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Here We Are.

April 1, 2020 by Exangel

Well, here we are, where we never thought to be, even a few weeks ago. And the GOT CHRYSALIS? issue was planned months ago, but if the chrysalis fits . . .

Back at the start of February, I wrote a Jam Today entry about some wonderful crab I had then, which now seems, on rereading, about a lifetime ago, over some border that is quickly receding as we drive away at breakneck speed. I kept the piece in this issue, just for the nostalgia — crab and brown butter, yum ­– but realized that, realistically, what I am cooking now is stuff left in the fridge at the end of a two week isolation period, when the market is half an hour away, and it’s safer for everyone if I just stay home as long as possible. This means wilted vegetables. Which gets us to something that has always bugged me, and now more than ever: those recipes that insist ‘throw away anything wilted or browned or sprouting.’ Ridiculous. I made a terrific minestrone from all those potential throwaways, and then I did a podcast about it. So if you want support for your wilted vegetable potential, listen in. I’ll probably do more. Podcasts get me a little closer to my always ideal of just standing in everyone’s kitchen with a glass of wine, chatting about food. This way I’m the proper social distance away, too.

Meanwhile, back at EAP, Cal LaFountain found us, contributing a piece about how the future is “Audiobooks and a Tear in Heaven’s Wind.” Even before the virus took hold on the world, EAP was having a relook at where it’s going, and audiobooks, produced in partnership with Last Word Audio, and the fabulous Colby Elliot, were the first place we looked. So to get Cal’s piece just underscored and sharpened our thought on the matter. Coincidence that he joined the EAP community just now? I don’t think so.

Poets ran poetically riot, even more than usual, this issue, and at first when the contributions came bursting in, I figured it was a common case of poetic spring fever. But now I think the poets are always the canary in the coal mine, and when fumes turn poison, they sing louder and louder. Check out our poetry editor Marissa Bell Toffoli’s “Spring and All, 2020,” Ben White’s “Glass Cocoon,” James Croal Jackson’s “Remnant,” Mark Robinson’s “Spring Chrysalis,” and the beautiful “meadow” by J.I. Kleinberg. Chris Farago was so on point, we had to begin and end with two of his poems: “It was dark,” and “249.”

Brian Griffith fans, don’t miss Brian’s research into the women creating Iranian cinema—“The Female Eye in Iranian Film.” I loved Sean Murphy’s looking back to look forward piece, “Backs to the Future.” And there was another anomalous contribution this issue, an extract from the book, “The Gospel of Science,” by William E. Douglas. We don’t usually lean toward books that you find in the self help section of the bookstore, but this one was in our patch. I’m reading the whole book now, and will give a report soon.

Special alert: My two favorite pieces this issue were both by young women. First, Tamra Lucid’s introduction to her memoir “Cassandra”—“Cast of Characters.” If you want to see the cast, read the piece; it’s really worth it; Tamra grows into her voice before the reader’s eyes. And a newcomer to EAP, Rani Wesley, has sent over the haunting story “Ladies with Bruises.” What these writers have in common is a new voice, one each, but both resolutely and imaginatively coming from a woman’s experience. I love that. I look for that. Thanks, Tamra and Rani.

Hoping everyone is staying safe and well and healthy. Really. And that we’re all being kind to those near and far.

Welcome back.

Filed Under: Todblog, Uncategorized

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In This Issue.

  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
  • Her.
  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
  • Dream Shapes.
  • Cannon Beach.
  • The Muse.
  • Spring.
  • The Greatness that was Greece.
  • 1966, NYC; nothing like it.
  • Sun Shower.
  • The Withering Weight of Being Perceived.
  • Broken Clock.
  • Confession.
  • Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.
  • Sometimes you die, I mean that people do.
  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
  • Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.
  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
  • Broad Street.
  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
  • Swan Lake.
  • Long Division.
  • Singing against the muses.
  • Aphorisms from “What Remains to Be Said”.

In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

supergirls-take-1

In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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