July 2022 Nearly Monthly News
Happy July!
For me, this had been a summer of nostalgia. I spent several weeks visiting a friend from college and her family in a city I used to live in, I attended a beautiful memorial, and I took my first overnight Amtrak trip. (If the continued existence of long-distance passenger trains in the United States isn't proof of the power of nostalgia, I don't know what is.)
If you live in the United States or Canada, (or France) the month of July can also be a time to look back with some degree of patriotic fervor. Speaking as an American, the 4th of July in 2022 feels like a more complicated holiday than it was when I was six years old, chasing fireflies in the backyard and hoping rain wouldn't cancel the fireworks. But in fairness, most things seem more complicated to me now than they did when I was six, and 99% of the time, I'm perfectly fine with that.
This year I can especially sympathize with those who find celebrating America a tall order. At the same time, if the United States--as imperfect as it has always been--had never existed, it's likely that neither my ancestors fleeing hunger and poverty in Ireland nor the other side of the family that fled persecution in Eastern Europe would have escaped and survived. So I still hold the idea of the United States--and the ideals it does not always live up to--close to my heart.
The United States' legacy is a complicated one, and our nation has done both great good and great damage in the world. Much as I wish it weren't true, the bigots out there screaming racist slurs, campaigning against the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ people, and yelling at brown people to "go back where they came from" are part of the American legacy. I can't erase that.
But I'm not willing to let them erase me either.
As one means to that end, I'm a regular donor to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to fighting hate in all forms by pursuing racial justice, voting rights, and tracking hate groups nationwide. The present may be messy (like the past was, let's be honest here), but we can all help fight for a brighter future.
From My Desk
Writing for the animated kid shows continues, but I've put some new short stories out on submission since the last edition of the Nearly Monthly News. Will I soon triumphantly announce their publication in a magazine or website near you? That part of the process is out of my hands, but, regardless, it feels good to finish new work. I haven't had a lot of time for short fiction in 2022, and I'm glad I found time to flex those muscles.
If you're a new subscriber or looking for something to read, you can find short story links in last month's newsletter or go back into the archives for issue #1, which has my 2021 recap.
What I'm Reading and Watching
In keeping with the Independence Day season, I got to see a stunningly good version of 1776 while I was in Boston last month, with a racially diverse all female/trans/non-binary cast. 1776 was the first musical I ever saw live, and A.R.T.'s revival does a wonderful job of embracing current historical perspectives without losing the humor and warmth of the original. It's heading to Broadway as I write this and will be going out on a national tour in 2023. I'm already looking forward to seeing it again when it comes to Los Angeles.
On the reading front, I celebrated my overnight Amtrak trip by picking up a couple books from the bookstore inside the new and shiny Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station. The first was This is How You Lose the Time War by dear friends Max Gladstone and Amal el-Motar. (I know, I know. My TBR pile is deep, okay?) The second (which I'm still reading, because even with delays, the Lakeshore Limited is one of Amtrak's shorter overnight routes) is Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.
From the Cutting Room Floor of the Duolingo Dystopia
Another dose of nostalgia, this time for the days staying up way too late watching VHS tapes of Red Dwarf in Scott and Louis' dorm room.
Caption: Falstaff the Bear from Duolingo says: "I am a fish," in Yiddish and English.
And That's the Nearly Monthly News!
How quickly we pass from your inbox into the realm of nostalgia... Questions? Comments? Drop me a line! Otherwise, I'll see you in August.