Ten things I found while searching for the mean postcard from a famous priest*

1. A box of journals I chose not to open, because THAR BE WORMS, MATEY, in that thar can. Ain't got time for worms tonight. 

2. An article for a news writing class, covering campus reaction to the O.J. Simpson verdict in 1995. I included a quote in which one student called the trial "a fucking farce," because college. Glaring error: I didn't use Nicole's last name on first reference.

3. Grades for the library science classes I took while trying to find a path, post-college. Books, yes, but not as a librarian. Solid A- Library Science student, what what.

4. A printed email conversation with my dear friend, following my rejection from an MFA program, with the subject line: YOU ARE ACCEPTED. I'd also written her with my mother's comment about the form letter rejection: "You'd think a creative writing program could come up with something a little more creative!"

5. A piece of writing for a class in undergrad, with the following line: "As a teenager, I was too uncomfortable with myself to allow others to be comfortable with me." That seems insightful for that time in my life.

6. Black and white photos I took for a community college photography class, while trying to figure out my path. My baby-faced husband, working at his desk with a pencil behind one ear. My sister with her ex. Two teenage boys in hoodies on the back of a park bench, on a freezing Syracuse night, who said "Sure," when I asked to take their photo.

7. A rather snide reference to a band I was (favorably) reviewing for the campus magazine, calling them "a bunch of middle-aged men from Ohio." Let the record show that even though I was trying to say the band really WAS cool, this now-middle-aged woman from Indiana is mortified.

8. Several pieces of writing that repeat the same thought: I want to write books. I want to write things that matter to people. I don't want to exist without leaving something behind.

9. Short stories I scarcely remember, which were my first attempts at writing fiction. They are simultaneously terrible and not that bad, as things can sometimes be.

10. A binder full of instruction sheets from line dancing class, which I signed up for while trying to figure out my path. Kick-ball-change, kick-ball-change. It's a path, of sorts. Keep moving: sometimes backward, sometimes sideways, and sometimes, when the steps line up right, forward.



*It was a Berrigan. I'm not sure which one. I read about Daniel Berrigan's death and went looking for the postcard. One of the Berrigans -- more than likely Jerry, who lived in Syracuse -- took issue with an article I'd written for The Post-Standard. I'm not sure which article. And probably the postcard wasn't mean but critical, and potentially educative. But when you are 23? Well. I hope I find the postcard. I'll read it objectively after almost twenty years, and many, many writing critiques.

Mythic Indy

Cool thing in the world: You can support Second Story with the Mythic Indy anthology, a fantastic collection created by Corey Michael Dalton. Thrilled to have a story included! The launch party is tomorrow, Feb. 5, in Fountain Square for First Friday.

More details on this fine looking book, which come from the mythmakers themselves, and more specifically, from Clint Smith's website. (Thanks, Clint!)

“Mythic Indy is an anthology of weird stories set in Indianapolis that will benefit the programs of Second Story to introduce Indianapolis-area kids to creative writing. We have the stories. We have the kids. Now we need your help.
The 33 Mythic Indy stories were originally compiled by former Saturday Evening Post associate editor Corey Michael Dalton and published at Punchnels.com. Some are hilarious. Some are frightening. Some are moving. Each is written by one of Indiana’s top contemporaries writers, including:

• Ben H. Winters, the author of several New York Times best-selling novels including Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and The Last Policeman trilogy.
• Maurice Broaddus, who wrote an original story set in the world of his Knights of Breton Court novels specifically for the anthology.
• Sarah Layden, whose debut novel Trip Through Your Wires is currently receiving rave reviews from outlets like The Chicago Tribune.
• Clint Smith, author of Ghouljaw and Other Stories, whose short story “Dirt on Vicky” is slated for inclusion in the Best New Horror No. 26 anthology.
• Eliza Tudor, whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Hobart, PANK, Annalemma, specs, Weave, and Paper Darts.
• Laura VanArendonk Baugh, best-selling and award-winning author of numerous stories and books including Kitsune-Tsuki, Smoke and Fears, and So to Honor Him.
• Annie Sullivan, a graduate of Butler’s MFA program whose novel manuscript, Goldilocks, won the Luminis Books Award at the Midwest Writers Workshop.
• Alex Mattingly, whose work has been published in numerous journals including PANK, Annalemma, Midwestern Gothic, and Flywheel.

