Courtney Moreno's "In Case of Emergency" (McSweeney's, Sept. 2014)

While in grad school at USF, I got to read a lot of really fantastic writing by people from all over the country. One of those people became a good friend and sometimes writing partner when we both needed someone to kick our asses into gear to pump out pages. Cue Courtney Moreno...EMT, dancer, writer, and a slew of other superlatives that would be far too long to post here.

I had the immense pleasure of having Courtney in my last two workshops, so I got to read the very early drafts of her novel that's coming out in September courtesy of the good folks at Dave Eggers' publishing imprint, McSweeney's. "In Case of Emergency," her debut novel, started off as a short story published first in LA Weekly (read here), which was then picked up and published in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010, which I only found out about by accident while shopping at City Lights one evening. Pretty awesome surprise.

While I haven't had a chance to read the most recent incarnation of EMT Piper's story about ambulance work in South Central L.A. or her struggles in dealing with her lover's PTSD from the Iraq war, I'd bet my entire year's salary that it will knock your socks off based purely on what I was able to read in its infancy.

What others are already saying about the book: 

“In Case of Emergency is a dark love song, dark as a bruise, for the L.A. no one seems to see, but it's also a careening, haunted, and hilarious ride. I will never look at a human ear, or hear a distant siren, the same way again.”

—Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here

“Piper may be a rookie with a lot to learn, but Moreno’s inspiring debut reads like it’s been written by someone with years of experience already under her belt.”

—K.M. Soehnlein, author of Robin and Ruby

“In Case of Emergency is a fine novel about coping with trauma. The EMS scenes are raw and believable and struck me as not exaggerated or excessive in any way. And though it will most likely be classed as 'medical fiction,' what happens outside the ambulance is just as gripping. In the end I was left with a feeling of dignity and humanity. A heartfelt execution of an engaging story.”

 —Shannon Burke, author of Black Flies

“You can't decide whether you want to slap or hug Piper, but the pleasures of getting to know her are undeniable. You root for her in the hopes that the world is generous and that even the flawed will know love. A big-hearted novel that will make you vow to love, however imperfectly, that much harder.”

—Alice Wu, screenwriter/ director of Saving Face

“Moreno writes about physical and emotional damage with such precision that the reader feels supine, strapped into her own ambulance, careening from page to page. It's a story about the greatest emergency of all: the plight of being a human with a fragile heart, beating amidst all these dangers.”

—Joshua Mohr, author of Some Things That Meant the World to Me

“In Courtney Moreno's In Case of Emergency the working class save the world and themselves. A wonderful first book!”

—Ali Liebegott, author of Cha-Ching!

“In Case of Emergency is here for you. To startle you into awareness. To remind you once again of the visceral urgency of desire, the urgency of fear, of loss, and of the fear of loss. To teach you about the eerie structures that undergird all that desire and fear and loss: organs and city streets, nerves and neighborhood maps, bones and veins and arteries. The patterns we use to make meaning from chaos. Also: the mysterious allure of risk, fear, and disaster. The calamitous pleasures of a thumping heart. You’ll love this book.”

—Stephen Beachy, author of boneyard

Courtney has a website up (http://www.courtneymoreno.com/), which will continue to pump out information on reading dates and releases as they come, but I'm posting it all here as well. Keep checking her website for updates, future readings and future publications.

And seriously...go get this book. Pre-order it, buy it for family members, whatever.

Reading Events: 

June 6, 2014

LitCamp @ 7pm

Sports Basement, 1590 Bryant St.

San Francisco, CA. 

September 9, 2014

RADAR @ 6pm

Main Library, 100 Larkin St. 

San Francisco, CA. 

September 16, 2014

LAUNCH PARTY

Booksmith @ 7:30pm

1644 Haight St. 

San Francisco, CA. 

October 18, 2014

LitCrawl with the Rumpus @ 8:30pm

TBD

San Francisco, CA. 

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