Future as Infinite Present
FUTURE AS INFINITE PRESENT | SUMMER 2025
In the Garden Behind the Moon is now a multi-award-winning book! Winner of American Book Fest’s Best Book of the Year in Multicultural Nonfiction for 2024 (as well as a finalist in three other categories there), and the Gold Medalist in the Independent Publishers Book Award’s Aging/Death & Dying category. It feels funny to say, “I WON!” about death and dying, but here we are.
BUT FIRST, AND BRIEFLY…
I’M HEADING TO DUBLIN in October! The National Monuments Service has invited me to come speak at their archaeology conference about the topic of “within and without,” or the archaeology of partitions. I’ll of course be speaking about the archaeology of slavery at the 18th century slave quarters outside of Boston I built my professional name and reputation on.
While I am there , I am hoping to see this: A 200-year-old tree in Dublin has been given a voice, using environmental sensors and (ethical use of) AI. Park visitors are learning to interact with their environment more deeply through “conversations” with the tree. I have misgivings about AI (or perhaps better stated, about the humans who intend to wield it), but this use of it seems downright wholesome. What would you ask a tree, if it could answer?
I’M ON TV ALL THIS JULY!
And while we are on the topic of my archaeology work, my PBS “talking head” debut in a documentary called “Concord’s Secret History” is airing on select PBS stations across the country this month of July, but you can stream the episode here through August 1! I am participating as the director of archaeological excavations at The Isaac Royall House & Slave Quarters Museum. It’s beautifully shot and I am really proud to be part of this project, and excited for Americans to hear these stories, especially now in these times of erasure. A perfect broadcast for our nation’s birthday month!
After our first day of filming for “Concord’s Secret History” airing on PBS this month and at the link provided above.
Greetings from the relatively temperate summer of Portsmouth, NH! Politically, as well as ecologically, however, this summer has been a season of rare cruelty, making it feel searingly “hot” in deeply uncomfortable ways. I don’t necessarily have inspiring words for you this time, only a promise to remain committed to a future that takes climate change and its deadly effects seriously and is safe from fascism, where all people can strive and thrive without fear, and where “power to” is more valuable and sought after than “power over.” I can also promise you to always live a life committed to creation and connection over destruction and harm. For me, stories are a big part of that.
When I am not doing “morning coffee and Congress,” or attending protests (I got so mad, I actually made signs this time), I have found refuge mostly in reading and writing, and have been given cause, in both endeavors, and not for the first time, to consider the possibility that the world is going to need a lot fewer dystopian stories going forward and more world-building ones. The best storytellers among us have the future in our hands, an a different world is possible. But you have to see it before you can build it. Dystopian is my least favorite genre anyway, because fear isn’t motivating or enabling, it is paralyzing, and in times where the stakes are as high as they are, we can’t afford to pile on with the fear. That is my personal preference for now, and just something to think about in general about “how do we get out of this???” and “what am I consuming that will either help or hinder me in that???”
To that end, my current work in progress, a historical novel set in a boardinghouse at the turn of the 20th century in Savannah, Georgia, falls squarely within the world-building rather than the dystopian category.
Why Savannah? Well, I’m comfortable there. It’s where a lot of the storytelling from In the Garden Behind the Moon takes place, and my male and female main characters are loosely inspired by my own grandparents, who were lifelong inhabitants of that city. But from a story-writing perspective, early 20th-century Savannah adds elegance, heat, and historical gravity to the tale, don’t you think? It sharpens the stakes: a port city steeped in racial hierarchy, Southern gentility (and silence), and international movement. It’s the perfect setting for a tale of hidden identities, cross-cultural love, friendship, and found family, and the delicate, sometimes dangerous, dance of fate that an authentic life might demand of you.
The story features a layered cast and their intertwined arcs: a boardinghouse proprietress with a secret, a Chinese exile and laundryman, an Irish oysterman and his boisterous crew of feral young river rogues, a Black coal deliverer with a bigger dream, and a found child. I hope readers will find it speaks deeply to themes of displacement, belonging, and resilience in America’s fractured social landscape, and the final fact that salvation lies in each other. It’s a timeless message for our world today and set against a richly researched historical backdrop of America’s first Grand Prix auto race (which took place in Savannah!), Chinese Exclusion, Oyster Wars, racial “passing,” and Savannah’s most infamous ax murder (ooooo, didn’t see THAT one coming, did ya?).
Follow me on social media to keep up with this work in progress. I frequently post writing updates like this one: INSTAGRAM WRITING UPDATE
A graphic showing some of my favorite characters from my work in progress as I imagine them, and the principals of this story! It’s going to be a rich tapestry, friends!
Keep reading, keep writing, keep creating in whatever ways that you do. I know we all are striving and struggling to remain tender in this tumult, straining for greater mastery over what we give our attention and imagination to. Perhaps veering wildly between the polar extremes of pessimism and optimism. I keep coming back to one simple and literal truth: the future doesn’t exist. Except as an infinite string of present moments. And so, while we can’t reach forward and control the future per se, we can control this present moment. And this one. And this one, too…. Living and behaving well now—compassionately, openly, creatively, and with a keen sense of justice—will of course help shape a better future for all. And anyway, it is quite literally all we’ve got. I’m glad we are in it together.
Take care and until the fall!
Alexandra :)
BOOK NEWS:
In the Garden Behind the Moon had its one-year book-iversary on May 28, and what a rich and rewarding year it has been. Praised by critics and readers alike and turning out to be a salve for a lot of what we are facing as a society today. I knew I had written something timeless but had no idea of its becoming so timely. I am grateful that I have something real to offer the collective in these trying times. Thank you to everyone who has bought and read the book and become a part of its journey. Consider leaving a review on GoodReads and Amazon if you haven’t already! Or share your thoughts on social media.
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As always, you can also get signed copies of the book, with or without all the fixin’s here: Order Signed Books
