"you have not lived a perfect day...unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you." - ruth smeltzer
"be the change you want to see in the world." - mahatma gandhi
"and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." - marianne williamson
Music
nicole atkins and the sea, lauryn hill, daby toure, cameron mcgill, chuck brown and the soul searchers, steve earle, gogol bordello, ben folds, lucinda williams, dmx, gipsy kings, jeff buckley, terra naomi, john hiatt, the fairfield four, puccini, system of a down, regina spektor, public enemy, pete yorn, freddie mercury
Movies
waiting for guffman, withnail and i, lost in translation, princess bride, finding neverland, raising arizona, the kite runner, butch cassidy and the sundance kid, midnight cowboy, crouching tiger hidden dragon, hero, everything is illuminated
Television
not into tv, but i listen to steelers games, this american life, and all things considered on the radio
Books
william maxwell, tim o'brien, homer, dave eggers, denis johnson, khaled hosseini, janet fitch, neil gaiman, carson mccullers, george saunders, aimee bender, jean toomer, david sedaris, j.m. coetzee, nicole krauss, gabriel garcia marquez, etheridge knight, virgil
Heroes
desmond tutu, troy polamalu, viktor frankl, nelson mandela, robert sobukwe
Susan Henderson's debut novel THE RUBY CUP is elegant and engrossing. Like a modern-day Scout, Henderson's child narrator Tillie Harris is both tender and tough, charming and filled with wonder by the difficulties she must overcome. Henderson is a talent to watch.
- Danielle Trussoni, author of Angelology and Falling Through the Earth (chosen by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Books of 2006)
In this extraordinary first novel, a young girl forced to live within the regimented world of her military father discovers the darkness behind his austere existence. Her secret, nighttime life, spent inside a basement chamber straight out of Jung, conjures the no-man’s-land between madness and sanity. With its authentic and startling imagery, Henderson’s story glimpses the darkness of the heart as well as the rays of light that manage to shine through.
- Kim Ponders, author of The Art of Uncontrolled Flight and The Last Blue Mile
A luminous debut. Henderson explores the emotional tremors of a troubled military family in a story layered with shock, revelation--and hope.
- Dylan Landis, author of Normal People Don't Live Like This
Susan Henderson makes real the magic and terror of childhood with such vivid uncanny accuracy that I can almost imagine being a child again. She takes readers back into the world of children like no other writer today—without cloying sentimentality, and without the wild hysteria of memoir. Funny, smart, innocent, and wicked, her narrator is one of the most memorable voices to show up in fiction in ages.
—Jim Daniels, Pushcart and Brittingham Prize winner, and author of No Pets, Detroit Tales, Places/Everyone, Punching Out, M-80, Niagara Falls, Blessing this House, Blue Jesus, Night With Drive-by Shooting Stars, Digger's Blues, Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems, Letters to America: Contemporary American Poetry on Race
THE RUBY CUP is a bejeweled tale of mother and daughter, longing and understanding, all ripe with the antics of a brilliantly imagined girl named Tillie. Dark and sweet like a wild cherry Lifesaver, Henderson’s prose makes our hearts pucker, while enchanting our minds long after the story is done.
- Amy Wallen, author of MoonPies and Movie Stars (Los Angeles Times bestseller)
Tillie Harris, Susan Henderson’s courageous young heroine, is vibrant and true. Her voice fills the pages of THE RUBY CUP with a bittersweet song of innocence and longing as she navigates her way through her perilous life—a life dominated by her mother’s desperate unhappiness and her father’s frustrations. I wanted to hold Tillie tight then release her with a smile, so I could watch her set the world on fire with her hard-won wisdom and sparkling energy.
- Laura Benedict, author of Isabella Moon and Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts
THE RUBY CUP is a rare literary page-turner full of shocking discoveries and twists. Susan Henderson has created a remarkable narrator – as memorable for her feistiness as for her tenderness. THE RUBY CUP is going to be one of this year's major debuts.
- Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author of I Am Not Myself These Days (NY Times bestseller) and Candy Everybody Wants
Here, finally, is a contemporary writer willing to embrace the pathos, the ache, the hunger of human life in fiction that's luminous and moving and transformative. In the character of Tillie, Susan Henderson pursues the shadows of childhood without allowing herself to be obliterated by the potential, there, for darkness; her fictional creations are beautifully flawed and hence gorgeously human. For me, Susan Henderson is one of the most important writers to come along since Carson McCullers. Like McCullers, she turns her eye upon the sadness, the poignancy, and the grotesqueries of our world, evokes them with a keen and unswerving vision that is tempered only by understanding and love. A remarkable writer...and a brilliant one.
— Terri Brown-Davidson, assistant editor at Zoetrope: All-Story and author of Marie Marie, Hold on Tight and The Carrington Monologues
Using perfect prose as a weapon, Sue Henderson's THE RUBY CUP burrows into you, so that if you put the book down, you will soon feel compelled to pick it back up, and when you have read the final word, you realize that you will carry this story with you for the foreseeable future.
—John Warner, editor of McSweeney's Internet Tendency and co-editor with Dave Eggers of Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans, contributor to The Future Dictionary of America, and co-author with Kevin Guilfoile of My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook by George W. Bush, and Fondling Your Muse
I would love to be able to talk about Susan Henderson's book, THE RUBY CUP, without using the word "awesome." But the truth is, I can't do it. I'm in awe of the big-hearted love of a daughter for her mother. I'm in awe of the all-too-human Tillie with her brilliant imperfections, with her truth-telling, with her outrageous simplicity. I'm in awe of the breadth and scope of this book. I'm in awe of how Susan Henderson makes it seem as if there's nothing small in the world. I know you'll agree. THE RUBY CUP is no less than awesome.
