I live in what is called the Big Bend of Florida, and tomorrow (Thursday) we will likely be cowering in place while a Category 3 hurricane blows through.
We live about 20 miles up from the M on the red Sharpie-like line in the above graphic.
Am I scared? Yup. This part of Florida has NEVER had a hurricane of this magnitude come through. My county has issued mandatory evacuations for people living in mobile homes, but not for the rest of us. But where would we go with two cats? There’s a greater risk that if we left, we wouldn’t be able to get home after the hurricane because of road closures.
Our house is solid, we have a metal roof, and a tall fence that could buffer our property if it doesn’t blow away. We have enough cat food for a few months. My husband is taking it all in stride since he grew up in Miami and weathered (pun intended) a number of hurricanes.
Still. Scary shit.
Worst case scenario is we and the cats will spend the day in the master bathroom.
This is an oldish photo but captures the cat attitude of “I’m fine as long as you feed me.”
Comments are closed since I’m likely to be offline for quite a long while.
If you’re as much a fan of Kevin Brennan’s novels as I am AND you’re sick and tired of staring at electronic screens of any sort, you’ll be thrilled with Kevin’s news :) Read on, dear friends and fellow readers … Coming soon … EBT in paperback!
Sometimes the best things in life are free … at least for this weekend! If you haven’t read Kevin Brennan’s latest novel, here’s your chance for a free copy. But only for this weekend so get snappy … and don’t forget to leave a review, the lifeblood of writers.
Heads up! All weekend long, Eternity Began Tomorrow is FREE! I hope you’ll forgive my constant marketing for the next three days, but I’m hoping to move a lot of copies and that those copies garner a lot of new reviews. Still sittin’ on six reviews, gang. Anyway. Tell your friends who have Kindles. And […]
I’m thrilled to have Kevin Brennan as my guest today. Many of you already know Kevin as the author of several novels, including his most recent, Eternity Began Tomorrow or EBT as it is affectionately known. EBT is kind of a road trip/political thriller/romance-type novel. In other words, it has something for every kind of reader.
EBT tackles the crisis of climate change, a very timely subject, as well as the current political scene. I asked Kevin how this novel came about and how it changed or didn’t change as he revised and prepared it for publication while history rolled on.
I’d had the idea of a John Truthing kind of character a long time ago and sat on it for years. Then I was looking for something to work on and this kind of story seemed right for the times. I started about a year ago now, mid-October ’18 and had the first draft done in March or so. One of my faster first drafts.
Then, as I revised, I kept plugging in things that were happening, like the Mueller report and the Dem campaigns and Greta Thunberg, and I kept doing that right up to the time I uploaded a final manuscript. I knew this wouldn’t work for traditional publishing, since I’d have to waste months querying, then, if I was lucky enough to get a contract, more than a year before it could be published. (Ha, as if!)
By the way, I went for the surprise ending because it felt like I needed something that was more absurd than reality. I was reading an old Kurt Vonnegut novel at the time and I just thought, go for a shocker. What would Kurt do? So the book’s definitely not meant to feel realistic but more like “beyond-realistic” because real life is too damn strange and scary right now!
Why “Eternity Began Tomorrow”? It’s kind of a mystifying phrase.
That’s one of those things that “just comes” to a writer, you know? The phrase popped into my head and I started thinking about it. In the context of climate change, I think it suggests a paradox: that it might be too late but that we can’t not act. We could be screwing up the planet forever if we don’t act. It might already be screwed up, but we still have a little time to do something about it. Tomorrow is a hopeful idea. At least as of today.
How did you decide to write from the POV of Molly “Blazes” Bolan?
My earliest notes for the book had cast an older, crusty-but-benign man as Blazes, but when I resurrected the story I thought I’d update things so I changed him to a her—specifically a thirty-something, San Francisco girl with ambitions—and the original print newspaper to an online news site: Sedan Chair. It felt more timely.
I’ve written from female points of view a lot in my work, starting with Nora from Parts Unknown and carrying through to Sarah in Occasional Soulmates (those in first-person), plus a number of third-person female narrators. Usually I do it either because the original idea comes to me through a female character, or because the way the story wants to be told feels like it won’t work as well with a male protagonist.
I don’t think writers should be forbidden to write from their opposite gender (or one of the many genders available these days) any more than should be forbidden to write about any “other.” In fact, I just read a great piece by Zadie Smith in The New York Review of Books, lamenting that there seems to be a trend lately toward absolute “correctness” about identity in fiction. To my mind, fiction offers an eye-opening approach to empathy, so telling a black woman, for instance, that she can only write about black women would shut the door to her exploring what the world is like for other identities. I’m with Zadie on this. Fiction is really about individuals, not types.
Any other novels you have in the works for your groupies fans?
