My old pal Peter DeMarco has published his first novel/novella, and it’s a really strong piece of work. My over-the-top blurb (you might think) has been ratified by the nomination of one of the chapters for a Pushcart Prize (the novella unfolds in not-quite-discrete stories or story fragments), and for my money, the annual Pushcart Prize anthology is one of the best ways anyone serious about reading good writing can get just oodles of it.

But back to Pete’s book, which you can find on Amazon here:

(You can read more about it by downloading this pdf flyer from the publisher, Pangea Books.) Continue reading →

Saw Alan Cheuse and Alyson Foster reading tonight At the Hill Center, a terrific new (old) space for the arts on Capitol Hill. Foster is a “new” writer, and Cheuse is, of course, the voice of books on NPR. Foster read from a new novel she’s sold but hasn’t published (or finished) yet, GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT, and it was terrific. Wisely, she read from the beginning and I can’t wait to read this novel. She got an amazing introduction from Cheuse from this first in a series of local readings that PEN/Faulkner is hosting, which will feature writers who know each other and admire each other’s work.

Alyson Foster reading from GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT at the Hill Center on Capitol Hill.

Continue reading →

Thanks to a reviewer of The Final Appearance of America’s Favorite Girl Next Door on Amazon, who compared my novel to Fringe, I’m now a stupidly avid Fringe  fan.

For fans of Portlandia, you may remember the episode where the couple gets a DVD of—I think—Battlestar Galactica and spends a whole “Euphio Question“-like weekend watching EVERY episode.

Not quite there yet, but close.

(If you don’t know about “The Euphio Question,” I urge you to run out and get yourself a copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s masterful Welcome to the Monkey House, a collection of short stories that are still among the best I’ve read.)

If you haven’t watched Fringe, well. Whatever. If you have read The Final Appearance of America’s Favorite Girl Next Door, then get yourself a copy and see.

I live in an older house that was originally a Cape Cod style. One of the previous tenants/owners was a musician who, I am informed, took his own life. But before he did so, he undertook a lot of alterations, modifications and up- down- or side-grades to the house, including raising the back portion of the roof so that the attic could be a useful space. The chief problem with this is that the insulative protection the house might have got from a real attic with fans, etc., is lost when you no longer have one. Plus, the roof has only a slight grade, which makes it ineligible for traditional shingle roofing. It has a membrane roof, which is black, and during the summer months, or even warm, sunny spring months, that roof transforms the lovely, radiant energy of the sun into heat, causing the upstairs to get very hot very fast.

I had thought of buying a window air conditioner with the idea that it might help supplement the (older) central air, but that would have been an experiment that could have been costly if it had just resulted in a higher electric bill.

And then I read an article in the Times about green roofs—which included some interesting information on white roofs. So I did a little research and found that for about the cost of a very small “window shaker” AC unit, I could get 5 gallons of “elastomeric roof coating.” So I made a trip to Home Depot and spent some money on a 4.75 gallon bucket (which weighs about 800 pounds) of white roof coating.

So, now, the first step will be to power wash the roof. The second will be to put on some sunglasses and paint. Apparently the stuff is such a bright white that you will go blind if you don’t wear sunglasses.

There are many other little and large things that the house needs. But right now, as June closes in, money is tight and this seems like a smallish thing I can do to make a largish difference.

More when I actually get this in gear.