Buy the Book!!

Yield is finally in the world, on bookshelves (practically) everywhere, and in warehouses waiting to be shipped to your gleaming front doors.

I think the best way to buy the book is from an independent bookseller. But if you prefer, you can order from Amazon.com, where you can get the paperback or the Kindle edition. Barnes&Noble.com also has paperbacks and digital editions, and of course there is always one of the best indie bookstores in the (known) universe, Powell's.

If you live in New York City, you can get signed copies from the Barnes & Noble on 6th Avenue and 10th Street, or starting Sept 3rd, the Union Square B&N. You can also order signed copies directly from my website--and those books come with a cool free bonus gift!!

Also, some more reviews are in!

"Solid, unsentimental storytelling distinguishes Houck's first time out."

--Publisher's Weekly

"Five Stars."

--Echo Magazine

"Perfect emotional pitch...a brilliant, beyond-coming-out story."

--Book Marks

"Surprisingly thoughtful, emotional and erotic."

--Instinct Magazine

I am so thrilled to be able to share the book with everyone, finally.

Eight Things About Me

I was tagged by the thoughtful blogger over at Leaf-Stitch-Word with this strange, boundless meme, in which you are supposed to write eight things about yourself. As far as I can tell, those are the only rules. Usually these things come with a set of constrictions--and thus you get to work within the form to find something interesting. This, however, is so freeing as to be impossible. So--here's my stab at it:

1) The first CD I bought was the Indigo Girls record "Nomads. Indians. Saints." It came in a long box, and I picked it out after having seen them on the Austin City Limits songwriter's special. This would have been 1990. The opening chords of "Hammer and a Nail" sounded so right, as if I'd never heard music so perfect before. They were from the South, they were out, they wrote about themselves with folky-abandonment. I still buy their records, nearly 20 years later.

2) If you ask my what my favorite movie is, I will tell you "Farewell My Concubine." This is not my favorite movie, but who has just one favorite movie? It is an important movie for me. What I want to say when someone asks about my favorite movie is: "Ask the question that you really want the answer to."

3) I don't like to eat apples without cutting them into pieces, and if then: Mutsu, Braeburn and Ginger Gold varieties.

4) I started writing a novel in the 6th grade called "Thomas and Herman's Incredible Adventure at the Bottom of the Sea." A turtle and a hermit crab go to the bottom of the sea and have incredible adventures. I was saving it on a black floppy disk, back when you did that sort of thing, and hiding the disk in the broken wall of the computer lab. When I moved on to the 7th grade, I abandoned it.

5) I love The Suze Orman Show. "Oh, Barbara, you are so denied, you do not have the money to buy this car, what are you thinking...?"

6) My kitchen looks clean, but it is not. Trust me.

7) I don't think there is such thing as good music or bad music. There is only music that you like and music that you don't.

8) Every day I fantasize about winning the lottery and having millions of dollars. With the money, I buy a huge building and create a center for artists and writers to work and live together rent-free. I support a small number of non-profit organizations. I hire my friend Keith to decorate my loft. I go to Iceland once a year, by myself. I buy a Prius and spend 6 months driving around the United States, visiting all my friends. I write a book about the travels. Trouble with all this is: I don't even play the lottery.

I'll tag: Aaron, Mario, How History Feels, and Amanda.

Open Letters, Vol. 6

Dear Everyone Who Knows Me,

Facebook?

No.

Sincerely,
Lee


Ed: I have since joined Facebook. Oh well.

This Blog is Rated G

Apparently, my blog is rated G. As the website told me: "This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: anal (1x)." If I had used the word anal, say--(7x,) or even (49x)--would that have pushed me over into another realm? Because, even though I want readers, I also want to be rated XXX, even though I'm not really interested in writing posts that say anal (49x).

This reminds me of Ani Difranco talking about that maybe-real list of banned songs which supposedly was circulated among Clear Channel radio stations post-9/11. How she kept saying to herself: "Oh man, ban one of my songs!"

So how about this: shit, piss, fart, fuck, pussy, cock, asshole, jack off. Now let's see what I get.

Now we're talkin'!

from an Interview with Janette Turner Hospital

I have been championing Janette Turner Hospital for years. I finally, after mentioning five-thousand times, got Mario to read Due Preparations for the Plague, which I've also mentioned here on the blog five-thousand times. A person doesn't really get another person to read a novel, though. As Alex said once, "Only a novel can get someone to read it."

Robert Birnbaum's interviews are wonderfully smart and entertaining. He manages to have an actual conversation with the writers, which is certainly refreshing. There's other good ones at the website with Chip Kidd, Dorothy Allison, Amy Bloom, Sarah Vowell and Donna Tartt, among others.

This, from the interview with Janette:

Robert Birnbaum: You have compared terrorism to the Plague?

JTH: It seems to me a very apt metaphor. As was the case with the Black Death, one cannot ultimately protect oneself from attack. No matter what precautions you take, extra airport security, extra visa requirements for people, not letting travelers leave transit lounges, ultimately there is not any way to protect yourself. A determined terrorist or suicide bomber will get around all those things. As with the plague, too, for different reasons. In medieval times people didn't know what caused the plague or how to protect themselves.

