Brief Bit of Anthology News...

 It's now titled "Covid, Isolation, and Hope: Artists Respond To The Pandemic" and will be out in the fall or winter.(Paul Buchman Voice) Dig me, I'm an artist!(/Buchman Voice)

Best of all, when we have virtual readings, thanks to the new camera, I shouldn't need my brother's help anymore. Which is better for everyone.
UPDATE:
This isn't the one, but I wrote an account of my immunization...a section from the middle because I show you so many beginnings.

The drugstore held the most strangers she’d seen in months, from the patient Asian grandma in line with them to the young couples running in and out to buy junk food in their sunglasses.  Even though the store is at reduced capacity, so much so that people fear a line to get in, just not being separated by the bubble of a videoconference makes it feel teeming with life. Everything was interesting, from some inexpensive and bright Easter bouquets to some variations on store cookies she’d never noticed. It felt sad to get excited about store chocolate-chip cookies, even with added peanut butter flavor, but there she was. Maybe instead of permeating us with ads, she thought, maybe they should be quiet for a while and bore us into wanting more than we have. It was the kind of concept that made her think she should sit up in bed and document it, for her blog if nothing else, but that’s why the daughter’s room was covered with little sheets torn from message pads with roses or cornucopias that said things like “ADS-Boring?” and were no help the next day.

When the line moved, and the line moved forward, the daughter felt almost as though she’d been elected mayor of CVS. The moment didn’t last, because the line didn’t move again for another twenty minutes. The daughter watched two foreign guys bond over the features on their smartphones, and, far more than was sensible at her age, she imagined that one would catch her eye and sparks might ensue, despite all the times and places where they never did: the movie lines where she

the movie lines where she dropped her ticket and someone picked it up, the chats in the bookstore or library…if life were a movie, she’d be married many times. (maybe once in this drugstore, to celebrate how they met)

The line moved forward and she thought she might want a smartphone more than a husband, although both could be equally hard to get her hands around, if she was absolutely honest.
For the millionth time, she thought if she scripted the moment she got the shot, it would be more vivid.  Maybe there would be a musical (ta-dah!) flourish, or the stuff inside the injection would glow, like on a science show. Maybe she and her mother would share medical memories, like the characters on the daughter’s guilty-pleasure dramas.

UPDATE: One of the editors, Consuelo, got back to me about pub date and when preorders start.

We are pleased to finally have dates for you for the anthology, Covid, Isolation and Hope: Artists Respond to the Pandemic! The online presales for the book begin Monday, October 25, 2021, and will continue through, Friday, December 31, 2021. The anthology is scheduled for publication on Friday, February 25, 2022. 

 

We’re confirming venues to have readings scheduled starting the week of October 25, 2021, and will advise you of any/all dates, times, and locations.