I'm really excited to have this issue's creative nonfiction writing prompt in the biannual WRITERS' CHRONICLE. It's paywalled, for AWP members only, but a ton of writers are AWP members. 

I guess if my book will be out, Steve and I will be going to AWP next spring in Chicago. We didn't go to Baltimore this year, but we went to L.A. the year before that. Thousands of writers attend. It's enormous and pretty overwhelming.

Lots of buzz around my nonfiction flash "Faceplant" (more than 110 likes on Facebook, last I looked). Partly because so many readers seem to have had bad falls themselves (who knew?) but partly because many readers/writers admired the writing, so that's gratifying. It's something I've wanted to write about for a long time and I'm glad I did.

Making great progress on the edited manuscript of THE LUNATICS' BALL and the other required materials. Did a second round of edits. Filed the illustrations (SO much work and I hope it's done) and the permissions, and I'm almost done with the rest, due April 19.

I have a new Substack on the centenary of the day that Violet Gibson attempted to assassinate Mussolini. And on readings and salons: reading my LUNATICS' BALL flash "Shooting Mussolini" at Patricia Bidar's book launch at Books on B in Hayward, and again at the Irish-American Festival's Literary Salon in a grand mansion in San Francisco, and reading my opening flash "The Lunatics' Ball" at Sasha Vasilyuk's paperback launch in the Mission in San Francisco some time ago. Once again I elected not to have the Substack delivered to subscribers' or followers' email inboxes, because I don't want to be a pest. I get so much unwanted email myself. I'm sure fewer people read it this way, but I can live with that.

​I'm getting very close to having all of my edits and everything else ready for the April 19 deadline at Mad Creek Books. Once we got going, it's been a pleasure to work with the EIC Kristen Elias Rowley. Very exciting!
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Thrilled to be in CLEAVER again with a nonfiction flash “Faceplant.” (My two previous pubs in CLEAVER, both nonfiction flash, are among my very favorites.)

Thanks to Kathy Fish for her “thirty seconds” prompt, which unlocked something I knew I wanted to write about, but wasn’t sure how to approach. What I mostly remember about my faceplant, besides how scary and sudden it was, is that split second as my face was rushing to meet the cement, and how that split second and the sickening thud that followed recurred for weeks after the event. Kathy Fish's prompt (I think it was about the thirty seconds preceding something that happened, or maybe the thirty seconds after?) opened a door for me.

I'd been invited to give a craft talk at the launch for the new issue of SUPERSTITION REVIEW, which had published my essay on Joseph Cornell. Luckily, I had the talk already written, but I had to do the talk (which had a powerpoint at least) and the Q&A with the camera off because of the abrasions on my face and black eyes.

The EIC at CLEAVER, Karen Rile, does all of their art. Love the art for "Faceplant" (attaching, but the original actually moves!).

The inaugural issue of Sarah Fawn Montgomery's magazine NERVE TO WRITE looks great, with a lot of writers whose work I know. Pleased to see my essay "Normal" among them.

I originally wrote the essay with THE LUNATICS' BALL in mind, and then realized that it repeated too much material I'd used elsewhere in the book. I wrote about that, and an appreciation of Sarah Fawn Montgomery's work, in a Substack today. I don't really know how Substacks work, and I elected not to have this delivered via email to my followers. I'll see if anyone notices it at all this way!

I've been completely immersed in edits for THE LUNATICS' BALL for almost two weeks and it's been exciting, despite some surprises, or maybe because of some surprises, since Kristen's suggestions have me thinking hard about the book and  where and how it should end. Kirsten pushed up the deadline to April 19; I'm hoping to get the manuscript to her this week for a short round of questions and answers and edits before then.  I think I'll make the deadline, which will mean a March 27, 2027 pub date.

Jon Crispin asked to see the Madeline essay in the  course of supplying his great photograph of her trunk and asked for a. phone call where we talked for a long time about his project and my project. He really likes the essay, which is nice! The guys who did the psychedelic collage art for the documentary about the 1978 punk show at Napa State Asylum also asked to see my essay about that, and they like it (and had one minor correction, which was useful) and it was great corresponding with them. I'll only have a handful of full page illustrations: the 1865 lunatics' ball at Blackwell's, Toulouse-Lautrec's Jane Avril, Jon's photograph, Mike and Jason's Napa art. And maybe ten or so half-page illustrations. I am amazed at how much work the illustrations have involved, locating them, procuring high-res copies, getting permissions. Glad it's almost done.

Unfortunately this is the busiest season of the year at CRAFT, when we decide on the short list of subs to send to the contest judge (Roxane Gay this year, who attracted a record-breaking number of submissions), along with the long list and honorable mentions. Cole, our new editor-in-chief, has us trying out a new way of handling the contest that so far seems to be much more efficient and much less of a burden for the associate editors.

Took time off this weekend to see an old friend visiting from back East on Friday, for the No Kings demonstration on Saturday (the largest demonstration the US has ever seen), and for the Irish-American Crossroads Festival Literary Salon on Sunday. It was intellectually energizing and I'm glad I went. A real salon, in the grand living room of a 100-year-old San Francisco mansion, with discussion of many topics between readings. Quite lovely. 