I’ve been trying to get an agent for three different books these last couple of years, so I’m holding those back instead of publishing them in the indie market yet. One of them has a transgender man as protagonist—apropos of the answer to your other question. Another of the three is a baseball/prison book set in the Depression, and it’s a little like The Natural meets The Shawshank Redemption. And the third is about a uniquely screwed-up family trying to work out their shit, with the 1973 Watergate hearings as a backdrop. Dysfunction on two different levels.
I’m also writing something now that might not pan out because it’s a weird mashup of real life and fiction. My mom is in it, along with a bunch of her neighbors. And me. I think of it as a study in how fiction is anchored in real-world foundations even though it’s completely made up.
We’ll see what happens with that!
It’s exciting to know that we have more of your writing to look forward to. How do you work on your novels? That is, do you work on them sequentially, not starting a new one until the current is finished? Or you work on a couple at a time, using one to take breaks from the other?
Mostly I work on a book until it’s finished, just because I immerse myself in that world and don’t want to let some other world smear into it. Once in a while, I’ll start some notes on a new project while I’m still working on a novel, but for the most part I want to stick with something till I’m done. The three books I’m holding onto were all written sequentially at different times, but I set them aside when I started indie publishing because I held out hope that I’d be able to get an agent for them eventually.
Sometimes I run into an obstacle in a book that I can’t quite get around, so I’ll put it on pause and work on something else. And sometimes I never do go back to the paused one. Then, occasionally, like with EBT, I dig one up years later and find a way to finish it.
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Well, Readers, I hope you enjoyed this interview with Kevin Brennan and take this opportunity to pick up an ebook copy of Eternity Began Tomorrow by clicking here.
To show our appreciation for reading to this point, here’s your treat!
In a perfect world, I would spend as much time reading as I spend writing, or as much time writing as reading, depending on the day. Reading inspires me to write and often when I’m reading, I yearn to write. Reading also teaches me how to write. What is it about that first page, first paragraph, or even first sentence, that makes me want to curl up with the book for a long afternoon? What is it about that poem that makes me linger and read again as something tugs at my heart.
I’ve got books on my mind. A book of poetry, a memoir, and a novel to be exact.
A Book of Poetry
Earlier this week Nightingale & Sparrow published my review of Birdy Odell’s chapbook, Cemetery Music, which you can read here: https://nightingaleandsparrow.com/review-of-cemetery-music-by-birdy-odell/. I’m usually hesitant to review poetry because I feel rather ignorant about it. It was not my favorite genre when I was studying literature a few centuries ago. Now, however, thanks to poets like Merril D. Smith, Luanne Castle and Jane Dougherty, I often feel I can’t get enough of it. So when N&S put out a call for reviewers, I raised my hand.
Here’s a snippet from my review:
Anyone who has spent time in a cemetery, particularly ones where the dead have lain for centuries, will read Odell’s poems as those epitaphs etched into granite, sandstone, or marble, some so worn by time and weather that words seem “rubbed with the balm of love.”
Cemetery Music should be available soon (forthcoming December 10, 2019). Click here to read more about Birdy. I also hope you pick up a copy of her lovely chapbook. I definitely want a print copy because, included with her poems, are lovely “whimsical little birds with silly hates and balloons.”
A Memoir
Cinthia Ritchie’s new memoir, Malnourished: A Memoir of Sisterhood and Hunger, has arrived … at my house!! This is a long-awaited memoir, and I am so thrilled for Cinthia. I pre-ordered directly from Raised Voice Press (here’s the link) which, I believe, is why I received my copy before the official release date.
I am so excited to support Cinthia, one of my favorite peeps in my writing community. I fell in love with her through her first novel, Dolls Behaving Badly, and been looking forward to another opportunity to hold one of her books in my hands. If you don’t already know Cinthia, head over to her website here. Order Malnourished through your favorite local bookstore, through Indiebound, or directly through Raised Voice Press.
Here’s a snippet from the Prologue:
Memory is a funny thing, isn’t it, how it adds and subtracts, takes something as simple as watching a whale swim along the shore and mixes it up in your mind so that your sister is there beside you, even though she’s been dead for years. Still, this is what you remember: the wind and the smell of the marsh, the silver-blue tint of an Alaska twilight spreading the water, and beyond it all, the small and simple feel of your dead sister’s hand slipping inside of yours.
A Novel
By now anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock should know that Kevin Brennan recently released a new novel called Eternity Began Tomorrow. EBT is kind of a road trip/political thriller/romance-type novel. In other words, it has something for every kind of reader. Of course, I snatched up a copy, as I do with all of Kevin’s books, and wrote a review: https://1writeway.wordpress.com/eternity-began-tomorrow-is-that-one-true-thing-bookreview/
You’ll want to get a copy of your own, of course, and you can do so by clicking here. But stay tuned for more! I’ll be posting an interview with Kevin later this week, and you’ll learn all about what went into writing such a timely novel. While you’re waiting to read the interview, take advantage of EBT being yours for just 99 cents. Yup, when you click this Amazon link, you’ll find an offer you can’t refuse.
