My conversation with NW author Kelsey Pince

Jan: This is my first interview for the Book Store blog, where I've written pieces mostly to say, "We're here!" Your book inspired me! We had the event* here which was great, you sold a number of books, right?!

Kelsey Pince: Yeah, so far I've sold close to a hundred, I think I'm at 93. And two at Mill Creek branch, so I'm counting those ...

J: Tom (my guy) is reading your book now, and he's liking it, too. When I first started your book I thought that you have a lot of detail and your characters have a lot of thoughts, and that's part of the whole - you know - presentation. Is that your normal style?

K: I would not say that. No. This is the first, full-length novel I've ever attempted and it was a very different style from what I normally do - which is blogging - and I think a lot of that was maybe me getting my own nerves out as a writer. 'Cuz I think particularly the first chapter has a lot of that. Whereas it smooths out a little bit more.

J: It does! It does. 'Cuz all I had to do was go, "I'm not sure?" and then the next pages turned it around. So it was a very short ... like, it's ... my own head is full of that stuff so I so know what that is like.

K: And with NaNoWriMo, the first couple of days you're just like ...

J: (Interrupting) Yeah ... that's a question ... how did that shape that process for you?

K: It really makes it intimidating, particularly the first couple days when you sit down and you know you have this word-count that you have to meet every day if you want to stay on pace, so particularly the early stages of my book ended up being a little  wordier just because it was, "Am I going to have enough to say to meet the 50,000 words?" And then ten days in, it was clear that I was going to write way more than that so I calmed down a lot more.

J: Wow! That's a lot of words!

K: (Gut level laughter ensues.) But for reference that's the length of the Great Gatsby ... it's pretty short for a novel. The novel that I ended up finishing uh is at 70,000 words, so ... I think it was only at sixty something when I finished NaNoWriMo, and then when I went back in and revised it it got a little bit longer.

J: So, uhm, I think that we addressed that question. So, let's just start with the biggie.

K: Okay.

J: How much of yourself, your own character, is in The World Below?

K: Well, it's definitely heavily based on my real life. But because I changed some things and because I streamlined a lot of events and combined some real people into one, I think that changed how the main character interacted with them and the decisions that she had to make that I never had to make, or had to make in a different order than I had to make them. So, even if she started out as me she definitely didn't end that way ... because her experiences were so different than mine. A lot of people read it - who knew me from that time - and definitely can see where the correlations to me and my real life are, but it's not ... it's still fiction.

J: Well, I really liked your character. I was really interested in her. And I worried along the way - is she going to go y'know - I was so hoping things would be okay for her. I don't want to give a spoiler quite yet. Okay, so that's good, I think that's just the truth for most writers, they've gotta have a voice, and you start with your own voice first and then hopefully you can move beyond that to create lots of new fiction ...

K: Exactly, and that's that ... because it was my first story it was a little bit easier to start with a situation that was at least true and just build off it from there. 

J: Cool, yeah, I like it. Uuhuum, so-o-o, you sort of segue into this, starting with yourself, starting with an outline, too?

K: I knew how it started and how it ended at the beginning of NaNoWriMo, like that's how I had it planned. And I had a vague idea of some of the events in the middle, but I really didn't know how to connect the beginning and the ending when I started. I kinda figured it would become clear to me as I wrote. And I think that I was lucky because I got to do a round of revisions between when I finished on December 1st and when they published it. So, I got to streamline ...

J: When did they publish it?

K: I think the contest went until late January and I had until the end of March to revise it, so I think it came out mid-April. It might have been early May ...

J: Did anything surprise you in the process?

K: Yes, a number of characters - particularly ones that I thought I knew how they would be and how they would act - kinda took over and took themselves in a different direction as I was working them, so a lot of the supporting characters surprised me and a lot of them surprised me by becoming much more important to the story than I originally thought they would be. And some of them became less important to the story, some of them by the end of it were not necessary at all, and ended up getting cut.

J: So even if you had some idea you allowed a lot of flexibility in there?

K: Yes, absolutely.

J: That's cool. Well, I really liked the balance between your main characters and the supporting characters 'cuz sometimes I get annoyed, I don't want to be pulled away from the main characters, but these ones supported the main and they supported the story. So you did that really well.

K: Thank you.

J: The balance ...

K: Thank you.

J: Y'know, 'cuz I will go, "aaahhuhrgh!" and you know that you've taken me away from the person (character) I love.

K: Yeah.

J: ... which actually leads us into the whole getting into the male mind ... set ... while you're writing. Have you ever done before?

