First Friday Rec: The Nineties

Title: The Nineties
Author: Chuck Klosterman
Genre: Nonfiction, essays, History
Pages: 384
Publication Date: January 31, 2023
StoryGraph* Moods: Informative, Reflective, Funny
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: Wandering around B&N
Other Books by Klosterman: But What if We’re Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century, Raised in Captivity
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.

Description: The 1990s is a decade that is hard to define, and reading this book will remind anyone who lived through them just how much we lived through. “In The Nineties, Klosterman dissects the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the pre-9/11 politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan, and (almost) everything else.” And he does it all with a bit of humor and a masterful synthetization.

Why I recommend this book:

First, if you lived through this era, it’s quite the romp down memory lane. There were so many things I had forgotten about – and some I didn’t know. Other pieces (like music and the course set by the creation of Napster) just went deeper than I had originally understood them. It’s also a great read for anyone who wishes to learn about this decade but isn’t interested in the content being delivered like a textbook – the writing is, overall, engaging and easy to consume. Last, it will keep the reader on their toes. As Paul Markowich from The National Book Review notes, “The Nineties is a mind-bending trip that never signals where it is going next.  Klosterman will make an incredibly insightful philosophical or sociological comment immediately followed by a discussion of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’.”

Something missing?

Something that is missing is a more generalized perspective. As Nik Dirga notes, Klosterman states that “[i]t was, in retrospect, a remarkably easy time to be alive” – but Dirga continues by adding “[w]hich is only really true if you came….from pretty comfortable white middle class American existences.” (Klosterman’s first footnote does point out his shifting perspective of class from upper-lower to middle-middle to lower-upper through his lifetime.) We also don’t get a clear idea how he defines this decade, aside from it being the decade prior to a whole lot of change. (This was a time when the internet was around, but it hadn’t really sunk its teeth into our society. The way we thought and felt and lived in the ’90s is a far cry from life today – so he wasn’t wrong about that.) If you are looking to come away with the “answer” of what the ’90s really were, this isn’t the book for you.

However, if you are looking to reminisce and continued the conversation with some amusing ideas and thought-provoking concepts, then definitely give this a go. As Laura Miller from Slate puts it, “It’s an eccentric buffet, from which you are free to savor what appeals to you most, and if you aren’t served what you were looking for, well then you’ve come to the wrong kitchen.”

“Part of the complexity of living through history is the process of explaining things about the pas that you never explained to yourself. So many temporary realties, distantly viewed in the rearview mirror, will appear ridiculous to any person who wasn’t there.” ~ Chuck Klosterman

Writing as a Process

There are so many writers out there who are adamant that a writer must do this or a writer must do that. That someone isn’t a writer unless they XYZ. The most common one I hear is that to be a writer, you must write every day.

When I hear things like that, I can’t help but think – no wonder some writers hate writing.

Dorothy Parker once said, “I hate writing. I love having written.”

One writer on Medium said, “It’s the burden of being a writer, not wanting to write.” They go on to say that writing can be boring.

Flannery O’Connor said, “Writing [a novel] is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.”

I never really understood this mentality. I never had the “I don’t want to do this” whenever I sat down to write, certainly not the “I hate this” – mostly because I was so thrilled at having been able to carve out any time to do so. I look forward to every Friday when I take the entire day to focus on my WIP.

This idea of “I hate writing. I love having written.” is so common that people make jokes about those who say they do love writing. In a recent podcast interview with Bill Lawrence, he went so far as to joke that “when someone says ‘I love writing,’ keep an eye on them because they might be a sociopath. … I don’t mean to stare at them all the time, but just corner of your eye.”

I do understand that I am talking about a specific type of writing/writer here (and a specific point in the process), and that I don’t write under deadlines – and each of these things can change someone’s relationship to their work. But maybe, just maybe, someone can actually love the act of writing. Someone like me.

