Golem, Jinni & me tonight...or a Broken Machine, if you prefer

The Fall of the Kings and a Parrot next week

Sorry I’ve been out of touch! I finally figured out what was wrong with the Riverside novel I’ve been working on for far too long, and have been completely revising the proposal for my new agent (Suzie Townsend of New Leaf). And I forgot I had a story due for Lynne & Michael at the truly remarkable UnCanny Magazine! But more of that later. Also, many of us are now fully vaccinated, so our social life suddenly started up again with a vengeance. And I stopped being afraid to ride the subways. It makes for a heady life!

Writers with new books, however, are still, wisely, going on tour via Zoom only. I was thrilled when Helene Wecker, author of the surprise national best-seller The Golem and the Jinni, asked me to join her on her Virtual Tour!

This is just a screen shot. Actual link is below.

I adore Helene. She’s One of Us. She loves Swordspoint. She went to school with fantasy writer Naomi Kritzer. After the usual period of denial (No, I can’t be a writer! Just because it’s what I want with my whole heart! I must do something boring instead!) she got into the prestigious Columbia University Writing MFA program, where she was discovered by fabulous agent Sam Stoloff, who convinced her to write the book - here’s a great interview with the two of them explaining it all.

So we’ll be In Conversation tonight about the novel’s sequel, The Hidden Palace, which just came out three days ago, but I’ve already read it and it’s utterly wonderful, continuing the story of the golem who calls herself Chava and the jinni who calls himself Ahmad Al-Hadid, in early 20th century New York City. There’s a whole new cast of characters with them that I just adore.

And tonight she will answer the question on everyone’s minds: Are you going to write more about them?

Click HERE to get to the actual page, where you can watch the Conversation we are going to have tonight, Thursday, June 10th, at 8:30 pm EST / 5:30 pm PT

(Even if you don’t want to watch us, click anyway, because I myself was VERY EXCITED to discover that the page includes the first Real World confirmation that my Chanukah children’s book, The Golden Dreidel, is coming out this fall! And you can pre-order it!)

And now the bad news:

As a result, tonight I will be missing the first half of a big live reading my dear friend and favorite living playwright, Liz Duffy Adams!

Go ahead and two-time me if you want; I’ll understand. Plus, if you’re a serious Golem & Jinni fan, just skip me tonight, because Helene is doing a series of these conversations with a bunch of cool writers this month, including Kat Howard, Mike Mignola, Naomi Kritzer, Monica Byrne . . . .here’s the full schedule:

(I am very annoyed at this attractive image because it does not list the amazing “In Conversation With….” writers!

Helene did Tweet the entire series of writers here:

Helene Wecker @helenewecker

Less than a week until THE HIDDEN PALACE is out in the world, and I'm nervous and giddy and trying! to! chill out! But just LOOK at this list of bookstores and libraries where I'll be speaking (virtually) with some truly amazing writers and thinkers:

Watch THE BROKEN MACHINE tonight!

I fell in love with playwright Liz Duffy Adams when I saw the NYC premiere of her play about Aphra Behn, OR, (sic). I went back and saw it again. Then - and I swear I never do this sort of thing - I wrote her a fan letter, asking if we could be best friends!

It kinda worked. And thus I learned that Liz & Delia & I all basically adore the same writers, from Neil Gaiman to Nancy Mitford, which is of course the true foundation of any friendship. Since then we’ve traveled together, written together . . . .

In fact, this is a pic I took of Liz in Paris! Which is now her Publicity Shot for the theater!

And I got to hear her read a rough draft of this amazing play, which is getting a fully-rehearsed reading tonight at San Francisco’s prestigious Magic Theater.

Their description of THE BROKEN MACHINE:

Where the forest meets the sea, four unlikely companions must take a leap of faith and accept a strange offering from an even stranger ally, or face the burning consequences of humanity’s carelessness. Liz Duffy Adams’s playful and poetic wordplay crackles in this landscape of climate-chaos and humor as a burnt-out coder, a gray fox with a bad attitude, feckless would-be rescuers, and a punkish Psychopomp navigate the upheaval of a changing world.

A gray fox with a bad attitude . . . See what I mean?

The playwright, Liz, wrote this morning on FB:

Tonight! 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. Fantastic actors doing fantastic work in this reading via the magical Magic Theater. Under 90 minutes. It's still Zoom, we're not yet in the room, and rehearsals were so tantalizing for that reason – how I long to be back in the actual room! – but it has been intensely thrilling to be activated again as a playwright, working with wonderful, joyous, smart, generous, gifted theater artists –– there's no love, I'm telling you, like the love of a grateful playwright for her collaborators. Very excited for tonight; feel free to come on in!

GENERAL ADMISSION IS FREE - but you must have a TICKET to attend. (And you might consider a donation to the theater when you get your ticket.

IF I HAD MORE TIME, I WOULD HAVE MADE THIS SHORTER

…And yet, I still have more to say!

So look to hear from me again before too long!

And that’s a good place to stop.

Your pal,

Ellen