M.R. Graham's Blog, page 12

My goodness, it seems to be a read-aloud…

Versos: A Poetic Ethnography of the Rio Grande Valley

Me and The Mora!

As has become tradition, a dorky, self-congratulatory photopalooza! No hat this time, though.

So, first I was like, “Oh, yes, I wrote this book…”

And then I was like “I am made of snazz…”

And then I just couldn’t hold it in any longer…

The Mora has arrived!

The girl who dreamed forever. Was her freedom a fair price for her life?

Better late than never, am I right? The Mora has finally arrived, rather later than I had wanted.

Right at this moment, it’s only available from the Kindle Store and Smashwords, but I’m keeping an eye out for its appearance at other digital retailers, and I’ll be posting updates as it becomes available on paper. You can also mark it as “to-read” on Goodreads.

Go do it!

Aquifer – a poem

I am far away

but the sky is very near

and the earth smells of life and limestone

My feet caked with white dust

and oak pollen

stretch deep to find water.

Spring’s a little early!

Three years – a poem

The years have passed, and voices slowly fade

from recollection, though not yet from dreams –

I know I heard you call me as I laid

myself beneath the flood of stars agleam

and closed my eyes, and listened in the dark

for some familiar tone, some sly remark.

I heard you in the silence of the night

and still I listened fiercely in the day,

for whispers come whene’er they may or might –

in the growling, roaring, flying freeway.

And yet I hear most clearly in my blood,

the softest mutter: “I’m not kidding, bud.”

God, I miss you.

The year of Sherlock Holmes

To judge by my reading/watching trends over the past three weeks, this year is going to be a year of Sherlock Holmes.

That’s going to be quite a good thing, considering the amount of new material I’ll have a chance to consume. Of course, there are always new Holmes stories being written, mountains of pastiche – some of it quite good and some of it abysmal – heaped up in the back rooms of second-hand book stores, in rummage sales, spine-out on Barnes & Noble’s mystery shelves, and growing ever more mountainous in Amazon’s ebook catalogue.

I’m absolutely all over it, this year, though.

First of all, Elementary on CBS is picking up steam again. (I felt that the last season, while enjoyable, just wasn’t quite as good as the previous had been.) The characters are becoming ever more compelling, though, fleshing themselves out apart from but parallel to the Adventures. More and more, Sherlock and Joan feel like Holmes and Watson: two clever, devoted friends fending off boredom with detection.

Second, Mary Russell’s memoirs (published under Laurie R. King’s name), are due to continue next month with Dreaming Spies, which will take Holmes and Russell to Japan. Miss Russell’s stories are always a treat, especially when they involve far-flung travel.

Third, this jewel will be coming out at some point. I confess that I need to read the book before the movie is released, but you can’t go wrong with Sir Ian McKellen, especially not Sir Ian as Sherlock Holmes.

Fourth, this. There’s not much I can say, except that I would never have expected pastiche to come from a corner like the NBA. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has acquired a new fan.

 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back to obsessing quietly.

Did I miss any Sherlock Holmes news? If so, let me know!

… hail the new, ye lads and lasses.

I am not fond of New Year’s resolutions, since it seems like most people (myself included) make them only for the sake of laughing ruefully at ourselves for dropping them all sometime in mid-February (if we even make it that long).

I do love lists, though. Reality intervened, and the list I made last year sort of went nowhere at all, but I did not call it a list of resolutions, and so I did not have to laugh ruefully at myself for neglecting it! Aha! I’m brilliant.

This year’s list may very well go the same way, but I shall make it and share it anyway.

In 2015, you can expect from me:

The Mora. It’s actually nearly ready, so I can guarantee (as well as I can guarantee anything) that it will appear this year.
The Siren. I became dissatisfied with the most-of-a-draft I had sitting around, and the last bit of it is going to be completely reworked. It may or may not appear this year, but I will try. In the mean time, much of it can be read on Wattpad.
Some pastiche. Unlikely to appear in print or anything, but I have two projects swimming around in my brain, both of which will be quite different from Lost Knowledge. One is the Holmesian pastiche I have mentioned previously. The other I’m going to sit on until I have a little more plotting done.
More frequent posts. I intend to aim for one a week.
More engagement. I tend to shout into the vastness of the internet and then vanish again, but I really do want to interact.
More frequent newsletters. If I actually do get done all the things I intend to get done this year, there will be considerably more updates for me to share. The goal is once a month, or every other month, at the absolute least. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, you can do so here.

Have a pleasant year, dear friends.

Teacher – a kitschy wee poem

A teacher’s a treasure

impossibly rare,

an expert who’s taken

the time out to care

She gives of herself through

the hours and years -

her wisdom and laughter,

her knowledge, her tears

Her brain is a beacon,

heart blazing with light -

because of her caring,

the future’s made bright.

 

A sappy little verse written for a colleague.