This is meant to be figurative (click on pic for event details)

And….Saturday I will participate in a panel at the Hynes Convention Center (think stellar ambiance) on putting out your first book– an author/publisher perspective. It will be held from 10:30-11:45 in room #210 and should be lively.

This is how you end up in a universe across the galaxy

And…                                                                                                                                                        Sat eve I will be reading in Cambridge at the Literary Firsts Series

I am told Boston is close to Cambridge (click on pic for more details of event)

That is all.

Where else can you find the work of George Saunders, the Dalai Lama, Nami Mun, Jon Ronson, Junot Diaz, and more?

I have been spoiled by good editors and publishers, an embarrassment of riches, and I want to thank Richard Nash and Red Lemonade from the bottom of my heart for giving me a career.

more amazing writers and also a great home

So when someone asks, “What’s your new novel about?” I say nothing. I don’t like to talk about work not yet complete. BUT I can tell you this. I have been fortunate enough to work with talented editors and am thrilled to get to work with Megan Lynch. It will be some time before I am done but I love where I’m at in the new novel.  Riverhead has shown stunning confidence in me and I hope to return the favor.  All will be well; all will be good.

I love you, man!
(click pic for great Forbes interview on his work with Small Demons)

I’m the satisfied Moravian in the middle.

…..And now it is time for me to turn the Internet way down and write more…..

My new home (psychically speaking)

Starting on February 1^st I will be hiding out, taking a break from blogs and interviews and trying to ignore Facebook the best I can. If you write me and I’m slow to respond, this is why.  It’s not personal. I will still post upcoming events, but perhaps more perfunctorily. This is not out of a lack of gratitude, but rather from a need for internal quiet while I write this next novel. Over time, news will come up and I will put it up here. In fact, some is coming soon.

But for now, here are my readings, podcasts, and events through April.

Tuesday, January 22^nd at 7pm EST/ 4pm PST  I will be doing a live podcast for The Author’s guild with Pauls Toutonghi. Pauls will interview me about Zazen and then two weeks later on Monday, Feb 4^th I will interview him about Evel Knievel Days. You can click on the link below and sign up if you want to join the conversation.

click for magic link to Booktalk Nation

Saturday, February 23^rd   I will read in Portland @ Burnt Tongue 3  — Showtime 5-8pm (door at 4:30) @CRUSH BAR
1400 SE Morrison Street Portland OR   — $5 Suggested gift donation

March 8-10^th I will be at AWP in Boston, Massachusetts.

Saturday, March 9^th …I am on a panel at AWP called: “The Business of Publishing Your First Novel: Author and Publisher Perspectives.”
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Location: Room 210, Hynes Convention Center

ALSO Saturday, March 9^th I read at Literary Firsts in Cambridge, MA  –show runs from 5:30-8pm and will be at Middlesex Lounge near Central Square.  That’s it!

I aim for this in my own way

Another mystery, yet more compelling.

I am also lucky to be traveling and reading in these places:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  /  October 10th, 4:30 pm, 260 Baker Hall, Carnegie Mellon.

I like the lighting but I don’t think I get to read in the foyer.

Brooklyn, New York  October 11^th 7 pm @ Melville House Bookstore  145 Plymouth Street  Brooklyn, NY 11201–I will be reading nonfiction for the release of Guillotine w/ Karolina Waclawiak and Sarah McCary !!

http://mhpbooks.com/events/celebrate-the-launch-of-guillotine-books-with-vanessa-veselka-karolina-waclawiak-and-sarah-mccarry/

Manhattan, NYC / October 16^th, 7:30pm@ Dixon Place—Experiments and Disorders / 161A Chrystie St. (between Rivington & Delancey) NY, NY 10002 …I will be reading something fictitious…

http://www.dixonplace.org/html/lit_experimentsanddisorders.html

Seattle, Washington October 18^th, I will be reading with the Tin House Magazine folks for the first ever SEATTLE LITCRAWL! (Muppet applause)

New York, NY October 23, at 6:30 p.m. the PEN Awards ceremony  @Proshansky Auditorium / The CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue (between 34th and 35th streets)  NY, NY 10016

The flags are not for me but I am very, very excited anyway.

Please click on the image to see the full announcement. Many wonderful writers are honored as well.

I would like to thank the judges, all great writers, Lauren Groff, Dinaw Mengestu, and Nami Mun. I strongly suggest you buy their work (and send them chocolate and whiskey because reading the insane amount of books they read is NOT for the lighthearted).

