Paw Prints, Tracked Across Paper
It’s tough to find them, I know, but if you follow the inky paw prints, (an indicator that they did in fact go to the newspaper production factory when they explicitly told you they weren’t going to enter, “merely snoop about a bit for a tasty headline), well . . . you will find the Fox of Tricks.
Right now, I’ve tracked them all the way to the West Coast, and while I’ve yet to capture them in the net given to me by their sibling, the Butterfly, I have seen their designs at work. Waves upon the shores of Santa Monica Beach, that wet the sand enough to create a rather disgusting word, at least when uttered in polite company. A traffic jam on the 405 caused by an old pick-up truck with the bumper sticker exclaiming, “Fool Me Once, Shame on You. Fool Me Twice, I’m So Proud of You.”
We shall not speak of the calamity at Dodgers Stadium.
And yet, for all their shenanigans, I have a feeling they’ll settle down on Thursday. You see, I’m doing an event at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, and I do think they’ll want to make an appearance. Or at the very least, giggle through the whole thing like a cackling mad person. I’ll be in conversation with friend and writer Linda Codega, and if you’re an LA local, please come on out! RSVP here for 7pm on Thursday.
In the meantime, it’s been two weeks since Audition For The Fox arrived on shelves, and it has been an absolute whirlwind of laughs, love, and making good memories. I’ll do a full breakdown on those memories and feelings, but at the moment, I wanted to relay that it made the USA Today Bestseller’s List last week at #89!
I have no doubt it’ll be off of that list this present week, but that it appeared at all really makes me feel all rosy and short on breath, in a good way. I really never thought I would add Best-anything into my biography, not at this point in my career. That I’m able to at all is thanks to folks like yourselves: kind, caring, supportive, and willing to take a chance on a goofball’s first published book about the power of goofballs when focused through the lens of doing good for others.
Who knows where else this Fox could end up? We’ll have to follow their paw prints and see for ourselves.
Before I go, I wanted to shout out writer, critic, and family member, Ilana Masad, and their new book, BEINGS, out now. I am lucky to not just call Ilana family, as the partner to my brother and parent to their wonderful son, but also friend and member of the literary community. Her new book, Beings, has been received by the book community at large with excitement, warmth, and support. If you’re able to, please buy a copy here. A work of archive, queerness, aliens, sci-fi, and the lines between truth, reality, and our own human perspectives, I for one cannot wait to read it <3
More soon, y’all.
Reading: Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone
Playing: Silksong