Queen of the Bondo

Here’s what I’ve been up to so far:

I’ve left my job at Loganberry Books. It was sad to leave: bookselling is more like what you thought you were in for when you decided to go to library school. But I’ve decided to devote more time to writing, freelance work, and taking classes. I’ve got a novel in the drawer awaiting a second draft, and I’ve got a new one in progress. Plus, I’m working on a TV pilot with a friend. I’ve never tried anything like this before, unless you count the reams of Doctor Who fan fiction I wrote in junior high.

The Cleveland Review is moving in a new direction as well. After two years of publishing original fiction, poetry, and artwork, we’ve decided to move to an all book review format. As a bookseller, I saw so many new books about the Rust Belt. Mark Binelli’s Detroit City is the Place to Be was a hot seller at Christmas, and Ted McClelland’s Nothin’ But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America’s Industrial Heartland is coming down the pike this spring, so I wanted to go back to what I started with Rust Belt Reader and collect, document, and review the canon as it already exists. With any luck, there will even be some author interviews!

Last but not least, we are considering another long distance move, this time to Minneapolis. I’m really excited about Minneapolis and think that seeing the Midwest from a different vantage point would add a new dimension to my work. Plus, there’s the adventure: I’m still the same person who, at 21, packed everything I owned into a Geo Metro and drove off to a place I’d never been.

At least I’ve been to Minneapolis!