Ooo, big stretch!

a birthday month breather

Next Time: a strong woman under the gaslight

a gloss on the glosses

I was thinking: just like in my sharing of my memoir chapters proper, maybe it’d behoove us to take a wee breather and do a sort of break post here in the midst of the glosses. Let’s take a reflective look back and chat a bit, shall we?

It’s been fun going back and adding more anecdotes and details (and further reflection) to the polished chapters, and it’s making me wonder if, as I continue to shop this book out to agents and trad publishers, these glosses might not be an interesting cherry on top for whoever ends up taking it on. Then again, it might be nice to keep them exclusively here for my subscribers as a special treat and thank you for all of you who’ve been here with me the whole time. Or at least, the whole Substack time.

Here’s some brief annotations on the mini-bibliographies I’ve included so far:

1. I talk about my use of nonverbal communication in ‘Amygdala,’ and also include two textbooks: the one I wrote, and a sort of business self-help book about mid-life job changes. I try to pick books that are further references for topics I discuss in the gloss or chapter itself.

2. I took the quote and concept of A Tone of Authority from the Lopate personal essay textbook, and included ‘Exeleutherostomize’ here because in it I discuss my journey with my singing voice and confidence thereon. The other snippets are newspaper articles either about myself or Blue Dime Cabaret.

3. Cruel Optimism is the book I named the chapter after, and is an academic work I initially discovered in the San-Franchini article. The Ehrenreich book is a well-known screed on toxic positivity, which is on topic and a fierce read. The two Kay essays are so freaking good, they actually piss me off.

4. My essay about my belly and Dolittle’s beautiful open letter are both centered on being Not A Pretty Girl in the theatrical fields. Shahida’s psychological self-help book has been very useful to me in the wake of my divorce: it’s an overview and analysis of the malignant narcissist, and what it’s like to be in and escape from a relationship with one.

5. This biblio is simply a list of the plays I mention, as well as

   Matthew Long
   ’s newsletter, which I reference in regards to learning.

6. My essay ‘Vapulate’ is all about my personal warriorship. The two Staples pieces are two different versions of one of his essays, and I often liked to share both with my Freshman Comp students when teaching about essay structure.

7. Since I talk about the connection of pain and certain arts, as well as dance and smoking, I include my Popination to the cigar bar as well as Gottschall’s book about being a humanities professor and entering MMA. The Rice novel and Spoon Theory definition are things I reference in the essay, and the Fool Moon show is a special connection that I describe in the gloss. I gave a nod to

   NickS (WA)
   because of his thought-provoking comment on the chapter.

8. I list some martial arts books from both dojos where I trained, and a Playing Shakespeare ep where they rehearse the scene I mention, that has the ‘patience on a monument’ exchange. I thought I’d include Herb’s book about writing and publishing too. It’s another fierce read.

9. Since I talk so much about kintsugi and wabi-sabi and such in this chapter, I wanted to include Kirby Ferguson’s brilliant video essay about the remix here. The Playing Shakespeare ep goes over how to balance strong passion in the midst of complicated verse. There are a couple acting textbooks in there too, as well as the song of which lyrics are the hinges to this chapter.

February is my birthday month, and, though my day is at the very end, I tend to celebrate all through the month. That’s another reason why I thought it’d be a nice week for a breather post: it’s February 1st and officially time to start celebrating! And now that I think about it, soon there’ll be yet one more reason to love February, besides my birthday and Stout Month at the Mountain Sun series of breweries: I’m getting married in a couple weeks.

Let me know in the comments, what sorts of things you’re looking forward to me adding as I continue: what details are still missing for you in the remaining chapters, what keeps you curious, and what odd bits of my odd world that I’ve already shared do you want to hear more about?

Thanks for your readership (and commentary), and I’ll be back next week with a proper gloss on Next Time, Chapter 10.

Cheers!

Cheers!