Joe M. O'Connell

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

An Easter miracle on Aisle 2

We stopped at the Taylor Walmart last night to pick up some cereal for Tiffany, and I came across this scene of Easter, Texas style. The Virgin statue can be yours for under $50. Note the bottles of wine behind it. and cupcakes! I need some Easter cupcakes!

Nick comes home

We left the hospital Tuesday evening crowned by a beautiful sunset of pink, purple and orange. Nick arrived in his new room and posed under a Winnie the Pooh painting that my mother's friend made for me when I was a wee lad. Tiffany's dad (he took the first two photos) and I painted the room, and that dresser belonged to her beloved grandmother, so it contains a lot of family history.

It was a tiring night, but Nicholas remains a constant pleasure.

This last photo is of a wonderful moment between mom and baby today. I'm glad I was there to share it.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Film incentives vote delayed

UPDATE: THE VOTE WAS POSTPONED, PROBABLY UNTIL WEEK.

Normally I would be at the Capitol as the Texas House considers incentives for the film and television industries. Instead I'm at the hospital with Nick and Tiffany. I'll give more details on the vote when I discover them...

Little man, big man

Back in the early '90s when I was in graduate school, I spent a lot of time with my sister's little boy Russell. He and I used to hang in the kiddie pool in the front yard and bang sticks on the edge to make music. it's a very fond memory for me, so it's all the nicer to see Russell, now nearly my height and sure to surpass me, holding Nick. I told Russell it's his job to look out for the boy.

Building the perfect burrito

I'm ready for the high-paying field of Mexican food preparation after having mastered the burrito fold on Nick. It encases him in a tasty little tortilla. It doesn't quite solve the genetically inspired flailing arms, but he makes one cool little bundle.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Nick comes clean

A first bath for a wee stinker.

Welcome Nicholas Drake O'Connell to the world

It was a long night and he tried his best to stay inside, but Tiffany and a team of doctors finally convinced young Nick Drake out into the light at 7: 23 a.m. this morning. His stats are impressive in that way that such things are to new parents: He weighs in at a stout 7 pounds 12 ounces and an impressive 19 inches long.

I'm just his Dad, so i'm prejudiced. You can judge his awesomeness for yourself in these photos.

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