K: I've written short stories from the perspective of male characters, and I feel like a lot of fiction has male main characters, so I read a lot from the male perspective. But it was a challenge and it was one of the things that I was nervous about going in, and when I did have people read the first draft that was one thing I was asking them to be critical of ... y'know: "does this sound like a male?" "Does this character come across as believably male?" Because I have definitely read female characters, written by male authors, where I was a little skeptical and I didn't want that to happen. So, I tried to be true to him as a character and also open to the feedback that I got from other men who were reading the book.

J: Yeah, you have a good community that surrounds you. I can tell that.

K: That is very true. My writer's group is mostly comprised of men ... so (laughter), I get that feedback a lot.

J: Well, that's really helpful then, how long have you been in that group?

K: Uhm, we've been going off and on, couple of our members left for grad school, so we've been on hiatus but we're starting up again ... I think I've been with them for about two years now.

J: That's awesome.

K: It is a lot of fun! ... mostly they write literary fiction and I'm kinda the more genre fiction member of the group, so there's that contrast between us too, but when we do short prompt exercises I always try to ask them if my male characters are coming across as credible.

J: ... uh, I am not a man (laughter), but I thought the male character was credible and especially the situation ah at home, y'know what men fear about becoming ... is it a spoiler? ... becoming fathers?

K: Naw, I don't think it's a spoiler.

J: So, are you going to continue in this genre? You said you're different then the rest in your group. Will you continue to write ...?

K: I really like urban fantasy and contemporary fantasy. Those are my favorite things: Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and that tends to be what he writes, plus I think that it's easier to make sense of the world sometimes if you see it that way. So that's why I always enjoyed it as a genre. My next book is more like historical fantasy, high fantasy, that kind of thing. But I think that I will continue with contemporary urban fantasy once I'm done with the next project I'm on.

J: So that's going to be a satisfying genre for you for a while?

K: I think so yes ...

J: Cool, 'cuz I love it ... I'm like keep doin' it ... I want it, o-kay. And you've finished your second novel: do you want to share anything now with your readers? or do you want to keep it hush-hush?

K: Oh no, that's fine. I'll talk about that. It's still in draft format and I'm getting a lot of feedback from a lot of readers so it may not come out exactly this way, but it's kind of a re-examination of the crusades ... in a high fantasy setting. So instead of having the Knights of the Templar as my good guys: they're the bad guys. And the Arab-Muslim-African population are the protagonists ... because that's the history I learned in school and so that's always my viewpoint on world history, and I don't often see that in fantasy.

J: I think that's really excellent. I think that's going to be really unique then.

K: I hope so! (Laughter from both.)

J: You have a degree. What's your degree in?

K: I have a bachelors in Near Eastern Language and Culture, so specifically Arabic and the history of the Arab world.

J: So that helped you a lot right in shaping the second book, right?!

K: Yes, absolutely. And we didn't learn about crusader history in public school, so the first time I learned about the crusades was from the Arabic-Middle Eastern perspective. Then reading fantasy where the crusader-knights are always the good guys that's a little confusing to me. So I guess that I'm just trying to write a story that's more from the perspective I learned in world history.

J: Sounds excellent. Really. I ... probably one of those things that you feel that you were born to write?

K: Absolutely, everything in my education kinda brought this back to my interests and made me feel like this is a story that I want to tell.

J: Powerful. And within that, this is just spontaneous, within that are there female characters that are in this whole thing, and how does that work with the culture?

K: That is ...

J: And you don't have to give me too much ... whatever you're ...

K: That's ... uh ... my main character is female and a lot of the   main characters are female. Part of what I wanted to do in this world is to write a ... and it is fiction, it's not really historical because I do have a large number of women participate in the wars who are fighting as soldiers. It really was a combination of me wanting to create a more feminist feel in this time period, and also just a more global perspective on it. So I won't say it's based in history and it's not very historically accurate but culturally a lot of women did participate ... we just don't that often hear about them and they often had to do it in secret and so I kinda have a more open view of them. 

J: Normally I'm not interested in reading anything historical, but I know that I'll be reading your book. Because you are bringing you-ness to it. There is so much about you that I like as a person ...

K: Thanks ...

J: And uh you are a risk-taker and it seems like you like to walk off the beaten path and find out life on your own.

K: Yeah, and I'd rather have something that was sort of inspired by history but not really chained to historical fact. (A bit of hemming and hawing.) I don't write historical fiction. My research into this has been much heavier than my research into The World Below just because I wanted to have the right feel ... but y'know no one's going to use it in a history class ...

