Huzzah!
Yes, I get way too excited about these Amazon rankings. And yes, New Releases in Haiku & Japanese Poetry is possibly the smallest book category on Amazon. And yes, this will make possibly no difference in anyone's life- but darnit, I'm excited, anyway, folks, because guess who has the number one new release in haiku poetry, as arbitrarily decided by a secret computer algorithm?
You guessed it! Happy dance.
It can only be because you bought it with your much appreciated cash money, so thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you...
Love,
Shoshanah
A Coloring Book for You
Modern Taxidermy Article in Isthmus
I was mentioned in this interesting article about modern taxidermy in yesterday's Isthmus (one of our local newspapers in Madison, WI):
"Others prefer their animal-based decor to be less, well, dead.
- see more here
"Others prefer their animal-based decor to be less, well, dead.
Mount Horeb artist Shoshanah Marohn creates faux taxidermy mounts from the leftover fleece from her small herd of “goofy-looking” Jacob sheep. Marohn collects the fur and felts it, to create whimsical animal heads with twisted horns and mustaches. Most of her faux taxidermied heads are made to order. Marohn’s “a little surprised by their popularity.”
As she writes in the description at her Etsy shop, “I spend a lot of time looking at my sheep, and I wonder about their inner lives.... This series I’m doing of mustachioed sheep-like heads is a direct result of my spending so much time with sheep.”
They did not include any pictures of my work, so allow me:
I think the article was well written, and interesting beyond the part that included me. Renee Gregory is a good writer. And also a really nice person, I found. She came over and palled around with me and the sheep a couple of months ago for the article. I ended up showing her my scrapbook from Norway last summer. She showed me a picture of her mom, and it turned out I had met her mom. We went out and pet little lambs. She took some pictures. She told me about living in Sweden. I told her about living in Sweden. I showed her my children's book. She showed me her children's book. Then, after the article didn't come out for a month or so, I thought, well, at least we had a good time. Maybe she just wanted to make a friend?
But, no, there actually was an article. And a good one. I'm glad.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I know. It isn't really Thanksgiving yet. But this time last year, I released the book, A Murder of Crows and Other Woes. In celebration of that one year anniversary, I am giving away twenty signed copies of the book. Enter to win at Goodreads!
Enter Giveaway
And... stay tuned for the next big thing, coming very, very soon...
Goodreads Book Giveaway
A Murder of Crows and Other Woes
by Shoshanah Lee Marohn
Giveaway ends November 25, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
What to do when you are 8
I'm fascinated by the writings of my daughter. I find them all over the house. She must write a lot! The writings are such an interesting window into her brain. Today I found a short story about an elephant, the beginnings of a novel about someone whose parents died, and a tiny book about the size of a quarter with paper cut out in interesting designs. And this list (which I think is not too terribly personal):
I appreciate number 11. She really did clean the litter box. Number 8 is supposed to be "Lift Heavy Things" and number 14 is "juggle". Wherever it says, "1 mille" or "1 mile" that means to walk/ run a mile.
I believe she achieved all of the things on the list, except for "walk on front hands."
Duende or Thanks for the Trouble You Took from her Eyes
As Nick Cave said, there may be, "No dollars in duende," but people are drawn to artists, places and experiences that embody and reflect to them their own duende.
"In his brilliant lecture entitled "The Theory and Function of Duende" Federico García Lorca attempts to shed some light on the eerie and inexplicable sadness that lives in the heart of certain works of art.
"All that has dark sound has duende", he says, "that mysterious power that everyone feels but no philosopher can explain." In contemporary rock music, the area in which I operate, music seems less inclined to have its soul, restless and quivering, the sadness that Lorca talks about. Excitement, often; anger, sometimes: but true sadness, rarely,
Bob Dylan has always had it. Leonard Cohen deals specifically in it. It pursues Van Morrison like a black dog and though he tries to he cannot escape it. Tom Waits and Neil Young can summon it. It haunts Polly Harvey. My friends the Dirty Three have it by the bucket load. The band Spiritualized are excited by it. Tindersticks desperately want it, but all in all it would appear that duende is too fragile to survive the brutality of technology and the ever increasing acceleration of the music industry. Perhaps there is just no money in sadness, no dollars in duende. Sadness or duende needs space to breathe. Melancholy hates haste and floats in silence. It must be handled with care." -Nick Cave (Vienna,1999)
My favorite Duende:
Music Monday: Amanda Lear
Coloring Book
I've been working on a coloring book of lost places. Tentative release date: December first.
I don't have a set title yet. It's getting late. I should have a title. I could just call it, "The Coloring Book of Lost Places." I also like the Portuguese word "Saudade," but that might be too obscure. What do you think?
I don't have a set title yet. It's getting late. I should have a title. I could just call it, "The Coloring Book of Lost Places." I also like the Portuguese word "Saudade," but that might be too obscure. What do you think?
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