Ethel Rohan's Blog, page 52

Love

that the latest issue of Prick of the Spindle is dedicated to the bright memory of Cami Park. They reprinted her short short "When You Heard." Thank you, Laura Ellen Scott and Cynthia Reeser.

Life at its best and its worst is experienced in moments. I love how Cami zoomed-in on everyday moments and rendered them exceptional. How she viewed the mundane in slow motion through a magnifying glass and both revealed her own brilliance and the brilliance of the moments lived versus automated. Every word here reverberates and reveals. "When You Heard" is alive, deceptively simple and oh so gorgeous.

RIP, Cami Park.

Fresh From God

is now live at Hot Metal Bridge.

This is one of fourteen linked stories forthcoming in 2011 in my little collection, Hard to Say, from PANK. I just read the story again and it squeezed my heart. The entire tiny collection caused me grievous bodily harm to write and I'm aware of how much I'm resisting turning in the final manuscript to PANK. It's due January 1st.

It seems everything worthwhile scares, hurts.

Why is that?

Some Love

from Marc Schuster at Small Press Reviews for Cut Through the Bone. Thank you, Marc.

No More Room

There is a pattern: I strive too hard. I exhaust myself. I get sick.

I find it harder and harder to keep up. To do everything I want to do. To do everything I feel I have to do.

For a long while now, I've felt a sickening sense of falling behind. I can't keep up, can't support other writers in the ways I'd like–mostly because I don't have time, yes, but also, and this is what's really dragging me down, because it wouldn't be honest.

Today I'm falling. Period. So much feels wrong. My gut is screaming and I don't want to hear what it's saying: Break away.

Today, my heart is an inn with no more room. It's past capacity and the pressure hurts.

Sick of me Yet?

I'm interviewed today at Fictionaut by Meg Pokrass. Thank you, Meg.

Yes, as a girl, I struggled with learning differences. As an adult, the dyslexia is less an issue, but remains in my memory, in my limbs. In a dance or cardio class, I'm a speeding car without a driver. I don't know right from left. I can't follow rapid-fire instructions. I can, however, laugh at myself in these frantic, sweaty situations and you can be assured such humiliations keep me humble.

Yesterday, I ordered Meg's debut story collection, DAMN SURE RIGHT. Order your copy in the next five days and Press 53 will send a second book to a U.S. soldier serving overseas: Buy One, Give One. Go on. Go on.

Today I took some time out from crazy, exhausting and less-shameless self-promotion and read two works by Brad Green. Non-fiction and Fiction. I'm so glad I did. Brad writes beautifully, with care and caring, and I love his fresh, evocative language, his tenderness.

It's no secret I'm a Roxane Gay groupie. So speaking of excellent work I read recently, check out Roxane's essay on inequalities in publishing here and her ever-fine follow-up here. Thank you for raising your voice, Roxane, for the power and reach of your words.

Until my next blast of me, me, me and my baby book, As you were.

 

 

 

Twofer Tuesday

Here's a deal: Order one copy of my book CUT THROUGH THE BONE and get a second copy FREE.

Keep one for yourself and give the other as a holiday gift! This offer ends today at 8 pm EST, so move fast little reindeer . . .

To purchase now, go HERE.

 

Links

Let's see if I can get my head to stop spinning long enough to post the following ME ME ME links:

My interview over at FlashFiction.net. Garret Gaudens asked several great questions and I went beyond my comfort level in my responses and revealed, revealed, revealed.

The kind editors over at Halfway Down the Stairs included my story "More Than Gone," in their Best of 2005-2010 list. Thank you!

My story "Treacherous" just went live at Pif Magazine.

I have two readings from Cut Through the Bone coming up in San Francisco next week:

Canessa Gallery, Tuesday, December 7th, 5:30 pm

Green Apple Books, Thursday, December 9th, 7 pm.

That story I talked about earlier in a blog post this week went live today over at Bluestem Magazine. I'm in excellent company. Thank you, Roxane Gay, Olga Abella and Lania D. Knight. Here's the link to the rocking issue. Here's the editors' announcement:

Welcome to Bluestem

The editors of Bluestem are proud to announce the debut of our online quarterly which will be published  in December, March, June, and September, each year. We also publish an annual print magazine. Our next issue will be released in the Spring of 2011. While the name is new, the magazine is not. Formerly known as Karamu, Bluestem has been publishing continuously since 1966. We warmly invite you to purchase recent issues, as well as browse the Tables of Content for the past ten years. As we move forward by introducing online offerings to the fine work we have always published, we are looking forward to working with new writers and reaching new readers.

We are blown away by the talent of the writers in this first online issue of Bluestem. You will find fiction from Liana Jahan Imam, Tracy Gonzalez, Sara Lippman, Sarah Rose Etter, Brian Oliu, Brian Allen Carr, Sheldon Lee Compton, Katie Jean Shinkle, Scott McClanahan, BJ Hollars, Sean Doyle, Elaine Castillo, J. Bradley, Lauren Wheeler, Ethel Rohan, Robb Todd, Amber Noelle Sparks, Tracy Bowling, Mike Meginnis, Matthew Salesses, Frank Hinton, Chelsea Laine Wells, and last but not least, Brad Green. In poetry, you will find work from M. Bartley Seigel, Gregory Sherl, Kejt Walsh, Tamara Madison. J.M. Ricks, Elizabeth Hildreth, Margaret Walther, Janet Butler, Kenneth Gurney, and David Kowalczyk. We also have two fine essays from Alana Noel Voth and Carrie Murphy and artwork by Mike Sleadd.

We really want to thank Gene Morgan and Jenny Schlief of Supreme Value who designed this beautiful site for us. They are fantastic designers and you should get in touch with them for all your web design needs. We're still tinkering with a few things so pardon our dust, but go, read, enjoy, and feel free to send us a note, letting us know what you think. Thank you for being a part of this exciting new project with us.

This is True. This is success.

On Tuesday night, at 11:58 pm, my eight-year-old daughter rose from her warm bed and appeared next to mine.

She said, "Mom, I am so happy for you. In two minutes, your book will be born."

We cuddled in bed together and sang-in midnight.

In the morning, I awoke to a card on my bedside locker from my eleven-year-old daughter.

It read, "Congratulations, Mom, you are now an author. You have always been a loving mom. Thank you for proving dreams can come true."

I have high hopes for my book, but these two moments alone have already given me success.

Thank you, M. and T.

Curious About the Artist Behind my Stunning Book Cover

It's the gorgeous, gifted, and fabulous Siolo Thompson.

Siolo Thompson is a multimedia visual artist currently living in south

west London. In 2011, she returns to her home base in Seattle, WA. 

The focus of her work is primarily the human form and she always tries

to incorporate a strong sense of narrative to her paintings and

illustrations. She wants each image to have a story book feeling to it

that draws the viewer into a different world. Siolo often uses

animals, robots and magical elements in her paintings in order to

explore the relationships we have with nature, technology and the

sublime.

Siolo's work can be seen nationally and internationally at gallery's,

on book covers, in comic strips and in animated form.

Hair do and photo session

courtesy of my eight-year-old daughter.