What what? The Summer 2009 issue of CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women is available! This issue contains my first published realism, a short story called “Ashes.”

How do I get it? CALYX is a well-distributed literary magazine, available at many independent and feminist bookstores. I’m told that city newsstands often carry it, and some B&N and Borders locations. Call ahead! (And leave a comment when you see it somewhere!) In Portland I have seen it on the shelves of Powell’s City of Books although neither their website nor their phone operators can confirm its presence. Annie Bloom’s Books, which is also hosting the reading in September, carries it.

I’m looking into whether you can buy it directly from Calyx Press, which might be a good online or order-by-phone option.

What am I looking for?

What am I getting? CALYX is a $10 semi-annual journal. This is Volume 25, number 2, the 33rd Anniversary Issue. It has a full-color insert of art from six artists working in various media, and over 100 pages of poetry, nonfiction, fiction and book reviews. This particular issue happens to contain the work of four current or past students of the Pacific University MFA in Writing program: poetry by Helen Pucilowski and Abby Murray, and nonfiction by Leslie What. Calyx comes recommended by lights like Ursula Le Guin and Barbara Kingsolver. How’s that for friends in high places?

Why am I running out madly to buy this? It’s true, I’m not the boss of you. However, my story contains 80’s-tacular touches such as wooly tights and a Gremlins lunchbox. And at least one of my friends says that while the story is realistic, it’s still a little weird. My sister says she enjoyed CALYX so much she thinks she’ll subscribe. With those recommendations, why wouldn’t you?

Update, 8/6/09: The Summer issue is now available for purchase on Calyx Press’s website!

I was told it was impossible. But I refused to listen. (And Ken Haedrich told me it was possible, and he has seldom led me astray, so I prefer to listen to him.)

Watermelon Pie. Take that, laws of physics.

Watermelon Chiffon Pie, July’s Homemade Pie of the Month is from Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. Graham cracker crust from the same source.

The semi-annual issue of CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women should be out later this week. As I may have mentioned, my realistic story “Ashes” will be published there.

Luckily for me, a large number of contributors to this issue are Portlanders, so CALYX arranged a reading at our very own Annie Bloom’s Books (if I can walk there from my house, it’s my very own). Five authors will be reading: I believe the ratio is two prose to three poetry. Two of the authors (plus me!) are graduates from or students in my MFA program, which is pretty nifty.

So, here’s all the info in case you want to write it a couple of months out on your calendar:
What: Calyx Summer 2009 Reading
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 7:30 pm
Where: Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland OR (Multnomah Village)
Who: Felicity Shoulders, Leslie What, Helen Puciloski, Lois Rosen, Mary Calvin

Many of us, myself included, have only a consumer’s knowledge of book design. It’s like chocolate cake: I’ve eaten many and have some opinions and fond memories, but I’ve never made one. (No, box cakes don’t count!) I think it’s easy for those of us who aren’t in the publishing industry to forget how much effort goes into choosing typefaces, layout and style for a book.

Two things brought the topic to mind of late: Jay Lake tweeted a link to this Lit Slits quiz. Of course most of the clues to the books’ identity come from the actual words the ‘slit’ reveals. However, in at least one case, I knew the author and series immediately: whether or not you like Harry Potter, he’s got some lovingly designed, distinctive books. Even without the chapter headers in their zany serifs, the page brings the memory back to anyone who’s read those books.

That’s what amazes me: how evocative the shape of a few letters can be, even when I couldn’t recall them at will or describe them to you. It’s like a more subtle version of the way smell brings memory in its train. I open my own copy of a beloved book and each previous reading is present in my eye on the page, my fingertips on the paper.

I’m reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness right now. I picked up this copy at Ravenna Third Place Books. It’s used, hardback, and it’s been on some journeys – it bears a Portuguese stamp from a bookshop in Brazil. And best of all, it’s from a book club.

