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Your hold is ready! (08. 31. 24)

Your hold is ready! (08. 31. 24)

August 31, 2024

This book is perfect for readers willing to take a chance on a fragmented web of a text to dive into the protagonist’s rebellious, broken memories and confused refusal to conform.

Hi everyone, and happy end of August!

What a month.

For those who have been following my travels celebrating Failure to Comply, you might have seen me –– virtually, at Nicole Tallman’s/Emerge Literary Journal’s Be Well Reading Series, and/or IRL in Western Massachusetts [x], Baltimore, Asheville, Atlanta, or, most recently, NYC.

It’s hard to begin to describe how I’m feeling, or how these events felt. I can safely say that the associated travel/socialization was simply exhausting; with each successive trip, my social battery started out a little more drained. Fortunately, I was mostly seeing/staying with beloved friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen for years (but who nevertheless have infinite patience for my autistic, introverted* shenanigans). Now, I’m back home for a brief period of rest (and by rest, I mean submitting job applications, preparing for the semester, reading magazine submissions, working on a bazillion projects…) before flying back to Davis, and trying my best to manage remote book correspondence and publicity while also working on things like this newsletter!

So, if I seem a bit frazzled today, it’s because I am. I knew I would be; I feared this period of Book Time. I knew I’d make it through, and I did. Not only did I make it through, but I had a ton of fun: the events, uniformly, went great. I got to talk to so many people enthusiastic about Failure to Comply, including college acquaintances and authors I knew of but had never met. I never expected strangers and old friends alike to show up for me, and yet they did, and continue to do so. There is very little as rewarding as realizing that, for all the community I knew I had, I actually had even more. The book was like a dowsing rod, drawing the connections to my surface.

What’s next? Well, back in Davis, I’m hoping to do a few events (times and details TBD). Then, in November, I’ll be at NWSA in Detroit, MI, and in the surrounding time I’ll be in Chicago, Denver, and Madison, WI for more Failure to Comply events! If you have a spot you’d like me to visit, feel free to reach out. Exhaustion notwithstanding, I really do want to bring the book as many places as possible.

Also, semi-related, manywor(l)ds (now over a year old!) opens for general submissions tomorrow, September 1st, through Halloween. Hit us up with your weird stuff!

In the meantime, if you want to support me, consider getting a paid subscription to this newsletter (or making a one-time payment of $10+ for my full chapbook catalog), buying Failure to Comply, reviewing it on Goodreads and Storygraph, and requesting it at your local bookstores and libraries. Also, contact me if you’re interested in a review/interview. Thanks, and sorry for being all-business this time around!

(*I don’t like reifying the whole introvert/extrovert binary, but the introvert shoe, alas, fits me like a Cinderella slipper. Forgive me!)

Now, onto the recommendations.