Khalid Muhammad has been one of the most understanding and compassionate men throughout my illness. For the last two months while I’ve been barely limping along he has been the definition of patience while this interview and the companion review were delayed. Agency Rules is a phenomenal read and this interview is one of my most favorite interviews I’ve ever done. Thank you, Khalid! You have my most sincere gratitude for your kindness and the chance to do such an incredible interview!
I don’t generally go too far afield of the genres I self medicate with and it means I miss out on thousands of truly incredible novels. I think the truly ironic thing about my narrow reading choices is that when I watch Netflix–and this is very rarely done–all I ever watch is action movies, crime shows and true crime shows about murderers and people who get beefed. I have the scariest Joss Whedonesque morbid enjoyment of a good death than most people could even conceive. So it’s rather chuckle-able that when I am reading it’s all hot breathing, skin against skin, and flowers and chocolates.
When Khalid Muhammad sent me his message to be part of Word Slinger Project I was thirsty to read his book but unsure as to how I would feel about it… I shouldn’t have been. I should have been worried about how much money I’d be pouring into Amazon looking for another lethal Kamal.
If this were a TV show they would say this is the spin-off series from the original book Red Moon. Red Moon is about Avery and Tristan… let’s take just a moment to wipe our chins and settle our fluttering hearts and possibly fluttering loins at the very thought of Tristan Williams. I know that he is still giving me an afterglow even though it has been months since I got to read his sweaty doings. Phew!!! Goodness me, Elizabeth… how do you keep yourself from developing a huge ego knowing that you created such loveliness? If I were you I would just sit alone with my imaginary friends all day long and preen at my clever, naughty mind and the men it creates.
This Tongue Wagger comes from this week’s Word Slinger, Simon Travers. I fear that my poetry critiquing may be fearfully lacking so I will stick solely to the content of Simon’s poetry collection. It’s been fifteen years since I took my poetry course at Penn State University. Mr. Perrone taught me a great deal about poetry as well as writing it– along with writing for business, creative, technical and journalism. He told me to remember a lot of things and the only points that stick out from the many courses I took with him are: how to write a business letter, that knowing Shakespeare might be the difference in getting a job and not getting one, the proper methods of critiquing beyond preference and that when interviewing anyone it is better for both parties if you talk about things that the interviewee feel invested in and that they love. All that other stuff… it went on mental dump. I do remember often wondering if he spent a lot of time in the morning getting his hair to look like it did each day too, but he didn’t teach me that. Sadly, for Simon… my memory of stylistics in poetry fails me. But I do know what I like.
Simon Traver’s is the Weekly Indie Word Slinger for the first week of February 2014. The author of Anatomy, a collection of poems and essays, published by Stackhouse Jones an independent publisher that Simon established himself. He’s a busy guy. Enough of me introducing him… I’ll let him tell you about himself.