Galleys, Pilcrow and Good Stuff!

So, good people, the galleys are bound for the printer! American Soma will be a physical reality in a few weeks.

In the meantime, Savannah is gearing up for Chicago's Pilcrow Lit Fest, brain child of Amy Guth! She'll be appearing on the following panels. Please come say hello!

Saturday, May 23--

Location Three: Upstairs @ Trader Todd's

10:00-10:45 Social & Political Writing Panel Panelists discuss the role of social and political writing in contemporary writing/blogging.
Moderator: Tim Hall
Panelists: Mark R. Brand, Ramsin Canon, Savannah Schroll Guz, Conor McCarthy, Amy Sayre-Roberts

1:00-1:45 Airtight Stances, A Teaching Artists Panel: Teaching-artists from a variety of disciplines converge to define and discuss what they do.
Moderator: Larry O. Dean
Panelists: Robert Duffer, Savannah Schroll Guz, others TBA

The story "Evolution" intersects with Frontline Program

The science inspiring the story "Evolution" in American Soma was discussed at length in the April 20, 2009 presentation of Frontline.

First, from "Evolution":

"Eventually, tests revealed that water was to blame for the unusual genetic manifestations. The basic purification systems employed by the cities were not filtering out the estrogen excreted by women taking birth control pills and hormone replacement therapies. Detergents containing the compounds alkyl phenoxy polyethoxy ethanols, also regularly flushed into the water systems, returned in filtered drinking water to activate the estrogen receptors in cells of both males and females. Mothers mixed formula with tap water, and children drank it in their Tang. Girl-boys were first made and later born."

~ ~ ~ ~

And now, from the Frontline program:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/

"In Poisoned Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines the growing hazards to human health and the ecosystem.

'The '70s were a lot about, 'We're the good guys; we're the environmentalists; we're going to go after the polluters,' and it's not really about that anymore,' Jay Manning, director of ecology for Washington state, tells FRONTLINE. 'It's about the way we all live. And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are.'

Through interviews with scientists, environmental activists, corporate executives and average citizens impacted by the burgeoning pollution problem, Smith reveals startling new evidence that today's growing environmental threat comes not from the giant industrial polluters of old, but from chemicals in consumers' face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains and eventually into America's waterways and drinking water."

Amy Guth and Leah Jones are on the Road!

Like Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassidy, Leah Jones and Amy Guth are on the road to visit Nashville, where Pilcrow Litfest South will be held. Amy snapped this shot while heading through Indiana! Soma, soma everywhere.

"A dram is better than a damn." --Aldous Huxley

Washington houses the new monarchy

A group of The People have spoken, and the media and party politicians consider the protest 'despicable.' Our policy-makers are not listening, but instead appear to have aligned themselves against the very spirit that founded us. Job protection, perhaps?

Congratulations, Washington. You are the new monarchy.

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/16/schakowsky-tea-parties-despicable/

Geek. Farm. Life. is excellent

Check out this fascinating podcast, blog, and photo gallery for the hobby farmer: http://geekfarmlife.com/

Perfect for those interested in knitting, animal care, food preservation, cheese making, animal birthing, and other self-sufficiency topics. How-to discussions abound. Misty and Andrew answer listener calls.

Download via iTunes or listen online.

New Fiction at Dogzplot

Savannah has new flash fiction appearing at the literary site Dogzplot. Titled "Fugitive Doctor", it comes from the novel-in-progress Charlotte's Nexus.

http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/04/fugitive-doctor-savanna-schroll-guz.html
"He whittled his possessions down to a few portable items and became a living ghost: there one day, vanished by morning."

Janet Cardiff and George Bures

In the spirit of antique collecting and purchasing practical items for general self-sufficiency, while we're in south-central Pennsylvania celebrating the holiday with my parents, we'll be attending a house auction in Strasburg, about an hour from my hometown. While we dig the little Cape Cod, we're not prepared to move yet. Horse before the cart and all that. However, there is a raft of excellent garden tools, kitchen antiques, and botanical prints.

Out the window on your left, check out "Opera for a Small Room" by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures, who likewise scour antique and second-hand stores, find treasures and build entire installations based on what they've collected. "Opera", which is both a visually and aurally stunning 20-minute loop of music and antiquated vinyl, radio, and stereo collectibles imagines the life of one man whose record collection Bures and Cardiff found in an antique shop.

Now, off to enjoy some wine and conversation. And later, lamb and herbed potatoes.

The Tour So Far!

We're gearing up here for American Soma's release in May. When it rolls off the press, Savannah will be touring to promote the book with readings and panel discussions at the following venues:

Chicago, IL: May 21-24, 2009. Pilcrow Lit Fest.
Various locations near and around the Wrigley Field area ~ Chicago, IL

Pittsburgh, PA: June 12, 2009, 8:00 p.m. Kiva Han.
With Kristofer Collins and Karen Lillis
Kiva Han Coffee ~ 420 South Craig Street ~ Pittsburgh, PA

Boston, MA: August 7, 2009, 5:00 p.m. Dire Reading Series.
Out of the Blue Gallery ~ 106 Prospect Street ~ Cambridge, MA

Providence, RI: August 8, 2009, Time TBA. Ada Books.
Ada Books ~ 717 Westminster Street ~ Providence, RI ~ 02903

Pittsburgh, PA: September 3, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
2705 E. Carson Street ~ Pittsburgh, PA (Southside)

Baltimore, MD: September 25, 2009. Baltimore Book Festival.
Author's Tent ~ Mount Vernon Place ~ 600 Block North Charles Street ~ Baltimore, MD

Baltimore, MD: September 26, 2009, 5:00 p.m. 510 Reading Series.
Minás Gallery , 815 W. 36th St., Hampden (that's Baltimore, John Waters territory!)

