Saturday, June 4, 2011

Lazy Saturday

Just sent off four new copies of my book and it officially went international as of Friday. My book is sitting on some coffeetable/nightside table in London. Hmm let's say nightstand table. I've gotten alot of great feedback from those who've either read the whole thing straight through or are taking it one story at it time. Interesting feeling having your work out there in the world. Need to get working on my other projects...they're callin my name. Today though...I'm in the middle of rewatching the 3rd season of the very excellent Sons of Anarchy and later I'll be checking out the new X-men movie with my sisters. I've heard very good things so far.

The mood for this lazy, beautiful Saturday:

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mommies Day to all the ladies working it out and doing it right (Mamas, Grandmas,Aunties) Sometimes it takes a village but it starts with you. You are the first thing they know and cry for. The smiling assurance they need comes from your lips. Your wise words sometimes fall on deaf ears but when lessons are learned they know that Mom was right..."I should have listened". So sending love out to all the Mommies doing it right.


photo belongs to xdesx

In Living Color

Video from both signing and reading. Loaded to youtube. After three attempts to load the reading to yt had to go with vimeo instead. Not sure if it was because of the large file size or if yt simply felt bitchy at that moment (such a dramaqueen...not me..yt ;) )

Quick 43 sec spot:





Video from Reading. Excerpts are from "The Script" and "Skin Deep" both short stories in my collection, Population Crazytown. Wish little sis had been close but it came out well I think :)


C.A. Robinson reading from Population Crazytown from C.A. Robinson on Vimeo.


I had to listen with earphones or volume turned all the way up. Sorry but the camera did the job :)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Postcards from the Edge...no not the movie

Okay...classic overacheiver. Once I finally had the book ready to go and off to the printer, I had this other idea that I'd been playing around with. For the publication party or simply inserts for the book I didn't want to go with the usual route of bookmarks. I've loved getting them in the past but it didn't feel quite right for my crazytown folks. I've always considered my audience while putting this together as being on the road into crazytown before even skimming that first page. Postcards, I decided would be the way to go. Not simply postcards with images of my books cover. I wanted something that reflected the stories inside...perhaps a variation of images for those very different personalities and issues.

I searched out actual postcards. I took photographs but none of it felt right. Then one night after Spring Break, my fellow MFAer Rafe Posey popped up with amazing pictures of his relaxing time off in Santa Barbara. The minute I saw some of those photos things started to click and I saw the postcard that would be for Vivi...her goodbye to the child she's abandoning. With another I saw what would tie two old friends together from one story to the next. Now of course the photographs were only the beginning. I played around a bit with photoshop for the outstanding images that are posted here. Then I carefully wrote out messages from one character to another. An epilogue or prologue of sorts. I stolen moment that would mean much to the reader after slipping so briefly into this character's existence.

There are actually five different variations. All with a unique touch or twist to the stories inside.






Population Crazytown! Limited Edition Available Now



Okay many of you and my twitter/fb frans (stole that from Charisma C lol) have expressed interest in taking an extended trip into Crazytown. I'm currently getting things set up to make that happen. For now email/DM/PM me if you would like a copy of the book so that I can add you to the list. Email: jenndeve@gmail.com or follow me on twitter (jenndeve@yahoo.com).






All But Done!!

Was just looking at my bio from last year and it says "currently working on my MFA" the work is all but done. All that's left to do is walk across the stage. Last night's reading and the publication party...I kept waiting for the moment when I'd meltdown or freakout...stutter and slip up in all the wrong places. It didn't happen. I like to think of myself as a humble individual but I pretty much sure that I did the dang thing and killed it last night. Little sis had her camera at ready so hopefully I'll be able to load it to youtube shortly.

Gotta Make a Move To a Town That's Right For Me

Talk about it talk about it ooooh baby. LOL. I could not remember the lyrics to funkytown for the life of me last night. You might wonder...Courtney why the sudden fascination with disco? Well, last night was the publication party and my book is "Population Crazytown" and my lovely reading group...my amazing supportive reading group met up with me early on in the semester. They read through my collection and pulling it all together...Crazytown. The characters and all their nueroses and their self-isolation were completely crazytown. So last night signing a copy of for the amazing Rafe Posey I completely blanked....well that and the venue for our publication party/reading was apparently closing and we got the old "You ain't gotta go home, but you need to get the hell out of here." Well, they were a bit more polite than that but still. So I had the sudden urge to find the song and ended up pulling a Risky Business and shaking my thang...disco had its issues but the music certainly gets you moving.