Yes you can

Question. And that's if only I can ask this question. Can I?*

YES YOU CAN!**

Are you free Saturday night? That's my question. Because I would like to cordially invite you to Indy Reads Books on Mass Ave. in Indianapolis. I'll be reading some words at A NIGHT OF WORDS, 7:30 p.m., with UIndy student Elise Campagna. It should be fun. You should come.

*De la Soul lyric

**Reference to Tribe Called Quest lyric within De la Soul lyric***

***Which samples all these other songs, beautifully, including one by Lou Reed, who is referenced all the time, especially this week (RIP).

Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize

Alice Munro: DEAR LIFE. God, isn't it? #fridayreads

— Sarah Layden (@calmoots) April 27, 2013

Uncovering...the cover!

Forthcoming from Engine Books, early 2015.

No. 1 Comedy Duo

The other night, I was setting up the humidifier in our bedroom to combat a little cold. I'm bonking into the (open) closet doors, negotiating my way around the bed, trying not to knock over the Pack n' Play, which we still use in our room for the baby's naps. Space is at a premium these days.

Husband: It's like trying to set up a humidifier in a clown car.
Me: Clowns can get congested.
Husband: Yeah, all that powdery makeup.

Thank you! We'll be here all week! Try the veal!

Forthcoming

What a great word.

Especially when in reference to a book. Mine, that is. I am falling-down thrilled that Engine Books will publish my debut novel, TRIP THROUGH YOUR WIRES, with a launch date tentatively scheduled for February 2015.

This is the novel-formerly-known-as. Read my Next Big Thing post if you want to know more. But I'm training myself on the new title, so it's Voldemort City from here on out.

Did I skywrite the news, or bark a cheer into a bullhorn from the roof of my single-story dwelling? I did not. But those were things that crossed my mind as options, when I imagined what would happen upon the novel's acceptance. I think I'm still kind of processing that this is actually happening. So skywriting/bullhorns aren't out of the question, but they'll most likely occur later. Or my tweets/Facebook status updates will have served as their equivalents.

(I just tried to copy/paste a bit of blog code, and the whole True/False section of the Humanities literature exam I was writing earlier filled the screen. File under: moments you are glad didn't happen in class.)

Forthcoming. A book. My book.

Just the facts

We went on vacation. We drove many miles. We came home and ate taquitos. My oldest friend had a baby. We met him in the hospital. While we were there the security company called and said our alarm was going off. We tried to race home but a slow truck got in our way. We yelled expletives. We honked the horn. The children laughed with glee. At home there was no sign of forced entry. Last time there was forced entry. The house appeared ransacked but it was just the work of toddlers. Nothing was missing. No one was under the bed. The security company said there wasn't a glitch on their end. I did a little laundry but the washer is unbalanced and spun out. Our towels still smell like sunscreen and I don't want to go to sleep. Ten days of so-so sleeping in the same room as the noisily breathing babies and I want them in our room again. The glitch was not on their end, they said.

It's like fireworks, baby

The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing is a blog hop, a chance for writers all over the world to talk about what they're working on. When you’re tagged, you answer ten questions about your next book or story, link to the person who tagged you, then tag 3-5 other writers.

I was tagged by Barb Shoup, writer and advocate extraordinaire. I like to refer to her as my literary fairy godmother. (Read her Next Big Thing post here.) And while you're at it, read An American Tune, Barb's new novel from IU Press. Great stuff.

Check out a post here from Sarah White, an excellent writer and all-around person.

Now, the questions...

What is your working title of your book? Sleeping Woman

(NEW TITLE IN THE WORKS! 8/31/13)

Where did the idea come from for the book? When I started my MFA program at Purdue University, I knew I wanted to try to write a novel for my thesis, though I didn't know yet what I'd write about. In my second semester, I began a very short story told in second person, a "you" who becomes very sick while traveling abroad and is sent home. That short piece became a chapter, and ultimately the "you," once a man, turned into a she: Carey Halpern, the main character. Her physical ailments were revised out in later drafts, and it turned out that her real sickness was grief over her boyfriend's murder.

What genre does your book fall under? Literary fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? When my sister read a draft a few years ago, she pictured James Franco as Ben. And look, if this is fantasy, I'll just go ahead and cast Jennifer Lawrence as Carey. Now that she's done blockbusters, perhaps she'll be looking for some indie work. For Mike: Matt Damon circa Good Will Hunting.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Indianapolis native Carey Halpern buries her grief and guilt deep inside when her boyfriend is murdered in Mexico during her junior year abroad; seven years later, her new job among recent immigrants, a familiar stranger online, and a break in the murder case force her to confront the role Ben played in her life – and the role she played in his death.