I would also like to thank the Bingham family for offering the kind of funding needed to support me while writing my current novel. I never knew Robert Bingham, but I am extremely grateful to be a part of the legacy left in his name and will show that by writing more and getting better at it.

I would like to thank the PEN for their work here and abroad. The PEN’s conviction in the writer’s voice and staunch protection of it moves me profoundly.  It evokes in me an emotion akin to patriotism, not in service to flag or country, but rather in deference of the human right to make things of beauty. I just can’t believe I have any part in something so damn noble and grand. You should all give money to the PEN, not because of people like me, but because of what they do for writers whose voices have put them in real danger. Support them because they support people like Eskinder Nega, the jailed Ethiopian journalist and blogger, and many others who need the protection of money and visibility. You can join the PEN by clicking on the image below and following the instructions…

joingthePENjoingthePENjoingthePENjoingthePEN

Or you can just give them money!

click image to go to the PEN donation page

Personally, I want to say that I have been so very fortunate. Many great writers never receive recognition for their work and I feel I have received so much. Winning this award is a cross between playing in the snow on Christmas and rolling down a grassy hill on the best sunny day. It’s just pure joy. But other things should also be said. The truth is, I often lack the emotional scaffolding to keep my chin up on my own. Zazen had supporters all along the way who convinced me to keep trying to get it published then get it in the hands of people who would care about it.

Here are a few of them…

Jay Babcock at Arthur Magazine for serializing Zazen on Arthur in 2009 and constantly trying to help it see the light of day. And I am so happy that Arthur is back in the world!

http://www.arthurmag.com/

Richard Nash and Red Lemonade for publishing Zazenand staying behind it and me…

Check out Red Lemonade’s other authors http://redlemona.de/

And most importantly, the independent booksellers who got Zazen into people’s hands. They tweeted, they talked, they wrote blog posts, they made shelf talkers, they put it in their windows—they handsold the damn thing until made it’s way into the world and found its people. Nobody would have it if it weren’t for them Here are just a few…Powells, Broadway Books, Annie Bloom’s, WORD, Bank Square Books, Skylight, McNally Jackson, RiverRun Books, and many others. I have met only some of you, but I love you all. Thank you. You have given me a career.

http://www.powells.com/

http://www.broadwaybooks.net/

http://www.annieblooms.com/

http://www.riverrunbookstore.com/

http://www.banksquarebooks.com/

http://wordbrooklyn.com/

http://mcnallyjackson.com/

http://www.skylightbooks.com/

and so many more….

It will look like this only without the instruments and with different people

For real information you can go here:        https://www.facebook.com/events/294361363988086/

One of the other great honors I have while visiting San Francisco is getting to play a part in Hilary Goldberg’s animated existential saga The Deer In Between.

Michele Tea and Ed Wolf are the deer that decide the fate of human souls http://www.thedeerinbetween.com/

I will be the voice of a morel mushroom that is part of a political underground. Here are some of the mushrooms that seem to be abusing their power and have lots of secret meetings:

secret meeting

I have to say this is one of the highlights of my career so far.  If you need to get caught up on the drama here is:

Episode 1      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSVRSq5Vt-c

Episode 2     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwKunyqy2fE

I feel just like this sometimes...

And pushing aside things like making macaroni and cheese or tying your shoes, who really looks at an art form and thinks, “I know how to do this.”  ??

Yes. Now I see it all...so...clearly, Mr Dahmer...

Still, there is benefit in breaking open your own head and letting people see the inside of it. Sometimes it helps them break open their heads.  And this is largely how I view teaching. If I had a philosophy, it would go a little like this:

1) Instinct is better than knowledge. Yet a little insight and some perspective can be really helpful, and those things often come through other people.

2) The more you write the quicker you get sick of your bad writing habits.

3) The writer is always boss of her own work. And sometimes firing yourself is a good idea.  I do it periodically and can recommend it.

And…I’d like to thank the fine folks at LitReactor for giving me an online home. Join me there if you like.

Clicking on the image should take you to LitReactor unless I'm an utter dork at this. And if I am, click the link below.

Failing that bit of technology, click here for class info:

http://litreactor.com/classes/leading-with-voice-how-to-create-compelling-first-person-narrators-who-drive-your-fiction?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=litreactor&utm_campaign=vanessa%2Bveselka

And so I don’t forget–

Nothing says Easter like a violet geode. Fertile AND mineral?

Happy Easter Bunny.

I feel just like this sometimes…