Joe M. O'Connell

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Oprah? It's Joe. I've got a book for you...

Good news on the novel front. The San Marcos Daily Record did a great profile in advance of Texas Authors Day there this coming Sunday. And Dawn Papuga wrote a great review.

Meanwhile, my OLDER sister has created a group on Facebook.com aimed at getting Evacuation Plan on Oprah. Join the cause! Start by joining the group. Then send her an email telling her what a great topic it would be...

Nicholas misses his Mommy

Hard to believe he was crying right before this.

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Mommy!

Let's hope Nick doesn't inherit that nose!

The blackmail photo for when he's a teenager.

Vittles be good!

Tiffany is at a conference for a few days, so Nicholas and I and the spotted pooch Spike are toughing it out. I promised I'd post some photos for my lovely bride, so here are some I really like from this past week.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Writer's strike

My latest Dallas Morning News column delves into the effect the Writers Guild of America's ongoing strike may have in Texas. I also talk about this in a piece upcoming this week in The Austin Chronicle.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Going nuts at the Texas Book Festival

That's a nutcracker I'm hoisting in the air at my Texas Book Festival booth. I brought a bunch of pecans gathered from our yard and offered passersby a crack at them Sunday, while getting them to stop and check out EVACUATION PLAN.

Thanks to everyone who came by. I sold some books and met some incredible people! The next event is Texas Authors' Day on Nov. 18 from 2-5 p.m. at the San Marcos Public Library.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 29, 2007

EVACUATION PLAN goes to Denmark!

I spent two hours this morning discussing my novel EVACUATION PLAN with students visiting Austin from Denmark. What a treat. They asked interesting questions and we had a lively discussion of hospice. Best of all, I can be assured that there will be many copies of the book floating around Europe. Speaking of which, my mother's friend had a copy with her on a recent flight to India and accidentally left it on the airplane. I wonder where it ended up?

Two new reviews of EVACUATION PLAN worth checking out by the wonderful Peggy Tibbitts and the good folks at Curled Up With a Good Book. Joe-O sez check them out.

And YES I will be selling the book at the Texas Book Festival this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Look for the tents!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

'Evacuation Plan' is No. 1!

I woke up this morning, grabbed the Austin American-Statesman and saw that my novel EVACUATION PLAN is ranked as the No. 1 local bestseller this week! Woo hoo! The commotion at our house confused Nicholas, but he eventually calmed down.

In other book news:

If you're in Austin and have Time Warner cable, you can catch me repeatedly this month talking about and reading from EVACUATION PLAN. I spoke to the Writers League of Texas recently and it was recorded for their series "Writing Across Texas." It's airing on Channel 10.

And a story from the book titled "The Gambler" has been adapted by Janet Heimlich into a play that will be performed in early 2008 as part of Frontera Fest.

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