Elisa Doucette on Medium says, “Writing is hard. Hitting deadlines is hard. Coming up with ideas and attempting to share them in any sort of cohesive and competent manner is hard. Sitting your ass in a chair to vomit up the shittiest first draft you’ve ever written, until the next shitty first draft you’ll have to write, is hard.”

At the start of every semester, I talk with my students about writing anxiety and other attitudes we may have toward writing. On the composition side of things, these students didn’t choose to take the class. Most have no interest in writing academic essays. At least on the creative writing side of things, they chose to take the course. Though that doesn’t always mean that they are in the mood to write what needs to be written.

The first lecture I give in both types of classes is about how writing is a process – and that the most important thing we can do is figure out what process works best for ourselves. Some folks love outlines. Others prefer visual maps or freewriting. While pantsing (the act of just drafting and seeing what comes up as they write) can work in a creative assignment, an academic essay requires planning. If they can figure out a process that works for them, then the anxiety and moodiness will minimize.

So what is the process? Planning. Organizing. Drafting. Revising. Editing.

These can all look different to everyone. Planning can be as simple as a spark of an idea or as complex as creating detailed character backgrounds and ‘set design.’ Some folks (pansters) may skip over planning and organizing, while others (planners) will come up with an outline – which can be of varying levels of detail. Some stick strictly to their outlines while others allow themselves to open it as they draft. The whole point is to try out things until you find what works best for you. And ignore what everyone else tells you that you HAVE to do in order to be a writer. (And no, you don’t have to publish to be a writer. That doesn’t have to be your end goal, either.)

A fiction student once sat in my office upset because they had read that Stephen King said that any book you can’t write in three months isn’t worth writing. She had been working on hers for a couple years already. I pointed out that this was his process, and also that he gets to work as a writer full time – he’s not having to work a different job to pay the bills or go to school full time. All he has to do is write, and he’s found a process (and a genre) that allows him to complete an entire manuscript in three months. That doesn’t mean that needs to be true for every other writer.

Whenever another writer tells me that I should be writing every single day, I bristle – and then I point out that I don’t have time in my schedule for that. The response is usually – but you can find at least fifteen minutes a day! Sure. But it takes me more than fifteen minutes to get into writing mode. I’m a tunnel-vision kind of worker. I create my schedule in days – not hours or minutes. One day is for grading a particular class. Another is for housework. Fridays are for writing. Because this is what works best for me.

My whole point here is to say – go ahead and hear what other writers have to say and try it out. If it works for you, then great – keep it. If it doesn’t, then don’t – it’s not a failure on your part if it doesn’t work for you.

Travel Map

I’m the sort of organizational geek that has themes to the rooms of her house regarding what is hanging on the walls. My living room, for example, is “the Ashley room” – all art by my dear friend Ashley Megal that I’ve collected over the years.

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to make my office the ‘travel’ room. So far, I only have a collage frame up of some travel photos, and for a long time, I’ve wanted to find something I could hang up that could track my travels. I’ve spent more time than I should have considering all my options (like random rabbit holes several times over many years). Well, I finally made the choice – and let me say, there is nothing like realizing just how little of the world you’ve actually seen by creating a visual of where you’ve been:

For the first eighteen years of my life, my world consisted of northeastern Illinois and northeastern Wisconsin, plus one side quest to Minnesota when I was thirteen. I didn’t start really traveling until I was in college and joined the UWGB chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Every winter and spring break, the chapter took a collegiate challenge trip where they paired up with a chapter elsewhere in the country and spent the week working on a house. During my time in college, I went on six of these trips, finally getting to see various parts of the country – and I got bit hard by the travel bug (of course, I was a broke college student who didn’t own a car, and these trips were the only way I could see anything at all). Then, after college, my residence life friends took jobs all over the country, and I got to mark off other states by visiting them (because I finally had a car and could spare an occasional plane ticket). Add in some road trips and conferences, and I’ve managed to so far mark off thirty states, with a goal to see all fifty.

