Empty/K.M. Walton: Reflections

It was particularly difficult—and yet so important and poignant—to read K.M. Walton's second novel, Empty, late last night and into this early morning.  Kate is a friend of mine, a deep-thinking, big-hearted former school teacher who has devoted her novelistic life (so far) to making visible the too-often invisible lives of young people who have either been bullied or succumbed to the tease of hurting others.  In a recent, moving TEDx talk, Kate took us back into her teaching days and shared her effective cure for getting kids to stop hurting other kids.  It's mandatory watching.

With Empty, Kate focuses on Adele, 17 years old and massively overweight, a former softball star whose size now makes it difficult to play.  Her father has left the family.  Her mother, working two jobs and addicted to prescription pills, has moved Adele and her baby sister into inadequate, cramped quarters.  Adele's only friend doesn't even truly know Adele, and sometimes, for comfort, Adele will pour a box of cereal into a large mixing bowl and eat every single bite.  And things will only get worse.

One wants to believe (to hope) that no child is this alone, or in this much pain, but the news tells us differently.  The news reminds us of how frightening alone-ness is, and of what its consequences can be.  Empty is a brave book written by a brave writer—relentless, unblinking, harrowing.  We read it to know.  We read it disabuse ourselves of the easy notion that those young people floating on the margins will be just fine without us, that they somehow don't need our attention or care.

They are not fine without us.

They need our care.

I received an early copy of Empty from Kate.  Join her for her book launch on January 5, 2013 at the Barnes and Noble in Exton, PA, 7 PM to 9 PM.  I, most certainly, will be there.

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CRACKED: The K.M. Walton Book Launch

I love book launch parties, and last night's party for K.M. Walton (at the Chester County Book & Music Company) was nothing short of spectacular.  I believe the entire state of Pennsylvania showed up, and then some.  I know there was love in the room.  You would have thought we were attending a basketball game, given all the whooping going on, the whistling and cheering. It takes a long time to write a book, a long time to publish it, and then there's that stretch of awful lonesome when you don't know who will care about what you've done, or if anyone will buy it.

If you don't stop to celebrate, then you've missed the best part of the deal.  With a CRACKED cake and cupcakes, with a buffet table and street teams, with signature hunters lined up for miles, and with that sunshine smile on her lovely face, K.M. Walton celebrated in style. 

And here we are—just a few of the thousands—celebrating with her.  You've got Kathye Fetsko Petrie, Ilene Wong, A.S. King, and yours truly in the mix.  You've also got one of the nicest gestures I've seen at a book launch party—a table celebrating the books of K.M. Walton's friends. 

Here's to a long life for CRACKED.  Happy First Book Week, Kate.

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Florinda's Kindness. Best of Graces. K.M. Walton. DeWitt Henry. And the beach in winter.

I have been sitting here since four this morning, when it was all dark and all cold.  At one point I looked up, and there was blue within the black.  And then, a little while on, I looked and saw the float of pillowed pink.

Just ahead of the pinking, I went to my favorite blogs list and clicked onto the 3 R's Blog to see what Florinda has cooking.  Oh, good, I thought.  Her best of year list.  With great interest, I read.  The Warmth of Other Suns—a fabulous choice.  Tina Fey's Bossypants—absolutely; that book made me laugh when I needed a laugh. Just Kids by Patti Smith, one of my all-time favorite memoirs.  The Girls of Murder City.

It was when I got to the fiction list that I did a double take, for there was You Are My Only, alongside Faith, Girl in Translation, and Fathermucker. My little book beside some very big books.  Florinda's goodness forever transparent.

Why are there always 3,000 miles between me and the people that I want to hug?  I'm hoping Florinda can feel my hug today.  I am hoping there is pink in her sky.

Florinda, you deserve some major pink in your sky. Thank you. For everything.

My deep affection for the bloggers who have been so kind to You Are My Only is well-established.  I am so surprised and so moved by all of you who named You Are My Only at year's end (listing alphabetically): 

Caribousmom/Short List for Fiction
Caribousmom/Buzz Books Which Did Not Disappoint
Dear Author
My Friend Amy
On a Southern Breeze
The 3 R's Blog
Two Heads Together
Washington, D.C. Literature/Examiner.com

Tonight I'm going lift a glass in your honor in Atlantic City, where I'll be with my boys, doing that winter-at-the-beach thing we do.

I'll come home in time to lift another glass to K.M. Walton (though I promise not to arrive already tripping), who is launching her first book, Cracked, at the Chester County Book Company on Saturday night.  There's going to be a gonzo crowd.  Be there, I say.

On Sunday, I'm off to celebrate Little Miss Eva's birthday.  Of course there will be photos; there always are.

And then on Tuesday, I'll be in the company of my good friends, Elizabeth Mosier, Chris Mills, Kelly Simmons, and Pam Sedor as we toast DeWitt Henry, writer, founding editor of Ploughshares, and former Chair of Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College, who is returning to his childhood haunts on the Main Line with an evening talk at the Radnor Memorial Library.  I'll repeat myself, because I can: 

Be there.

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