Year: 2013

                               The second issue of Catamaran Literary Reader is coming your way. Any moment now it should start showing up in indie bookstores across the nation and in several other countries, and start working its way into your mailbox. Even the erratic mailman who serves two of our most loyal readers in a certain suburban community in Los Angeles County should, eventually, deliver the magazine. Our magazines arrived today, on John Steinbeck’s birthday, no less. To celebrate, we’re throwing a big party at the Tannery Arts Center with some great surprises. The festivities start at 6 p.m. Friday, with live music until 7 p.m., readings from 7 to 8 (and, I would guess, perhaps a wee bit later than 8) and dance music until 9 p.m. This is your chance to meet the contributors to our…

Yesterday felt like a bad dream — helicopters circling my neighborhood for hours, streets blocked off, and reports later on that two veteran police officers had been shot to death during a sexual assault investigation on the street that I run and drive on almost every day of the week. For hours we were getting reports that a shooter was still in the neighborhood — and though the report turned out to be wrong, our household got quite a jolt when a door-to-door marketer, with an only-in-Santa-Cruz sense of timing, pounded on the door, hoping to sell stuff. (She was told to please go away and perhaps come back when there was not an active manhunt in progress.)  It was nerve-wracking to see constant updates and national news stories coming over the wire and have no idea if the situation was ongoing.  Later on, I was stunned to hear that…

Just in case you are new to this blog (and I seem to be getting new readers checking in every month), I’ve updated the page with the reviews, stories, podcasts, links and other info. Thank you for your continued support. Yes, I am working on new things, but I am am not a fast writer.  It took me all month just to write this blog post. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Or to your mailbox, imminently. Here’s the brand-new cover by Belle Yang, acclaimed author of Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, which is sitting right here beside my keyboard while I’m typing this. It’s great to see the word is getting out — internationally– and how this magazine is bringing together all the various threads of my writing/editing life. For instance, a month or two ago, I got an email from a poet who lives in Vancouver. She read my “Man in the Shoebox” essay in a recent issue of Poets & Writers, which included my bio at the end. The story inspired her not only to buy a copy of The Cactus Eaters at her local bookstore, but to order a two-year subscription to Catamaran. Anyhow, I’m proud to be part of this acclaimed new start-up, and I hope you go out and get a copy of the latest magazine,…

Here’s the latest bit of news.  Sarah Silverman and I  are part of the same e-book promotion at HarperPerennial called “Stranger Than Fiction,” featuring a list of selected HarperCollins memoirs.  Anyways, this promotion, which is live now and ends on February 25, allows you to buy a spanking-new e-book version of Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter, my first book, The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost my Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail,  and other bestsellers, including I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell for  less than you would pay to buy a gingerbread soy latte at The Sour Cup or a bean burrito at Cafe Indigestion.   But you’d better buy  this very minute because the whole thing ends in just over a week. Here is the complete list of participating authors: The Girl Who Fell to Earth by Sophia Al-MariaFante by Dan FanteDishwasher by Pete JordanThe…

I don’t like having comment moderation on Cactuseaters.  It makes it difficult  and annoying for people to write in. Now, when someone attempts to comment on any blog post, a sequence of headache-inducing numbers comes up on the screen, along with scattered letters. The would-be commentator must sit there at his or her keyboard and  reproduce those numbers and case-sensitive letters perfectly to leave a comment on my blog. Trying to be responsive to your needs (all four of you people, who only write into this blog once every Hale-Bopp anyhow), I changed the comment settings in February, allowing any carbon-based life form to comment on my posts without my having to approve the content. It was all-comers, complete freedom for everyone. How easy. How convenient. What a nightmare.  You would not believe the garbage that flowed into my blog that week! I received a small avalanche of nonsensical, surly, whiny…

Forgive the sudden change of tone, my four loyal readers, but I have a story with serious import to share. Here is a bit of inspiration for you this morning. It’s about a man who thought he’d lost everything, only to wake up one day and realize that his life of misfortune contained a template for actual change — not just his change but other people’s, too. I interviewed him at some length on Monday and based my story on our talk, and my conversations with several other folks who know him well. Meanwhile,  mark your calendars for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation. And in case you missed it, here is my interview with the 2012 keynote speaker Nikki Giovanni and my story about the upcoming ceremony, featuring activist and educational activist Robert Moses. And yes, it goes without saying that I will be there at the ceremony….

I did, in fact, get completely lost on the way to the big Catamaran reception. I thought I could take a shortcut by going on Graham Hill Road, but I ended up behind a locked, residents-only security gate so I had to dogleg over Highway 17 and ask directions at the hotel near Pasatiempo. I finally figured it out, and it was a great evening. I had a nice talk with Belle Yang, a wonderful graphic novelist (her most recent book is Forget Sorrow) who designed a gorgeous cover for the upcoming Catamaran. Just wait until you see it. I also had a chance to talk with Robert Sward and his work in progress. He’ll have a poem in an upcoming issue of the magazine — not the next one but the one after that. There was a lot of excitement about our soon-to-be-published next issue, which focuses on the West Coast…

My three readers (all of whom I know on a first name basis) should feel less self-conscious about writing in. Here is the latest update. I was very pleased with the turnout and reception to Amy’s class. Very heartening to see. I finished up the Q and A that will appear in the next issue of Catamaran, featuring Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, and tonight I am going to a special reception for the magazine and its supporters. Slightly nervous that I will get lost on the way to the party. It will be up in Pasatiempo — I hardly know that area at all. Still reading many books — especially Katherine Boo’s Behind The Beautiful Forevers, though I’ve been cheating on it with other things — and juggling  projects, though I’ve made a New Year’s Resolution to finish every long form and short form piece that I begin. This means that I’ll need…

My talented wife, Amy Ettinger, has a thought-provoking story up in the Huffington Post in praise of “slacker parenting.” (note the scare quotes. Our kid is the opposite of slacker!!) I loved this story, and so will you. By the way, Amy will be teaching a class on writing about parenthood at the Capitola Book Cafe from 1 to 4 p.m. on January 26.  And here is that story in the Huffington Post for your reading pleasure. She is getting tons of positive feedback for this one. And this just in — a new story about Amy, her writing and upcoming workshop in today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default