M.L. Rio's Blog, page 4

Folger Shakespeare Library April Book Club Events

We have a very busy April on the books (it is, after all, the month of Shakespeare’s birth and death) and I’m excited to share that If We Were Villains is the Folger Shakespeare Library’s book club pick. I’ll be participating in a virtual discussion with the book club on Thursday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. ET. You can register to attend here. I’ll also be joining director Michael Witmore for a conversation as part of the Virtually Everything series, available only to library members, at 5:30 p.m....

Ides of March Goodreads Giveaway

Great news: in honor of the Ides of March, we’ve partnered with Goodreads to host a giveaway of 100 US ebooks of If We Were Villains. You can enter here through March 25th.

May the Bard be with you.

M

Updated Events Page

Hi everyone,

Please forgive me for the long delay in posting! I have no better excuse than being overwhelmed with work and life in general. Today’s Reddit AMA reminded me that it’s been far too long since I updated the events page of this website, which I have now done! More to come, but in the meantime you can find a link to this afternoon’s AMA, as well as upcoming appearances.

Hope to see you soon.

Xx M

Special Signed Hardback Available for Pre-Order

I’m back after a long hiatus with some very exciting news: this October, Titan Books will be releasing a special, signed hardback edition of If We Were Villains featuring fresh new cover art and an introduction by me. You can pre-order the book here or from your favorite retailer.

https://titanbooks.com/70796-if-we-were-villains-signed-edition/

I’m so excited for you to have this beauty in your hands. More soon!

Xx M

Conversation with Kate Weinberg 1/29/21

Tomorrow I’ll be in conversation with Kate Weinberg, author of The Truants! Our chat will be hosted by Murder by the Book, and you can find information on how to register here.

The Bookshop is Open

If you spend any time on book Twitter, you may have noticed a recent upswing in chatter about Bookshop.org, “an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores.” Here’s just one of many recent articles on the Bookshop phenomenon, and how this scrappy little website found an unexpected toehold during coronavirus. You can find a more in-depth profile of the project here.

This is such an encouraging development for the publishing industry, and it’s so heartening...

Staged Reading 5/11/20

Next week I’ll be participating in a online festival of staged readings composed entirely of early modern history plays not written by Shakespeare, hosted by the Brave Spirits theatre company. Here’s a little more info from their website:

BST’s online reading festival celebrates history plays of the English early modern stage, revealing the breadth and popularity of the history genre during Shakespeare’s era. Including works by playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Heywood, George Peel...

Staged Reading 3/11/20

Next week Ill be participating in a online festival of staged readings composed entirely of early modern history plays not written by Shakespeare, hosted by the Brave Spirits theatre company. Heres a little more info from their website:

BSTs online reading festival celebrates history plays of the English early modern stage, revealing the breadth and popularity of the history genre during Shakespeares era. Including works by playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Heywood, George...

It Takes a Village to Write a Book

Writing is, in many ways, a solitary activity. Unlike music or dance or acting and other forms of art which necessitate collaboration, most writers work alone. The people and places and plots you create as a writer have to live in your head for a long time before anybody else can encounter them, and before they do there are many long days and nights spent putting one word in front of another in what often feels like a futile attempt to translate these vivid but intimate imaginings into prose....

Kurt Vonnegut, Coronavirus, and the Reasons We Write

This week we learned that UMD, the university where we work, is prohibiting all non-essential travel for the next 60 days. Sensible, given the circumstances. But we also learned that theyre not going to reimburse anyone whos already paid for the travel they approved and then prohibited. If youre a tenured professor, that might not matter much to you. But if youre in a grad student or contingent tax bracket, $800 is an awful lot to lose. (Most grad students here make about $20k a year. The...