Short Attention Span Reader: Deborah Sosin & Escape Velocity.
Think you can't judge a book by its cover? Think again.
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Whatever time it is where you are, it’s time for a new monthly feature. I’m taking two minutes out of my day to tell you everything about a book—based solely on the cover art, cover lines, and title. Why? Because I can resist anything but a good-looking book cover.
That’s it. Fun for all of us.1 Free fun press for the author and book. Win/ Win. All in just about five minutes start to finish.
Disclaimer
This isn’t a book review. I haven’t read the books I’ll be “reviewing.” It’s not a critique of the cover art; I’m not an art critiqueress.2 It’s where I get to play with other writers and artists.
This isn’t perfect, but it is fun. I’m grateful to Indie Award Finalist Deborah Sosin for agreeing to be my debut author. Drumroll please… Introducing:
Short Attention Span Reader presents Escape Velocity: How One 70-Year-Old Push-Pulled Her Way Out of Her Too-Much-Not-Enough Family (70 Micro-Memoirs, 70 Words Each) by Deborah Sosin
Presenting:
1 ) Watch ⤴️
2) Read transcript
3) Buy ⤵️
TL;DR: In Escape Velocity, a genre-bending constellation of 70 micro-memoirs of 70 words each, Deborah Sosin unravels a story of family entanglement with her loving but overbearing parents. Too much intrusion. Not enough space. What one therapist later dubbed "a mirage of intimacy."
Transcription
Jodi: This is Jodi Sh Doff, and welcome to Short Attention Span Reader, where every month we pick a book and I tell you what it's about just from looking at the cover, because you can so judge a book by its cover. Just watch.
We are here with the author of Escape Velocity. I have not read this.
I look at this and I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure. This I'm pretty sure is torn paper. Pap-ah. And this, I think it's, um, the confetti that you make with a three-hole punch. So I'm a little conf- This could be 12 people from a family, and this is the moon, or this is the person who ran away. Maybe this is about a kid in school who wants to be an astronaut to get away from his family. There's an escape. It's a runaway kid. It's a runaway spaceman. I'm not sure. Over here, it's backwards in my screen, but I know what it says. You'll see it right forward.
Right forward? I don't speak often.
It’s 70 micro memoirs of 70 words each from a 70-year-old. Meet the Author Well, she's 72 now, and in her intro, she says she lives just outside of Boston. Well, not for nothing, Deborah, but I also live outside of Boston.
It's got pictures. If you're familiar with Deborah Sosin, you know she's done a children's book, but I don't think this is a children's book, even though the illustrations are lovely. But the print is too small. You can't have small print like that for a children's book. Their eyes are not so good. You can't have it for old people either. I fall into that category.
She's a little obsessed with the number 70. 70 what? I don't know. There's a lot of 70s in the Bible. 70 descendants of Jacob. There were 70 kings under some table with their big toes cut off. It could be about 12 and one, that's 13. That's a, that's a number. Everything's a number.
A child who wants to run away from home and become an astronaut. Let's hear a little bit, uh, about The Space Cowboys from Deborah. All right. What do you think this book is about? You wrote it.
Deb: So the cluster represents the too much, not enough family that's all mushed together. Um, there's a lot about space programming here. I was really into the space program, but I didn't even think of that title for until some of the themes in the book had to do with gravity and gravitational pull of this enmeshed family.
Stay home, stay safe. Going out in the world is very dangerous. Very dangerous.
So how does a kid get out of this? It took me 70 years, well, like 60 plus years to figure it out. 50 years of therapy and, um, a lot of, a lot of compassion. I was able to kind of feel like a separate person without being crushed by their, uh, expectations and demands and even when they were alive, my, my parents were very overbearing and controlling, but also really loving and caring. So it was confusing, like-
Jodi: Oh, Deb, Deb, people are rarely overbearing when they're dead
Deb: That's me.
Jodi: That's nice. Do you have 12 people in your family?
Deb: No. It's a metaphor. Let's go with the metaphor of cluster. Okay.
Jodi: 70, 70. Why 70, 70, 70?
Deb: And I had a friend who had been ... who writes these little zines, and she-
Jodi: Oh, that’s cute.
