Gone Fishin'
I was planning to get this newsletter out earlier, but as it turns out - I REALLY needed time to unwind over vacation. Hell, I was sure I’d do so much reading and writing over that time that I packed approximately 8 books, two manuscripts (one a novella, one a short) I planned to revise, as well as doing some editing.
Suffice to say, most of those things did not happen. As it turns out, the combination of mostly work pressures didn’t allow me to unwind sufficiently until we were almost ready to go back home. From the added time and burden of the return to office mandate for all federal employees, to the onslaught of added work (my branch alone was reduced from 33 to 14 employees via resignations and reassignments over the last 2-3 months).
So, I wish I’d been able to do more, but don’t regret just doing little to nothing but be over this time. Taken over by the Vonnegutian urge to simply “fart around” for a week or more. Apart from working for the most part - I’ve begun revising my short story, at least - it’s also a way for me to build resilience.
Maine, Ho!
Every summer for a while, now, we pack up and drive several hundred miles to vacation in Maine. We often joke that our vacation’s really for our dog Biz. She gets into our car in Maryland, and one long nap later, she gets out in Maine.
We get something out of it, too.
For those who’ve never been there, Maine is truly beautiful. It’s difficult to convey just how downright primordial the landscape looks, with forests that darken to impenetrability a few steps under its canopy, and signs warning drivers that one of North America’s surviving megafauna might be in the road at any time. There’s certain stretches of road where the trees fall away to reveal wave after wave of the slump-backed Appalachians stretching off to the horizon, and you start to see how old these mountains are superimposed with how terrifyingly huge they once were. Looking past the bright green carpet of ferns, into the impenetrable gloom of coniferous forests, there’s that vertiginous feeling of Deep Time.
Last year when we were up there, there was this moment when my wife and I were swimming (“swimming” is a bit much; mostly we were standing with the water up to our chins) just as sunset was settling over the the land. We joined the dozen other people there to watch the last flash of the sun as the saddleback mountains swallowed it up. Reverent of something as awesome yet everyday as our sun completing its journey across the sky. Heads turned towards that last light, bobbing in the water (three layers down: sun-warmed, cool, frigid), I was struck by how this could have been a scene from pre-history. A truly uncanny feeling, but one that had more of the earthly sublime to it than unsettlement.
It has this aura about it that feels like an ancient rite. But what’s ritual but a story preserved in amber? That framing makes it seem they need centuries or millennia to take hold, but nothing could be further from the truth.
For example, on one of our trips up, we were looking for a rest before the last leg of the trip. Lo and behold, we stumbled across a small food co-op in Putney, Vermont. It had a great little selection of grocery as well as snack items. The next year, we made it a point to add the Putney Co-op to the trip, and we’ve made sure to visit at least once. That’s the thing about our clever monkey brains: we can make anything a ritual.
When you think about it, the whole vacation’s a ritual. Maybe Chaucer was onto something, after all.
One More Thing…
I got back home to find Joy Sanchez-Taylor had sent me a copy of her new book, Dispelling Fantasies. She dedicates a couple of pages to my story, Up In the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep In the Ground in her chapter on Patriarchy. How cool is that?
I meant to have finished my review of Kyle Winkler’s latest novel, Enter the Peerless. For now, know that it’s a grimy, hard-boiled Weird Detective novel full of dark, absurdist humor. I hope to get a lengthier review out soon (sorry, Kyle).
And once I’m done with that review, I’d like to write something about Thomas Ha’s outstanding collection, Uncertain Sons. Coming soon, but in short, I loved it; if you like my stuff, you’ll love this collection. Pre-order it ASAP.
For the last couple of weeks, Podside Picnic’s been releasing unlocked episodes every Monday. Now that I’m back, Podside’s operations will resume.
And that’s all she wrote!