You’re getting this post as an email because I post to Substack several times a month, but only once in a while do I send an email. Usually, I write about life in Ireland, but recently everything has been about launching my book in California. After this post, I’ll return to the usual Irish content.
After the stories in the Sentinel and Good Times, many people ordered my book from Bookshop Santa Cruz, but none of them arrived. So before I left town I dropped off my remaining copies of A Circle Outside. I can’t even say this is a dream come true. It’s bizarre to see a radical feminist novel in print at all and being sold at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
The night before I left for America, Coleen Douglas and I did an interview on Pride Perspectives on KSQD radio to promote Wonder and Awe in the Redwoods. I told the story of my first lesbian experience in Santa Cruz, where to find the lesbians in Ireland, and all three of us talked about how much we love redwoods. Coleen sang a song, and I read a scene from A Circle Outside.
Just before I arrived, the interview in the Sentinel appeared.
Several people ordered copies at Bookshop Santa Cruz, but by the time I left three weeks later, none had arrived. I’m still trying to figure out why.
I was in the Bay Area about three weeks. The first event was at the Berkeley Alembic, “a nonprofit center devoted to conciousness culture.”
This is the interview Sam Webster and I did there. I read a scene from the book that I didn’t read elsewhere; it’s a ritual scene showing what a Dianic ritual is like. Then we talked about how I found Dianic Wicca and what it was like for me as a young feminist who found herself part of the “women’s spirituality movement.” Sam’s expertise is in the history and practice of modern paganism, so he was able to put my experiences into a more academic context. The conversation was super fun. As I read the scene, you can hear the music that the characters in the book where listening to.
My friends ask me what I think of the changes in downtown Santa Cruz. I’m ok with it. Lower Pacific is a perfect place to live.
These post-earthquake buildings were hated in their day too.
I’m not sorry to see the Metro Center gone either. In it’s day, it was an improvement, with its shops and restrooms and shelter from the rain. Now the Metro will be where people live.
Roz Spafford’s interview with me in the Good Times appeared that week. Such a thrill because Roz at one time was the SF/F reviewer for the San Jose Mercury and has a deep knowledge of all the feminist utopia novels I loved.
I met up with Roz Spafford at Chocolate, which has the same menu I’ve always loved.
Another view of post-earthquake buildings looking well.
A friend took me to breakfast at O’Neil’s in the Dream Inn. Still the best view on Monterey Bay.
No change here:
On Sunday March 22, Coleen Douglas, Irene Reti and I did our show, “Wonder and Awe in the Redwoods.” It was everything I hoped it would be. We will put out a little movie of it. We’d like to do it again in a better venue.
A few days later, a friend and I had a San Francisco day, concluding with my event at Fabulosa Books in the Castro.
We recorded my reading on my phone. This is the same scene I read at Wonder and Awe, plus some poems.
The last Santa Cruz event was at the lovely new Felton Library.
I forgot to take pictures. We sat out on the patio. A woman from Ireland came, and wanted to know what surprises me the most about Ireland. I said one thing is that it is “bigger on the inside.” Americans often rent a car in Dublin and drive around it in a week. I suggest picking one city, like Cork or Sligo, and take day trips from there. Every field has a name, every holy well a miracle, every mountain a folk tale. The other thing is that in Ireland, nothing is as it seems.
I spent a few days with my family in Fresno, and like true Fresnans we drove to the mountains.
On the way to Grant Grove in Kings Canyon Park, I grabbed some snacks only found in America.
The Big Trees are not too far away from my Dad’s house. On that day, the Sierras were in a cloud.
This is me and my dad, age 90.
The last gig was at Alibi Bookshop in Vallejo.
Karen Finley, the owner,apologized for the power being out, but I told her I didn’t need anything but an audience.
I recommend writing a novel and then speaking about it in public to strangers. Can’t wait to do it again.
What a wonderful trip, and lovely tribute to the interconnectedness of life. And I deeply appreciate your observation about Ireland being "bigger on the inside."
I used to listen to The Motorcycles and Misfits podcast which was in "sunny Santa Cruz" and I always imagined Santa Cruz as a huge and sprawling California city. Apparently it's not. It's quite cute.