There are some rules, though – I have to do something of significance in that state for it to count. So while I’ve slept overnight in Colorado (on the way to the Arizona HFH trip) and driven through Ohio several times, those remain unmarked. I had hoped to mark off a few more with my Route 66 trip before I had to turn back (literally made it two miles to the border of a new state to mark…). Hoping to still mark off a couple more later this year. *fingers crossed*

My first trip out of the country happened in 2014 when I got to go to Kenya (thankfully with some help from my work’s International Education Committee!). Over the next few years, I managed to also visit Colombia (to visit a friend in the Peace Corps), Costa Rica (I got to be the assistant director of the study abroad through work), and China (I got to participate in a professional exchange, again through work – legit never thought teaching would afford me so many chances to see parts of the world). It’s hard to believe my last time out of the states was already six years ago (where has the time gone?) when my bestie and I road tripped around Scotland. The pandemic delayed making any new plans, but now I’ve got a renewed passport and an itch to see something new.

I’m sure there are people out there with the aim to visit every country, but I am realistic enough to know that’s not feasible for me (lack of independent wealth and all that), but at a minimum, I would like to touch down on every continent (two more to go) and countries I have ancestral connections to – Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, Poland, France, and Norway (plus a couple others if I go further back, like Sweden, Belgium, and, WAY back – like the first century way back, to Finland – which, I also acknowledge the extreme privilege I have to be able to trace my ancestry anywhere, let alone a couple thousand years).

Cloud Pictures

When I was a kid, I remember how any time my papa (material grandfather) returned from a trip, he would have a stack of photos from his adventure. I loved flipping through them with him and hearing all his stories (he is still, to this day, my favorite storyteller). Whenever his adventure involved a plane, the stack would include a number of cloud photos – he loved taking pictures of the clouds. Didn’t matter if he had already taken hundreds from other trips, he always took more.

This became a bit of a tradition for myself, as well. Every time I am up in the air, I cannot resist taking photos of the clouds. It doesn’t matter that Papa isn’t around anymore for me to share them with him, I still take them. Aside from loving the textures and the feeling of absolute freedom I feel way up there, it makes me feel a little bit closer to him still.

I especially love a cloud sandwich:

First Friday Rec: Babel

Title: Babel
Author: R.F. Kuang
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Historical
Pages: 560
Publication Date: August 29, 2023
StoryGraph* Moods: Dark, Emotional, Challenging
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: Book Club
Other Books by Kuang: The Poppy War Trilogy, Yellowface
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.

Description: A young orphan boy is taken from his home of China and brought to England to study translation (which is the magic system of this world). Told his name is unpronounceable, he takes an English name – Robin Swift. These are the first in a string of events meant to strip him of his identity for the purpose of serving the empire. From StoryGraph: “Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire.”

Why I recommend this book:

Ok. If you always wanted to read Fantasy but perhaps have been put off by the notions of an epic world and new languages and creatures not of this world, well, this would be a great introduction. Listed as Fantasy, I’d offer Magic Realism as an apt sub-genre. The world in this story exists in 1800s England – with a really cool (and geeky) system of magic thrown in. (And I say geeky with the utmost respect here – I’m a word nerd/language geek, so a system of magic based on translation? Sign. Me. Up.)

The story itself was engaging. At its heart, we have a story of friendship and seeking to belong, with an overarching look at our real-world issues, such as colonialism and racism. (Though this story takes place in the early 1800s, we can apply it to what we see in today’s world.) The writing is easy to consume, and by that, I mean it is accessible (or made so with the footnotes) and well done (I forget who it was that said “Easy reading is damn hard writing”?).

I also really enjoyed the use of the footnotes. At first, I was distracted by them – but when I realized they were not all fun/fictional ones (because why couldn’t that info just be in the story), there were legit ones. A number of times, Kuang mentions someone and something they said – and it’s legit. It added another layer/connection to the ‘real’ world.

