Last Sunday at our local Stonington Free Library, I gave a talk about the history of Stonington’s Steamboat Hotel, co-sponsored by the library and the Stonington Historical Society. It was wonderful to be gathered together for the first time since the beginning of the Pandemic, and thanks to a great combined effort by the two sponsoring organizations, there was a standing-room-only crowd. The event was live-streamed on Facebook and the video is now available on YouTube.

In addition, I can now reveal that there will be a book on the history of the Steamboat Hotel, to be published by The History Press, an imprint of Arcadia Publishing. I will be submitting the final manuscript by the end of the month and with luck, the book will be out by the fall. If so, I will be in the pleasantly awkward position of having two books come out in the same year. The Uses of Delusion will launch on May 2.

Since my last post, the Spanish translation of my book Superstition: A Very Short Introduction was released by Alianza Editorial. A few reviews have come in, including this very nice one in El País. But I was more than delighted to read (with the help of Google translation) this one in FantasyMundo. At the end of a very praising assessment, the author, Fran M. Hidalgo, called Breve historia de la superstición “one of the essential non-fiction books this year.” That one made my day. 

I cannot leave without noting how dramatically the world has changed in the last few weeks. The Ukrainian people have demonstrated for all the world what it means to fight for freedom and self-determination. If you are moved to make a donation to help, this Vox article has a pretty good list of options. I will be attending the vigil for Ukraine at the Stonington Free Library on Sunday. It seems important to do whatever we can to support this valiant effort in the face of senseless destruction.

SV