J: But they might teach it in a lit class ... which would be really-really cool. 

Let's see here ... well we talked about, you talked about Neil Gaiman: are there other writers you would say have influenced you?

K: Yes, absolutely. Neil Gaiman's protege Susanna Clarke, who's really only written Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and some short stuff, but she ... she is one of my bigger influences because I read that book so often! I love her style! I know it's hard to say that just one book is the major influence, but definitely her ... and Jo Walton ... her book Among Others which is like a life story told through the books she's read in a lot of ways ... and The World Below is sort of similar to that in that it's set in a book store for a large part. There's a lot of discussion about books and reading and how a person's taste in books reflects about their personality ... so I'd say Jo Walton's a huge influence. Of course, Jason Vanhee ...

[Jason Vanhee is a book seller at University Book Store and a published author. I like and admire the fiction that I've read of his so far.]

J: Which of his (books)has influenced you the most? Or can you do that?

K: Well? I would say Engines of the Broken World, which is his book, which is going to be released next fall. When I read that after he finished that for his own NaNoWriMo project, that kind of gave me the idea that I could do NaNoWriMo and maybe I did have a story to tell, because I always thought of myself more of a blogger and not a fiction writer and he sparked my interest in fiction and also was just right there cheering me on and encouraging me throughout the whole month. And he writes such a wide spectrum of genre: like some of his is contemporary fantasy, some of it's young adult, some of it's much more like straight historical fiction, and so I think his eclectic writing really has inspired me to go for what interests me and not worry about what genre it is ...

J: Well, I've read one of his books and I thought it was excellent so I'm looking forward to those other ones, too.

K: Did you read Engines of the Broken World or Never?

J: Engines ...

K: That's the one that he's revised a couple of times now so it'll probably be different when it comes out, but that's the one that is getting published.

J: Excellent!

K: It's so exciting!

J: It is, very exciting! To work at the book store, the book store is filled with talented creative people. Writers like you and Jason, and then visual artists ... I could name 'em all but ... but yeah, it's pretty impressive. It's an exciting time to work at the book store I think.

K: It's a really supportive environment, too. 

J: Yes.

K: Everyone wants to talk about what you're working on and share what they're working on and no one is too self-important to share or to give advice or encouragement. So I think it's a great environment!

J: I think you bring that out in people. So ... probably not e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y would get (you know) the degree of response that you have, but ...

K: I'm really lucky.

J: You are. But I wouldn't even say lucky, I'd just think that, "like attracts like!"

K: Oh!

J: That's one of my maxims in life. So ... what is the hardest part of the process, the writing process, for you?

K: For me it's knowing when its done. Because I'll write something and then go back and revise it and then go back and revise it. I will continue revising until someone tears it out of my hands and tells me it is done. And I never feel like anything is done. And from what I've read most authors have this problem, so I'm a little comforted that maybe I'm not insane. But uh the nice thing about NaNoWriMo is that it gives you a deadline that is almost unreasonable, so you just have to get it done, you can't worry about making it perfect. You know it's just a matter of writing the next sentence in order to keep up with your word count and uhm so once I'm outside of NaNoWriMo and I can write at my own pace it is hard to stop obsessing about tweaking and just move on to the next section.

J: Well you left a little bit of room for this character that I love to come back. Is there any possibility that we might hear from her again?
 
K: Yes, I would say a strong possibility! I have a second story with her in mind ... I haven't fleshed out the plot of it yet. I kinda know what happens next with her and I think there's a new character's story to wrap into that as well, but I don't quite know how to turn it into a novel quite yet. I think after I finish with the high fantasy project I'll return to that and see if there's a place to go.

J: Well, I'd be ready to hear more about her. She's c-o-m-p-l-e-x and meaty and so much about her and how you developed her is what I want to read about a character! I want to read a character that t-r-i-e-s to do good but is so often challenged and doesn't always meet the mark.

K: Yeah, absolutely, she's very flawed and I think that in next story going forward she'll get to have more of a leadership or mentoring role with another character, which I think will be interesting for her and will also kinda help her grow up ... because even though she's 19 or 20 in the book, she's kinda in that arrested development stage of not having had a childhood ... so still kind of stuck in a perpetual childhood. And now that she's on her own, without the protection of others, that'll be a good place to grow-up ... finally.

J: Sounds wonderful. It does. Well, this was just an interviewer's dream. Thank you so much for sitting down with me.

K: Thank you.


*Presentation of winner of the contest.

