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I’m having a party to celebrate the launch of my novella, How to Travel With Your Demons (an Eckleburg Book Club selection!), published by Spuyten Duyvil Press– and I’ve invited some of my favorite writers to join me: Laurie Stone, Stephanie E. Dickinson, Deborah Oster Pannell and Christen Clifford. Books, cocktails, writers! Click on this link for #bedlam writer interviews about process, about wrestling with the muse, and what bedlam or chaos means to them. http://bedlamwriters.tumblr.com/ Join us!
Leda waits for a car service to bring her to the airport. It is snowing. She’s travelling home to Chicago to identify the body of a family member. At its simplest, we follow the protagonist from point A to point B. There is also a strong mythological subtext to the story– like Odysseus she encounters many obstacles along the way, as well as guides, both good and evil. But, all roads lead, ultimately, to the morgue, and a surprising transformation. The journey of the hero, and her subsequent transformation is also very much “…a personal experience of constant becoming– an overlapping of the past and the present.”
What People Are Saying about How to Travel With Your Demons
Lillian Ann Sugocki is a poetic, edgy, postfeminist voice. Her words have long been a deep and playful inspiration to me—embracing the sadness and joy of an erotic life. Erin Cressida Wilson, Screenwriter (Secretary, Girl on a Train)
There’s something intoxicating about Lillian Ann Slugocki’s prose. You might want to make sure you’re sitting down while reading her. —Bill Yarrow, author of Blasphemer (Lit Fest Press 2015)
Lillian Ann Slugocki’s characters are determined and conflicted, spirited and sensual. She creates a world in which dark corners beg to be explored—beguiling and irresistible. –Carol Reid, Candy Land, 2015
Wreckage of Reason: Back to the Drawing Board by Anthology
This is an anthology of contemporary experimental prose by women writers. Full disclosure: I am a contributor. But I fell in love with several pieces in this book as I also managed the blog tour when it was first released. In particular, I love Elizabeth Bachner’s story, “How to Shake Hands with a Murderer.” We follow the protagonist through a landscape that is both real and imagined, traveling deeper and deeper in her psyche. Bachner’s prose is luminous, and she introduced me to a new term: katabasis which means a journey to the underworld for redemption. READ MORE
The Bhagavad Gita by Damn Sure Right
This is an awesome translation by Stephen Mitchell, published by Three Rivers Press, New York, 2000. I recommend this book to anyone who is going through a difficult time in their life, intense upheavals. Reading this book, especially Chapter 10 keeps me grounded. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, yet it retains the true spirit of the original, with a message that is timeless and modern. http://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-A-New-Translation/dp/0609810340 READ MORE
Discussion Questions for How to Travel With Your Demons
1. How to Travel With Your Demons includes a layer of meta-fiction in which the narrator reflects on the process of creating a story. How does getting an inside view of the writer’s process enrich the dominant narrative?
2. Leda, the protagonist, offers the audience the opportunity to consider what or who are our demons, and how they travel with us throughout the passages of our lives. Who or what are your demons as you travel through life, and how do you deal with them? What lessons do you learn when you confront your shadow self?
3. One of the book’s central themes is the pressing need to live an authentic life. From what are the consequences of not living an authentic life?
About Lillian Ann Slugocki
Lillian Ann Slugocki has been published by Seal Press, Cleis Press, Heinemann Press, Newtown Press, Spuyten Duyvil Press, as well as Bloom/The Millions, Salon, Beatrice, THE FEM Literary Magazine, HerKind/Vida, Deep Water Literary Journal, The Nervous Breakdown, The Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Review, Blue Fifth Review, Non Binary Review, The Daily Beast, and The Manifest-Station. Winner, Gigantic Sequins 4th Annual Fiction Prize. Forthcoming: How to Travel with Your Demons, Spuyten Duyvil Press, Winter 2015. She has an MA from NYU in literary theory, and has produced and written for Off-Broadway and National Public Radio. Follow her on https://twitter.com/laslugocki
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Leda waits for a car service to bring her to the airport. It is snowing. She’s travelling home to Chicago to identify the body of a family member. At its simplest, we follow the protagonist from point A to point B. There is also a strong mythological subtext to the story– like Odysseus she encounters many obstacles along the way, as well as guides, both good and evil. But, all roads lead, ultimately, to the morgue, and a surprising transformation. The journey of the hero, and her subsequent transformation is also very much “…a personal experience of constant becoming– an overlapping of the past and the present.”
