Dear reader,
This was a eventful summer! I passed my qualifying exams. I went back to Boston. I got married in June, honeymooned in Italy, started learning to think of myself as someone’s wife (pretty nice, being a wife!), finished structural revisions on Katabasis, finished a short story, began a new novel, began a short-story-turned-screenplay…
And now I am back on campus, waiting to hear back on whether my prospectus is acceptable, and relishing the frenzy of the start of term. This fall I am teaching a discussion section of Introduction to Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. Next spring I am teaching English 120: Reading and Writing the Modern Essay. I’m in a dissertation seminar with my ER&M cohort and we meet every Wednesdays to write and cry. In a few weeks the heat will finally dissipate and I’ll dig out my cozy sweaters and wool skirts. My peacoats are begging to be set free. My schedule is chaos and I am breathless running from meeting to meeting. In the mornings I go on actual runs through the city cemetery. I am always stressed. I could not be happier.
I’m doing the final line-edits on Katabasis now, and here’s a passage I wrote about this feeling:
Alice would always remember the moment she first laid eyes on Peter Murdoch. Michaelmas term, two years prior. Cambridge was gorgeous in golden autumn sun. The wind was pleasantly cool, the leaves reddening ever so slightly in a way that had always excited Alice, for the end of summer meant the start of a new semester; new classes, new instructors, and new classmates. A chance to reinvent herself, and become the person she wanted to be.
Anyways the POINT of this newsletter is that I am coming back to England in October for a festival circuit tour, and ticket links are finally available for all events. Here is a handy little graphic of the dates:
And here are links to the events which still have tickets remaining.
Let me know if I’ll see you there. It’s been a while since I was in England in the fall. I’m looking forward to a nice hot glass of Dishoom oat milk chai – of which I will surely be smuggling a tinful on the flight home.
Oh!!! I forgot I wanted to include a list of great books I read over this summer, but my plane is about to take off - next time - soon -
Love,
Becky
Rebecca, congratulations on your marriage and literary production. I'd like to send you my novel, The Logoharp, about the media, China, and America 100 years from now. Since its release in July, the book has been named Finalist in the American Fiction Awards (2024; Science Fiction/Cyberpunk), a Gold Book Award winner from Literary Titan, and a top Editor's Pick in Publishers Weekly Booklife (https://booklife.com/project/the-logoharp-94324). You can also read about it on the Leaping Tiger Press website (https://leapingtigerpress.com); also available on Amazon.uk, Barnes & Noble and IngramSpark. You're busy, but I'd like to start a conversation. Best wishes -- Arielle Emmett, Ph.D., Member, American Society of Journalists & Authors, Authors Guild.
You're accomplishing SO much - be super proud of yourself!