Something missing:

There are a couple moments that do feel too fast, though they are spoilers, so I will resist writing about them here. For a book that is 544 pages (in the hardcover at least), it could have been longer, and I wouldn’t have blinked at it if these moments were built to in a way that felt more natural to the story. The ending is also kept from the reader (and rightly so), but as we are in Robin’s thoughts, it felt strange that he never alluded to this final move (perhaps give us something we might not notice on a first read but would pick up on a second).

“That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.” ~ R.F. Kuang

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.” ~ R.F. Kuang

Musicals to Be Buried With, Part Two

Here are the answers to the second six questions Goldstein asks on his podcast. To read the first six, see last week’s post.

What is the sexiest musical? — I guess I would have to say Cabaret. I first saw this (film, not in person) when I was a kid and remember thinking, I don’t know if I should be watching this. I understood barely any of it, but I remember Liza being sexy and vulnerable (not that I yet had the vocabulary to verbalize that). It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one – I wonder how it holds up, sexiness and all.

Which musical do you most relate to? — I mean, I often randomly break out in song in my real life, so most of them. 🤣 I think, though, that I would say Waitress. Not in the physical abuse sense or anything. Just in the having a dream and being afraid to pursue it because of things others around me have said. Also, the first time I heard “She Used to Be Mine,” those first couple lines grabbed my attention: “It’s not simple to say / Most days I don’t recognize me.” I remember that girl. I was that girl for a long chunk of my life. Hello, my twenties and thirties. Then the start of the chorus: “She’s imperfect, but she tries / She is good, but she lies / She is hard on herself / She is broken and won’t ask for help / She is messy, but she’s kind.” Sara Bareillis is an incredible song writer – many of her lyrics have felt relatable, almost as if she had access to my own thoughts. (I’ve also written about her before.) I wish I had the chance to have seen her live in the role of Jenna, but the recorded performance was lovely. (Also a contender for making me cry.)

Which musical is objectively the greatest ever? — I’m going to split this answer between ‘old school’ and ‘modern’ musicals. The best old school musical is, hands down, Singin’ in the Rain. It’s light, charming, fun. The movie version has the incredible Debbie Reynolds, who as Grace’s mom in Will & Grace became an icon to me (yes, I know she was an icon well before that – but that was my personal introduction to her.) The integration of music into the story worked so seamlessly.

For modern musicals, Rent is clearly the one that really shifted what musical theater could become. On the other end, we have Hamilton. Both shook things up in ways that musical theater needed to be. They made musicals appealing to new generations and demographics. They made these people human. They tackled hard topics. And they did it while singing and dancing.

Which musical is the one you’ve seen the most? — If I stuck to live performances only, Rent. I saw it for the first time in college, and I loved it so much, I went back the next night. (This was back when student rush tickets were an option for me, so it was relatively inexpensive at the time.) I then saw it again in Minnesota when Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal were in it playing their original roles. Then at the Nederlander the summer before it left Broadway. If I included films/recorded performances, that would be hard to say. I’ve re-watched a lot of musicals a number of times. Maybe Cabaret? Maybe Chicago? I watched South Pacific a lot as a kid. Fiddler on the Roof or West Side Story (the original, though I also love the remake!)? All of them. 🤣

What’s the worst musical you’ve ever seen? — Not really a musical, but a musical spoof in a TV show – Stars Hollow: The Musical. Now, I know it was supposed to be bad (I think…hope?), but I don’t think it accomplished what the writers were intending? Also, I have no idea how Christian Borle and Sutton Foster even got through filming it. (Plus, the show gave WAY too much screen time to it…) Also, the second season of Smash. I loved the first season – the idea of a musical TV show about creating a Broadway musical felt tailor-made for me (also, Leslie Odom Jr.). But then it shifted into a love letter to Jennifer Hudson. While I think she’s an incredible talent, the story shift wasn’t what I had signed up for. I do think this would have been better as a mini series – focused around building that one musical start to finish.

