So we're fast coming up on the two year double anniversary of my friend Molly Ivins' devastating, untimely death and my (now ex) husband's big walkout. When those events occurred within twenty-four hours of each other I so very much fell apart that I quite literally was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Oh how I locked myself in my room and cried-- for six months straight-- and could not eat and thought I might die.
Of course a lot can happen in two years. But even knowledge based on history that things eventually almost always get better is little consolation when one is in the throes of grief. This I knew far too well. I alternately tried to hide from my pain-- or at least wish it away-- and tried to race through healing. I was in heavy duty therapy, I went to alternative healers, I put on a cathartic show that is still running. And at some point, I sat down with Deltina Hay, protagonist for Dalton Publishing, and told her I wanted to do an anthology of essays on grief. She said she'd publish it, a co-editor came on board and now, here we are, about to have the book release reading on Wed, Jan 28th at BookPeople at 7 p.m. Something like ten of us will be reading from the book which is a collection that runs the gamut from raw and jagged to polished and literary, from pulsating with still palpable pain to moving forward with tentative joy. We've got some big name, well know writers involved. And we've got folks who are not writers by trade but who nonetheless were willing to spill their grief on the page for us.
It should be a really awesome event. Please join us if you can. And please spread the word.
Thanks,
Spike
