Wonders Never Cease...

So, how about women the world over getting together in peaceful and purposeful protest of any and all threats to their progressive and inclusive platform and suddenly being responsible for the biggest one-day protest in U.S. history? As ever, you ladies amaze and delight me with your strength, poise, and unconquerable spirits.

In other news: Chicago's most beloved rapscallion, Ben Tanzer was kind enough to put And Turns Still the Sun at Dusk Blood-Red... on his list of stuff he loved in 2016. He's got a new book out soon, Be Cool. He'd be happy (& I'd be happy for him) if you gave it a try!

My name came up when Jared Carnie interviewed Joseph Ridgwell about his ever-growing body of work. You can read all about it HERE. Joe has a new short story, "Mexico," out in a beautifully hand-made edition from Pig Ear Press. It's the third such offering from them, and only 50 copies can be had, so get yours while the gettin' is good.

And lastly: I woke Monday to a unique email, from a kind woman, Leslie, in Tupelo, Mississippi. She said:

"I am in a play this weekend...titled Cicada..."

Those familiar with my work know that my poem of the same name, originally published by The Guerilla Poetics Project (newly rebuilt website HERE!), has bounced around social media in many surprising ways. As it turns out, Leslie found it while looking for a small gift "for the cast and crew for their opening night."

"I immediately saw your poem with the drawing of a cicada," she said, "and I fell in love with it..."

So, after a quick back and forth, she decided to print the poem "on a 5x7 tan-colored card stock" and "put in a frame for each of my theater cohorts on opening night, along with a little package of Fig Newtons, because my character, Granny Duvall, met her death by choking to death on half of a Fig Newton, 'because no one was home to fish it out of her throat!'"

Now if that's not a fine, fine way to start a work week, I don't know what is! So if any of you are in/near Tupelo and in want of something to do, why not take in a show?

Cicada• By Jerre Dye
Tupelo Community Theater
http://www.tct.ms/
January 26-28, 2017

Written by Amory native, Jerre Dye, this highly acclaimed drama set in rural Mississippi is a coming-of-age ghost story deeply rooted in the life of a small southern family on the verge of transformation. The unrelenting July heat presses in on seventeen-year-old Ace and his mother Lily as they dig their way out the past. It’s a story about letting go and shedding what is no longer necessary in a world full of secrets, ghosts, and memories that hold on tight.

Okay, okay -- enough for now. Until next time,
Hosh

Toxic Masculinity

With recent films like Goat, and Moonlight, and so much pre-election discussion of the real world dangers of toxic masculinity, I felt sure that now was the right time for my debut novel, Chinese Gucci. It seemed we were finally on the verge of a meaningful cultural examination.

Post-election, though...not so much.

After the election, I stopped submitting queries to agents, and seriously considered shelving the project indefinitely. It seemed that the mindsets the book set out to indict (toxic masculinity, flippant racism, sexism, white privilege) had not only re-emerged but were once again running rampant. America's history is stained by exactly these same mindsets -- a fact that deeply compromises our nation's otherwise glorious aspiration (however imperfect) of democracy and greater equality.

In short, I didn't feel like fighting.

Hell, it didn't feel like it was a fight that, as a species, we were actually interested in winning. Humans, I think, don't actually care about the "pursuit of happiness," or "liberty, and justice for all." No, no...most just want "happiness" and "liberty" and "justice" for themselves...and maybe a few other folks they know.

And that's dogshit.

I foolishly expect better of us. So, like it or not, feel up to it or not, we have to fight. Not eventually...we have to do it now. And however that fight looks for you, embrace it, do it, push yourself beyond your comfort zone, and help out...do your part. Lock arms with those who share your vision, and stand up for the world you foolishly believe might one day exist.

To that end, I sent out another query last night. I'll keep pushing on Chinese Gucci, and everything else -- hoping to offer up something new for you all to read in 2017 and beyond.

Okay.
 

P.S. -- For anyone interested, here's something of a sneak-peek at the kind of kid Akira (the character at the center of the novel) is. Or at least who he pretends to be...