Good morning! Big news around here: I sat barefoot on the porch reading a book on Thursday afternoon for the first time this year, which okay, maybe doesn’t quite reach the heights of “big news” but it’s an annual event that marks the turn of the seasons for me.

What you'll hopefully find more interesting than my seasonal habits is what we've published on the website this week. First we brought you Jim Almo’s review of Sita In Exile by Rashi Rohati, which was Jim’s first time writing for us and we’re honored.

Our featured story on Wednesday was "Pageant Perfect" by Tracy Morin, who is also new to our pages.

And in our research notes series, Ellen Birkett Morris wrote about her new novel Beware The Tall Grass. You may remember that she also wrote for us about her earlier novel Lost Girls, and we're glad to have her back on the site.

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In contributor news, we're thrilled to see that Mice 1961, a new novel by Stacey Levine, is about to be published by Verse Chorus Press. If you're a contributor with a forthcoming book, please email to let us know — we'll be glad to spread the word but we might miss it otherwise.

Meanwhile in not contributors (yet!) but we like what they're doing news, Joyland published an excerpt from Cascade by Julia Hannafin, a novel forthcoming from our friends at Great Place Books.

And finally, something that isn't part of our research notes series but we're enjoying it in the same vein: To mark the arrival of his novel with photographs Push Process, newly published by Ortac Press,  Jonathan Walker has been writing a terrific series of blog posts about Venice and photography as they informed his book. 

Thanks for reading,
Steve Himmer