Thanks for reading! If you’re anything like me, you might be groaning at the thought of more books to add to your leaning tower of TBR. But, if you are anything like me, you’ll also be excited to find new books to buy and read.
And here’s your bonus gratuitous cat photo … The Three Amigos: Junior, my husband, and Maxine.
I’ve been a fan of Kevin Brennan’s novels for years. With each novel, I think Brennan can’t get better than this. And then he does it again. I read Eternity Began Tomorrow in one sitting. I didn’t want to put it down. I didn’t want to stop reading. The more I stayed with the story, the more I needed to know how it would all turn out. There’s the obvious immediacy of the novel, taking place as it does in the here and now, and then slightly into the future. My own anxiety (and dread) of the next presidential election kept me reading, hoping that Brennan might deliver a rosier future than I can imagine myself. But I won’t give the ending away.
The story is told totally through Molly (aka Blazes) Bolan’s point of view. She is a young, lightly seasoned journalist, eager to make the Big Story. She gets a lot more than she bargained for in John Truthing, the leader of an eco-movement that seems too cult-like to be legitimate. Truthing is charismatic, attractive, and cunning but is he for real? Does he really care about the planet and his followers? Or he is just another evangelical empty suit, looking to enrich himself and betray those who believe in him? All the reader knows is what Molly knows and that’s a big reason why I took breaks only for the bathroom or to tweet a quote from the novel (not at the same time). I felt as driven as Molly to get at the truth about Truthing, and I felt myself wavering at times too, wanting so much to believe in him, wanting so much to believe we had a “savior.”
The ending surprised me, yes, indeed it did. But with all good surprise endings (of which Brennan is a master), I should have seen it coming. The clues were there. Just little ones here and there, the kind of clues you’re only aware of after you finish the novel, the kind you look for in hindsight because the ending–though a surprise–makes so much sense.
Brennan doesn’t deliver two-dimensional characters. Every major character in this novel is etched in my brain now, especially Molly. What started off as a kind of road trip slash political thriller slash romance-type novel soon veered deeply into relationships between adult children and their seemingly dysfunctional but loving parents, the fear of growing old alone, the fear of losing what gives our lives meaning, the fear of running out of time.
Every so often a light shines during these dark times we live in. Today’s bright light is courtesy of Kevin Brennon. Kevin’s latest novel, Eternity Began Tomorrow, will be available as an ebook starting September 18, 2019. I know I’ll be in line for my copy. How about you?
This is “Part 2” of our day in the fun and sun and sand and water, and frolicking with fiddler crabs. Part 1 was spent at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, which was supposed to be a quick trip to check out some time lapse filming opportunities for my husband. A ranger at the Refuge recommended that we go to Mashes Sands Beach if we also wanted to see horseshoe crabs. The beach is a fairly recent acquisition to the park service. We had been there years ago when we took a coastal ecosystems class with Anne Rudloe (RIP) so we were game to visit the area again.
Look! A sign!
And look! Fiddler crabs! I’ve been playing around with the time lapse function on my iPhone. I had to film for a number of minutes just to get this 8-second video. I have much to learn …
I love boardwalks, especially in nature areas. They are a wonderful way to avoid upsetting the natural environment while still allowing the visitor to feel part of that environment.
And boardwalks are also good for fishing …
A view of the boardwalk which gives me a sense of liminality.
What is liminality, you ask? Well, my friend Luanne Castle at Writer Site can explain it better (and more poetically too): “The place of change where you are different at one end than you were at the other.” Perhaps that’s another reason I like boardwalks. You enter at one end and exit at the other, or, in the case of this particular boardwalk, you just turn around and leave the way you came. And thanks to the view, the opportunity to gaze into the depths of the bay without getting in it, I did feel a little different exiting the boardwalk than when I entered it.
Lots of shallow water. Perhaps some liminality here too with the contrast between the burnished shallow water and the deep blue of the deeps.
Squint and you might see a white egret.
After the boardwalk, we decided to explore the beach, travel its edges on a long way back to our car. We removed our sneakers and socks and rolled up our pants so we could wade through the warm bay waters and find creatures like this little guy.
A baby horseshoe crab …
And with my husband’s foot for perspective …
Looking back, we can see a storm is brewing inland.
I’ve lived in this part of Florida for over 25 years now and I’ve often seen pine trees near salt water. This dead tree in the next photo is different. It’s not near salt water. It’s in it. Over the years the bay waters have steadily encroached on the land where the tree once thrived (aka “nuisance flooding“).
Dead tree ahead … Wait, a tree at a beach?
I dedicate this dead tree to Florida’s Governor Rick Scott who has unofficially banned the phrases “climate change”, “global warming,” and “sustainability” from state agency documents.
This here was once a great tree, no doubt.
Now it provides shelter for crabs! Nothing goes to waste in Nature.
Another day well spent!
Call it what you want, sea level rising is a real deal in Florida, but I’m trying to look on the bright side. If we stay here, maybe we’ll eventually have that beachfront property we always wanted … without having to move.
Marie at 1 Write Way 