Zoom Book Launch, Postcards From Elsewhere
 

Well, I have finally gotten around to organizing a launch for my new book, In Case It Isn't There: Postcards From Elsewhere, 1988-2001. The launch will take place on Zoom, on Sunday July 10th, 2PM Eastern Time. It will feature readings from the book by myself, Mary Meriam, Mark McDonnell, Annie Drysdale, Rick Mullin, John Marcus Powell, John Riley, Meredith Bergmann, Adriana Scopino, Marcia Karp, and Wendy Videlock. We are hoping to make it an informal affair, a conversation punctuated by readings, or a reading punctuated by conversations. Do drop in and join the conversation.

Here is the link for registration...

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Jul 10, 2022 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkdumurDgtGNaoWqXzPGAY_mkKlR54Dvqb

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please do not share the log-in link for the meeting in public to avoid any encounters with the dreaded Zoom Bombers.

Hope to see you there.

Nemo

Oh, that is excellent news, and the reading sounds fantastic. I have, of course, registered. I like how you frame this as a reading/conversation mixture.

Sarah-Jane

I'm really looking forward to it, Nemo. It's such a wonderful book and it will be a pleasure to participate.

I hope you take part in the conversation, Sarah-Jane.

I'm looking forward to it as well, Mark. It's quite a line-up of voices.

Just a reminder to anyone who wants to attend, you must register in advance, then you will receive the Zoom link.

Nemo

It's quite likely that family time will interfere with my attendance. I will see what happens.

So glad I dropped in today to find this. I’ve registered and intend to attend, friend. :)

Thanks, Siham, it will be good to see you.
A book will be on its way to you soon.

You can register just in case, Allen.

This is tomorrow, folks.
Register and come on over.

Nemo

I’ve submitted my Zoom request three times in the last twelve hours and gotten no email response yet.

Not sure why, Allen, but I just emailed you the link.

Nemo

I hope I entered my email address correctly: atclassics382@nyct.net.

Maybe I left out an "s"?

Just seeing this with 9 minutes to spare. Any chance to join?

Sorry, Simon, there were about seven people who only registered at the last minute, and in the confusion I overlooked approving them. Next time. We recorded it, and it will be posted sometime tomorrow. I'll put a link here.

Nemo

Here is the recording of the launch.
As you can see and hear, we enjoyed ourselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNX19X73e6E

I remain in grateful awe of the amazing readers.

If you want a singed copy of the book, send me a PM.
Or you can order directly from the publisher, Dos Madres Press

If you are outside the States, I would recommend Amazon to avoid prohibitive shipping costs.

Nemo

Is that the copy you were reading from, Nemo? Because you were on fire, mister! :)

Seriously, it was really good fun. Cheers, and congrats on a wonderful book.

A real "launch". I'm well chuffed to have been there. It's a wonderful book; may fate bless it and all who sail on it.

it was completely fab.

For those who didn't make it, here are my notes (I make notes on everything, when I can)

love this context - the location of the postcards in their time, and also that sense of the real/embodied postcard - love ‘the pen became my camera’ and the idea of the postcard as a longhand snapshot…
And the poems are more than that - perfect for a reading, the strong imagery and sonics of these take us not just to a specific point in space/time, but to some of the travellers on this journey.
And these visuals are unique, curiously quirky, but also full of half-glimpsed stories (just as the brassiere’s on the brassiere salesmen are glimpsed towards the end of the poem, in a final vision, transformed).
They’re not always easy journeys, but they always bring us into different spaces.
‘Skirt the leering faces of the big hotels…feigning amusement’ is such a wonderful image. The poems talk of big things/themes found in the small things. Curiously narrator de-centred, the narrator is a pure narrator.
Myth.
Characters blend myth and real, Father Time met on a road filled with giant empty hotels.
Word-level - ‘creeping liminality’ - writes of borders and in-between spaces as far removed from the pallid cliches of postcard-myth as one can/could imagine.
The narrator is mostly narrating, but sometimes waiting, looking for a centre to describe, both metaphorically and physically. Sometimes this is found in a character they meet, sometimes through sheer force of will
I love how the phrase ‘restless Colonel of Elsewhere’ sounds like the elegant rustling of leaves.
The ‘agitation of reflected light’ and the fish as luminous instruments is wonderful.
Love the idea of a primal murmur of earthworms, and the sound of coal being born
Diamonds ‘infinite opera of mirrors’ listening to hair growing, and watch where it goes - surreal landscape of wonderful.

Interesting how the sense of each poem changes depending on how it’s read - Mark McDonnell brings out the lyrical, whereas Wendy Videlock brought out more of a beat vibe, the lyrical lurking underneath. Jon Marcus Powell brought out the mythic, the grand narrative.

But the beat aspects of NM poetry tend to get sent on asides down to a word-level - we are distracted by a praying mantis, and then taken again to a universal. Anne Drysdale brought out a wryness, a lurking dryness and mockery in the words, a subversion of what is expected. John Riley’s reading brought out a sense of time, deep time, of this ‘life full of holes’.
The narrator is not running away from their demons, they are running towards them, seeking them out to find some answers from the everyday. And in this, they are playing a memory game, linking themselves to questions.
They slip from cats to goldfish, tiny creatures found in streams.
‘Perfect indolence that can make of man a beast or a poet’
The chair makes a perfect N.

Sarah-Jane

Sara-Jane, you reflections are fascinating
But, one thing: it was kernel of elsewhere, not colonel of elsewhere. Ha!

Annie, Mark, yes! And thanks!

Nemo

I think that the Colonel of Elsewhere is much more poetic. I never got your email link, and haven’t watched the recording yet. Was your Magellan included?

Allen, it would appear you are having trouble with your email. I also sent you a direct email from my personal account with a link to the launch. The address was correct. Have you checked your spam folder? And no, this was a launch for this specific book.

Nemo

Thanks. Will investigate.