The Things That Save You
On...how the heck are ya, book news and forthcoming interviews
I’m sorry to be so quiet of late. Or maybe you’re glad to have one less voice in the noise of the world right now. I don’t know about you but lately my brain feels like it’s under constant information assault. Is my nervous system just getting more sensitive with age? Are my neurotransmitters like rusty gears, able to translate less cognitive perception than before? Is there simply more of, too much of…everything?
In all the digital places someone is always shouting. Then the world’s pain is filtered on a livestream all at once into the singular pinpoints of our minds and who can withstand that any more than bodies cannot withstand bombs?
We write our letters, make our calls, sing our songs, thrust our bodies out into action and then collapse into screens and cups and beds.
Sometimes you really do just have to Pause. It. All. (Briefly, of course. We have to stay in action).
In my silence, I’ve been finishing a book due to publish next year. Promoting other books. Reading books. Navigating a work merger as two companies become one. These things can feel either intensely meaningful or tediously meaningless depending on the context. In the face of greater harm, sometimes it seems like nothing matters. Other times, these are the things that save us.
What saves me is the prodigious art and scholarship of artists and writers who have always found a way to do so during the bleakest of times. What saves me are community actions where people come together and speak out. What saves me is art, my niece and nephew, my son and his music, and people who know how to take down fascism.
Books I’ve loved lately:
The Body is a Doorway, Sophie Strand
Soft Core, Brittany Newell
Reading now: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor and From Dictatorship to Democracy, by Gene Sharp
What are the things that save you? Where are you finding tendrils of joy and resistance? Is it spring where you are? Are you pulled to the pink cups of magnolias appearing like magic in your ‘hood? Are you distracted by sparrows feeding from trees? Are you missing the crystalline edge of winter, or craving the rougher heat of summer? Are you cheering on bold and powerful activists or penning potent missives to your leaders? Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. Look for more of it.
Stay tuned for some interviews soon with Umi Vaughan, Shannon Luders-Manuel and Cindy Lamothe!!
Otherwise, latest news:
Women in Red now has a cover! It releases from Sibylline Press on May 2nd! Pre-orders available soon.
New Events Added On the Fallout Book Tour…
APRIL
FALLOUT LAUNCH PARTY!! Saturday, April 26, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Fallout book launch party at Margarita’s restaurant in Morgan Hill, CA, sponsored by BookSmart of Morgan Hill.
MAY
Sebastopol Lit Crawl: May 17, 12-6
Book Passage: Saturday, May 31, Jordan in conversation with author Nina Schuyler (author of In This Ravishing World): Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA. 1-2:30 p.m. PT.
JUNE
Bay Area Book Festival: Sun June 1. Bay Area Book Festival, signing at the Sibylline Books Booth
Annie Bloom’s Books: Thursday, June 12, 7pm PT. Jordan in conversation with Michael Keefe, author of All Her Loved Ones, Encoded. Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland, OR.
Gallery Books. Thursday June 26, 7 pm. Gallery Books, Mendocino.
JULY
Trident Booksellers: Tuesday July 29, 6:30 p.m. Trident Booksellers, Boulder, CO. In conversation with Steven Dunn, author of Tannery Bay (with Katie Jean Shinkle), Potted Meat and Water + Power.
SEPTEMBER
Readers Books: Weds, September 10, 6pm. Readers’ Books, Sonoma, CA. Writing at the Root. In conversation with Rebecca Lawton, author of What I Never Told You.
Central Coast Writers Conference, September 26-27.
OCTOBER
Elk Grove Writers Conference. 9am. October 25. Elk Grove, California.
LitQuake. October 25. More details to come!
This sounds so corny, but your book release and various events are one of the things keeping me going. Yes, this is the first thing I am listing because it's the last thing I just read before this comment, but it is true. All of those events are a chance for community, feeling hope and connection. A sign that there are still people reading and caring about ideas and thoughts and art.
My dog and my spouse keep me going daily. Our morning walks and breakfast talks. British TV shows. Sundays with my dad. Our writing group. The music always playing in my kitchen. Funny podcasts always playing in my car. Being able to lose myself in a book. And it sounds kind of dark, though it's also literal, but the fact that I have healthcare which has saved my life multiple times.
All perfectly said. What saves me is the sound of my children (21 and 22) talking and laughing and bonding, friendships such as ours, and not letting go of hope for the future. Love you