I’m in Santa Cruz for a few weeks, visiting friends and redwoods, and promoting my novel A Circle Outside. I don’t feel entirely comfortable promoting myself, but as my editor said, you have only one debut novel, so I might as well enjoy it.
Today I’m headed to Berkeley to be interviewed by Sam Webster of the Berkeley Alembic. We’re going to talk about what I learned from Dianic Wicca when I was in my twenties, where I thought it came from (and where it actually did). I want to talk about the power of saying “No,” and the power of saying “Yes.” I hope we’re not too nostalgic, because women getting together and playing together with intention is an approach for healing and growth that never goes out of style. The talk will be recorded.
The night before I left Ireland I stayed up until midnight to appear on Pride Perspectives, KSQD Santa Cruz. It hasn’t been posted yet, but it will be at the KSQD site.
These interviews have been quite fun, much better than I expected, and every one different.
Here’s the link to my conversation on the top UK lesbian podcast.
The Write Club is a show about writers and writing, so we focused on theme and characters and all that technical stuff I learned in the ten years it took to write A Circle Outside.
That’s one of my favorite photographs of all time, by Irene Reti. She said she left her office at McHenry library (UCSC), walked outside with her camera and snapped it. That’s how a redwood forest is. Moments of breathtaking “wonder and awe” but you need to be there, and you need to open your eyes and see it. We used this photo to advertise the event that will serve as my book launch in Santa Cruz, Wonder and Awe in the Redwoods, March 22.
The Sentinel ran a story about A Circle Outside above the fold. It’s behind a paywall, but you can get a subscription for about a dollar. A friend of mine said, “imagine, witches in the Sentinel,” and that reminded me that in 1990 the Sentinel ran a story about local pagans and how they observed Winter Solstice. You can’t read the Sentinel on newspapers.com anymore, but you can still read it in the California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Next week the Good Times will run an interview with me by Roz Spafford. We had a great conversation and she captured the essence of it, which was utopias and feminism.
Tuesday, March 24th, I’ll be at Fabulosa Books in the Castro. I’ve never been to it before and am thrilled the Castro has a bookstore.
The morning of Saturday, March 28th will have a big demonstration in Santa Cruz. That afternoon I’ll be at the Felton Library. If it’s a small group, I thought I might talk about how I was able to get a novel with a overt political message published by a real publisher without an agent or MFA or any connections to the UK literature scene. Or I’ll just try to entertain.
The last event is in Vallejo, at Alibi bookstore.
And now, after all that self-promotion, more redwoods.
