Sacred datura flourishing in the park
“The spark has caught,
the flame spurts up”
the flame spurts up”
Summer’s over, and it was a full and juicy one for me. I got to be with family in woods, lakes, rivers, and meadows. We had deep talk and wild laughter. And I got to launch The Copper Stone in the very place where the story is set, where my mother’s parents met and fell in love and where my parents did the same, the place where I was conceived.
The first event of the summer was an interview with me and Sandi Boucher on Pearce Decker’s radio show “What’s Up With You? Morning Show,” which took place in the sweet and comfy trailer that houses WUWU-FM in Elberta, Michigan. Pearce had said he’d give us 20 minutes, and we ended up talking for the whole 2-hour slot. He’s a great conversationalist. Sandi and I had a blast, and we covered a lot of ground!
Sandi and I did some other events together over the summer, with more coming up in the harvest season. We’re available to virtually visit classrooms, libraries, historical societies, book clubs, and other gatherings to talk about collaboration, historical fiction, truth and reconciliation, and wherever else the conversation flows. Drop me a line for info or if you know folks who would be interested to connect with us.
WUWU-FM in Elberta, Michigan
View from my desk. The squirrels are resting.
OFF THE ROAD
So now I’m back in the beseiged and ashen City of Angels. People are afraid to go to the grocery store for fear of being detained and/or disappeared. People lost homes, pets, jobs, and peace of mind in the fires. Since I got back, I’ve been going to protests, postcarding to register voters for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court election, and brainstorming new projects with my activist cohort.
Wherever you are in this beautiful country of ours, you can go to mobilize.us/ and find something to do to help the world with likeminded folk. We can’t look away.
After a summer of travel and people, it’s feeling good to get back to sprucing up a couple of manuscripts. One is my near-future nature fantasy starring coyotes. The other is a YA adventure set in the turbulent Vietnam war era and loosely based on my real-life activist family. I look forward to getting these in shape to share with others. Doing so requires long stretches of sitting at my desk, which overlooks a back yard that often has entertaining distractions to offer up – cavorting squirrels, marauding skunks, even the occasional coyote tightrope-walking on the fence!
ART MEDICINE
Every so often I leave the house to get hope dosage from artist healers and truthtellers. This Jeffrey Gibson exhibit raised my vibration way up there: At The Broad
Also I got to witness Lisa Alvarez, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and Daniel Olivas reading with heart and humor at Beyond Baroque which is always worth the drive to the west side, even at rush hour. I’ve been reading these stories ever since, savoring each juicy one. Social justice is a thread. Right up my alley.
Icing on the cake, I got this new Tarot deck at the Beyond Baroque bookstore.
Poet Tony Barnstone wrote the Guide to the Cards, and here’s what he has to say about the one I pulled for the week: “The spark has caught, the flame spurts up, and the fire of creativity rushes into a bonfire!” Good stuff, right?