An exciting Thursday— a new volume of Fashion & Fiends, a new poem and a new author

Today a new author joined Parisian Phoenix — nonagenarian Charles Ticho will allow our little boutique press to publish his memoir, Stops along the Way which chronicles his experiences from childhood in Europe through the Holocaust and into his life and career in the United States.

The book provides such a rich look at Jewish history and speaks of preserving not only family history but also culture.

And not many living authors have personal experiences with the Holocaust.

And then I got to attend Stick Figure Poetry at Mary Meuser Memorial Library where I recently started a term on the board of trustees. I served two previous terms on the board, even serving as president.

My family has volunteered with the library for more than a decade. About 12 or 13 years. I also donate a copy of each of our books to that library, so today I dropped off Trapped.

At Stick Figure Poetry open mic, our first poet and staff member Darrell Parry read (for its debut in public) a poem honoring my father, who passed away unexpectedly December 15. The poem was poignant and humorous and captured the essence of my father.

And I needed that.

Darrell convinced me to read something so I selected a scene from Trapped, the opening of chapter 13. In that chapter, the main character finds out that her friend Celeste has bought a shiny new Mercedes convertible. Her daughter Siobhan sits in the backseat reading the phone book while their iPod plays the soundtrack from Cats.

The family of Celeste, Siobhan and Darren is my family and we were all in that room with people who knew us. The name Celeste is a punny attempt at renaming me. Angel/Celeste.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough… the final proof on Recovery came. Apparently it got missed at the printer. I had to put in a help ticket. The ebook is live now. The print book should follow very soon. Recovery is the third book in the Fashion & Fiends series.