(Other distinguished contributors include Jay Lesandrini, Hugh Vandivier, R. Wolf Baldassaro, Jim Thompson, Maggie Wheeler, Maria Cook, Austin Wilson, Zach Roth, Ryan Everett Felton, Robin Lovelace, Robert Morse, Virginia M. Sanders, Caroline Divish, Jason Roscoe, Ken Honeywell, David S. Chang, Jason de Koff, Dawn Fable, Carrie Gaffney, Kevin McKelvey, Traci Cumbay, Matt Jager, John Beeler, and Robin Beery.)”

Trip Through Your Wires: The Audiobook

Coming soon in 2016! Read all about it at Perfect Mix Studios. 

 

 

 

When Your Bookstore Purchases Potentially Cancel Out Your Sales

My novel, Trip Through Your Wires, launched in March 2015, and since then I've learned that touring a book takes stamina. Touring with kids takes double that energy. Still, it was a wonderful experience for my husband and me to introduce the boys to new places and bookstores across various states. And when I traveled alone, I felt compelled to bring a little something back. 

So, a brief photo essay: Some favorite souvenirs from book tour, or: Things I Bought on the Road While Selling My Own Thing. #breakingeven  #badatmath  #buymorebooks

Souvenirs modeled by my children, the recipients of quite a few of these purchases. 

Handmade knitted Ninja Turtle hats/masks from one of the Missoula, Montana farmers markets; I counted three. This awesome vendor had the boys' favorites - Donatello, Raphael - in stock. Above the piano is a picture I took with my phone on the last day of the Montana Book Festival. I was shooting between the holes in a fence on a pedestrian bridge. 

We brought the kids to my reading at Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, N.Y., my husband's hometown. They picked out these superhero gems -- perhaps you are noticing a trend about the interests of three and five year olds?

Browsing Ben McNally Books in Toronto, The Bus Ride by Marianne Dubuc caught my eye. I also picked up All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews for myself, on the recommendation of Ben himself. (Heartbreaking while being hilarious, and worth the read.)

 

A puzzle of favorite book Steam Train Dream Train. Sold! At City Lit Books in Chicago.

Miraculously, I bought this in June and saved it until Christmas. Also possible: I forgot I bought it and rediscovered it at an opportune time. 

 A bit of a desperation gift at the AWP Conference in Minneapolis: a pair of pens purchased at the hotel gift shop, along with $11 traveler's eye drops. But a popular and useful item nonetheless.

 

Gotta love a freebie DOGS beer cozie from Buzzfeed Books' Isaac Fitzgerald (with me, left), at the AWP Bookfair. Modeled by husband, right, featuring Sun King Wee Mac, and some bagels atop the fridge. I think I've just found the title for my memoir of middle age: Still Life with Beer, Bagels. Just playin'. Am about to go for walk.

Speaking of free. The best part of this whole book tour for Trip Through Your Wires was connecting with readers, reconnecting with old friends, and getting to share it all with my awesome and supportive family. 

Barnes & Noble Cleveland

Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo

 Thank you, one and all. Peace, love, and appreciation to you in 2016. 

Local Author Day, B&N Noblesville

On Sunday, Dec. 6, I'll be at Barnes & Noble Noblesville from 1-3 for Local Author Day. Happy to sign books, chat, have coffee, etc. etc.

Things I will NOT be doing, but may have done lately:

-Listen to a child in a car scream-chant "I want a drink of water RIGHT NOW" for a half-hour.

-Slice my thumb on a cheese grater. (Did you know shredded cheese may have wood chip filler in it?)

-Bake banana bread

-Buy janky dollar store solar-powered candlelights for the front windows

-Make a peanut butter sandwich dinner alternative that is described by its young eater as "a little sour"

-Yoga (hi Barb!)

