I've been telling this story since it happened, so when the March Madness brackets for essays about sad songs invited me to write one about a song from the 90's I picked Under the Bridge, and wrote about the isolation of recovery. Read it at the bottom of this link.
To win your bracket it involves getting people to vote for you as your opponent is doing the same thing. It feels weird. Begging people to vote for you, by flooding their social media feeds with this request so you can win lacks integrity, and my feelings are the over-and-over begging can come across as pathetic. Usually friends, who won't even read the piece will click it because it's as easy to do as a 'like'. These contests play like a high-school popularity contests and less about quality of he work. That's my head talking.
In reality, the concept itself is very cool and a blast, and I had fun writing about recovery through the lense of the the Chili Peppers song.
I didn't post like a maniac and beg for votes, so I lost. More specifically, I forgot the competition was running and my game happened on March 4th, without me mentioning it at all and I lost. If I had only remembered, I would have been begging to the devil.
I forgot because I was at AWP in Baltimore in the middle of a book tour, where hawking books somehow showed much more integrity. The elevator pitch, I repeated over 5,000 times really sold Shadows of the Seen.
"Shadows of the Seen is a novel dealing with the gun issue written in three distinct narratives. There is a politician who is actually a liberal in beliefs who runs on right-wing gun talking points to have a career. There is a mass shooter, and finally there is someone with nothing to live for who breaks up a mass shooting, but of the two, you don't know which is which until the end."
Then I weaved my way home doing a reading in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Writers Circle hosted by the wonderful Jane-Rebecca Cannarella and Alex DiFrancesco. The event was held at Ray's Happy Birthday Bar, a remarkable dive that removes the Bathroom Out of Order Sign for use, but it also has a sign in the bathroom that reads, Hand Towels Available at the Bar right next to the sink.
The next night, I went on to Mid-Town Manhattan, to read for The Italian American Writers Association, who also hosts readings in Boston and Philadelphia. My co-feature, Tony Gloeggler was a poet I had a lot in common with professionally Tony ran group homes before he retired, and some of his poems about his job were gut-thrashing realistic and sweet.
.jpg)
I left with 3 boxes of books, and came home with a handful. I didn't beg for your votes, but read the essay anyway. I'm so very grateful to have been on a successful book tour, where, fool that I am, secretly fell in love a bunch of times, but I won't bring that up, the same way I won't bring up voting for an essay in order to win. What I will bring up was the support, the purchases, the friends I ran into, the old friends I met with, and the folks running these events were all simply amazing. I also found 5 nice recovery meetings in all these cities, which keeps me from being under a bridge.
.jpg)