What is the musical that’s literally made you laugh out loud the most? — The funniest scene to me has always been “Make ’em Laugh” from the film version of Singin’ in the Rain. Slapstick doesn’t usually make me laugh out loud, but there was something about the routine and the music and the actor that just always clicked for me.

At the end of the podcast, Goldstein tells his guest that there is only enough room in the casket to take one film with them into the afterlife – so which one would they take? This is probably the hardest one because there are so many lovely musicals out in the world. But I think I would take South Pacific, though, so that I could watch it with my grandmother.

Musicals to Be Buried With, Part One

Previously, I’ve answered the questions Brett Goldstein poses on his podcast Films to Be Buried With. First, I kept to the premise – movies. Then I answered the questions about TV shows and books. This time, my answers will all be musicals.

I’ve loved theater ever since I was a kid. There’s something about the butterflies in my stomach as the lights dim and the curtains open or the music begins. I love it. I get so thoroughly swept up into the magic of it. There’s never been a performance I haven’t loved. So it felt natural to think through these questions with the lens of theater, specifically musicals.

What was the first-ever musical you saw? — I don’t know the answer for sure, but I have a memory of watching South Pacific as a kid. I remember it because when it was over, I said, “The wrong man died,” and my dad replied with, “That’s what my mother said.” My paternal grandmother passed before I was born, so I never got to meet her, but I often heard how much I reminded him of her, so those moments always stuck out to me.

What was the musical that scared you the most? — I’m sure horror musicals are a thing…? They have to be. Someone has written and performed one at some point. But I’ve not seen any. I don’t think I’ve ever been scared of a musical before. Maybe if they introduced audience participation. 🤣

What was the musical that made you cry the most? — Guys and Dolls, but specifically the time I saw it at Peninsula Players. I talked about this theater in a previous blog, and specifically about Robert Thompson. I loved this version because he played Arvide Abernathy, and I couldn’t stop the tears when he sang “More I Cannot Wish You.” It was such a beautiful moment, made even more so because of my connection to Thompson. (I wish I had a link to the video of Thompson singing it.)

What musical is TERRIBLE but you love it? — OK – so technically only parts of it are terrible, but the movie version of Mamma Mia (I’ve not seen this one live, only the movie). There were songs that were beautifully done. The musical is a farce, so expectations were not high in that regard. But some moments… dear goodness, who thought it was a good idea to let Pierce Brosnan sing? The man is a great actor, but please put down the microphone… Honestly, the only reason I ever re-watch it is for Colin Firth…

What is the musical you once loved but reading it now you realise it’s terrible? — Oh goodness, I don’t know if I have an answer for this one. I’m sure there are some older musicals I’ve not seen in a while that likely haven’t aged well. I know some of those older musicals have been adapted for more current times, but I’ve not seen such an edited version. I would have to wager that Miss Saigon is one that hasn’t aged well? The white savior complex? But I’ve not seen that since I was in college.

What is the musical that means the most to you? Not because of the musical it’s self, but because of the memories, you have of it. –I used my Guys and Dolls pick too early. 🤣 So I would say seeing Rent at the Nederlander theater the summer before it left Broadway. Honestly, it was the least energetic performance I’ve seen of that musical, but I really loved getting to experience it in the space where Jonathan Larson had worked on it. It was one of two shows I saw that weekend, my first ever shows on Broadway. (The other was Spring Awakening with Lea Michele and Jonathan Grof.) Also, seeing Antony Rapp and Adam Pascal reprise their roles was also lovely.

To be continued next week!

My Cubbies

I’ve been a cubs fan since birth, meaning that I come from a Chicago Cubs family. Some things, like being a fan of a team, you are because you’ve just always been. Hopefully, the older you get, the more you find your own reasons to remain a fan, which has been the case for me and my cubbies.

