Dear Readers,

A brief update for you Monday inbox, with a few pieces of good news to welcome the harvest:

1) Back in July I was longlisted for the Crook's Corner Book Prize in Chapel Hill, NC. Crook's Corner is a staple of Southern cuisine in North Carolina (Chez Moi, the fictional restaurant in Slim and The Beast, was inspired by the spot), and it is an honor to be among the candidates for the debut novelist prize. Lee Smith, a literary legend down south, will choose the short list in the coming weeks. Regardless of whether I'm selected (it's a long shot, indeed), I'm honored to be considered and wanted to share it with you all:

http://crookscornerbookprize.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CROOKSBOOKS_release16_fourthtake.pdf

2) I have finished the manuscript for my third novel, which is a historical fiction based in a Polish ghetto (Lodz) during the Nazi occupation. I spent my academic career (BA + MA) studying ethics during the Nazi era and the psychology of genocide, and this novel serves as a culmination of those studies. It will take some time before I move towards publishing, but after three years of writing, I am confident I have something now.

3) I have been accepted to the Vermont Studio Center artist residency program in Johnson, Vermont for February, 2016. Quite frankly, I didn't expect to get in. It's a huge honor. I will spend one month living with fifty international artists (visual artists as well as writers) and during this time, I hope to begin my fourth novel. I don't know where it will lead me, but I have an idea where to start ... as Andre Gide says, "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." 

NB: For all of you artists out there, you should DEFINITELY apply to these types of programs. You never know which reviewer may take a liking to your work--if I can make it, so can you. Multiple rejection letters only increase your odds (that might be flawed logic/a cognitive bias, but I'm running with it. DON'T TRY AND STOP ME).

Finally, Slim and The Beast is still selling a few copies per week, which is more than I expected. I'm lucky to have jumped on-board the Inkshares train when I did, and that comes with a HUGE thanks to the 232 original backers-- Stars of the Year, you know who you are--for being the main reason for any of this. You believed in me when Inkshares didn't have any previously published novels or well-known writers, and that makes you especially awesome.

 “I can't just let you take a patient to your room, Lieutenant,” said Carina.

“Better that he be a vegetable, here?" Erin asked. "Just lying here, with no one knowing what to do? I think I can help him, Carina. Let me help him.”

“What is it with you?” Carina asked, crossing her arms.

“I feel things, Carina. More acutely than you, or anyone else.”

Carina exhaled so that her lips fluttered. “You haven't met Tuah.”

“Captain, be serious, damn it. I'm an empath. A low-level telepath. I can't read thoughts, but I can sense what people actually feel. It's like one big bullshit detector and it's horrible.”

“I bet.”

“And what's especially horrible is that Rivetti. I've met a lot of malignant people, people who are almost irredeemable, but almost all of them had some kind of redemptive quality. All Rivetti wants to do is hurt people. I've never encountered feelings so black.”

“You grew up on Venus, didn't you?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“Welcome to Earth.”