Riding Out A Hurricane

The last several days we’ve been bracing for Hurricane Barry here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where we have a house near New Orleans (Memphis, New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast—I know, it’s confusing.) Thankfully, we were not much affected, but others further west in Louisiana were. The flooding looks terrible to me, but they’re saying it wasn’t as bad as expected. Welcome to hurricane season 2019!

What does one do when the weather makes it hard to think? I’ve been considering the trail of odd art projects I’ve left in my wake, such as making miniature furniture from spitballs

and art from dryer lint fabric, which I’ve been sealing so it won’t dissolve over time

And last, but mostly best, here’s the Goodreads review I did on Luanne Castle’s Kin Types. In case you can’t tell, I developed a crush on this book:

“I don’t read a book jacket before I buy the book. I go entirely by how the first page strikes me. So it was after I’d read Kin Types that I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the reviewers on the back cover compare the poetry to Edgar Lee Masters. I’ve read and re-read Spoon River Anthology—it’s one of my favorites—and Kin Types brought it squarely to mind. This is my favorite type of poetry, where you feel you’ve stepped into an entire community. Where you see the threads that weave them together, and tear them apart. Where you want to keep reading to find out what happens next. Where the concrete detail makes it so real, and the phrasing brings you to a stand still so you can absorb what you’ve just read. The level of family research is impressive, but even more so is what Castle has done with it artistically. When I finished, I wanted to flip right back to the first page and start again. I’m sure I will soon.”

Hopefully, my mind will soon be able to focus on business again (signing my contract and getting it back to the agent, beginning final revisions on Harboring Evil so the agent can start pitching it, preparing for the talk at Novel Memphis on July 25 about THE HART WOMEN, etc.) Until then….