Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. This year I dressed up twice–at school, I was Lady Macbeth (it was fun to spend the day at work with bloody hands), and last night, I was Bride of Frankenstein.

My friend Janette was Lady of Rage. I think we both just wanted to have cool hairstyles:

Richard was a Tea Partier (scary!):

The awesome, loud In the Year of the Pig played an amazing set on our deck. I’m glad our deck didn’t fall down, and I hope our neighbors didn’t mind too much. They’re playing Durham’s Troika Festival on Friday if you’re around.

Today, after I finished combing out my Halloween hair, I drove around Chatham County to look at the pumpkins.  

Second Printing (and Thank You!)

A few weeks ago, I heard that Mattaponi Queen was entering a second printing. For a short story collection from an independent press, this is wonderful and exciting news, and I am so grateful to everyone who has bought a book or recommended it to a friend or a book club. I recently visited two book clubs–Book Bites in Salisbury, NC (via Skype) and River City Reads in Richmond, Virginia (at Gallery 5). Both experiences were fantastic, and if you know a book club that would like to have me, I’d love to be in touch.

Here are a couple of photos from River City Reads:

Gallery 5's spooky cool spider

The River City Reads crew

At River City Reads, I picked up a copy of the terrific Richmond Noir, an anthology of stories edited by Andrew Blossom, which Publishers Weekly called one of the best in the series. Andrew is pictured above on the far left.

If you are in Richmond, you should stop by Chop Suey Books, a used and new bookstore on West Cary Street. Owner Ward Tefft, along with Carra Rose of The Frontier Project (both are pictured above), are working hard to promote Richmond’s arts scene, scheduling readings and events that you can find by visiting Chop Suey’s website.

And speaking of Richmond-based events, Virginia Arts and Letters Live is hosting a performance of my story, “Jonas,” by film and stage actress Pat Carroll on Friday, October 15 at 7 PM. Click here for more information.