Do you have a publisher for your book yet? Not yet. It has come close a few times at places both big and small, which by turns gives me dyspepsia and encourages me to keep trying.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? About 2 1/2 years. I estimate that I've written about six or seven more drafts since then.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Trick question. My work is completely original! But, if you like X, you will love Sleeping Woman! How's this: some books I found helpful while working on this novel were The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Don Quixote by Cervantes, Birds of America by Lorrie Moore, You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers, and Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott. Also, Susan Minot’s Evening, Tom McCarthy’s Remainder, Kate Atkinson’s Started Early, Took My Dog and Case Histories. For starters.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? The summer between my junior and senior years of high school, I studied in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. It was life-changing, as these experiences are, and I often found myself returning in memory to that trip, particularly a side visit we made to the medieval city of Guanajuato. When I moved back to Indiana for my MFA, I was amazed at how much the Hispanic population had grown in Indianapolis. My study abroad experience came back to me instantly, though my Spanish was a little rusty. The changes in Indy -- and the way memory changes as you look back -- became topics I was interested in exploring.

A few of us from the exchange program recently reunited, and I found myself caught again between the memory of things that happened, and how other people remembered the same events. Small things, small differences, but still important ones. I returned to Mexico in 2005 to research the novel; much had changed, but there were some things I was surprised to remember wholly. They're in the book.

Guanajuato, GTO, Mexico

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest? There's a lot that people might relate to. Things like coping with a senseless death. Understanding yourself and your place in the world. Navigating language and cultural barriers, both at home and abroad. The electronic miscommunications that occurred in the mid-1990s -- the early days of the Internet and e-mail. Tourism, photography, and being socially aware. Immigration and all its risks.

The issues of immigration, forged documents, and illegal drugs are woven into the novel. Last October, The Indianapolis Star reported a record marijuana bust of more than 5.25 tons in an Indianapolis warehouse. The drugs came from a Mexican cartel. Immigration continues to be a hot-button topic, both locally and nationally, as Latinos are the fastest-growing group in the United States. Indianapolis’s Latino population (based on the city’s West side, the setting in the novel) grew 70 percent from 2000-2005; that’s more than any other group. American tourism in Mexico has plummeted, largely due to fears of drug-related violence.

These are current problems, and there are also evergreen themes: loss, grief, regret, and what to do with love when one’s intended will not or cannot accept it.

Surveillance

1. Living in a surveilled society usually puts me on edge, on guard, at the very least wishing I'd employed a comb before leaving the house; I see cameras and screens and think that we are trapped, and we are, on monitors in color or black and white, depending.

2. Today I looked at surveillance video from Monday's Boston Marathon bombing, the two suspects who looked young, like kids (8 year old among the dead, and I can't even let my brain visit that subject, no, I can't, the gap-toothed smile, the birthday hat), wearing caps and backpacks and loping lankily down the sidewalk, and me and my husband speculating on their story, their reason, their M.O., the stories upon stories we are creating from what we see on this screen, the one in our house that shows people from another place on another screen.

3. The cameras did what they were supposed to do, but not in time to prevent. Only to punish.

4. When I enter the grocery store, I look up and see myself on the security camera's screen. I always make eye contact with myself. I imagine this footage of me needing to be released, because this is the footage we see of people, sometimes. Smiling or unaware or sniffing kumquats, being ordinary, being alive. We are being watched, but I want it to be known, now and later if it becomes necessary: I'm watching, too. You, whoever you are, viewing from another location: I cannot see you but I know you're there.

5. Forget obsolete videotape in the digital world: now what we waste is time. How much footage have we sifted through, how many moments must we relive only to discard them? We rewind and fast-forward and make judgement calls about what these images are worth, these images as people were and no longer are, soaked in dumb beauty and exaggerated humanity, o the lives we will never get back.

Listomania

Which is like Lisztomania, as well as Lisztomania. I would like someone to make a list/liszt out of any of the items on this list, in the style of an Onion infographic. Please and thank you.

1. Who's Hiding the Travel Coffee Mug Lids?

2. What Happened to the Leftover Birthday Cake?

3. Why Are We So Angry?

4. Snow in March: Lament of the Crocuses

5. It is Spring, and Other Lies

6. What Bodily Fluids Are We Wearing this Season on Our Unwashed Fleece Sweatshirts?

7. Who Are We Running Into While Wearing Our Fleece Sweatshirts to the Chinese Takeout Place?

8. Sweatshirts: A Love Affair

9. Who Are We Rooting For?

10. If I Could Eat Lunch All Over Again, I'd Order Breakfast