RB: There are people who are put off by contemporary American fiction, complaining that it is too writing school, writing for other writers.

JTH: Well, a lot of it is rather tedious and self-indulgent. But there is also some very exciting contemporary writing going on. I do always make my graduate students read non-American fiction. Because I do think the confines of current American fiction are really narrow. I have them read Kenzbro Oe, Alessandro Barricco, the Italian, and also French novelists. Just really to say, the novel is anything that novelists have made it. And this is something I reproach my graduate students with—students in France, even undergraduate students are far more familiar with contemporary American literature and with other European literatures than American students are with anything outside America. It's a consequence of being so huge as a culture and dominating publishing.

The Soundtrack of Your Life

I adore easily completed, vaguely meaningful, and technology-incorporating tasks such as this meme. Put your iTunes on shuffle, and let 'er rip. Now you've got the next 18 songs to underscore, literally, a series of scenes in the movie of your life. I've adopted Alex's additions, Coming Out and Leaving Home, but I've changed the order a bit, to suit my preferred narrative structure. We're taught not to begin with someone waking up, right?

Also, the role of me in the movie of my life will be played by a mostly-naked Daniel Radcliffe, who will perfect my East Tennessee accent, as well as gain and lose the same 15 pounds over and over, thus winning him an Oscar. In his acceptance speech, he will shout my name over the play-off music and everyone will say "Too Little, Too Late" in the papers the next morning.

Title suggestions, anyone?


Opening Credits -- Liar, by the Cranberries, live in 1994
This is from an unknown bootleg I have of theirs from back in the day. The intro is killer, perfect mid-90s pop, and at this point during the exercise I feel as if my computer knows how to excite an audience.

First Day of School -- Anticipate, by Ani Difranco from 2002, 11/04 Paradise, CA
"for every hand extended / another lies in wait / keep your eye on that one / anticipate." I cannot say enough about what Ms. Difranco has brough to my life. This blog post is the best I can do. This song isn't nearly one of my favorites, but I'll take it.

Coming Out -- Here I Am by Emmylou Harris
Perfection, I say! This further illustrates the symbiosis I have with my laptop. Something amazing is happening to Emmylou's voice as she gets older. It's becoming fainter, it cracks easily. It's so beautiful--nobody's recording like that anymore. In this scene, I go from place to place, coming out, and it has the look and feel of Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich when she was going around town to tell everybody how much money they won from the lawsuit.

First Love -- A Lack of Color, by Death Cab for Cutie
"If you feel discouraged / that there's a lack of color here / please don't worry lover / it's really bursting at the seams / absorbing everything / the spectrum's a to z." Here I am again, overly concerned about the way some emotion is perceived, and thus I have to process.

First Song -- Dawn, by Cinematic Orchestra
I'm not sure what sort of song this would make for your first. There is no beat, and no words, only a wonderous drone for about four minutes. Maybe this first song leads to a sex scene, which later leads to the....

Breakup -- Time Will Do the Talking by Patty Griffin
"I change the lock on the door / I learn how to take a little more / I can outrun all of the devils here / But never the doubt." All hail the church of Patty Griffin. It's an instant-conversion policy, I believe.

Prom -- Danger, by Erykah Badu
For some reason, at my prom I decide to go rob a bank or maybe shoot some people. "Thinkin bout lives that you've taken / All the love you've forsaken / Niggas gon' get they fuckin head blown."

Driving -- Alone But Not Lonely, by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Then I'm driving a long stretch of dark road, while on the lam. But I'm okay. I got my Mary C.C. to guide me: "There are moments in time that are meant to be held / Like fragile, breakable things / There are others that pass us, you can't even tell / Such is their grace and their speed."

Flashback -- Since You Been Hard to Find, Kelly Clarkson vs. American Analog Set
This a great mash-up by somebody. I "archived" it from the WWW.

Waking Up -- Spring Haze, by Tori Amos, 2005 Manchester UK
"i found out where my edge is / and it bleeds into where you resist / and my only way out / is to go so far in" Tori's music is like an IV line directly into her consciousness. Hook me up, and I'm following her, wherever she wants to go. Fun places, dark places. I trust her completely.

Leaving Home -- Star Guitar, by Chemical Brothers
Have you seen the video Michel Gondry did for this song? The versions of it on YouTube are all badly converted, so you miss a lot of the greatness. So check one of them out here, but then imagine me on that train.

New Love -- Black Heart Today, by Amy Ray, bootlegged from 2005 4/19, NYC
I'm not sure what these lyrics are supposed to mean in this scene. "Take this meanness out of me / Take this meanness out of me / Take this meanness out of me."

Wedding -- Both Hands (dance mix), by Ani Difranco.
Now my iTunes is laughing at me.

Birth Scene -- Irresistible Bitch, by Prince
It's still laughing. Only this time, The Gods are laughing, too.