-High skipping reminiscent of Ye Olde Volleyball Drills, on the Monon Trail, when nobody else was around (I hope)

-Stress-eat my kids' Halloween candy while grading

-Get a charley horse while situating a child on a rest stop potty

See you here? http://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780061746839-0

September to remember

Labor Day seems so long ago, and it was not quite a month back that I traveled to Bloomington, IN for a reading of TRIP THROUGH YOUR WIRES at Boxcar Books. Happily, I was joined by IU creative writing professor Elizabeth Eslami (author of HIBERNATE and BONE WORSHOP).

My cousin and his wife had me to dinner, along with two of my dear high school friends who live in town. Laughing, eating, and telling stories with my friends and family made me much less nervous to read. I pretty much always get nervous before I read.

Hard to say what is happening with my forearm muscle in this photo, but I cannot take my eyes off of it. That particular muscle is STRONG. I have no idea why. Maybe from picking up children?

Here is Liz, reading an incredible short story from her prize-winning collection HIBERNATE:

Later in the month, I had the good fortune to travel to Missoula for The Montana Book Festival. It was a jam-packed weekend of readings, panels, and social events.

I just made it to my Friday afternoon panel with suitcase in tow (possible title for something: Things to Do in Denver When You're Delayed),  and had a great session with Montana mystery writers Leslie Budewitz and Christine Carbo. Our panel was titled, "The Writer, the Mirror, the Map: Mystery Writers Reflect on Identity, Murder and Place."

We had a great crowd & great questions during the Q&A, and the author reception after gave us a chance to chat with festival-goers. A very nice audience member with terrific orange glasses stopped me on the street later to invite me for a drink with her crew; she had some Indy ties and we chatted a bit about Jim Jones. Regretfully, I declined, as I was headed to the next event of the evening.

Sarah Hepola (BLACKOUT: REMEMBERING THE THINGS I DRANK TO FORGET) and Kate Bolick (SPINSTER: MAKING A LIFE OF ONE'S OWN) in conversation was a definite highlight for me. These two forty-something women discussed what they called the "bonus decade" of leisure time - remaining unmarried, without children - while figuring their lives out. Their candor inspired me, and they clearly connected over their subject matter, varied though it was.

Here is the back of my head, bottom right, with the featured authors, mid-conversation:

(This photo appeared on the Montana Book Festival's Facebook page. Festival photos were taken by Claire Kelly Fox and Anna Maria Lopez.)

Other highlights: Talking with booklovers and booksellers. Charles D'Ambrosio's reading. A panel on genre/literary fiction with J. Robert Lennon, Ben Parzybok, Shya Scanlon, and Sharma Shields.

I told Lennon how I'd given his book, MAILMAN, to my mailman, and how he'd enjoyed it. Later that evening, Lennon and I chatted about the story he read during his session, and high-fived in the Missoula VFW.

And here is my book, enjoying the beautiful weather, the "M" tiny on the hill in the background...

 ...which I later hiked to on Sunday morning. Pictures or it didn't happen:

 Subtitle for September: Gonna Make You Sweat. 

Will you think I'm a total freakazoid if I mention that I noticed someone at the festival bookfair picking up and buying my book, and I surreptitiously took a picture?

 

(I also have a close-up version. But I'm not THAT much of a freakazoid to post it here. Jeez.)

At the closing beer & music event, someone asked me my connection to the festival. I briefly mentioned TRIP THROUGH YOUR WIRES, which he immediately recognized. "My wife bought it," he said. "I think you met her. Orange glasses? She'll be here in a minute."

So I did get that drink with the kind woman and her husband after all. And after? On a whim, I took a pedestrian bridge across the railroad, and happened upon this lucky shot:

My last event of the month was this past Monday at Purdue University, where I received my MFA in fiction writing. The MFA program brought me and my fellow alum, James Tadd Adcox, to campus for a reading. It was an incredible experience.

Super grateful that program director Brian Leung brought us to campus; coordinator Samantha Atkins anticipated our every planning need. Great conversation at dinner beforehand, and a lovely party afterward at thrown by Roxane Gay.

My former professor, Sharon Solwitz, introduced us and showered us with love, and I was reminded of the power of her mentorship. "Are you writing?" she asks, as if inquiring about my health. In a way, she is. This is a woman lauded in Best American Short Stories with a new novel coming from Random House. "What are you working on?" she asks. "How are revisions? How's the family?"

