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Question of the Week: Where? (Also: A contest!)

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Where do you live? State and country, please.

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Wednesday, South African writer, Ken Barris will be here to discuss Coetzee, tattoos, post-colonialism, poetry, and his newest book, WHAT KIND OF CHILD. I hope you’ll be back to join the conversation.

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Some etcetera: A shout out to the mighty Smith Magazine for the link, to E. I. Johnson, who interviewed me over here today, and to my homies who showed up for soccer on Mother’s Day – great appreciation to all of you! And lastly (now there’s a word I don’t use very often), I’m running a mysterious little contest, and the only thing you have to do to enter the contest is add Tommy Kane to your blogroll. (I think it would be fun to get more writers than artists linking to him.) I’ll announce the winner and the prize on Friday.

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65 Comments
  • Richard
    May 14, 2007

    I currently live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The “USA” is important because, believe it or not, some people are under the misapprehension that New Mexico is a separate country. Santa Fe is the highest state capital (in more ways than one) at 7,000 feet altitude, was colonized by the Spanish before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, and is the second largest art market in the USA, after New York. We have an official state question: “Red or green?” which refers to chile at just about every meal. It is not uncommon to sight a rattlesnake, a coyote, and a Val Kilmer on the same day, while the state bird, of course, is the roadrunner. Billy the Kid was shot over in Fort Sumner by Pat Garrett, and you can get a $7M tax benefit by shooting your movie here. Unfortunately, the median price of a house is quickly approaching $500,000, the schools are pretty bad, and water is getting scarce. I’ll bet you’re sorry you asked now, eh Susan?

  • Colin Matthew
    May 14, 2007

    Multnomah County, Portland, Oregon, USA.

  • Nathalie
    May 14, 2007

    For the time being, I live in the south east suburb of Rome, in Italy.
    And in case you REALLY need to know, Rome is in the region of Lazio.

    Hoo, tattoos…

    And Tommy Kane is already on my blog roll.

  • Ellen Meister
    May 14, 2007

    New York, US

  • Lori Oliva
    May 14, 2007

    Good morning! I live in Atlanta, Ga. and while Tommy and I are “MS Friends”, I’ll add him to my blog roll right now!

    L

  • Ric Marion
    May 14, 2007

    I live on the banks of the Flint River, five miles from Lapeer, Michigan. Across the road is an alfalfa field and behind that 6,000 acres of woods owned by the state. The river is about 50 feet wide as it rolls by on its way to Lake Huron.
    The first Baltimore Oriole of the season appeared yesterday, bright orange against the still unfolded leaves of the oak trees.

    Ric
    http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/RicMarion/

  • LaurenBaratz-Logsted
    May 14, 2007

    Danbury, CT – Hat City! I like to say we still hate Kennedy around here – (we really don’t) – for singlehandedly dealing the death blow to the hat industry with his refusal to wear a hat to his inauguration.

  • Robin Slick
    May 14, 2007

    Philadelphia, PA — right down the street from the Philadelphia Museum of Art so yeah, I can do the Rocky thing whenever I want…

    …which is never

  • Mark Bastable
    May 14, 2007

    I live on the edge of London, at the precise point at which it becomes not-London. My postcode is not-London; my phone number is London; the train from here to the centre of town takes longer to get there than the trains from fifty miles away, because our train stops at all the London places and those from further out go directly into town. North of my house lies twenty five miles of built-up metropolis. South of my house the countryside begins – though it’s very ordered, polite countryside all the way to Brighton and the sea. I’m an urban boy in suburban limbo, and if it were possible to buy a house with a big garden within rioting distance of Piccadilly Circus, I’d move back into the centre of the city tomorrow.

  • David Niall Wilson
    May 14, 2007

    Hertford, NC, on the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp in a town where they have only two main streets and less than half a dozen stoplights. Highlighted in my stories written about OLD MILL, NC – which are sort of loosely set here…

    DNW

  • Betsy
    May 14, 2007

    Chicago, Illinois! Woot! (I’m from NYC, but I love it here.)

