I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions: in general if there’s something I want, I seek it right away, no waiting till January. As true this year as any. Keep trying to do good, I say. Keep trying to do right.
For New Year’s Eve, Dave and I uncharacteristically went somewhere and did something (we both got burned pretty hard by a party some ~8 years ago in Chicago when we couldn’t get a cab home for 7 hours and ended up sleeping on the floor of a friend’s apartment). Our friends Lela and Bree got married (beautifully) and held a (beautiful, not to mention damn entertaining) party, and I cannot think of a better way to have spent the last minutes of 2016 or the first minutes of 2017. The next day was rainy and sleepy and slow; I read Michelle Tea’s Black Wave, which is great, and I took a bath in our enormous, luxurious tub.
Now I am back to work, as are we all. The new Congress is in session. Let’s begin.
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In the meantime, a few practical items:
- January 15th I’ll be joining the Arizona #WritersResist reading in Phoenix at the Burton Barr Central Library. 3 – 5pm, featuring Natalie Diaz, Matt Bell, Alberto Rios, and many others. Thanks to the inimitable Sally Ball for organizing; it should be a time. Join us!
- January 21st, I’ll be reading at Magic, Existence, Order and Chaos: A Book Release celebrating my comic chapbook Apocalypse How? (order one now or get a signed copy at the event!), as well as Dana Diehl’s Our Dreams Might Align from Jellyfish Highway Press and Michelle Ross’s There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You from Moon City Press. Both Michelle & Dana are brilliant, and the party – hosted by New Michigan Press – should be a lot of fun! We’ll be at the Southern Arizona Works Center (i.e. the new space behind Exo Roast Co.) 7 – 10pm. Join uuuuuuus!
- Thursday February 16 – Saturday February 18 I’ll be teaching/presenting/paneling at the 2017 Desert Nights, Rising Stars conference. I taught last year as well, and had a GREAT time; this is a big little conference, if you catch my drift: easy to take part in, but with outstanding faculty and students. In addition to me, faculty includes Alissa Nutting, Dean Bakopoulos, Paolo Bacigalupi, my very own literary agent supreme Emma Patterson, and SO many more incredible people. I believe you can still register; what are you waiting for?