Monthly Newsletter: Dancing on the Ashes for May

Dear Beautiful Readers with Excellent Taste in Newsletters (and those are very fashionable sweats you’re wearing, I might add),

We’re two thirds of the way through May. Know what that means? Nothing. It’s 2020. Nic Pizzolatto was/is/will be right: “Time is a flat circle.” 

Lotsa’ Good Stuff:

In just a few days, on Tuesday the 26th, William Schreiber’s Someone to Watch Over, will launch. As I mentioned last month, it’s a wonderful story about family and redemption which gets lumped into the unfortunately named category “Women’s Fiction.” Sorry, dudes, but women read more fiction in just about every genre; it’s all “Women’s Fiction.” But then, calling Bill’s book “Literary Fiction” tells you next to nothing about it, either. We need better descriptors. 

But how far away is Tuesday the 26th? An eternity? The blink of an eye? Ask Bill Schreiber how far off that feels to him. I don’t understand time anymore.

Claudine Griggs’ Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, an LGBTQ crime thriller (see, that actually tells you something!) will launch on June 1st, the first day of Pride Month. I have a big plan to celebrate Pride this year, not just because of Claudine’s book, but to honor my LGBTQ family, friends, and students. Keep an eye out for my posts on twitter, Facebook, or Instagram that day. I think it will be … memorable.

Last month I shared the first chapter of one of the books I’m writing, tentatively titles Ellipsis Between Worlds. I posted Chapter 2 today. Check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks to author Steve Davala for some good suggestions after Chapter 1 that are already shaping the rest of the novel, and thanks to my girlfriend, Sandra, for making sure I continue writing it. Being with someone who wants to read everything I write has been excellent for my productivity!

Tweet from someone you should consider following

I’m still riding high on this tweet from Roxane Gay (@rgay):

I love that you responded this way. It means so much to me.

— roxane gay (@rgay) April 25, 2020

But another great follow is Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett). He’s the lead singer of The Airborne Toxic Event, the author of a forthcoming memoir Hollywood Park, and one of the most incisive voices on our current political reality. For example:

Ok how about this:

No more billionaires. None.

After you reach $999 million, every red cent goes to schools and health care.

You get a trophy that says, “I won capitalism” and we name a dog park after you.

— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) March 22, 2020

Monthly Poem

My girlfriend reminded me I hadn’t written her a poem in a while, so I wrote this for her that same night. Was I showing off? Yes! I want to impress her!

On Demand

Someone cannot reasonably expect

A poem to appear at their request.

There is a process one must show respect

Like coming to an interview well dressed.

Your one justification is quite fair.

I did use poems early on to woo.

But shall I to a summer’s day compare

You in some hastily scribbled haiku?

Or tell a joke through a limerick’s lines?

Sestinas lead to madness as they scheme,

And sonnets often struggle to find rhymes,

While villanelles are harder than they seem.

But this unjust demand I can excuse

Since you have volunteered to be my muse. 

Book recommendation

I’m a big fan of N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth series, and this month I read her newest novel, The City We Became, a love letter to New York mixed with a superhero story mixed with H.P. Lovecraft twisted back on his own racist ass to represent gentrification and systemic racism. It’s a fantastic ride and as sharp as all the angles in New York. 

Announcements/reminders

Last month I encouraged you to sign up for our Writing Against the Darkness Team. On the longest day of the year, June 20th, we’re going to participate in The Alzheimer’s Associations annual The Longest Day fundraiser by writing from dawn to dusk. The team is growing! We might not be getting together in person this year, but this is the perfect opportunity to do some good for the world from home, and doing good is a great way to maintain your own mental health, so please consider it. Find out more and sign up HERE.

Sign off

I’ll keep sending you flowers every day (digitally, through Instagram and twitter and FB) to try to bring some added beauty into your life. Have a great Pride Month … in five years, when next month arrives. 

-Ben

Sponsored section

No sponsors yet, so if you have a friend who wants to reach a few hundred of the very best people, tell them to contact me. I think I’ll do the first one free just so folks can see that I really do post them. Got something you want to advertise for free?

To sign up to receive this newsletter in your email each month, go HERE