I’ll admit that my level of fandom has shifted over the years (I live in Wisconsin and don’t have cable/a sports streaming app, so I don’t get to watch all the games – usually, I don’t get to watch them unless they are playing the Brewers in Milwaukee or I go in person). As a kid, we’d (meaning my sister and I) would watch the games on WGN with my dad (because we lived in IL at the time and could). My dad, too, has been a cubs fan since birth. My dad has never been much of a reader, but one book I do remember him reading was Ryne Sandberg’s biography – his favorite player.

On January 27, 2017, I called my dad up:
Me: Dad, do you know what happened on this day in 1982?
Dad: You were born?
Me: Nope. [Note – right year – wrong month 😂]
Dad: What?
Me: Ryne Sandberg joined the Cubs.
Dad: [provides fifteen minute lecture summarizing Sandberg’s entire career]
Me: [internally – yeah, you should have seen that coming]

In case anyone further questions his fandom – our dog growing up was named after him.

Growing up, I always wanted to go and see a game at Wrigley, but my parents never took my sister and I into the city (for reasons they like to remind me of every time I go to the city now). I was in college the first time I set foot inside the city limits, and it wasn’t until a little over a decade ago that I first went to Wrigley for a game (Aug 15, 2014, to be exact). We got trounced, but I didn’t care – I was at Wrigley. Finally. And my Brewer-loving bestie joined me that first time (we’ve been to several games over the years, both at Wrigley and Miller, when our teams have played each other).

I also grew up watching the Bears and have vague memories of when they won the Super Bowl in 1986 (which they have not done since…). That was the heyday of the team – Jim McMahon, William “the refrigerator” Perry, flippin’ Walter Payton. And yes, my family had The Super Bowl Shuffle on VHS. I did have a chance to see a pre-season game at Soldier Field (and we got trounced).

So after seeing several games at Wrigley, I was eager to mark something off my bucket list that I had absolutely no control over whatsoever – to see my cubbies win the world series. Something the team hadn’t done since 1908. The curse of the billy goat held strong, and despite a couple close chances, we never quite made it.

Then came the 2016 season – the cubs made it to the world series where they would face off against Cleveland – who just happened to be my friend Brady’s team. So not only would I get to watch my team, I’d have a bit of a friendly competition (Brady offered the wager that whoever’s team lost would have to buy the winner a bottle of whiskey). We had plans to get together to watch the fourth game at a sports bar halfway between our homes – the cubs had so far lost three games, and Brady, he told me later on, had almost made a crack about how I should just bring the whiskey that night.

But the cubs won that night. And the next three. Best birthday gift ever.

(That moment when Bryant smiles right before he nabs the grounder knowing he’ll get it to Rizzo in time for the final out is also mentioned in my book Wherever Would I Be. Because why not?)

Brady picked out a local (to him) whiskey and wrapped it in cubs logos – which was kind of him. If his team had won, I absolutely would have done the same. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (For the record, the whiskey is delicious, and it comes in a hand-blown bottle.)

I haven’t kept track of how many games I’ve been to in the last ten years (and I had skipped several years because of the pandemic). But I finally got back last weekend, picking a game against the Yankees so that I could see Anthony Rizzo return to the field. It was the third game in a series against the team where we had already lost two. We got two hits in the first inning, and the Yankees scored one in the second. And then the two held each other off from scoring any more – and we won. ❤

But, honestly, I would have been filled with joy either way to get to see my team play, to see Rizzo back at Wrigley (he got the loudest cheers from the crowd of any other player, even current Cubbies), AND, for the first time ever, get to see the great Ryne Sandberg in person (as well as his recently revealed statue) – he was there for a pre-game induction ceremony welcoming two new players to the Cubs’ Hall of Fame.

Plus, it was just a beautiful day for baseball.

Second-to-last at bat of the game – Rizzo made it to base, but the following batter struck out for the final out.