  • Frances O'Brien
    May 14, 2007

    I live in the island of Jersey (not the State!) – it is one of the Channel Islands, just off the coast of France. It is 45 square miles of beautiful beaches and wonderful food. Heaven!

  • Clare Grant
    May 14, 2007

    I live in Kent, UK. It’s the bottom south east corner of the country and known as the garden of England because of its rich arable land. Orchards and hop gardens characterise the countryside, as well as coppiced hazel and sweet chestnut woodland. This time of year, the woods are a sea of bluebells and a froth of Queen Anne’s lace is appearing along the verges.

    I’ve linked to Tommy Kane.

  • Betsy
    May 14, 2007

    PS – Great interview, Susan! And – I added TommyKane. He posted an awesome painting on my myspace yesterday.

  • Betsy
    May 14, 2007

    Hey – my first comment got eated! I live in Chicago, Illinois!

  • Paula
    May 14, 2007

    Louisville, KY, USA.

    (That was SO easy it makes me nervous there’s going to be a big-shoe-dropping part II on Wednesday.)

  • amy
    May 14, 2007

    I’m writing from Paris, France.

  • Kim Brittingham
    May 14, 2007

    I live in a turn-of-the-century former tuberculosis asylum along the East River in New York, New York, USA, with a Dapper Dan Cuban ex-pat neighbor next door with the world’s most impeccable manners and a lady above who keeps her dead cats wrapped in the freezer.

  • Lee
    May 14, 2007

    Hampton, Georgia. South of Atlanta, North of Macon. The first being the most important. Atlanta being the capital, also provokes the most number of responses as homestead. Nearly everyone in Georgia lives in some proximity to Atlanta and utilizes that to ring a tone of familiarity.
    “Where are you from?”
    “Atlanta.”
    “Which part?”
    “Hampton.”
    “Oh. Where’s that.”
    “Thirty minutes south of Atlanta.”
    “Why didn’t you just say Hampton?”
    “Most people don’t know where it is. Nascar fans maybe.”
    “Oh. Don’t care for Nascar.”
    “Neither do I.”
    And so the conversation dribbles. Sometimes it doesn’t get much more American than Hampton, G-A- goshdarnit!

    ~Lee

  • lance reynald
    May 14, 2007

    Lafayette, Colorado, USA….for now

  • Kimberly
    May 14, 2007

    New York, New York

    What’s a blog roll?

  • Jody Reale
    May 14, 2007

    I was born in Colorado, USA and just kept on living there.
    T. Kane blogroll: check.

  • Pia
    May 14, 2007

    New Orleans. Across the street from City Park. 1300 acres with over 1,000 live oaks, 249 of which are registered with the Live Oak Society, which means they’re old and big and achingly graceful. Also resilient after being under six feet of scuzzy water for 20 days. The ducks are back, and having lots of furry little ducklets. (Ducklings sound edible.)

  • robert westfield
    May 14, 2007

    New York, New York…near the Cloisters in Upstate Manhattan.

  • Jonathan Evison
    May 14, 2007

    . . . on an island in pugent sound, washington, america (fuck yeah!)

  • Noria
    May 14, 2007

    Santa Cruz, CA, in a studio by the sea.

  • Myfanwy Collins
    May 14, 2007

    The Granite State, USA.

  • Antoine Wilson
    May 14, 2007

    Los Angeles, where the waves today are flat : (

  • Susan Henderson
    May 14, 2007

    Thank you,everyone, for the links. The prize is a good one so get yourself in the running.

    Kimberly – if you have a blog, you’ll have a blogroll. If you have a website but not a blog, you may not. I’m tempted to try to describe what a blogroll is and how to use it, but it will probably be as convoluted and misguided as it is when I give directions. Can you explain how to do the blogroll, t?

  • Kaytie
    May 14, 2007

    I live in a loft downtown San Diego, CA, but I’m itching to move back to my hometown, Seattle, WA. I think I’d go craftsman house, if I could afford it.