Kelsey Pince's The World Below was the winner of the Obliterate the Empty Page! contest held in November 2011 during National Novel Writing Month. It was chosen as the best entry by a panel of local book luminaries. Thank you to contest sponsors: Richard Hugo House, Northwest Independent Editors Guild, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators.

Cooking from Burma: Rivers of Flavor

Fall is one of my favorite times—the leaves are turning, the back to school buzz starts up, and the newest cookbooks are released. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the Artisan Cookbook Challenge—where a few booksellers across the country cooked through Naomi Duguid’s gorgeous new book, Burma: River of Flavor.

I had never had Burmese food before, but imagined that it might resemble some of the cuisines from Burma’s borders: Thailand, India and China.
Looking through the book, it became clear that while Burmese food shares some characteristics with these other cuisines, it has a unique flavor all of its own.
After much salivating, I narrowed down my choices to items that we could enjoy throughout the week.

Our Menu:
Tender Greens with Crispy Fried Shallots

Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad
Tart-Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce
Easy grilled chicken
Kachin Pounded Beef with Herbs
Lemongrass Pork Sliders
Tapioca-Coconut Delight

Duguid recommends that you make some of the Burma Basics in advance—so I fried up shallots and garlic, distilled the oils, toasted up chickpea flour and made the chile garlic sauce in advance. All of these basics were easy to put together, and keep in the fridge or on the shelf for a few weeks!

We made the Tender Greens with bok choy and spinach. It was a delicious salad that was easy to put together, but had surprising depth of flavor. The greens are quickly blanched in boiling water and drained. They are then chopped and tossed with a number of elements that add crunch and texture: fresh shallots, chopped peanuts, fried shallots and garlic. Then the salad is lightly coated with toasted chickpea flour and dried shrimp powder that add both flavor and unctuousness. Finally, lime juice and shallot oil are massaged into the greens for a light vinaigrette.
The Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad was equally easy: carrots are grated on a box grater, then lightly pounded with lime juice and fish sauce to soften. They’re tossed with crunchy roasted peanuts and fried shallots, coated lightly with the shrimp powder & toasted chickpea flour and tossed with chile, salt and a little fresh mint or coriander. It was sweet and spicy and refreshing all at the same time.

The Easy Grilled Chicken was hands down my sweetie’s favorite. I rubbed bone-in chicken breasts with a flavor mixture made of turmeric, chile powder, minced garlic and ginger, and a little fish sauce. We threw them on a hot grill for about twenty minutes and the end result was fantastic—well seasoned, complex flavor in the breast meat with lightly charred skin. Delicious!
My favorite was the Kachin Pounded Beef—which is simmered with evocative Sichuan pepper, lightly seared and then pounded with a spice mixture that includes chile powder, a bit more toasted Sichuan pepper, ginger, garlic and fresh coriander. The resulting mixture was delicious and aromatic served on jasmine rice, with a little Chile Garlic Sauce to give it heat.

The Lemongrass pork sliders were a fun addition to the meal—the lemongrass, ginger, shallots and garlic add flavor, while jasmine rice binds what is essentially, a Burmese meatball. We ate them with rice and greens, but had fun imagining additional serving suggestions: on a baguette with carrot salad and fresh coriander heaped on top; or in a soup, perfumed with ginger and garlic.

We ended our meal with the Tapioca-Coconut Delight—I cooked pearls of tapioca with sugar and then cooled them. Meanwhile, I whisked together egg yolks with brown sugar and coconut milk that had been thickened with a bit of rice flour. Once this thickened, I poured it over the tapioca layer and cooled again. We served a scoop with fresh peaches for a light finish to our flavorful meal.



Duguid is known for writing thoughtfully researched cookbooks that make foods from far-flung areas accessible to those of us stateside. This book doesn’t disappoint. It’s chock full of information about Burma’s political and cultural history, that adds meaningful background; it includes a handy guide to pairing recipes for both larger meals and weeknight suppers; and lovely photographs of the people and food top off the collection. With a small investment of time, and almost no specialty equipment or special skills required, we were transported to the rivers of flavor that Burma has to offer.
~Stesha

Slicing shallots for Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil

Slicing garlic for Fried Garlic and Garlic Oil

Frying shallots

Tart-Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce

Preparing the greens

 

Mis en place for Tender Green Salad

Tender greens with crispy fried shallots

 

Grating carrots

Mandalay Grated Carrot Salad

Easy grilled chicken

Aromatics for Kachin Beef

Kachin Pounded Beef with Herbs

Aromatics for Lemongrass Sliders

Lemongrass sliders

Tapioca-Coconut Delight with fresh peaches

= ALL THINGS JULIA =

[August 15th celebration of J.C.'s 100th birthday!]