First Friday Rec: Solito

Title: Solito
Author: Javier Zamora
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 384
Publication Date: October 11, 2022
StoryGraph” Moods: Emotional, Tense, Sad
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: Book Club
Other Books by Zamora: Unaccompanied
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.

Description: A nine-year-old boy takes a three-thousand-mile journey from El Salvador to join his parents in the U.S. – traveling through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonora Desert.

Why I recommend this book:

There have been many other stories written about the border – but this one is written by someone who actually made the journey – not someone writing about others who have or by someone who was a patrol agent at the border. This should be required reading because there are so many people that have no clue what someone goes through that forces them to leave their home or what that journey is actually like. This book is a revelation and an education.

In addition to that, it is beautifully written (which should not be surprising when you learn that Zamora is also a poet). It is intense at moments, heartbreaking at others. It’s gripping – I could not put it down (if I remember right, I read it in three days). We get to see sweet moments of a child – like when he names the plants of the desert (Spikeys. Fuzzies. Lonelies.), and we get to experience tense moments where a simple misused word (using the El Salvadoran/Spanish word for straw rather than the Mexican/Spanish) causes fear that they may be found out. (Even knowing he makes it across safely, as he is currently in the states with this book published, doesn’t cut the tension.)

Something missing?

I honestly can say that as I read, I didn’t feel as though anything was left out. I wasn’t even finished with it when I started telling everyone who would listen that they MUST read this book.

“All of the colors are amazing—some still linger at the edges of the sky, but when sunrise was at its peak, it felt like we were walking in a painting. Pinks, oranges, reds, purples, yellows, mixing together like watercolors. I thought I liked sunsets most, but I think I like sunrises better.” ~ Javier Zamora

Kickstarter Update

Back when I did the Kickstarter for Wherever Would I Be, one of the ‘add ons’ was to have a character named after them in my work in progress (a murder mystery). Because writing and publishing books takes a long time, I thought I’d give an update on how that’s going.

I should note – when I included this as an add on, I hadn’t anticipated eight people taking me up on this. 🙂 Because of this, I offered an alternative to a couple folks. One of them is my friend Jake, who shows up in my YA Goode vs Melville; another, my friend Ashley, will be in my Anne of Green Gables world novel (though she’ll make a small appearance in the murder mystery because who knows when that will make it out into the world).

In addition to having too many bodies to drop, even in a serial-killer story, there were some people I couldn’t bring myself to off even on paper. One such person was an elementary/middle school teacher from my childhood that I’m still in touch with, Nancy Akerly, who instead works in the records department.

Another is my friend, Brady – who is aged quite a bit in the story and becomes the retired-detective-turned-bar/bakery-owner source outside the precinct who will be key in solving the case. He’s also the one who introduced me to whiskey old fashioneds back in the day – for which I will be eternally grateful.

The last survivor is Julie, who has become the captain of the precinct – and who, in real life, uses red to indicate to those around her when she’s in a foul mood. This detail has been a lot of fun to thread throughout the story.

So far, there is one body dropped on the page – the first case Moz takes on after getting a job in Madison, WI – Ryder Kirac, a play on my friend’s name that is close enough that if you know her, you know this is her namesake.

Two others are dead before the start of the book, but their cases come back into play as they uncover a serial killer loose in the city – Jess Knox and Nissa Norton.

One of the stretch goals I had on the Kickstarter was the chance to get to have Moz’s pet modeled and named after their own – and I loved when I found out that Jess Knox had set a timer for when this would be opened. 🙂 And don’t worry – I’m not a monster. Dunkin survives the story. (Though this kitty’s spelling is Duncan; in the story, he’s a stray she takes in and names for his security blanket, i.e. security Dunkin wrapper.)

I’m about halfway through writing the first draft of the manuscript. I spent the last eight months editing two other different manuscripts, one of which was launched in June, so I am BEYOND excited to get back to writing.

Also super thankful to all the above folks for supporting WWIB and being a part of this (currently untitled) murder mystery story. 🙂