Aug 26, 2010 4
Just a reminder that I will be reading, signing, and speaking on panels at ArmadilloCon in north Austin this weekend. At the Broad Universe reading, I’ll likely read the prologue from Alcestis, and at my own half-hour reading I plan to read the beginning of “The Former Hero,” my gothicky Much Ado About Nothing ghost story, which is currently making the rounds.
Hope to see you there!
Aug 13, 2010 1
I just got my preliminary ArmadilloCon 32 schedule, so if you’re able to make it to Austin at the end of the month and want to see me read, sign, or talk on a panel, you’re in luck! My events are all on Saturday, August 28, and Sunday, August 29. The con is at the Renaissance Hotel in the Arboretum, and there are one-day passes available at the con if you’re only interested in attending a few events (though of course I encourage you to attend the whole thing!).
Jul 27, 2010 0
They will come and speak to your fiction workshops! Last Friday, the fabulous Maureen McHugh visited my summer fiction class and spent about 75 minutes talking with my students. In preparation for her visit, they’d read a story from her currently in-development collection of post-apocalyptic short fiction, and they’d also read the first 25 pages of The Road as a counterpoint.
Maureen on the right, talking to one side of the table
We talked about Maureen’s ARG company No Mimes. She walked the students through the development of a typical ARG project and described the many ways that working in the ARG world is different from writing prose fiction, by yourself, at your computer — and the many sorts of knowledge she’s gained from writing in a fiction-adjacent field.
We talked about the story the students read, “After the Apocalypse,” which follows a mother and daughter trying to go north to Detroit — not south, like McCarthy’s father and son — after the world falls apart. Maureen explained how she viewed her story as existing in conversation with McCarthy’s novel, but not offering a direct response to it (though we did offer some direct responses to the novel in class!). She also noted which elements of the story had changed in response to workshop feedback.
We also talked about Twitter and about communities of writers; Maureen is @maureenmcq on Twitter, for reference. I first read one of Maureen’s books when I was in college (China Mountain Zhang, still one of my favorite books), but I got to know her personally after becoming friendly with a group of Austin writers I met through Twitter. One of my favorite things about the writing world on Twitter is how generous many established writers are with their time, with their RTs of former students’ excited announcements, with their enthusiasm about new books. Maureen’s visit to our class was just another instance of that kind of generosity, and we had a great time.
Apr 8, 2010 0
As I mentioned last week, we’re in the process of moving — much of our stuff is over at the new place, but my books are not, yet. I feel very odd without them. Now that it’s been a while since we moved out of our little north campus cottage, I sometimes have fantasies of abandoning the stuff we’ve acquired and living in a tiny house. Then I realize that we’d need to have a second tiny house just for our books. And possibly also for the purpose of banishing the cats on occasion. This move seems to have given Saki magical time-sensing powers; after one night of yowl-and-explore — her usual response to moving — she’s now settled into a quieter nighttime pattern that concludes with yowl-and-walk-on-my-head at 6:30 am precisely. As T. said, she’s like a little alarm clock you can’t turn off. Of course, she is now curled up in a neat small cat circle in my lap and has therefore earned temporary forgiveness.
We should be all moved by the end of the weekend, I think, so soon I’ll be able to lovingly arrange my books in their proper idiosyncratic order in my giant Ikea bookshelf, which I will never move using my own muscles again, if I can help it. I’ve only just stopped walking like an old lady. (The order, in case you’re curious, is something like “books I like best roughly chronological by period, then books I just like, then books so giant they seem like they should be on bottom shelves, then lots of other books probably haven’t looked at for years.”) I’m still going to be a bit scarce online through the end of the week, though.
Some fun Alcestis news before I vanish: I can now report that I’ll be appearing twice in Houston in late June, first at the Central Library on June 23 and then at the Jungman Neighborhood Library on the 24th. More details to come — I’ll post them here and on the events page.
Feb 16, 2010 3
I’ve just uploaded the video Travis recorded at my book launch party to Vimeo, so you can now watch and listen as I read the prologue to Alcestis and talk a bit about the content of the book. Feel free to share this video, too!
ALCESTIS reading — Katharine Beutner from Katharine Beutner on Vimeo.
Feb 12, 2010 3
It’s a bullet-point kind of day, I’m afraid. First up, Alcestis news!
And some Friday afternoon links:
Feb 12, 2010 2
Today I got a shiny CD from my friend Kristin, who took wonderful photos of the Alcestis book launch party last Sunday at BookPeople.
T. says that I should do a Wesley Willis-style description of the event: “I read at BookPeople. About thirty or forty people were at the show. It was a rocking good time.” Which is actually pretty accurate! Because I did my master’s degree in fiction writing at UT and am still in the same department for my Ph.D. work, I am lucky enough to have a group of amazing friends who have watched me write this novel, revise it, wait and wait to see if it would find a publisher, sell it (with much rejoicing) to Soho, revise it some more — you get the picture. So they were excited to see the final product in print, and I was tremendously excited to share it with them.
The one thing I forgot to get a picture of was my name on the marquee sign out front, which was pretty damn exciting all on its own. There was another sign inside the store with the event listed, and I couldn’t help it — I walked up and pointed and said, “Uh, that’s me.” And the kind staff member (Jen R., if I remember right) in charge of the event took excellent care of me (and T., who came early with me to help set things up).
The reading was held on the second floor, in the big open space between sections of the store. Below is a photo of me reading, with some of the audience visible:
I read the Prologue and the majority of Chapter 7.
And then I hung around and signed books for old friends and new friends, too.
If you want to see more photos from this reading, check out the Flickr set that Kristin created. I’m really looking forward to my next reading, now!
All photos are copyright Kristin Ware (thanks, Kristin!).
Feb 7, 2010 0
I’m getting ready to head over to BookPeople in an hour or so to set up for my launch party, but before I go, I wanted to share the guest post I wrote for Wonders & Marvels, a great blog about history. Wonders & Marvels will also be offering copies of Alcestis in a giveaway, about which I’ll post more details tomorrow. But for now, off to the party!
Jan 31, 2010 0
Back quickly to note that the Austin American Statesman just published Joe Gross’s interview with me about Alcestis, in which we discuss, among other things, companion animal fantasy, D’Aulaires’ Greek myths, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I guess I should make an interview category on the blog, hmm?)
Jan 15, 2010 3
First of all: I’ve added a link to the online invitation to my book launch party on the Events page. If you’re reading this, consider yourself invited — it’ll be held at BookPeople in downtown Austin, February 7, 3 pm.
In other Alcestis news, my ARC giveaway via Goodreads ended yesterday — 1289 people requested an ARC, which is delightfully mind-boggling. I mailed out ARCs to the two winners today!
Very soon I’ll also have an excerpt from the novel to share with you, as well as a recording of me reading that excerpt. T. is slaving over a website redesign as I write, and I’ll be adding the excerpt and podcast as soon as the redesign is ready to go.
And now, links:
Beutner renders her multilayered heroine with beauty and delicacy, and concerns herself with no less than the intricacies of the soul.
I write fiction and creative nonfiction and teach at the College of Wooster. My novel Alcestis, a retelling of the Greek myth, is now available from Soho Press.