In just a few days time we will be celebrating all things Julia at University Book Store. After the release of the book and movie Julie and Julia - who could not like a movie staring the incomparable Meryl Steep and Stanley Tucci -interest in Ms. Child's books skyrocketed.

I, myself, have started using her and Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Julia*:

I even blogged about it at another of my blogs, if you are interested. So far, I have successfully used three recipes to my utmost satisfaction: Irish soda bread; poundcake; and a very simple biscuit recipe. With my success there I have no doubt that all of her cookbooks are splendid. And I wouldn't deny others the pleasure of buying them for me for, say, Christmas presents (lol.)

There really is so much to love about Julia, and the recently released and critically acclaimed bio by Bob Spitz called Dearie is now on our bestseller list (hence a nice reduced price is available to you n-o-w!), further testament to our love of ALL THINGS JULIA!

So, come and join us in the celebration of her 100th birthday party. We are "hosting a little party to celebrate the woman and the icon. Local food writers will be on hand to share personal stories about Julia and read from her letters. We'll have some French music and of course, some cake. Bring your favorite dish from Julia to share. Bon appetit!" The shindig will be held at our University District location, and your attendance automatically allows you to get up to two hours free parking.

~Jan

aka cookbook shelver

and calendar girl (and yes, the 2013 calendars are pouring in as I write this!)

*Purchased it when it was available for sale as a bargain book. Oooo la la! :P

**Quote from our monthly Reading Allowed publication. We print out this schedule for our patrons and it is also available on-line. Sign-up for the on-line edition when you are next in the store.

BIG SUMMER 

BOOK SALE

(on select new, used & bargain books)

We are in the midst of another great sales event, our BIG SUMMER BOOK SALE! And just for fun I went out onto the sales floor to see what kind of gems might be available at seriously discounted prices. Here's what I found.

A used copy of Queen Victoria's Sketchbook, further reduced for the sale, which is made more interesting for me because I have watched the movie Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, several times. It makes my heart glad to see the watercolors she lovingly sketched of her husband-to-be Edward.

(Please note: The Young Victoria dvd is not on sale per se,

but we do have a few copies available at the regular low price seen above.)

Rogers and Hammerstein's Sound of Music Fingerstyle Guitar Notes and Tab speaks for itself. Right?!

am & pm Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss dvd. The focus seems to be about the breath and not the weight loss, which is more of what I am interested in. Hopefully it will not be too hard for me.

Christiane Northrup, M.D.'s book the Wisdom of Menopause. I have been meaning to get a copy for a while now, and this appears to be the perfect time. What books might it be the perfect time for you to find? Are you curious?

Ethan Canin's the Palace Thief which--when it came out--the New York Times wrote was marvelous ... "a commanding performance" by Mr. Canin. I've been in the mood for short fiction this summer, and so this should do the trick.

I look forward to seeing you here. The sale started at 50% off the prices listed, and will continue until we get all the way down to 90% off. I recommend coming early when the selection is the best.
~Jan
bookseller
calender girl

Hot off the press: a book with a cover that I (we*) love! Plus, what's between the covers, the guts of the book, is just so much fun. Lots of 80's trivia, much-much more than I knew, but that doesn't prevent the reader from imagining what the characters might have to go through to learn and grow in the virtual Oasis universe. I have been waiting for READY PLAYER ONE to come out in paperback so that I can share a GREAT READ, at an affordable price, just in time for summer and beach reading. And now it is here!

http://www4.bookstore.washington.edu/_trade/ShowTitleUBS.taf?ActionArg=Title&ISBN=9780307887443&SKU=&sdb=ALL

If you go to the link just above there's an well-written, informative blurb posted about the book, hence my job is done. Or is it? I will say that I have no problem imagining the future-world that Mr. Cline writes about. And since I've been hearing a lot about world building lately, I will say that, while in the midst of reading, Ernest Cline convinced me that I was a shut-in just like his main man Wade Watts.

This is not a book to go into all the gory details of how miserable life is in this future Earth, rather it is all about how Wade sees the alternative virtual reality and how that helps him make friends with other players looking to find some kind of way out of their lot.

Hopefully I have enticed you to read this book, and that you will like it just as much as I have.
~Jan
aka calendar girl

p.s. It is not too early to be thinking about next year's calendars. We've started to get some 2013 calendars in, and will be shelving them in the next few months.

