One of the reasons TALE OF BRAVE BOOKSTORE is free to all who wish to read it is that not charging money allows me to take lengthy sabbaticals and not feel bad about it! In August and early September, I was busy with two big things: marrying my stone cold hottie partner, Tim (we eloped at San Francisco City Hall and had a lovely honeymoon in New Mexico), and signing the contract for my second (third, really, but second published) novel, Epic and Lovely, which found a home at West Virginia University Press and will be available to all who wish to read it in approximately thirteen months.
Because these stats can help other writers: Epic and Lovely was on submission for five months and accrued twenty-two rejections before the elegant and knowledgeable Marguerite Avery swooped in and made the wise choice to publish my sad little Marfan Syndrome/dirtbag boyfriend/old dad novel.
And to be honest: I was a mess for those five months. I can handle rejection like a boss, but it’s still rejection. In fact, this very Substack was started so I’d have Something To Do to Get My Mind Off of It. I also really got into making tortillas during my submission months. I have opinions on masa brands (Maseca is the best). I must have made hundreds of tortillas in that time. If nothing else, Tim and I ate well while I was feeling like garbage.
Some of my rejections were kind and laudatory. Others were straight-up dumb and insulting. I reminded myself I was privileged to be in this space in the first place! I have an agent who believes in me! I actually finish novels and my first readers enjoy them! I’m a pretty good bookseller and know I can sell my book and maybe even yours!
I spent those five months worried about Mo as Brand. I get I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m not young anymore. No one is going to use the word “telegenic” in my marketing materials. I’m a maximalist in a sea of minimalists. My novel is funny but also a downer. But I thought…maybe I kind of suck as a person, too? Is that what’s happening here?
To wit: last month, Tim and I went to the Portland Hot Sauce Expo, which is an outdoor event with strong bro vibes, light heavy metal motifs, amateur wrestling, and dudely dudes bragging on their tolerance for high Scoville Unit numbers, while local hot sauciers peddle their goods. While all of the vendor booths had lines of people waiting to sample sauces with names like “Bikini Babe Habanero Finger Blast,” we noticed one guy with no line at all. So we went to talk to him. He was not a charismatic dude at all. His sauces were named things like “chipotle” and “mild green.”
He was like the teacher no one wants to have for calculus. A nice guy, but he was competing with the guy from San Diego with porny sauce names and the PNW’s own Irish Spike, who was wearing a red suit on a ninety degree day, and assorted other metalheads and dudes in trucker hats. He had no marketing angle, he didn’t ask a thirteen-year-old boy to name his sauces, and he was not selling anything.
Which is how I felt when I was on submission, like I must be like the no-charisma sauce guy.
(I am told I am not like that sauce guy.)
Epic and Lovely landed where it belongs, and I’m psyched. West Virginia University Press? They’re cool. University presses are where its at with daring, interesting fiction. I started reading the recent novels and short story collections put out by WVUP in the past few years and found much to like: they have quirky taste! These are risky works by talented authors! These are, very obviously, books that the Big Five couldn’t deal with and maybe regret casting aside (Church Ladies, cough cough). They’re publishing the wild and the wonderful and I’m honored to be part of it.
Anyway, the net effect of my twenty-two rejections is that I’m going to be focused on putting books from small/indie/university presses in my Staff Favorites spot from here on out. I’ll make exceptions for the books of friends, but otherwise, Annie Bloom’s Books is heretofore my own personal record store in the year 1995, and I’m only playing weird shit that some punk in Cleveland recorded in a basement. This is who I am and have been since I was a baby Smithie exactly thirty years ago walking into the long-gone Main Street Records in Northampton with twenty dollars in my pocket and my whole life ahead of me. Might as well bring it to work.
Even all those sauces are indie sauces.
This month, my staff pick is MY LESBIAN NOVEL by Renee Gladman, published by Dorothy. It’s not an easy or obvious novel. It will bend your brain. It’s doing some sorcery. I’d be honored to sell it to you!
I’d also be honored if, come spring, you’d preorder Epic and Lovely by Mo Daviau from my store or another indie bookseller near you.
Currently reading: I’m on a bit of a DNF streak and don’t wish to discuss it.
Some other university press fiction coming in 2025/26 that I’m excited about: Outside Women by Roohi Choudhry (U of Kentucky) and Work to Do by Julie Wernersbach (my first bookstore boss!) (U of Iowa).
Next week at Annie Bloom’s: Two of my favorite local authors, Keith Rosson and David Ciminello, will be presenting their new books. Keith’s event is Tuesday, October 1 at 7pm, and David’s is Thursday, October 3rd at 7pm. If you’re in Portland, don’t miss these momentous readings!
Wow! Congratulations all around! I’m super pleased for you! SF is a Wonderful town, even if you’re not getting married; I know, I live here, lol.
Just finished reading “Hum” by Helen Phillips, bc it got such a good review in the New Yorker. Thx for your recs; I’ll look for them.