My novel The Edge of Maybe is now available for order! You can get a copy — signed and inscribed to you by me — at The Edge of Maybe website.
Here’s a tiny taste of the book. It’s near the beginning, when the mother, Kira, is about to tell her 13-year-old daughter, Polly, some very difficult and life changing news:
Kira took a deep breath. That pause before lake ice gave way underfoot; when lips moved towards each other for the first kiss; when the knife stuck on the bread crust before skittering across to slice into an index finger; when teeth tested the tension of pomegranate seeds before their decisive crunch. She exhaled and spoke softly into Polly’s brown curly hair smelling of sweat and tea rose conditioner.
“Amber is your half-sister. She’s Daddy’s daughter, from a long time ago.”
Maybe.
Early reviews are stellar, and I’m thrilled to be sharing it with the world.
Advance Review Copies of The Edge of Maybe have just arrived! I’m ridiculously gleeful. First, the champagne. Then, the promo machine gets to march into action, sending them out to movers and shakers and reviewers and other important peeps.
It’s a very exciting moment, seeing the book as a book (even if the cover isn’t exactly the way it will be). It’s a book. I have no words. I am so, so grateful. Thank you so much, Last Light Studio, for giving me this opportunity and believing in this book.
And for the rest of you… The book will be published in MARCH! Stay tuned for preorder information, a fancy new website, etc.
“Traveling alone for the first time since Bill died, I arrive in Budapest, Hungary to teach a one-week seminar at the technical university. I’d planned to fly to Paris after the seminar, and then, four days later, home. But the day after my arrival in Hungary, the Icelandic glacial volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupts. I’m stuck. You’ve gotta be kidding. A volcano? Of all the things I don’t worry about, this is one of them.”
Hey there. I’m headed this week to my first ever writer’s conference — AWP in Denver. Thousands of writers and publishing professionals in one conference center. That’s thousands of traditionally solitary people spending days in crowded conference rooms, being social. Networking. Oh god. No wonder there’s already so much chatter about where the good bars are. I guess that means there’s going to be a lot of intense, brilliant, socially-awkward drinking. Duh.
(And hooking up? Is there a lot of hooking up? My interest is piqued. I remember the first time I went to an artist’s colony for an extended stay. All my life, I’d heard about the wild drinking and hooking up. The drinking I witnessed — okay, participated in — the hooking up? Well, if it was happening, it sure wasn’t happening where I could see it. I was married at the time, but still moderately disappointed.)
Okay, then. Let’s meet up! Let’s do that socially-awkward drinking thing! And network! Let’s DO THAT! I’ve got some really cute new business cards, so I’m ready to rumble.
Seriously though, mostly I’m excited about all the fascinating-sounding panels. Oh! And I’m on one! Come see me talk:
Saturday, April 10th: 1:30 – 2:45 p.m.
Room 111
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level
S171. The Prosperous Writer: Career Strategies for Staying Flush. (Christina Katz, Jane Friedman, Ericka Lutz, Wendy Burt-Thomas) When you fuel your writing career with prosperous thinking, partner with like-minded others, and keep long-term success in mind, navigating a professional path becomes a pleasurable, expansive process. Four traditionally published writers/editors share strategies that pay the bills and make publication more likely. Learn how to balance enough inspiration and perspiration to get the writing done with enough career planning to create ever-expanding opportunities and achieve writing goals.
I’ll be presenting an all-new (hence my reluctance to post this) excerpt from my solo show “A Widow’s To-Do List” the first three Sundays in March!
THIS Sunday, March 7, is the Academy Awards. You don’t want to miss those (and I need more time before you come to the show anyway) but I urge you to come March 14 or 21st!
Contact me directly for info on HALF PRICE TICKETS!
Here’s the scoop….
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – PianoFight Productions is proud to announce an all new show featuring a culturally diverse collection of the finest solo artists in the Bay Area. Performing excerpts from their own full length shows, City Solo will showcase the best of the best on Sunday evenings at 7:00pm, starting March 7th, 14th, and 21st at Off-Market Theaters on 965 Mission Street in San Francisco. Tickets are $20 at the door and online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com. City Solo is produced by Nicole Maxali & Thao P. Nguyen. (PLEASE NOTE: City Solo is weekly, but line-up of performers will change each month)
LAMBETH STERLING
Lambeth Sterling’s new one woman show, “Love & Sex in the Earth’s Spin Cycle,” premiered in June, 2009. Her comedy concerns itself with relationships, dating, marriage, and “The Secret.” As her therapist has said, “Nothing is funnier than hearing Lambeth talk about her deepest pain.”
