Filled with Apologies
2025-12-02
Dear False Potato Mother,
I usually dally a bit before diving into it, but I am too excited and want to post that HERE IS THE LINK TO PREORDER Black Hole Science is Filled with Apologies, my new book from tRaum Books that will be out in Jan/Feb-ish 2026!!
And Sara, or 'I lived my life as a cloud that followed overhead is still available as well. If anyone wants to help me set up readings for Black Hole Science, hit me up and we'll see what we can do. My travel budget is limited, but sometimes maybe I'm going somewhere anyway, who knows :)
Okay, enough book release stuff, let's get into what I know you really want to hear about. Never! I can hear you saying. Have you seen any new birds? Well, yes, actually, I have! I saw a Western Grebe and a Common Merganser, two unrelated water birds who both have eyes like murder robots (see below). I think about birds constantly these days! I went birding up at Point No Point in Kitsap County recently (which is where I saw these two) and have plans to do more this weekend. I bought myself a short online class on identifying waterfowl that I'm really enjoying. I never would have guessed I'd get this into birds, but it's really hitting the spot, lately!
As of yesterday I am living without housemates, just me and my wife, for the first time ever. I've lived alone with past partners before, but this is the first time my wife and I, who have been together for nine years, have lived together alone. It's very nice, I see why people do it! I'm going to be moving into the main house, a doublewide, and out of the RV in the backyard, so I'm thinking a lot about what to put where, about how to make a space that encourages us to use it in the ways we want to live. A place to sit and drink tea and watch the birdfeeder, a place to sew, a place to read, a place to work on my job or to write books.
Speaking of writing, I do have a new piece of writing up in Some Words, a literary journal that's hosted on a web forum. Go send them some writing, they're in the market for new work. Also send us some while you're at it! I'm the poetry editor for New Session and we are looking for work that changes or is interactive in some way for our fourth issue. We badly need submissions!
Listening:
- Sly & the Family Stone - Fresh and A Whole New Thing, my two favorite Sly albums.
- Otis Redding - The Immortal Otis Redding
- Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space/Laser Guided Melodies. I love this spacey druggy music that hovers somewhere between Brit pop and Galaxie 500. I don't mean Brit pop as an insult, I'm thinking more like Pulp than Blur? Though I do like Blur, actually...
- Spacemen Three - The Perfect Prescription. Same guys as Spiritualized, and really it sounds like the same band, just a bit earlier in their development. More raw, less ambitious, still nice.
- Tyler the Creator - Chromakopia. I didn't get a chance to really absorb this when it came out, because I was focused on other music, but I do really love this album. I don't think anything will touch Flower Boy or Igor for me, because those songs hold a lot of memories, but I still really love it.
- Orion Sun - Orion / Getaway. Fantastic R&B that doesn't recreate the whole genre, because it doesn't have to—they're just beautiful songs. Reminds me of how I felt when I first heard DDD by Ama Lou, a little EP that never gets old for me. I grew up listening to the radio when it was all TLC, Toni Braxton, and En Vogue, not to mention the Soulquarians, so I'm a sucker for really good R&B that references that era.
Watching:
- Farscape - We're on Season 4 and it is VERY good.
- The Chair CompanyI love Tim Robinson a lot. I'd love to write for this show.
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - I watched the Defunctland video on animatronics and every time the Hall of Presidents got mentioned, I would think of the part in Bill & Ted where he says "Welcome to the Hall of Presidents" and so I had to watch it again. It's still fun.
Reading:
- Fitz and the Fool Trilogy by Robin Hobb - I'm on the last book of this trilogy, which is the last book in Robin Hobb's sixteen-book epic Realm of the Elderlings series. It's hard to describe how hard something can hit you when there's 16 fairly long books worth of build-up to it. I know it's a lot to take on, but you really should give the whole RotE series a shot. This is all I'm reading right now and I'm fully engaged in it, but check in next month and I should have some new things to talk about for you. Maybe even some ~small press transgender literature~.
lov,
Never Angeline Nørth