Here you can get a peek into Monika Essen’s design process; her Woman Before A Glass will definitely be worth a visit.  Dressing the set, dressing the actors, dreaming a whole world into being, is so akin to what a novelist does: making that world of the unreal real enough to – almost – touch.  Although the novelist does have certain physical advantages: I’ve never stuck myself with a pin, say, though I did once staple right into the pink meat of my thumb.  Rigors of creation.

In another Ann Arbor note, there will be an event for Under the Poppy the novel hosted by Common Language Bookstore in October; date TK.  Don’t be surprised if a blackbird flies into the window …. I’ll also be at the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers‘ do in October, talking about Under the Poppy and surreptitiously eating chocolate, though I will use a napkin and keep the pages clean. I may be wild but I am civilized.