Medicine Wheel in Weber: The Contemporary West

When I got up this morning, I thought the rain -- our first in several months of a long, dry summer -- was surprise enough. But what should appear in our mailbox but (well, a wasp, but never mind him) a copy of Weber: The Contemporary West! It's a gorgeous issue, edited by Elizabeth Dohrer, with an India/Postcolonial theme. In addition to my story, "Medicine Wheel," you can find work by Samir Dayal and Lyn Lifshin, as well as lots of great fiction, poetry, interviews, and essays.

The Fall 2009 Issue of Weber: The Contemporary West (Vol. 26) is available in hard copy now.

At least I ain't one of them black holes.

This week, I'm a Red Room "Rising Star" -- which probably means this is my last 15 minutes. ;)

My Red Room Author Page

Hi everyone,

You can now find me here. As a Red Room author, I get to (theoretically) rub shoulders electronically with the likes of Salman Rushdie, Dorothy Allison, Susan Orlean, and, um, Stephen Colbert. Yes, that Stephen Colbert. Plus the President himself, though I kinda get the feeling someone else is updating his page while he busies himself with health care reform.

Anyhoo, they've asked me to blog there as well, so if you're not yet sick of me, you know where to go for more ramblings about homicidal clowns and stuff.

AIAW

I'm happy to announce I'm now a part of the Association of Iranian American Writers, a wonderful organization headed by writers Persis Karim and Manijeh Nasrabadi.
Check out the AIAW and a profile of yours truly here.

Let the social networking commence.

I'm now a Goodreads author.

my read shelf:

Don't get too close.

Just back from a wonderful trip to Germany and Switzerland. We're still marvelling at all the European quirks, including but not limited to: twin beds pushed together for married couples, two hour meals, all-purpose shampoo/hand soap/body wash, mannequins with nipples, tiny cars driving on sidewalks, aggressive shopping, pay toilets, a paucity of washcloths, dogs in restaurants, pink jeans for men, a paucity of bras, an open appreciation of writers and artists demonstrated on currency and in the naming of streets, and lots and lots of fashionably dressed people engaged in gratuitous PDA. But hey, if you look that good, why not?

From Frankfurt to Zurich and everywhere in between, we saw things beautiful, magical, and just plain strange. Perhaps nothing more so (on the disturbing end) than the clown featured above. Yes, he's real, though he pretended to be animatronic, getting his jollies by grabbing young children as they walked by. And they actually seemed to enjoy this. Go figure. I thought he was just about as terrifying as The King from the Burger King commercials who assaults you in your sleep.

Vielen Dank, Constance. For everything and a good jolt.