No sales at café. No interactions of interest
But sold an “I Will Keep You Alive” to a checker at Safeway and two by mail to a friend from college. A couple folks said they’d be buying it from Amazon or indie book stores. (Swapped a “Schiz” to a writer in Kentucky who’d sent me a book of his. He’s sending me two more and I’m packaging an “Outlaws, Rebels…” for him.)
IWKYA received a five-star Amazon review from a Mended Hearts member in New York, but the only fellow I know of who’s attempted to place a review in a periodical has had two places decline interest. Meanwhile rave words-of-mouth from friends, relatives and acquaintances continue. (“It’s a everything good. It’s Shakespeare. It’s poetry. It’s prose. Whatever it is, it’s gorgeous.” A loquacious health club member. “A real page-turner.” A less loquacious member. “Packed with insight and emotion. An urgent and harrowing medical drama… and, above all, a love story.” Our oldest nephew.) Then there was the woman from the café who said “I can’t wait to read it,” which isn’t quite true since she had bought it 16 days before she said that.
People have read it “in small bites” and “devoured it.” Adele’s sister, who’d had a similar operation to mine, mastered her anxiety by beginning at the end and reading forwards.
In other news…
The scans have arrived for the book from Kentucky University Presses for the book to which I’ve been asked to write an introduction. And I’ve been invited to review a book on Edward Gorey forthcoming from University of Mississippi Press in 2020.
So the Devil will find no idle hands here for the next few months.