All my Purdue professors gave me great teaching models to aspire to. They shared such excitement for me and Tadd about our first novels (Tadd's is DOES NOT LOVE), and thanked us over and over again for coming to speak to MFA students and do a reading. I wasn't surprised by their kindness or gratitude, but I do have to say, emphatically, seriously, often: No, thank YOU.

That goes for everyone I had the chance to meet and reconnect with this September. When I was scheduling, three events in four weeks didn't seem like a lot. I had no idea how full -- how fulfilling -- September would be. Thank you.


*Closing credits, cue Earth Wind & Fire*

 

IUPUI Parking Services and I Are in Love

In Which I Post Links to Places Where You Can Review My Novel...

...should you be the kind of reader who likes posting reviews. The book is called TRIP THROUGH YOUR WIRES. I think you might like it.

So if you have the time and the inclination, here are a sampling of sites that offer readers the chance to provide their two cents, each handily linked to my book page: 

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads (I'm giving away four copies of TTYW through the end of August. Find it here.)

Powell's Books

Strand Books (also has signed copies!)


Note: If we are personally acquainted/related, and you haven't read my book yet: IT IS SO TOTALLY FINE. I love you. I'm glad you bought it/want to read it/gave it a passing thought. Stop skulking around like I'm going to give a quiz, and pass the guacamole, for the love of Pete.

2nd Note: If we are NOT personally acquainted/related, and you have read my book: I seriously love you. In a totally platonic and appropriate way. It is still a little unbelievable to me that complete strangers or friends of friends and book clubs (!) are reading the dang thing. I sometimes wondered if the novel would only ever exist in my own head. And now it's in other readers' heads, too, via the page/screen. Maybe through osmosis? However you got it, I'm glad you did.

That said, I know that reviews and recommendations matter to people. They're more likely to check out a book that has been read and reviewed by others. (Says one Goodreads reviewer of TTYW: "I didn't really know what to expect of this one, since it doesn't have too many reviews yet, but I'm glad I took a chance on it, anyway. I first heard of it through Largehearted Boy's Book Notes feature, which is how I have discovered many other under-the-radar books.")

You can also just click a button for a starred rating. The lovely person above opted for 4/5 stars, and for that I am grateful.

Now back to your hammock reading, with thanks to Andrea for this picture.

     

   

Goodreads Giveaway of TRIP THROUGH YOUR WIRES

Party people, by which I mean book people, by which I mean those who like stories (that would be all of us. No, really): enter to win one of four free copies of my debut novel, TRIP THROUGH YOUR WIRES. I got free coffee and a donut today; maybe today is your lucky day for free stuff, too?
xo,
SL

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          Trip Through Your Wires
     

     

          by Sarah Layden
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends August 31, 2015.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     

   

   

    Enter Giveaway

Summer Reads: Trip Through Your Wires and The Girl on the Train

Some very kind readers of Trip Through Your Wires have compared the book to this summer's bestseller, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

The last one isn't about TGOTT, but does make a train reference I like. What can I say? It's all Thomas and Chuggington up in my house. Trains are the best. Except when Brother knocks them all off the table, which totally just happened. Other Brother was very cross, to use the parlance of Thomas. 

Many thanks to those who have read and reviewed TTYW on Goodreads. I haven't read The Girl on the Train yet; I'm on the IMCPL hold list, which looks like this:

I am now up to number 288 of 477 on the list, because I am a vee eye pee. I am patient, is the real answer. Sometimes.

Library patrons and math whizzes alike will note that Trip Through Your Wires has a much shorter wait time. You could be No. 7 on the list if you place your hold today. Librarians are standing by:

It's thrilling to me to see my book listed -- with holds! -- in my library system. If your local library doesn't have it, you can request it, either in person or online, depending on the place. I would love to see my novel in more libraries, & to increase access to readers. Libraries are among my favorite places on earth. Today I got to be an Art Monster (see: Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation) and sat at a library table, researching and piling up books to read and movies to watch. Letting my curiosity guide me. Writing, and researching, and writing some more. Summer is restorative that way. 

Can't wait to read TGOTT, once my hold comes in. May your summer reads arrive speedily.