Me at DC Author Festival 2014
Story Threads: Notes on “Mauve’s Quilt”
Quilts are functional art. In addition to providing comfort and warmth, they can tell stories. Even in the most abstract level, there’s a narrative unfolding.
Homages to cultural traditions are echoed in the various patterns found in Amish quilts.
African American quilts were supposedly used to convey messages to the Underground Railroad network*.
The third story in my collection, “Mauve’s Quilt” is a kind of quilted narrative, weaving two story strands together. The quilt titular also serves as functional art: an (abstract) expression of an interior landscape and a sanctuary.
*Whether or not this is true is debated.
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DC Author Festival on October 18th at the MLK Library
If you want to hear me read a story from SKIN DEEP MAGIC, I will be appearing at DC Author Festival next Saturday.
It will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Many DC-based authors will be there, including mystery writer George Pelecanos, Tom Doyle and Caroliva Herron. I read at 11 AM, and will be selling copies of my book the rest of the day.
Here is the address:
901 G St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
And the website: http://dclibrary.org/node/45013
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Scenes from Tonight’s Reading
The night was a success! I read from the stories “Lyes” and “Zora’s Destiny”. I sold all copies of the book. Thanks to the GallAerie for hosting the reading, and to A Stranger in Alps for the great music!
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REMINDER: Skin Deep Magic Book Release Party on October 11, 2014
My book release party is this Saturday! I will be reading from my new book!
The GallAerie
1644 Newton Street NW
Washington DC 20010
8 PM – 12 AM
Scheduled bands:
There will be door prizes and a reading by me.
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My Green Man story: Notes on “Sapling”
I grew up next to Rock Creek Park, a large, urban park that runs throughout Washington, DC. Deer, possum, raccoons and the occasional owl were as much of my childhood landscape as were heavy traffic, presidential motorcades, and the Smithsonian. As a child, I would often go into the forest and dream up wild adventures for the characters I created in my head. I saw a majestic stag once, who glanced at me for one eerie moment, before bounding away. There were hawks in the park, too, circling above with their impressively long wings. I didn’t need a wardrobe-shaped portal; another world was literally steps away. “Sapling,” my story about a very different kind of Green Man, is an homage to Rock Creek Park, and by extension, all such sanctuaries embedded in the urban terrain.
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Author copies of Skin Deep Magic have arrived!
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“Bereft,” my YA novel, won a Bronze Moonbeam Award!
The 2014 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards were announced yesterday. The Moonbeam Awards are about, “Celebrating Youthful Curiosity, Discovery and Learning through Books and Reading”
Bereft placed third in the “Young Adult Fiction-Mature Issues” category–the Bronze Medal.
My publisher, Tiny Satchel Press, also had another win: Drifting by Lisa R. Nelson won the Silver medal.
Writing is such a solitary pursuit; it’s great to get recognition every now and then.
Craig Laurance Gidney 
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