Hauntings, Bookstores, and a Cat

Dear Friend,

I’ve been in swimming in words. Reading them. Writing them. It feels like something has been set right in me—while also needing to say that it’s been a hard winter on every front. I’ve been sick continuously for one. Had my first sinus infection in a year just recently and wanted to kick rocks rather than deal with it the growing re-engagement with doctors and procedures my body seems to demand. It’s been stupid cold and icy. My body is worn out.

At a recent writing convention, I met two people who were there when the officer murdered Renee Good. Who called 911 and witnessed when the EMTs weren’t allowed near her body till it was too late.

As war on Iran continues, as destruction on synagogues in the USA continue, I grow afraid when I drop my kid off at daycare or I go to the gym. While not Jewish, my life is bound up in the well being of the Jewish community in my city.

A friend is being bullied for a public prayer she read for Gaza.

This letter exists in those waters as well. What are these places, spaces, and texts that have nurtured me towards word counts and many project ideas? Marking them feels worthwhile.

A friend celebrated a major career milestone and I dropped off champagne. “We need to keep noting the reasons to celebrate,” she said.

So I am.

Love,

Dana

Links to book titles in this email link to Bookshop purchases will support Common Ground Books in Tallahassee, Florida, a necessary queer voice located in the literal shadow of the Florida Department of Education.

HubCity in Spartansburg, SC

A magical publisher, writing center, and bookstore. Super dreamy curation. The only indie place I’ve ever been where you can buy Heated Rivalry and the Bible at the same time (The South is a trip) (I had a North Georgia accent till I was 10yo so I get to say that).

Purchased:

• Home Schooled by Stefan Merrill. MY PEOPLE HAVE ENTERED THE CHAT. It was only a matter of time before the homeschoolers started writing and publishing our stories. No two of us had the same experience (as is standard among humans—but it is even more so when our learning is shaped so strongly by our diverse families and local geographies.

Common Ground in Tallahasee, FL

A queer bookstore in the literal shadow of the Florida Department of Education (which is housed in a sky scraper? I dunno. Fl is weird). SAY GAY ALL DAY. Even got invited into a photo shoot with NOH8? I don’t even know. It was fun.

Purchased:

• Praying with Jane Eyre: A Reflection on Sacred Reading Practices by Vanessa Zoltan of Common Ground Pilgrimages

• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Midtown Reader and Piebrary in Tallahasse, FL

Yes they sell pie. And like dogs. And have a beautiful kids section. I loved it and wish I could have hung out for hours.

Purchased:

• Not that Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay. Super cool edition. I can’t pass up a small print. And I just love how Roxane curates.

Romance is ON… or maybe not?

Joined the Culture Study romance book club because I want to read alongside others and expand beyond what surfaces as the most popular in the tiktoks.

But I’m not always loving what I’m reading. The genre, as I’ve experienced it thus far, can start to blur together. There is a repetitive writing voice that appears in very different types of romance books; it can feel like playing with paper dolls rather than full people. I think I’m hungry for a more complex interior to the characters? Or I’m reading the books too quickly?

In any case, for the first time since high school, I’ve read more fiction than nonfiction at this point in the year. WHO AM I?

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The greatest book no one ever recommended to me! Interiority of the main character via close 3rd that feels almost like Virginia Woolf. I’d seen the tv show and was not prepared for how different it was and how much I enjoyed it on its own terms.

(and WHAT ABOUT THAT COVER?!)

Here’s what I say it’s about: a house trying to “eat” the vulnerable inhabitants by—via the one case study we get through close 3rd of Nelle—tempting them to return to the lives that entrapped them prior to their arrival. In Nelle’s case, one of caregiving and compliance to female normativity under patriarchy.

In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

Inhaled it in a day. There’s a reason this book has been everywhere since it was published. Though I did have to help Barnes and Noble shelve it correctly when I found it in the haunted fiction section.

Written in short scenes, this tells the story of entering, surviving, and exiting a relationship. Each scene/story is told as a “genre” or form. And many have footnotes that indicate classic folklore tropes.

Extraneous details that don’t really matter but delighted me:

• she gets into powerlifting in the aftermath of the relationship (yes please!)

• she is a Dr. Who fan and references a complex plot sequence from the Matt Smith era (the era that sustained me 2013-2014).

ps going on a pilgrimage that Carmen is leading in May. Rebecca was the book of my pandemic so getting to read a haunted house novel that blew my mind from the writer of THE haunted house memoir… yes please.

I was so anxious about going to this. I scraped a 20 page sample together for the workshop. My application was over the word count. I hadn’t been in a workshop setting since grad school in 2016. I couldn’t sleep going in.

And it was wonderful.

I enjoyed the other writers and their work. I was impressed by how the workshops were facilitated. I loved being in a small group of 5 and going deep on each piece.

Workshop led by Emma Copley Eisenberg . Many inventive maps of our essays were drawn on whiteboards.

Craft talk by martha park who you may remember as the author of one of my favorite books from last year, World Without End.

The hosts at HubCity were so lovely and considerate. Made sure I had plenty of gf snacks and water for my tea, not just coffee.

Childcare by my sisters. NONE OF THIS HAPPENS WITHOUT A LOVING TEAM. (Robbie was in CA for some family health stuff)

And the true test of a workshop: did the writing change? Yes! I am done with my next version of the personal essay on endometriosis.

It was sunny! And warm! To a beleagured Pennsylvanian at least!

This event makes as much sense filling an airport terminal with writers and then telling us not to be anxious while we try to move around. Eep!

You can’t tell me convention centers aren’t just airport terminals without the airplanes. Not designed for the human body’s optimal comfort and well being—just designed for the maximum number of bodies and not always working well for that either.

But the event was a reminder that so much of relationship-ing is sustained in micro interactions. A minute of a “hello” and “how are you?” rekindles old enthusiasms. I saw the writer/professor who was on my Masters committee just wandering around the book fair. I visited my freshman year writing professor as he signed his latest novel. I saw a peer (superior to me in every way) at her reading and on a panel. These aren’t “friendships”. They aren’t “acquaintances”. These are professional in context and execution. But there is still joy and warmth here that I was delighted to invest in.

Technically there with dance/writer friend Beth but she writes fiction and I write nonfiction so we might as well have been on different planets. Did finally attend the same panel in the very last hour!