Oh, I know, that means it’s not collectible. It may mean the covers aren’t as durable, and all sorts of things. But this book is typeset exactly like the oldest of my dad’s book club books – books like Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. It feels the same, smells the same. This is 100% pure old-school science fiction, and it fills me with nostalgia, even though the story is new to me.

What books carry this extra meaning for you? Are there books whose beautiful design adds to your love for them?

Even for someone allergic to uncooked fruit, it seemed almost a travesty to bake these into a pie:

On the other hand, the finished product looks pretty good, too.

I know, I know. Lately the blog is all pie and publication (mostly pie.) I’m working on a new Grey City installment however. Don’t despair!

Yes, I will now be updating a list of all the pie types I’ve made, to be found here: Pies I Have Made.

Why am I doing this? Why do I assume you, gentle reader, care about pies? Well, firstly, it’s PIE, so why wouldn’t you? Secondly, as Spike would say, I hate to brag — who am I kidding, I love to brag! Alternatively, you can see this as a cry for help. I am obviously addicted to pie manufacture.

My memory may have failed me here and there — all the more reason to keep careful track from now on. This list is roughly chronological. Hopefully I will update it within the next few days with June’s Homemade Pie of the Month!

Some of you may be shocked, despite my tree nut allergies, to see that I’ve never made a pecan pie. I think. I remember having finished one my grandma started, but I’ve never soloed that pie flight. That will probably change this Thanksgiving.

Recently, I have found myself being more impulsive. From small choices, like ordering wild mushroom ravioli instead of something more pedestrian, to things like agreeing to go on a writing retreat in Vermont with a friend, I’ve been making the less comfortable choice. It tends to turn out beautifully. The one time recently I chose the ‘safe’ item on the menu, it was downright bland. And when I decided to jump off my comfy chair and take a bus downtown in torrential rain to catch an author talk at little notice, I ended up getting to chat with Molly Gloss and Ursula Le Guin (not to mention being treated to fondue by my friend Camille Alexa afterward.) I think we have an instinct for when our reluctance is based in wise caution and when it’s based in inertia or self-consciousness and would better be ignored.

Which is all a long way of saying I spontaneously bummed a ride to Central Oregon with my mom, so I’m enjoying the high desert and producing little in the way of blog posts. If it’s any consolation, I’m missing my yard’s most spectacular blooms as well as shirking my communication duties.

I’ve just had a second story, “Conditional Love”, accepted at Asimov’s Science Fiction! I’m so excited I keep floating off my chair.

Perhaps I should start giving such posts informative, cut-and-dried titles like “Story Sale to Asimov’s: Conditional Love” or something, but I couldn’t resist quoting the unearthly forces that knew all along.

I’ll let you know as soon as I know what issue it will appear in. Many thanks to everyone who read a draft of this one — I hope you will enjoy the finished product!

Trying to avoid the last-minute shame of last month, I’ve made May’s pie, the unlikely All-Strawberry Pie. Yes, you heard me. No tougher plants to compensate for the squishiness of the strawberries. Just strawberries.

Oh, and this stuff:

Anywho, it turned out well. Ryan claims he thinks it’s no mushier than apple, and while I wouldn’t go so far, its light balance of strawberries with mint, lemon and nutmeg is well worth it.

As ever, May’s Homemade Pie of the Month is from a recipe in Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. But with my grandma’s crust, since we like it best.

You know that genre war? You know, the one I’ve been fighting ever since the day a high school English teacher said the words “Science fiction isn’t literature” to me?

It’s over. Ursula LeGuin has encapsulated the entire thing in this little essay and won it at a stroke. She even uses the same examples that have occasioned many of my struggles over the years. It is not so much that the essay contains new arguments as that it is concise, clear and authoritative. It says everything one wants to say, and more cogently than this weary combatant, at least, can muster in the face of battle.

I’m sure the mopping-up action will persist, and perhaps I’ll still be having the same tiresome arguments for the rest of my life. But now I can send this link to people — heck, it’s reusable with attribution, so perhaps I should print it up and carry it around with me — the weight of it is lifted. Thank goodness for Ursula K. LeGuin.