Deb: I know. She solicits her friends to submit these tiny little stories. I take that as a literary challenge. This is fun. Then I thought, "Wait a minute, The 70/70/70 Concept I just turned 70. What if I wrote 70 little micro memoirs of exactly 70 words each?"
It was just gonna be snippets. It had nothing to do with my family. I didn't even wanna talk about that subject.
My editor, Michael Lowenthal, um-
Jodi: Love Michael Lowenthal ...
Deb: love Michael Lowenthal, guided me and said, "What are you ... What's underneath all of these snippets?"
And so, so it was this whole thing about gravitational pull towards staying in the family, and I was pushing against it- Finally ... pushing against it my whole life.
Jodi: Tell me about your artist. How'd you meet your cover artist?
Deb: Bosom Buddies. And so this, this, this micro was published on an online short non-fiction magazine called Short Reads, and I love the illustrations. I wrote her an email. I decided maybe I should self-publish 'cause it's such an odd little book with only 4,900 words. So I decided to hire Anna. Said, "What would it be like to have 70 illustrated things?" Which was a crazy thing to-
Jodi: I think it's a great idea. No, it's a great idea. There's room to breathe.
Deb: That's the gravity one too that you opened to.
Jodi: Aren't I clever?
Deb: Very.
Jodi: We are a good team.
Deb: I wanted it to publish on my birthday, my 72nd birthday, and, um, I did put out a f- uh, a, a call... What's it called? Like, a fundraising, uh, effort. I can't think of the word. We could-
Jodi: You asked for money from people.
Deb: Yes. And, and my good friends and family came through really quickly to really to pay for Anna's services and some extra stuff.
Jodi: It's not like any memoir I've ever read.
Deb: It's the first of its kind of this book. There are no linked sets of micro memoirs that are a full story that I've found.
Jodi: You can buy it online... or directly from Deborah, which-
Deb: Yeah, just go to my website ...
Jodi: between, between you and I, viewer, is the best way to do it because then she gets all the money. Let's, let's do- Yeah ... the right thing. Now, this book is not as big as you think it is. It's not that big. It's not as big as you think because look, you can read this while you're going to the bathroom or while you're having your coffee. You can go through 10 years of her life over breakfast.
This has been Jodi Sh Doff with Deborah Sosin, Escape Velocity. Thank you, Deborah, for being my guinea pig, my test monkey, and my friend.
Deb: Thank you, Jody. It's been-
Jodi: See you all next month .
Deb:.. been a blast. Ha ha ha.
More about Deborah Sosin and Escape Velocity
June 5, 2026: Telling Life Stories in Just 70 Words by Laura Schiller for The Rye Record. Rye native Debbie Sosin will discuss “Escape Velocity,” her Indie Book Award nominee, on Sunday at Rye Free Reading Room. “Debbie Sosin’s new book could never be summarized in just 70 words — not when both the Rye native’s roots and her life story run so deep.”
April 15, 2026: Escape Velocity Author Event with Deborah Sosin and Nicole Graev Lipson at Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass. (Video) “Cover(ing) the origins of this book, family enmeshment, sex and gender role changes at the time of second-wave feminism in the 1970s, "coming of age" at 70, and much more.”
March 9, 2026: Micro Monday with Darien Gee featuring “Home Sick,” the fourth chapter of Escape Velocity
March 6, 2026: The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire 183: Deborah Sosin
“’Escape Velocity’ sheds light on what it means to claim our true selves later in life without severing our close family bonds.”March 6, 2026: Launching a Memoir with Adam Roberts of Every Day, Luv (Video) Live chat with Deborah Sosin, queen of the micro-memoir!1
January 6, 2026: FreeFunder - The fundraiser Deborah talks about for those of us who wondered what that was like
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I know. Shut up.
Okay I'm 40 seconds into your video and I'm cracking up. You are a born comedian. lol
My favorite line: People are rarely overbearing when they're dead. 🤣
Such a great idea.
The book sounds great and love the micro memoir approach too.
Congratulations to Debra.
I love this. I have recently discovered the "micro-memoir" and love that form. I'm also verging on 70. Seems as though this book is for me.