  • Ronlyn
    May 14, 2007

    Louisiana…USA

    (For the record, it’s more beautiful and diverse than TV and movies and books typically make it out to be.)

  • Terry Bain
    May 14, 2007

    Spokane, WA, of course.

  • Terry Bain
    May 14, 2007

    Blog roll:

    Like a roll call for blogs. Some blog platforms have blogrolls built in. For those that don’t, I recommend blogrolling.com.

  • Carolyn Burns Bass
    May 14, 2007

    I live in California’s great Inland Empire, at the tip of a pyramid whose base runs along the coast from Los Angeles, south to Newport Beach. I am one hour from the beach, the mountains, and the desert.

  • Carolyn Burns Bass
    May 14, 2007

    Tommy Kane, you’re added to my blogroll.

  • Jessica
    May 14, 2007

    I live in lovely scenic West Philadelphia, in the Keystone state, Pennsylvania in the USA.

    When you think of West Philadelphia, do you think of the theme song to Fresh Prince?

  • Aurelio
    May 14, 2007

    I’m not much of a blogger, alas…

    Is there a booby prize?

    I live in a little corner of Altadena, CA, between the Rose Bowl and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Rose Bowl periodically shoots off sky rockets, JPL, real ones.

    I have lived in other, more exotic places, but I like it here.

  • Laura Benedict
    May 14, 2007

    Carbondale, Illinois.

    Well, actually, most people would say we’re in Murphysboro, but the address is Carbondale. We’re in the country, in a kind of strange, enchanted little corner of the county, with deep woods around us, and a winery and some apple and peach orchards owned by an Amish family up the road (the orchards, not the winery). There may also be a meth lab across the state highway from our property. Then again, they take regular target practice, so I’m thinking that a meth lab wouldn’t want to draw that kind of attention. The orchards are nice, though.

    I’m glad I now know what a blogroll is–but my blog is on myspace, so I don’t think I have a roll. But I’ll be sure to visit Tommy Kane!

  • Simon Haynes
    May 14, 2007

    Perth, Western Australia

  • dennis mahagin
    May 14, 2007

    My name is Dennis, and I live in Bumfuck, Egypt.

    If you think I am kidding, just come to my town, for a brief visit.

    It is the most bucolic of all Bumfucks, anywhere in Egypt, or across the globe.

    No one here in Bumfuck has an iota of requisite sophistication– to make even a modest attempt at Blogrolling.

    Here in Bumfuck, Blogrolling is carried out by fast-footed Riverdance Lumberjacks, on some pristine body of water, like say, the Yakima River!

    I will be glad to add Mr. Tommy Kane to the list of Links on my Blog, however.

    If that counts. 😉

    But for now,

    It’s Lights Out In Bumfuck! 😉

    ps… Someday, perhaps I will visit Terry Bain, who lives in a very huge city– only 3 hours away, as da crow fly. ;( –D

  • Amy Kiger-Williams
    May 15, 2007

    I live in northern New Jersey, in Tony Soprano’s neck of the woods.

  • Susanna
    May 15, 2007

    In a 1950 bungalow in Denver, Colorado, where I haven’t yet checked to see if last night’s downpour seeped through my failing basement wall … and with a schnauzer sleeping on my foot.

  • Kimberly
    May 15, 2007

    Seriously and truly – I’m a luddite.

    I have no blog (if I did, it would be called a “blah-g”) and I don’t get the whole MySpace phenomena – so can I still be entered if add Tommy Kane to my bookmarks bar and add him to my daily morning reading (which I already did)?

    If not – that’s cool. 🙂

    (Does anyone else think that a “blog roll” sounds like #14a on a Vietnamese menu? I’d like mine extra spicy, please!)

  • Susan Henderson
    May 15, 2007

    Well, I don’t want to leave anyone out. So I’ll count all of it: blogroll, a post on your blog or website linking there, subscribing to the rss feed, myspace friending. Everyone can enter one way or another.