Final Battle -- Here Comes the Flood -- Peter Gabriel
"When the flood calls / You have no home, you have no walls / Dont be afraid to cry at what you see." This scene will be played mostly in silence, except for Peter's voice. At the end of it, everyone would be breathless and regretfull.

Death Scene -- Another Part of Me, by Michael Jackson
This is the version from Captain EO, the 3D movie that was at Disneyland for years and years. I was (read: am) so jealous of Anjelica Huston as the Supreme Leader.

Funeral Song -- Any Way You Want It, by Journey.
Okay, this is getting ridiculous.

Final Credits -- Lay Down, by Floetry
Somebody's getting busy right after my funeral? I'm hoping it's a throng of sobbing queens, who have an orgy on the steps of the Capital Building, one final act of civil (and totally hot) disobedience.

Let's just spend a little time,
Do a little more
Share what's in our hearts
Give each other all
Nothing more to do,
Lying right here with you
Let's just lay down

Hey Mario, Amanda and Michael, you're tagged. And you too, Rob, because Ted already tagged you and I can't wait to see what fabulousness your iTunes churns out.

The Frock.com

My new co-worker Alice was recently moved from one computer to another, and I ended up with her old one. Lucky for me, Alice left all her bookmarks here, and so I can casually peruse all the things that interested her. And, thus, many of them have become interesting to me. Among them, are a vintage dress company called The Frock.com.

They specialize in gorgeous gowns from the Victorian and Edwardian era, WWI and the mid-century, special couture pieces, as well as a random collection of items from the personal collections of celebrities, including Joan Crawford, Liza Minnelli, Sophia Loren and Eva Gabor.

I was taken by this one in particular: a hostess gown which belonged to Lucille Ball. At $800 it's a steal.

Labels!

Thanks to the new Blogger, I have added labels to all the previous posts. It's the kind of thing that I'd like to do to my entire life: categorize, divide, make sense of the chaos. For example, if I happen to sit down at someone else's computer and start pouring through their iTunes, and it's not exactly the way it dammed should be, with blank spaces and inconsistent genres, I just about want to kill them. Or spend the next seven hours fixing everything. Track numbers and the correct album names, etc.

Posts can now carry a tag like "fabulousness," "greenmarket," "art-making," "movies," "joan," (as in Ms. Didion,) and a bunch of other stuff. Blogger tells me that I've labeled the majority of the posts with "writing," "NYC," and "fabulousness," which should give you some idea about what I do here most of the time. Strangely, "cats" and "sex" appear quite infrequently.

If you click on any of the tags you will be taken to a new page that shows only posts, and all posts, that relate to that tag. Got it?

Also -- the dentist this afternoon was fine. Success, if you want to call it that. So now this post also carries the labels, "medical adventures" and "ambiguous."

What I Need

I've taken up with the "What I Need" bandwagon. Google (or Blingo) your first name along with 'needs,' all in quotes, and allow the Wonders of the Web to tell you what you need:

Lee needs a fresh challenge
Lee needs Love
Lee needs a decent nickname
Lee needs hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend himself
Lee needs to be blue not black
Lee needs to muster the political courage and vision to tackle these issues
Lee needs to hear the truth
Lee needs matches
Lee needs to be created
Lee needs rest

What do you need?

Last Meals

Ted Bundy: burritos, mexican rice, salad
Gary Gilmore: steak, bread & butter, peas, cherry pie, coffee, milk
Timothy McVeigh: 2 pints mint chocolate chip ice cream
Karla Faye Tucker: banana, peaches, salad, ranch or Italian dressing

from Dead Man Eating

The Age of Data

Someone in Elk River, Minnesota visited by blog for one minute and thirty four seconds yesterday after having performed a search on MSN for "where do I put my hands on the piano." A link to me was returned because of this post, in which we talk about hands in the comments, and of course, the name of my blog popped up from the word 'piano.' And on August 31, someone in Niles, Illinois visited the same post -- this time for only 7 seconds -- after having performed a Google search for "short stubby fingers."

I think of those TV shows you see where the boats dump hoards of teeming fish onto the deck. Even though they're casting for mackerel, they catch everything else along with it.

Were these people confused by my post? Annoyed at the proliferation of amateur information-farmers, who fill up search results with musings on the culture? Or was seven seconds all this person in Niles needed to learn everything he cared to about short stubby fingers?

Blingo!

Everyone immediately start using BLINGO as your new most favorite search engine. It's just like Google (in fact it uses Google's search engine,) but what makes it so amazingly better is that you can win prizes just for searching for all the crap you're always searching for anyway.

For example, tonight I won a free movie ticket, just for trying to figure out how to work some Torrent software.

Also, we all hold cyber-hands in a circle and then if I win something and you're my Blingo Friend, YOU win the same prize I do. And you were just sitting at your desk doing nothing.

For all the geeks out there using Firefox as your most favorite browser, Blingo allows you to add it into your search box in your toolbar.

Smart, huh.