A long weekend is looming, friends! I was telling my husband that I wished that I was going on some sort of road trip or plotting some sort of adventure, but to be honest – I’ve made a list and it includes things like “nap” and “drink coffee on the deck with my husband.” (I also want to basically smell like sunblock all weekend and check out some of the area parks with my kiddos, so maybe I am adventuring, just in a parent-friendly way.)
Let’s get into some links, shall we?
So, I love Dave Grohl. Not as much as my childhood best friend loves Dave Grohl (I used to send her flowers and I’d sign them from Dave G. And she’d send me flowers and sign them from Flea [bassist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers]. We were odd. And single.) This was a great piece from British GQ.
Some days you’re the fox, some days you’re the eagle. Just don’t be the bunny.
Good Times was probably one of my favorite albums of 2016. Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz are on tour this year. I have mixed feelings about this, partly because I saw Dolenz last summer and was a little underwhelmed. (Although the man has amazing stories.)
I got to listen to Michael Kortya at Murder & Mayhem Chicago this spring. His new book “How It Happened” is out and it was influenced by the missing persons / subsequent murder case of Jill Behrman and how it haunted him throughout his writing life. This was a great essay Kortya wrote in the Indianapolis Monthly. This line especially resonated with me:
“When I was struggling to write this essay, a friend asked me a wonderful question: What would you want Jill to know?
I would want her to know that people she never even met still think of her. That she is remembered by her community, and mourned by it.
Maybe that doesn’t matter, but I hope it does.”
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Listening: I posted a (not-so-secret) nerd alert to my Instagram this week:
Reading: Still reading Emily’s anthology featuring novellas inspired by “Beauty and the Beast.” Also working my way through Jason Matthew’s “Red Sparrow.”
Writing Life: My professional (the work that pays me) life has finally relented with its crazy deadlines. I spent a week doing not a lot of anything (um … hi, Dr. Mario), but I also printed out the last half of “Dragonfly” and have been trying to work through one chapter of edits a day. And it feels good, but kind of weird at the same time. I am the person who is getting in the way of my progress and ambition and I need to reverse that course of direction. (And that’s in all the things of my life, from fitness to motherhood … let’s not even talk about the fact that the soap dispenser in the master bathroom needs to be refilled and has needed a refill for about two weeks.)
Related to my writing life, but a different facet – I’ve been learning more stuff about the “business” end of writing, learning about taxes for creative types from Mindy Mejia. I also went to a seminar about building a business plan that was presented by Springboard for the Arts, a Minnesota nonprofit that “offers resources, workshops and toolkits for artists of all disciplines to thrive, and for communities to connect to artists.”
Have a great weekend. Eat popsicles if that’s your thing. Make sure you remember sunblock and bug spray if you’re adventuring in the great outdoors. Read some books and remember to stay hydrated!
– Shelley
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What is Friday Fare? As a recap, on Fridays I post link love to the various bits of arcane shiz I discover on the Interwebs. I liken it to a glimpse into my mind, but without the 80s song lyrics or mental cobwebs.
There’s a support group for people who read poetry on the phone. A 12-step program arranged in iambic pentameter. Will try to send you the link to their confusing but evocative website 😉
🙂