How many times have you lost your voice to someone who isn’t even listening?” – Kate Savage

The Truth Is We Are Perfect / Janaka Stucky

“The Truth Is We Are Perfect contains fifty-four lyrics exploring the loss of oneself through the loss of an other, and how we seek to recreate ourselves in that absence. Stucky journeys into nothingness and, consequently, into awareness. His meditative sensibilities and minimalist style create ritualized poems acting as spells—transcribed to be read aloud and performed in the service of realizing that which we seek to become: “Because I love a burning thing / I made my heart a field of fire.” – Janaka Stucky

    6 Books Of Deep, Dark Poetry That I Need

I always need more poetry in my life. Always. I do read poetry online, and I’m immensly grateful for poetry online.

6 Books Of Deep, Dark Poetry That I Need I always need more poetry in my life. Always. I do read poetry online, and I'm immensly grateful for poetry online.