—Terry Bain, O. Henry award-winner and author of You Are a Dog: Life Through the Eyes of Man's Best Friend
Susan Henderson deftly conjures that surreal kingdom known as childhood, a realm teeming with tactile mysteries, hourly epiphanies and ineffable longing. Tillie is as brave and winning a narrator as we could wish for, caught in a painful intimacy with her disturbed mother, but also embarking on the necessary adventure of defiance. THE RUBY CUP is a wonderful book, always evocative and often funny, fashioned with a delicate touch and a riddler's humor.
—M. Allen Cunningham, author of The Green Age of Asher Witherow
Susan Henderson writes with the sort of honesty, clarity, and attention to detail that makes you forget for a moment that you are reading fiction or even reading at all. It is a sign of the greatest level of art: to erase the artifice that separates the reader from the experience. The stories in this book do this with admirable skill, creating a world of vivid sadness and beauty.
—Grant Bailie, author of Cloud 8
In luminous, economical prose, Susan Henderson tells the story of Tillie, a lonely child in a family of loners, doing her best to please her high-ranking Pentagon scientist father, her literary, unstable mother and her scornful older brother, all of whom have secrets she wants only to understand. She grows before our eyes in deft, layered chapters that are at once painful and funny. Neglected and demanded too much of, eager to please and rebellious in equal measure, Tillie embodies the very spirit of late twentieth-century America, and we can't help but love her. Indeed, Henderson's greatest gift to the reader—and there are many— is the evidence that love, though it surely does not conquer all, makes forgiveness possible and hope inevitable.
—Maryanne Stahl, author of Forgive the Moon and The Opposite Shore
Riveting! Bravo to Susan Henderson for plumbing the depths of this complex family dynamic with prose that elevates and inspires. THE RUBY CUP is a treasure.
—Ellen Meister, author of The Smart One and Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA
About me: SUSAN HENDERSON is Curator of NPR’s newest literary venture, "DimeStories," produced by Jay Allison (of "This I Believe"), and is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets award and grants from The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and The Lojo Foundation. Her work has—twice—been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Publications include Zoetrope, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, South Dakota Review, The MacGuffin, Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies (nominated for a Pushcart Prize, 2004), North Atlantic Review, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, Opium, Other Voices, Amazon Shorts (nominated for a Pushcart Prize, 2006), The World Trade Center Memorial, The Future Dictionary of America (McSweeney’s Books, 2004), The Best American Non-Required Reading (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), Not Quite What I Was Planning (HarperPerennial, 2008), and Online Writing: The Best of the First Ten Years (Snowvigate Press, 2009). She blogs at LitPark.com, and occasionally at Huffington Post and Brad Listi’s The Nervous Breakdown. Her husband is a costume designer, filmmaker, and tenured drama professor. They live in NY with their two boys.
I have video of my kids horsing around at open mic over on YouTube. Just click to see them playing Queen, Clapton, The Beatles, The Who, and Pink Floyd. And here's my little keyboardest playing The Doors with The School of Rock. Enjoy!
Someone to check out:
This is the website and blog for my amazingly talented (and hot as anything) book cover designer, Tommy Kane, who is responsible for these:
Who I'd like to meet: authors, editors, booksellers, comedians, songwriters, people who love books, people who interest me for one reason or another--all are welcome here.
Hey just stopping by to say hello and let you know that My Space Records is currently doing a contest to win a record contract with there label, so I was wanting to know if you wouldn't mind posting my widget on your page? That's part of how the pick they winner. The more people that post the widget the better my chances. Just click on the cassette that is below, and copy the code were it says "grab this". Then open up your edit profile, and paste it in one of your sections like "music you like" or about me. Thanks so much for your support, and wish me luck. :) Reagan Browne
If you would like to read a sample of one of the stories from ISLINGTON CROCODILES’ you can do that now as one of the stories is posted on the Islington Crocodiles blog page. RAIDERS is the disturbing story of Barwise and Micky.
As Graham Joyce says in his foreword to ISLINGTON CROCODILES, ‘This is the edge.’
The pagan Celtic god of love craves a brilliant, insatiable woman!
Due to popular demand, Carnal Desires Publishing has requested a sequel to Frolicking! I invite you to enjoy the first of the series, an E book available at the publisher website, Kindle, Amazon, Sony Reader, and other E books sellers.
Can you imagine a world where you don't have to pay for or carry water? Hard to believe isn't it? But it's becoming a reality. Now, you can:
• Drink water for free! • Move about without having to lug around a water bottle! • Rest assured that it is as clean as bottled water, according to the FDA!
Water fountains are everywhere and more are going in with each new building. Enjoy some crystal clear water any time you want now!
My literary magazine, The Toronto Quarterly - Issue 2 and 3 are now available at amazon.com. There's some great poetry in each issue along with some cool interviews with up and coming and more established poets. Here is the link:
Thank you for being a friend. I look forward to getting to know you.
During this month, I've started a Summertime recipe exchange on my blog. I will be posting recipes sent to me from various authors, so stop on by and check them out. Plus, I have monthly contest for free books. This month's is coming soon!
Hello, it's me, Ruby Jane. I am a 14 year old fiddler, songwriter. I have some songs posted that are fresh out of the studio. Let me know if you like the new songs..be one of the first to hear, even before they are released!Thanks! new videos too! Ruby Jane
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