Lambeth Sterling has spent seventeen years studying with and performing under the direction of the best solo performance directors in the San Francisco Bay Area, including David Ford and Charlie Varon at The Marsh. She has performed hilarious ten to twenty minute sets on the subject of relationships for over fifteen years in various venues in the Bay Area. She is also a relationship coach for the tragically inclined. www.LambethSterling.com
DAVID A. MOSS
In “Cracked Clown”, David Moss learns that sometimes laughter can be misleading.
David A. Moss has performed everything from Shakespeare, including the title role in Othello, to stand-up comedy where he’s appeared on HBO & Showtime. Currently David is working on completing “Cracked Clown” which will premiere at THE MARSH in June.
ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH
How hard can it be for Zahra, an Iranian Muslim girl in her mid-twenties, to move-in with her Athiest White-American Boyfriend and cheerfully tell her father that she doesn’t need his blessing? Find out in Zahra Noorbakhsh’s one woman show,”All Atheists…”
Zahra Noorbakhsh is a solo-performer and stand-up comedian, who’s performed with Maz Jobrani from the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, and Shazia Mirza from Last Comic Standing. Her one-woman show “Hijab and Hammerpants,” recently debuted at the SF Theater Festival, under the direction of W. Kamau Bell (SF Weekly’s performer of the year, 2008). Find out more about her comedy and solo shows at http://www.zahracomedy.com.
ERICKA LUTZ
Ericka Lutz will perform an excerpt from her full-length solo show “A Widow’s To-Do List.” When she got married, Ericka didn’t want to say the “until death do us part” part. Ironically, twenty years later – BOOM! – sudden widowhood, followed by grief, absurdity, skin-hunger, and tattoos. Who knew that Love and Death came with a side order of So-Much-to-Do?
Ericka Lutz has performed solo shows throughout the Bay Area including at Words First and Stagewerx Theater, and on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. She is a member of The Guild, San Francisco’s premier solo performance development lab, under the auspices of W. Kamau Bell. Between performing gigs, she is the award-winning author of seven books, many short stories, and numerous personal essays. Visit http://erickalutz.com for information about her upcoming full-length show.
Woo hoo! Welcome to the new, all updated site! I hope that it will give you a flavor of who I am and what I do. Please leave a comment or drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.
My Berkeley job. My solo show (3 short performances in March, one longer performance in May). A talk at AWP in Denver, a new (shhh) column at Literary Mama, a teaching gig for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project (hot damn), AND NOW a week teaching in Hungary at the technical institute there. Plus taxes. Oh, and mothering, house owning, working out, taking care of dogs. But if I’m not around much or not answering messages in a timely fashion, blame it on the list above.
My pal and co-conspirator Elizabeth Bernstein is teaching a one-day short story writing class at the Grotto in San Francisco, March 20. Info below! Highly recommended!
Instructor: Elizabeth Bernstein
Contact:eb@elizabethbernstein.com
Number of sessions: 1
Meeting times: Saturday, March 20, 10 am to 4 pm.
Course fee: $155.00
Spots reserved with $50 deposit. Contact: eb@elizabethbernstein.com
Description: In one information-filled Saturday, learn everything you need to know about writing, revising and publishing your short stories. This hands-on workshop will cover every aspect of the craft, using fun in-class exercises and discussion. You’ll learn about all about character, voice, story arc, and point of view, plus how to get started, write convincing dialogue, and create believable heroes and villains. You’ll discover how to use setting to underscore your story, how to fictionalize real people and events, and how to write powerful endings. We’ll talk about the revision process and editing and sharing your work, as well as overcoming procrastination and living the writer’s life. Finally, we’ll talk about publishing and selling your work, including contests and the growing market for flash fiction.
Instructor Bio: Elizabeth Bernstein is a writer, editor, and writing coach. She’s the founder and editor of The Big Ugly Review (www.biguglyreview.com), an online literary magazine that showcases fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, music and short films (called “a great literary magazine” by Utne Magazine and “the fantastic Big Ugly Review” by zyzzyva editor Howard Junker). Her short stories have been published in the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, the North Atlantic Review and other US and international literary journals. Her short story, “Alice,” won first prize in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Fiction Contest and was optioned by Sneaky Little Sister Films. www.elizabethbernstein.com, www.ebc-books.com.