Concerned about our upcoming schedule because there's so much to do for the Memoir Excerpt & Essay contest. It would be fine if I wasn't waiting for edits on my book. Today in my writing group I got two pieces of conflicting advice but both were heartening: Alia said I should just decide my book will be released in fall 2027 and take my time on the edits; Rose said I was pretty fast with edits and. might get through them pretty quickly for the April 1 deadline.

Discovered CRAFT on two lists for Chill Subs and I'm proud of our reputation for publishing new writers as well as being really hard to get into. I agree!
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I'm so thrilled to be able to include this in THE LUNATICS' BALL, even though it will be in black and white. THE WILLARD SUITCASES project was important to me as I began to conceive of my own project as something larger than a memoir of my own experiences and my aunt's. I mention it more than once, and wrote an entire essay about Madeline C, inspired by her trunk (published in the print journal PASSAGES NORTH, named a Notable Essay in BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS that year).

I always forget to update my  Goodreads to reflect what I've read, but I just managed to add a few short story collections, and today I wrote something about THE DEVIL'S CASTLE. Another book I wish I'd read before I completed THE LUNATICS' BALL, though I don't know whether it would have changed my book. I was particularly interested in the blend of memoir and researched history, also her discussion of the DSM and eugenics and medication. My review: 

"I taught creative nonfiction workshops for many years with Susanne Paola and Brenda Miller’s Tell It Slant, and I particularly enjoyed the hybrid approach to creative nonfiction in The Devil’s Castle. While the first part of the subtitle (Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry’s Troubled History Reverberates Today) suggests that the book will primarily be a researched history, I already knew to expect more: not only a history of the Nazi extermination of neurodivergent people (in Sonnenburg, the infamous Devil’s Castle) and a history of the eugenic thinking in the U.S. and Germany that persists in psychiatry today, but braided accounts of two fascinating historical figures, Paul Schreber and Dorothea Buck, animated and punctuated by the author’s own psychiatric experiences. The memoir element in this text increases the urgency and timeliness of the historical stories she tells, which extend to the present day in the U.S., “the point where medicine meets money.” A compelling history/memoir, a hybrid genre that has become increasingly important, The Devil’s Castle is deeply researched and deeply felt. "

Jon Crispin's photograph of Madeline's trunk from the Willard Suitcases project arrived yesterday and it's just beautiful. I'll post the color version here later (once I know what credit line he wants), maybe also with a future Substack post on Madeline, but I'm thrilled to see that the black-and-white version for the book is really compelling. My biggest expense for the book so far (I also paid yesterday to use eleven words from Carole Maso's The Art Lover as an epigraph to "Little Colored Pills"), but worth it. I'd like to do a full-page reproduction in the book if I can.

Still no edited manuscript, but I've finished the illustrations, captions, short titles for the table of contents, short descriptions for the visually impaired, and assembled high resolution versions of all of them. Except for Ellen Gallagher's "Odalisque." I haven't heard from her gallery yet, and I don't know how much it will cost when/if I do hear from them. Maybe I'll cut that essay?  I've finally completed a description of the book (hard, since I know it will be used on the book jacket and marketing materials: how do I describe this peculiar hybrid collection?), and I'm pushing forward on the lengthy marketing questionnaire. Who knew there would be so much advance work involved? I think I'll be done with everything but the manuscript edits by the April 1 deadline, but they are of course crucial.

Work at CRAFT is ramping up,  as we're nearing the time to choose finalists and a long list for the Memoir Excerpt & Essay Contest, always very time-consuming. Just started reading contest submissions again this week, after a welcome respite. We published a flash by Sean Thomas Dougherty this week that I immediately fell in love with when I read it: "The Plough and the Stars." I love every flash we've published, but I'm particularly proud of this one. (I wish I could have written the introduction, but our outgoing editorial assistant Travis Roberson wanted to; I will miss working with him.)

NUNUM did a short interview with me that's now online. Not sure whether I'd answer the questions the same way now, but it's pretty recent!

I'll be reading "My Mother's Suitcases" from THE LUNATICS' BALL at a Rolling Writers garden reading in late June. I just read "Shooting Mussolini" at Patricia's Books on B reading, also from the book. I need to decide what to read at the Irish-American Crossroads Salon on March 29. It needs to be Irish-related, and Violet Gibson (who attempted to assassinate Mussolini) was Irish. I have a fictionalized monologue from Lizzie Halliday (as well as a long essay) in the book, but I don't know whether they want to hear about an Irish-American serial killer! Also more flash fictions than I remember publishing that grew out of the research for THE LUNATICS' BALL, back when I thought it might include straight fiction. I read the one about Crazy Jane once and really enjoyed it. The Crossroads folks say they're allotting 10-15 minutes per reader, which is a lot.

Still no edited manuscript and I think I just have to accept that the manuscript won't be complete by April 1, even if I manage to have all the other materials ready . Disappointing, but not the end of the world to be published in fall 2027 instead of spring 2027.