Joe M. O'Connell: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Incentives pass with funding

Read all about it in my latest column in The Austin Chronicle.

Nicholas is looking at us warily after going in for his two-month doctor's appointment today. He had FOUR shots one after another. I guess this is kind of like finding out there is no Santa Claus. And then having him shoot you in the leg.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Nick's first Chuck's

I've been remiss at posting new Nick photos. Here's a great one of me and him taken by friend and excellent photog Caroline Ulbrich.

Nick got his first pair of Chuck Taylor's from Auntie Jen!

Who could resist that mug?

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Twinkle, twinkle, Little Nick

We have more than 10 acres of undeveloped land behind our house that fortunately belongs to someone else. The fireflies were out in force tonight as we walked Nicholas out into the greenery at dusk. He snoozed though most of it, but this firefly toy--which lights up and plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"--is his favorite of late, so that's got to mean something...

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Dinosaurs or robots?

Is Robert Rodriguez playing nice with the studios after Grindhouse has been universally dubbed a financial flop? (Though it will certainly make money in the end. So it goes in Hollywood.)

Word from The Hollywood Reporter is Rodriguez is in talks to either direct a live action version of the cartoon The Jetsons or remake Land of the Lost. I'm betting on the former, but can he resist making CGI dinosaurs?

Monday, May 7, 2007

muscles and milk

Nick is growing stronger by the day. This morning we arm wrestled. It was a tie.

Ink blot? Map of an island chain? Nope. Milk spit up in all its glory.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Library of Congress

This is exciting. My publisher just emailed me the official Library of Congress listing that will go in my novel. The categorization is apparently very important. Check it out:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

O'Connell, Joe M., 1959-
Evacuation plan : a novel from the hospice / by Joe M. O'Connell ; foreword by Joe Holley.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9740703-8-4
ISBN-10: 0-9740703-8-6
1. Hospice care--Fiction. 2. Screenwriters--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3615.C655E93 2007
813'.6--dc22
200701832

Thursday, May 3, 2007

First tears, first bath, first bottle..

Nicholas had a big week. He turned one month old, cried real tears for the first time, got his first bottle from me and then took his first real bath. Makes me feel like an underachiever.

He makes bath time lots of fun.

Finally I get to be the milkshake machine.

A milk drunk baby should never be allowed behind the wheel.

The nose knows

Warning: Keep fleshy bulbous protrusions clear of milk fiends or pay the price!

A sneaky photo of Nick and me napping.

What they're saying about EVACUATION PLAN

"Tales alternately gentle, dramatic, surrealistic, that collectively affirm the beauty of being alive, even as they acknowledge that all of us face the necessity of making our own 'evacuation plan.' "
-- Brad Buchholz, Austin American-Statesman

" The chapters about Matt and the short stories demonstrate O’Connell’s ability to develop sympathetic, true-to-life characters using intriguing details and compelling dialogue. The stories remind us of those times when a brief encounter with a stranger left us wondering about that person’s past. In Evacuation Plan, O’Connell satisfies that curiosity. "
-- The Texas Observer

"It was very hard for me to put this book down. It carries us through the deepest meaning in life and most painful, most hopeful memories for a wide range of fascinating characters. Based in a hospice, this book could have easily resorted to cheap sensationalism, or whacked us upside the head with stereotypic melodrama, but instead it was respectful, honest, and tender. The characters will stay with you - you may even recognize some of them within your own life. "
-- Award-winning author Carmen Tafolla

"An excellent, thought-provoking diversion from our own inevitable plummet toward the grave, and we highly recommend it to you, the living."
-- Wayne Alan Brenner, The Austin Chronicle

"O’Connell has drawn some colourful and believable characters. The material relating to the hospice and terminal care rings true, all the way to reconciliation and forgiving."
-- Dr. Roger Woodruff, International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care

"The tales are nicely written, and some are quite compelling; “The Male Nurse,” for one, is a dreamlike reverie."
-- Texas Monthly

“Evacuation Plan: A Novel From The Hospice by Joe M. O'Connell is nothing short of remarkable … a novel that walks hand-in-hand with death and yet, somehow, the reader finishes the book feeling inspired to live.”
– The Paisano

"A wonderful blend of lives ordinary but with sometimes extraordinary elements. We all share these stories of life in some way, despite moments of harshness or unforgiving pain. There is always a common thread of humanity and ultimately forgiveness to be found, even if it's in the last moment of life."
-- Elaine Williams, author of A Journey Well Taken

"Reading Evacuation Plan is akin to unwrapping a series of small perfectly-chosen presents. Both human and humane, The book resembles a modern Spoon River Anthology with its vivid, touching glimpses into the lives of those in and around a hospice."
-- Tim McCanlies, screenwriter The Iron Giant, writer/director Secondhand Lions

"In Evacuation Plan Joe O'Connell does for the process of dying what Sherwood Anderson did for middle America in Winesburg, Ohio--he shows us in brief flashes the aching beauty of the grotesque, and shows us how extraordinary small lives and quiet deaths can be."
--John Blair, Drue Heinz Literature Prize winning author of American Standard

"Here's a book so rich with stories of the living, so filled with people's bountiful problems, as well as incidents of wry forgiveness, one realizes over and over the circling forces of life's completeness. It's not a sad tale nor a needless feel-good account but a balanced, sometimes comic, affirmation of what is here and what we all know is waiting."
-- Carolyn Osborn, award-winning short story writer

"The broken, the hopeful, the frustrated, the clueless, and the forgiving touch one another with words, remembrances, and hands. Inevitably, readers will quietly wonder about their own evacuation plan."
-- Will's Texana Monthly

O'Connell's protagonist skillfully navigates under the guise of a writer seeking raw materials for his craft in the stories of the dying, but mines and refines instead the stuff we're all made of. In this finely crafted novel, we come away with much more than the astute observation that many of the best stories begin at the end. But, then again, that notion is also worth a lot.
--Jesse Sublett, cancer survivor, rocker and author of Never the Same Again

"Joe O'Connell's Evacuation Plan--this Decameron of the hospice--encompasses a paradox. Death comes for everyone, but death is the only human universal because everyone dies, and witnesses dying, with private, unspeakable shame. Yet there are a few minutes left to speak. As people die, they tell stories which spawn new stories, which remind us that death is agony, a violent struggle, but so is living."
-- Debra Monroe, Flannery O'Connor Award winning author of Newfangled and Shambles

Joe M. O'Connell