*Caitlin, book seller extraordinaire at ubs, loves the cover and book too!  :D

GET COOKING!

(bargain cookbook sale!)

I love cookbooks, especially the pretty kind with lots of pictures. As the primary shelver of cookbooks these days, I get to handle and then shelve all the new cookbooks coming in, as well as the classics. And I really like doing that, all except for the fact that I find myself hungry at random times throughout the day: cut to Homer Simpson's drool sound that he makes when he is hungry, "aaaaaauglugh." Lol.

Our bargain cookbook sale is a generous collection* of all sorts of good titles [*click on photo above to see full image], from Dori Greenspan's around my french table - normally $40, with special bargain copies priced at only $19.98 - to the Gourmet Cookie Book (a stunner in the land of cookies!) to Urban Pantry (a helpful DIY book reviewed favorably at Gwyneth Paltrow's newsy blog 'goop' that I've recently discovered) to Mollie Katzen's Salad Recipies stand-up for only $6.98. And much more ...

This sale, per the lovely Natalie, will go on through the month of May!

So, get your cookbooks and GET COOKING! 

~Jan aka calendar girl

Please note: You can order these books from us, versus purchasing them in the store, but please do remember to let us know that it is a sale/bargain copy that you are ordering, otherwise you will be paying the full/new book price. Also, bargain copies do have a generally unobtrusive black mark on them to distinguish them from new ones.

 

Rest in Peaceful Slumber Ms. Adrienne Rich.

When I was in my twenties I spent a good amount of time with my nose in a book, trying to figure out who I was and whom I might become. I would especially ferret out books about strong women--in search of meaning and purpose in their lives--in hopes of coming across instructions on how to live a more fully realized life. One woman's words made a great deal of difference to me during that process: Thank you, thank you Ms. Adrienne Rich.

I have (always) loved the titles of her volumes of poetry: from The Dream of a Common Language to A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far to An Atlas of a Difficult World. Can't you just imagine, from those, that she set about to help other women and men (!) circumnavigate the waters of the soul?

I remember when I first spied the poem Transcendental Etude--probably my favorite (from Dream ...)--I felt that I was in the exact same head space, and that made it possible for me to get more in touch with the huge forces at work in my life. "Perhaps there come times when we must take ourselves more seriously or die": those were my marching orders ... to continue to put one foot in front of the other ... daring myself to be authentically large.

The Book Store has several volumes of Ms. Rich's work available online to order. I think that I am going to take another look at her last and latest collection, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, when it comes out in paper. And if you wish you can reserve your copy now. And this is a peek into the poem that bears the title:

"Saw you walking barefoot
taking a long look
at the new moon's eyelid

Later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping
elsewhere

Tonight
I think
no poetry will serve ..."

Adrienne Rich also dealt with politics and poetry, not so much my strong suit, and yet I have admired her for that too. May you rest in peaceful slumber Ms. Rich.

~Jan
the bad poet
aka book seller at UBS

"Someone called us liminal people...We dance the line between humans and gods."

Here's a recommendation to get your summer reading off to a blazing start: The Liminal People by Ayize Jama-Everett. It's a first novel, and it has all the kinetic, hurtling passion of a thousand fresh ideas and a few new takes on classic sci-fi tropes.

On the surface, it's a book about superheroes living amongst us. There's the main character, Taggart, who can transmute his own body and the bodies of others in literally any way he can imagine; give someone asthma, give himself a new face, dissolve cancer before any symptoms appear.
Another character has such a deep emotional bond with animals that she can ask rats to sacrifice themselves for her, and compel dogs to chase a man down and tear him apart. There's a woman with hypnotic pheromones, and a man who can blow up anything with his mind.
These are the liminal people: a subculture of lonely and alienated humans, some of whom are driven mad by their powers while others manage to live relatively normal lives, suppressing any desire to explore their abilities.
If all this sounds suspiciously like an X-Men ripoff, think again. Jama-Everett creates an entirely new atmosphere of mystery and exotic noir, made creepier as every chapter passes and seemingly unanswerable questions arise. There is something almost Lovecraftian about the hints and half-explanations that the characters discover as the story progresses. The origins of their fantastic abilities have one foot planted in evolution, but the other is mired unsteadily in the unknowable murk of old gods and half-forgotten mythology. It's a brutal and unforgiving world to enter, and it ends too quickly at under 200 pages, but it's left wide open for a sequel, for which I will be impatiently waiting.

--Seija