Wow, November went even faster than October. Since I last wrote to you, more firsts! First and second super fun book club events here in Columbus where I got to talk about Tidal Flats with people who had read the book. And first reading with my teacher and friend Pam Houston—at Parnassus Books in Nashville on a day when the high was 29 degrees. And yes, people came! Also first time being part of a reading series—Why There Are Words in Sausalito. Each of six authors read from passages in our work that spoke to the theme of glimmerings. You can see photos from each of these events up on the website.
 
I’m a huge fan of Scandinavian TV dramas (Borgen, Bordertown, Rebecka Martinsson) so when Pam Houston recommended Swiss writer Peter Stamm’s Unformed Landscape, which takes place in a small village on a fjord in the Finnmark, on the northeastern coast of Norway, I downloaded it on my Kindle as soon as I got back to my room. (I prefer real books, but we were in Lake Tahoe for Writing by Writers Boot Camp.) I inhaled the story of Kathrine, how she weaves between solitude and love, illusions and reality, as she tries to find herself.
 
The sun had disappeared weeks ago, and it no longer got light at all. Night lay over the landscape. The village was locked in darkness. The light of the streetlamps was like a space that no one left.

These days, I’m listening to a Spotify playlist I made a couple of years ago—“Rise Up” by Andra Day, “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten, “Silent All These Years” by Tori Amos, “Here Tonight” by Sam Burchfield….
 

We start at the bottom of the stairs to the RiverWalk just below my building, run north under the public art piece by the sculptor Mike McFalls displaying my poem “powerhouse” in 10-inch corten steel along the top of the seawall and directly opposite the powerhouse itself, continue to the 14th Street pedestrian bridge, cross its span over the Coweta Falls of the Chattahoochee River to the Alabama side, then run south through the woods along the winding, paved riverside path to the Dillingham Bridge, cross it back to the Georgia side, then run north for the final leg back to the Eagle & Phenix. Today, the herons wading in the cool water near the crashing falls seem to have the right idea.
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