Joe M. O'Connell

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Film news times two

Check out the latest in my film indusrty columns in The Austin Chronicle and Dallas Morning News.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Presents!

Nicholas skinned this teddy bear and made it into a hat. No, it's actually the softest bib in the world and a present from Judy. Thanks!

Grabbing the footsies!

Thanks Tim and Martha for the giant firefly. It is in the top five rotation of the Nick Toys--with a bullet. Warn the teddy bears!

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Austin used to be the kind of place where we valued our graffiti as art. I don't mean just any scribbling. I'm talking Daniel Johnston's "How How Are You" frog on the Drag. I'm talking the female stick figure who jumps to her death on the side of the Stokes Parking Garage at 12th and Guadalupe. On each floor the beskirted lass tumbles, twists and turns. Years ago her final landing was painted over. Recently the entire artwork disappeared under dull brown paint. Color it one more sign of the Dallasization of the weird Austin of yore, which has turned into a T-shirt slogan (one stolen from Red, the guy who actually coined Keep Austin Weird. Hey, Red!).

What's worse? Few people seem to have noticed. I scrounged these photos off the web as posted by the few observant. Long live the leaper!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Heads up? Shot down!

Nick turned 4 months this week, and in the last couple of weeks he's been holding his head high--no small feat for a youn'n.

He's sitting up in his chair!

The bad news about turning 4 months? It's time for the next round of shots!!! This is him in the aftermath.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

More photos from the book party

Me greeting the actors. (these photos are from old pal Chuck!)

David Zuniga spoke on behalf of Hospice Austin.

Cowboy Ric Williams talks about Dalton Publishing.

A closeup of Jesse playing. Who are those twins in the background?

Tiffany, me and the sistahs.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Photos from the big night!

Eleanor took these photos, and I never even saw this sign in BookPeople for the reading!

The actors--Gary Kent, Ana Garcia and Chris Sykes--were excellent!

Nicholas, of course, had his hand in everything (including his mouth), and was the star of the night.

I read from the poems that grew into the book. What? A book adapted from poetry? Yep.

Ah, the book signing... Did I mention they make lovely Christmas presents?

We're a happy family.

Friday, July 27, 2007

What a night!

Jesse Sublett jams for the crowd.

I'll post more pix later (hey, Chuck, send me some of yours!), but just a note to say last night's release party for EVACUATION PLAN was awesome. Jesse Sublett rocked the house, the actors were great and we pulled in a crowd of more than 100. Oh, and we sold 74 books!

It was a little steamy at BookPeople in the middle of the crowd, but it was a heartfelt night. Thanks to everyone who came. If you missed it, I'll be reading next in Austin at the Writers League of Texas meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at Barnes and Noble-Westlake. Come on by!

The true star of the night, of course, was Nicholas, who had a harem of attendants.

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