susanstinson

charlottecooper is right: a lot of good stuff has been happening. For instance:

• I've been invited to be part of a reading for Out, the queer affinity group at Time, Inc, in Manhattan next week. I'll be reading with my friend Alison Smith for the first time, which should be lovely, and also Stacey D'Erasmo and Damian McNicholl. Jonathan Harper, who organized the Lambda finalist reading I participated in a while back, sang my praises when he was asked to recommend readers, which I appreciate no end.
  
  All of the other readers have been published by big mainstream presses. I've mentioned Alison and Stacey's books here before, but haven't yet read Damian's, A Son Called Gabriel, which is a coming of age novel set in Northern Ireland. I'm looking forward to it. The paperback was released Friday. I just read in his blog that Alexandria, one of the reading organizers, told him that more than a hundred Time employees have already signed up for the event. Time to take a deep breath and do laundry.



• You might remember that my friend, the fabulous writer Sally Bellerose, gave me a ring that she had had for forty years for a talisman for the trip last week. (When I told her that I'd dropped it on the train, and had to search under seats on my hands and knees with help from the teenaged girls in the next seat, she said,"That's the theme of the trip. Everything you think you lost will be found." I love my friends.) Anyway, Sally wrote a story about an incident a few years ago when we were hanging out in downtown Pulaski Park with Janet Aalfs, celebrating that Janet had been chosen as Northampton's Poet Laureate, when I whipped off my shirt to do a push-up or two in my shorts and sport bra, just like the shirtless young men we'd been watching show-off in front of the roses. (What can I say, sometimes something comes over me.) There are pictures to prove it. Sally sent the story to the local paper, and it's been accepted, so, locals take note, it may appear in this Friday's Hampshire Life. One of the editor's questions was whether I'd be offended by it, since Sally very lovingly and accurately describes what I looked like doing those push ups. Me, I'm delighted. In fact, I've been trying to wrangle full credit, but last I heard, it's first names only.
  


• Please welcome my wonderful friend minna_bromberg. Some may remember her beautiful singing from her lullaby line. She's thoughtful, fun and interesting, and about to start rabbinical school in Newton, MA.