Weird timing. The last thing thing I read this morning in Poets & Writers magazine was, for no particular reason, an ad for the short story collection "I Knew You'd Be Lovely" by Alethea Black. My next random task was picking up my laptop and logging onto Linked In, and what pops up? A recommendation for People You May Know, in which Ms. Black was at the top of the list. I do not know Ms. Black, though we are both connected via LI to poet Laura McCullough and Dzanc Books Editor Matt Bell (Dzanc Books, it should be noted, publishes the literary journal Monkeybicycle, in which both Ms. McCullough and I had our poetry published in edition #8. Hence that connection).
But keep in mind that I was reading the paper version of P&W, so there was no sophisticated online mechanism to link one web visit with another. Click on the link above for more info about that particular book by Ms. Black, or check out her website at aletheablack.com.
Life's just strange like that. I wrote to her to share the somewhat uncanny way I encountered her, not knowing what her response would be. I must confess, I judged her in advance, assuming that the Harvard-educated author might wonder why some nameless dope in cyberspace would think it appropriate to contact her. But, of course, I jumped to conclusions (my apologies, Ms. Black) and she responded graciously. I should have known better, because creative people typically express varying levels of delight that someone has discovered their work.