    Okay, I’m bunkering down on my edits all day.

  • Gail Siegel
    May 15, 2007

    I sometimes live in a state of confusion, or of despair. Today, I am in a state of elation, returning home from the Inland Empire (it’s so DRY!!!) where my son graduated from Pitzer College, back to seaside — okay, it’s a lake, but it’s very big — Evanston, IL, USA. 1/2 mile north of Chicago.

  • Loraine
    May 15, 2007

    Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dreaming of living in the south of France. Or Italy. I’ll take either.

  • Jordan E. Rosenfeld
    May 15, 2007

    The closest city you will ever have heard of to me is: San Jose, California.

  • Fivekids55
    May 15, 2007

    State of Connecticut, USA

  • Mike C
    May 15, 2007

    I don’t have a blog, nor even a dog! But I do live in a rather nice spot, Eze village on the moyen corniche between Nice (pronounced niece) and Monaco, where I work. An odd thing about Monaco is its Jeckel and Hyde nature; when you are least suspecting it (right about now), it transforms itself into a Formula 1 Grand Prix cricuit!

  • Jason Boog
    May 15, 2007

    I live in Brooklyn, New York.

    That puts me pretty close to you Susan. It was great running into you last night at the book release party. Good luck editing your novel…

  • Julie Ann Shapiro
    May 15, 2007

    I like in a quaint beach town in coastal North San Diego County. No blog.

  • Claudia
    May 15, 2007

    Austin, Texas, USA

  • daryl
    May 16, 2007

    San Ramon, California
    35 miles from downtown San Francisco

  • David Thorpe
    May 16, 2007

    I live in the land of dragons and bards – mid-Wales. That is west of England and east of Ireland for the geographically-challenged! Specifically, the beautiful Dyfi (pronounced ‘dovey’) Valley, which contains a UN-designated ecologically special area known as a ‘biosphere’.

  • Mark Bastable
    May 16, 2007

    To the English ear, it sounds like ‘bog roll’ which is slang for toilet tissue, which, given my opinion of 99% of blogs, is most appropriate.

  • Bruce Hoppe
    May 16, 2007

    On five acres (Ranchette Deluxe) near Ojitos Frios, New Mexico.

    And Tommy Kane consider yourself linked

  • Gail Siegel
    May 16, 2007

    Well, this exercise forced me to learn how to put up links on my blog. Thank you, Susan. Sometimes, if I’m not coerced, I don’t make progress.

    Tommy Kane, you are now my only link! I promise to remedy that in the future…

  • Jennifer Shumate
    May 16, 2007

    Currently, I live in Katy, TX outside of Houston. Within a few months, however, I will be moving to San Marcos, TX to go to school! Woohoo!

  • Colin
    May 16, 2007

    Edinburgh, Scotland!

    Tommy now added 🙂

  • daryl
    May 16, 2007

    oh, if you really want to see where i live, come see my latest blog posting!!

  • Susan Henderson
    May 16, 2007

    So great to see so many of you here, and thanks very much for those who are linking to Tommy Kane. Thanks also for those of you who linked to LitPark, which was not at all required for this contest but hugely appreciated all the same. Contest ends tomorrow night so get yourself entered if you want to be eligible for the prize.

    Also, to Pasha Malla: My email’s acting up, but the answer is Heck Yeah, and I’ll write you later.

  • LaurenBaratz-Logsted
    May 16, 2007

    I don’t know how to link people, so I sent Tommy a MySpace friend request.

  • A.S. King
    May 16, 2007

    Smack in the middle of 50 acres of thick forest in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Presently called ‘tick-country.’ (Also, ‘hick-country’ and/or ‘dick-country’ if my trip to the local hardware store today is anything to go by.)

  • n.l. belardes
    May 17, 2007

    Bakersfield, CA.

    (This one was easy! Even I could do it!) I’ll add the Tomster.

  • Suzanne Kamata
    May 20, 2007

    I live in Aizumi, Japan, which is on the island of Shikoku.

Susan Henderson