Once again, we have Luanne Smith to thank for sponsoring our trip to the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference. As always we saw so very many friends–authors and editors with whom we have worked. Authors with whom we hope someday to work. Experts in the field with good advice, and talented new poets and writers. It didn’t seem as crowded as in years past, and there was clearly concern behind the cheery smiles and pats on the back. It’s a tough time to be trying to sell spots in creative programs. And it’s a tough time to try and make a living in publishing. We especially enjoyed connecting with fellow Texas publishers. Here are a bunch of photos. I’ll put them here and try to add the names!!!
And we missed pictures somewhere… Those who took photos with us, please share!
This is an incomplete photo gallery from Madville Publishing’s AWP25 experience. There were several other authors we know we photographed… We need to connect with a couple of others who took photos. Bruce Overby? Patricia Clark? Lee Zacharias already sent hers…
We had many favorable comments about our new backdrop, and we have to admit that we got it from VistaPrint. They do amazing things quickly and inexpensively. I mention it here because some of our friends asked.
Madville has made our nominations for the 2025 Pushcart Prize. The prize will be awarded in several categories for short pieces. It was a hard decision, because we published such amazing work this year. The Pushcart Prizeaccepts six nominations per small press or magazine and “any combination of poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs or stand-alone excerpts from novels.”
Our editors weighed in on their favorites, and this is what we chose:
“James and Jim Ponder Enough” by Jim Minick from his poetry collection The Intimacy of Spoons (Madville 2024).
I went to Frankfurter Buchmesse to represent Madville Publishing for the first time this past week. According to Wikipedia, “The Frankfurter Buchmesse is the world’s largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading.”
I left the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Saturday, October 12 and arrived in Frankfurt on Sunday October 13. It’s a 10-hour flight and you lose seven hours traveling west to east to get there. This is what I wrote that Sunday as I sat for another eight hours waiting for check-in time at the hotel:
“I’m sooooo-o-o tired… I haven’t slept a wink.”—John Lennon
I binged the entire fourth season of True Detectiveon the plane, the one with Jody Foster and Kali Reis. I knew I should try to sleep, that it would be morning when I arrived in Germany, but I wasn’t tired then. It was afternoon back home. The series was almost as good as the first season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. I was blown away in that storyline by Matthew McConaughey’s performance that spanned 17 years. He displayed an incredible range. This fourth season I just watched with Jody Foster and Kali Reis was good, but I think the strength of this one was the story more than the acting. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was fine, but if the story hadn’t been strong, it wouldn’t have been special.
I spent the entire time puzzling at the piercings in Kali Reis’s cheeks wondering if the two sides connect like a bit with a chain running through her mouth. Of course that sent me on a search for information about Kali Reis. Did you know she was a professional boxer? That would explain why her character gets to beat some men all the way up in the show. It was good to see a bad ass woman taking the fight to the misogynistic bastards. But I liked the resolution. If there hadn’t been a good ending, it would have spoiled the show for me. That’s what happened in the second one. I didn’t see the third. But without a compelling finish, I leave a miniseries feeling disappointed—like I wasted my time.
So, I watched this series while flying over the ocean from Dallas to Frankfurt in preparation for my first trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair—the largest in the world, and the place to be if you want to sell foreign publishing rights. I’m nervous because I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m sure I’ve already missed a trick or two by not scheduling meetings yet. Still… Steps one and two are completed. I rode the airplane here and found my way to the hotel. Only trouble is that I arrived at the hotel at nine o’clock in the morning and can’t check into my room until four p.m. and I haven’t slept at all. Now I need to try and stay up all day so I can sleep tonight.
The FrankfurterBuchmesse
To say this fair is huge is an understatement. Here are some photos with captions that may give you an idea of what it’s like. We made some great new friends and hopefully some important business connections. As for foreign rights deals? We’ll see. That part of the trip was more of a learning experience!
Returning from Appalachia ahead of Hurricane Helene
I write seeking to help Appalachia. As I begin to recover from the COVID I brought home with me from my three week trip to Appalachia, I’m finding it hard to discuss all the fun we just had there. I left Asheville last Sunday, September 22, 2024. The weather was fine. I had a near perfect three-day drive home. I got back home Tuesday evening. The storm hit Thursday/Friday. And just like that, those beautiful places I just got to know were devastated. I’m still reeling as I see people’s homes floating down rivers that weren’t there the day before.
I took a lot of sunrise, sunset, and high elevation photos, because for a few days, I stayed in downtown hotels in both Knoxville, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina, which allowed me a birds eye view. I found myself leaping up at all hours to rip the curtains back, ready for some fabulous view. It was my first trip to the Great Smokey Mountains, and I loved every minute of it. I’m glad Linda Parsons made me get out, because I was planning to spend the whole time writing and editing. My one big regret is that I didn’t spend the money to visit the Biltmore Estate.
The situation is so severe around Asheville, in particular, with roads washed out, even whole towns washed away, that it is still hard to communicate with some people. Information from aid organizations is slow percolating, but I’ve been able to find this link to one group who is collecting donations. [Since I wrote this post asking people to help Appalachia we’ve seen amazing resilience. Sad that sometimes a tragedy is what it seems to take to show the best of ourselves.]
