Summer’s waning, and plenty is going on
I sent out a newsletter recently and am sharing it here, as well, for folks who might just be stopping by to learn more about my work:
Last weekend my sisters and I ventured to a Korean spa. We’d had massages, mineral baths, mud baths and the like before, but it had been more than a decade since we'd done anything like that together. Oh, what a time we had! The salt scrubs were like slipping into silk sheets at the price of cotton. The waves of salt, water and fragrance scoured away worries and pains weighing on us. We left feeling relaxed and weightless but also charged up. The sensation lingers as I write this five days later.
On the ride home, news on my phone struck me like a finch flying full tilt into glass: Trump’s plan to unleash military and ICE forces in cities beyond his dreadful occupations of D.C. and Los Angeles. Chicago, my first home, was on the list.
That night I dreamed of my earliest memories: the Buckingham Fountain at night, jets of water glowing in shifting colors; the Wrigley Building, white against a blue afternoon sky; bridges lifting skyward as tall ships glided down the river; a dollhouse at the Museum of Science and Industry so exquisitely detailed I longed to shrink and live inside. To a small child, these were marvels. Chicago brimmed with wonder.
But in the dream, soldiers patrolled those same streets and landmarks, rifles at the ready. Families shrank back. Children were searched. Some people were yanked into forbidding SUVs. The marvels dimmed beneath camouflage and fear. I awoke saddened. What will today’s children remember of our country’s great cities when they're grown? I don’t want their memories shadowed by armed guards. I expect you don’t either.
I often feel powerless in the face of this, along with Trump’s relentless authoritarian strikes to our nation amid a backdrop of violence where children are no longer safe at school or their place of worship. Yet I hold fast to the belief that even the smallest acts matter. So I will do what I can while also tending to my family and creative work. And on that front, I have some news.
Computer to community
✨ Copperfield’s Books
If you’re in Santa Rosa, you can now find Shinbone Lane on the shelves at Copperfield’s Books in Montgomery Village. Every copy purchased there supports not only me, but also other local writers whose books the store might take on next.
📖 Ebook now everywhere
After 90 days of Amazon exclusivity, the Shinbone Lane ebook is now available through a wide range of online booksellers. If you prefer to read outside Kindle, here’s the Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/b5ELGR.
🎙 Podcast interviews
I’ve dipped into the world of podcasting! One recent conversation with J.R. Handley is live—you can listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5onN3C5nh5uphTuIuChWY1
Interviewing is new terrain for me, but I’m finding my voice. And I have more interviews coming up.
📻 Radio feature
On Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 8:45 a.m., I’ll be joining KRSH’s Get Lit program. You can tune in live https://www.krsh.com/player/ or catch the recording afterward at https://www.krsh.com/getlit/.
📝 Blog tour in September
I’ll be making the rounds online with Black Coffee Book Tours Sept. 14 through 16. It will be a combination of written Q&As and book reviews. The schedule will be here: https://henryroipr.com/shinbone-lane/.
🌟 Reviews
Shinbone Lane has now reached 35 reviews on Amazon. To everyone who’s read the novel and shared your thoughts—thank you! Your words are helping this novel reach new readers’ hands and hearts.
Stories that held me
This month my reading has carried me across grief, wonder, history and galaxies.
Ghost Ship Fire: A Mother’s Search for Answers by Colleen Dolan, a searing account of loss and resilience that left me astounded at Colleen's perseverance in the face of overwhelming loss.
A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans, an illuminating, bittersweet story of an extraordinary time in the author's life.
Dusty Roads by Elaine Rock, a tour de force biography of a 1950s stewardess whose calm, confident resistance set the stage for many rights won by women in the 1960s and 1970s
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, a layered, evocative magical realism novel inspired by folklore that I just read for the second time and will read again.
LZ New Birth by J.R. Handley, a cinematic, action-packed sci-fi story that carried me to a vividly rendered battle far from planet Earth.
Can you guess which one tugged hardest at my heartstrings? As a youngster, I devoured every dog and wolf book on the shelves of my grammar school library. There were more than you’d think, and I still lean in whenever a wolf or dog shows up in a story.
On my bedside stack right now: Silver Echoes by Rebecca Rosenberg, Midnight in Washington by Adam Schiff, Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan, and On Editing by Helen Corner-Bryant and Kathryn Price. Will I read them all? Don't know yet.
I hope you'll tune in to some of the interviews and blog tour posts mentioned above. And if you live near Santa Rosa, California, consider purchasing a signed copy of Shinbone Lane at Copperfield's.
Just for fun
Teddy bears are always hungry when my granddaughters visit.
Till next time, love yourself, your flaws, your quirks, everything that makes you, you.
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