Omaha, NE: September TBA, 2009. Omaha Lit Fest.

Stay tuned for additional appearance dates....

Book Reviews, Gardening, 'Holler' Living

This morning, I'm working on book reviews for my mid-month Library Journal reference short-takes column. I'm six down and two to go for this month's batch.

This past weekend, we've begun the process of making our annual garden. Michael turned over the soil with the Kubota, and it's lying in beautiful black mounds in the back. Two weekends in a row before that, we emptied manure out the bed of his brother's truck. (Um, poo, sadly, is not something I can haul in my SUV, despite its rather capacious interior space. Heh. Yeah. Poo doesn't hose out of carpet all that well.)

When we get back from Easter, we'll be tilling and thinking about planting. I say thinking because in the "holler" here, we are at least 10 days behind other areas in the region, when it comes to the growing season. We can get damaging frost as late as mid-May.

Speaking of hollers, please check out this blogger: Hillbilly Savants. Interesting stuff, and a window onto what's going on in Appalachia.

We, by comparison, are in the northern panhandle: that delightful six-mile wide strip of WV lying between Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. And honestly, even though I have a WV Driver's License, and we pay WV taxes, people "down hoopie" as my mother-in-law says (translation: any location past Wheeling) do not consider us true West Virginians. We are about as close to Yankees as it gets. We, in Weirton, are a suburb of Pittsburgh. (And yes, you read that correctly. They call us Yankees. I know, I know. The civil war thing. *shrugging* It doesn't make sense to me either, but there it is.)*

*I'm not originally from WV, but from central PA...very near a little place called Dover. Sound familiar? Yes, that Dover. I didn't go to Dover School District. But thanks in part to that landmark battle, I got the idea for "Evolution" in American Soma.

Now, back to work here.....

Considering Thaddeus Mosley

(Full disclosure: In addition to writing fiction, I'm also an art critic. My undergraduate and graduate degrees are in art history, so it's a long-standing interest for me.)

This morning, I'm headed into the city to see the Thaddeus Mosley exhibition at the Mattress Factory (one of my favorite museums because of its unique approach to the exhibition experience). Mosley's works are larger-than-life, inspired by jazz, and recall--in three-dimensions--the paintings of Stuart Davis. Still there are also elements of Brancusi and, to a greater degree, the rough hewn appearance of African tribal art, totems and fetishes.

Mosley has explained that, in the 1940s, he was indeed attracted to African art, and combined this affinity with a love for the music John Coltrane. These two fired his creativity. And like Coltrane, Mosley improvises, never making drawings beforehand, but instead, working spontanously with hammer and chisel.

His work is also based on recycled materials: he gets cherry, walnut and sycamore through tree surgeons from the city's Forestry Division. Limestone and sandstone come from buildings scheduled for demolition.

I'm excited to see this retrospective, which I was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of a few weeks ago, when writer Michael Kimball and his wife Tita Chico were in town.

What's Brewing Here...

This morning, I had the pleasure of talking to Head Brewer Scott Smith at East End Brewing in Pittsburgh for an article I am working on for DRAFT Magazine that will appear in the July/August issue. The subject? "Beertown Pittsburgh"...because we are so much more than football and steelmill effluvia. In fact, there's not a soot cloud in sight! We're a tech center now, baby. And we've got some pretty excellent culture, culture, culture.

Also, happening here: So New's wonderful Managing Editor Amy Guth and Associate Editor Jessica Fritsche are gearing up for the late-May release of American Soma.

We continue to seek venues for readings, and the list of American Soma reading events is growing! We're taking the stories to six states as of Friday! Now, that folks is a nice little tour. Stay tuned, more events will appear on the site.

Okay...back to work. I'm writing my monthly Reference Short Takes review column for Library Journal.

American Soma, even in Britain

London Telegraph blogger Toby Harnden reports that Obama gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod containing photos of her 2007 royal visit to the Tidewater region of Virginia. She gave him a portrait of herself and the Duke of Edinburgh framed in silver. Hmmm...

Anyway, Obama's gift is wonderfully American Soma-ish (see "Post-modern Colonialism", page 124):
"Foreign governments understood it to be an expansion of commerce. We intended it as colonization. “What cannot be accomplished with guns, tanks, and foot soldiers, we will accomplish through sneakers, cubic zirconia, and iPods,” said one Presidential cabinet member, a southerner, whose fat hands began to sweat with keen anticipation upon hearing the initial corporate proposal."

Certainly we're not counter-colonizing the "island the size of Oregon". Or are we? Perhaps it's a foregone conclusion.