Autumn Newsletter
The best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born.
The odd uneven time.— Sylvia Plath
Labor Day tomorrow, and the cicadas are throbbing out their late summer chorus. Typically—like clockwork—the Labor Day weekend ushers in the cooler weather of autumn. True enough, the forecast for tomorrow is 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the 96F/35C we reached last Wednesday. So, I feel the bitter-sweetness of letting go of the long, slow, lazy days of summer and looking forward to the arts seasons starting up again.
We certainly made the most of summer, though, with the Atlantic Ocean playing a starring role. The last week of June, we made our transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York on the Queen Mary 2 with two of our most beloved friends. It was as extravigantly luxurious as we could have imagined! I had no idea how I would feel about being in the middle of the ocean with nothing but water as far as my eye could see. Yet the sensation of the liner cutting through the sea at 30 knots made me feel quite “grounded,” if I can use such an odd descriptor in this context, even though I never quite got my sea legs and lurched about as if I was poegaai (that delicious Dutch/Afrikaans word for tipsy) even on the way to breakfast.
More grounding still was a quick trip to Lewes, Delaware mid-August to stay with another set of good friends, so that I could get my summer beach fix on the Atlantic seaboard. As glorious as that was, Hurricane Debbie has played havoc with the coastline in the form of a strange sort of donga—another South African term, which the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines as “a deep channel in the ground that is formed by the action of water.”
The result was that we had to wade through a horizontal lagoon-like body of water before we could reach the real ocean. Once there, though, I was suitably somersaulted by the waves a couple of times to the greater amusement of my life partner. I couldn’t have been happier.
In between all the ocean activity, I was able to give and receive some love for The Deceived Ones, which is coming up on being four months old now. Reviews for indie books are notoriously hard to come by, so I was thrilled to have a Readers’ Favorite® review from K.C. Finn; a Cobalt Weekly review by Danielle Ariano ; a write-up from Instagram influencer @meghan_readsbooks; and from JD Jung on underrated reads. It was also a real joy to catch up with fellow MFA alum Abby Higgs to talk about Shakespeare, The Deceived Ones, and writing in general for Vol. 1 Brooklyn. And it was fun to speak with fellow broadcaster and writer Tory Gates on the Brown Posey Press Show for the Bookspeak Network broadcast by BlogTalkRadio. All this and more is on the Blog page on my website.
There were some on-the-ground book signings and readings too: for The Inner Loop series in Washington, D.C.; the indie bookstore, Curious Iguana, in Frederick, Maryland; Charm City Books in downtown Baltimore; and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth, Delaware (hence the beach activity there), so the The Deceived Ones has been getting in some good mileage.
If you’re in the Baltimore area, I hope you can make it to some of the book events coming up in the fall.
On Sunday, September 8th at 2 PM, I’ll be partnering with the cellist, Molly Aronson, again for a Music in Words event at the beautifully renovated Manor Mill in Monkton. It will be a two-set program of words and music to complement their current watercolor exhibition and to highlight The Deceived Ones.
Please register here.
One of the scenes from The Deceived Ones is set in the Far East Room at Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, and the renowned viola da gambist, John Moran, will join me to play pieces that will highlight passages from the book in that very room at noon on Saturday, September 14th.
At noon on Saturday, September 21st, I’ll be climbing up the Palazzo Vecchio-inspired Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower in downtown Baltimore to read for Eric D. Goodman's Lit & Art series.
And at 6:30 PM on Thursday, October 10th my writing partner, Danielle Ariano, and I will pair up at Snug Books in Lauraville for a reading and conversation about the sibling themes in our respective books.
All upcoming events (and, actually even past ones!) are listed on the Events page on my website.
Oh, and not to forget my day job! BookNotes, the monthly series I host on WBJC, is pairing with the Bard Library at Baltimore City Community College (which owns the license for the radio station) to present The Bard Author Series. The inaugural event—open to students, faculty, staff, and the community—will be at Bard Library on the BCCC campus, 2901 Liberty Heights Avenue, at noon on Wednesday, September 25th. I’ll be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author, Dolan Perkins-Valdez about her novel, Take My Hand, which Celeste Ng describes as "Deeply empathetic yet unflinching in its gaze ... An unforgettable exploration of responsibility and redemption."
I’m also happy to share that, in addition to WBJC, I’ve started a new position as Writer with the British independent CD label, SOMM Recordings. “SOMM is entertaining, stimulating, ever-challenging…but never dull.”
The trees have just started turning in Maryland, perhaps the oaks have their green spring fuzz in Cape Town, and the jacaranda trees will bloom in Johannesburg next month. Wherever you are, I wish you a wonderful change of season.