The preeminent David D. Horowitz,
owner of Rose Alley Press, is holding a poetry reading on privacy called “Public
about Privacy” on Wednesday, March 26th, at 7:00 p.m. at the Good Shepherd Center,
Room 202 (4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, Seattle). This is a timely and important
topic, and I would encourage you to attend if you can. Participating poets
include Dennis Caswell, Victoria Ford, David D. Horowitz, Rebecca Meredith,
Bethany Reid, Michael Spence and myself. I’ll be reading poems from “The Acme
Employee Handbook” related to workplace privacy issues. It promises to be a fun
and illuminating evening!
Speaking of “The Acme EmployeeHandbook”, I took a bit of a risk this week. I’ve been a long-time listener to
The Boss Show, a podcast centered entirely around work issues. Hosts Jim
Hessler and Steve Motenko are funny, opinionated, and smart, and I appreciate
their unorthodox take on workplace issues. Since my book is centered around
issues of work, I wanted to share it with them. But of course that
involved asking them if I could send them the book, the thought of which tied
me up in knots of nervous embarrassment and pre-shame in anticipation of their
certain mockery and rejection. Because that’s how I go through life—convinced that
even minor requests on my own behalf are jaw-droppingly audacious and that
people will go out of their way to make fun of me for no reason. But I managed to
get over that emotional hurdle and send them an e-mail request anyway. And I
got a really friendly, positive response back! That was a nice shiny light
in my week of work drudgery, and a good reminder that there are still kind and open
people in the world.
A short story has been rattling around in my head for a while, but I’ve got some good momentum going
on the novel and I want to crank out the first draft without further distraction.
I’m a just a tad past the halfway mark at 48,000 words, and I’m excited at the
possibility that I can actually complete
it—a whole, entire novel. What started out as an exploratory exercise in
chick lit has turned into a much deeper experience of self-examination and
healing. The main characters in most first novels are usually a direct
reflection of the writer, and my book is no exception. Even though my main
character Harley North is very different from me externally, I realized
recently that internally, we’re very much alike. It’s been fun to write
a character who presents as bold and brash and impulsive; who does and says
things that I never could. But as Harley’s journey in the book deepens and she
has to face some long-buried pain, I’m coming full circle back to revisiting my
own experience of resistance and denial, suffering, and finally acceptance and
healing. It’s not what I asked for, and it hasn’t been always been comfortable,
but I’m going to see it through to the end. It’s taken on a life of it’s own,
and all I can do now is go along for the ride.
--Kristen McHenry
1 comment:
Another excellent post! Sending a copy of your book to those people is one of the marketing tips I have to share with you, but with additional info on this marketing tactic I think you will find beneficial. Meanwhile, my cell is working again. And if you like we can chat this week. Let me know a good time for you. And we will do as Captain Picard used to advise: Make it so!
Patrick
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