Weird Monologues for a Rainy Life (irreverent ramblings from the end of the world)
by Lorette C. Luzajic
Handymaiden Editions, 2009

Order your copies today through Amazon! Or contact the author for personalized autographed copies at thegirlcanwrite@hotmail.com.

Weird Monologues for a Rainy Life (irreverent ramblings from the end of the world) is a rather unusual tome of random pieces from the just beginning writing career of Lorette C. Luzajic. Here she has collected her art manifestos, book reviews, short stories, blogs, pop culture essays and a surprising number of requiems. While observing the cultural markers of the world at large, and her changing response to them, Luzajic provides a kind of self-portraiture, one that reveals the tragic and the comedic with equal aplomb.

You’ll meet monks, drug addicts, men in dresses, and Dad; Captain Stardust and Nancy Drew, a cat named Knerpie and a chap named The John Bennett. Her Royal Highness Diana makes an appearance, as does The Hermit, Scarlett O’Hara, Sayuri the geisha, a pop artist named Iaian Greenson who makes Warhol look unproductive, and a few monkeys on crack.

The world Luzajic portrays is topsy-turvy, but her belief in playing out our fates to the best of our dignity is clear on every page. There are bombs exploding, artists losing it, madness reigning, sickness and death- but The Girl knows those things are only part of the story. There’s a place for belief, truth, integrity, compassion, and fun.

With trademark twisted humour and an insistence on reading signs into every possible aspect of human life, Lorette C. Luzajic pulls some skeletons out of the closet and polishes them up for public display. As a writer, The Girl is clearly indebted to Camille Paglia and Thomas Moore, among others, but has her own way of interpreting the world.

Handymaiden Editions presents the book as an unorthodox square, designed by Gonzalo de Cardenas, and illustrated with the surrealism of Caroline Bacher. Amazing pop artist Iaian Greenson painted a portrait of Lorette naked for the cover of the book, and there she is, in a flasher raincoat, blushing, holding an umbrella. He also painted the cover of her first book, The Astronaut’s Wife: Poems of Eros and Thanatos. Lorette’s poetry has been published in hundreds of journals and magazines, and she will create new collections, but this time she wanted to create something personal without using poetry.

With stories like Headbanging on Ketamine, Requiem for a Queen, The Gift of Addiction, The Young and the Reckless, and My Big Fat Greek Funeral, Lorette gets serious about laughing your way through heartbreak.

Lorette says, “The whole idea of this book was to combine a range of my stories, blogs, musings, reviews, and so on, from all over the map, in a way that spanned my wild mood swings, the ups and downs, the embarrassing and the brilliant. The extremes of the things I’ve been through touch chords with the life experiences of my readers- I tend to laugh and cry a lot. That I often feel vulnerable, naked, over-revealed kept me from writing for too long- there’s always an element of self-censorship and it just doesn’t get to the heart. The minute I stopped fearing this exposure was the moment I started to grow as a writer. Symbolically, this is me naked, messy, crazy, everybody’s sister.”

What People are Saying about Lorette C. Luzajic

I think you are one of the greatest poets and artists on the planet.
Don Smith, finance solutions, Toronto

Brilliant. Think Courtney Love meets Margaret Atwood. You will not be the same.
Donnarama, Toronto’s premier female impersonator and comedian

Imaginative, witty, blessedly free of normal logic, surprising, profound, very human, touching, sassy.
Thomas Moore, bestselling author of Care of the Soul and Soul Mates

The Astronaut’s Wife establishes Lorette C. Luzajic as a rising, multi-talented poet on the Canadian scene. Her insights into the heights and depths of our common human struggle to live out our own often-buried divinity hold the ring of authenticity and truth. Weep, laugh, enjoy!
Tom Harpur, bestselling author of The Pagan Christ and Would You Believe?

The book treads holy ground, sometimes with holy rawness and sometimes with unholy eloquence. The last two stanzas open a whole other realm.
Will Braun, editor of Geez Magazine

Lorette, you are a superstar.
Ariel Gore, author of Atlas of the Human Heart and founder of the Hip Mama movement

I say you are a reincarnate, and it takes one to know one. I can already see Canadian publishers lining up to kiss your ass.
Crad Kilodney, author of Putrid Scum and Lightning Struck my Dick