Twenty eight poems, each one exploring love without safety equipment and reporting back on the views from up there. Foothills is a book of love poetry with a difference: its interest in love is all-terrain.

So, yes, there are romantic pieces inside - but you'll also find contemplations of family and friendship. What's more, Foothills does not pretend that love is all puppies and rainbows.

Puppies dry-hump your slippers, and gawking at rainbows causes car accidents. .

. Foothills knows this.

So come on in for some real talk about love, knowing as you do that this book is ultimately a believer (and probably so are you). This special edition of Foothills also features two short love stories, as well as Memo, a Thanksgiving poem and essay about resilience that was written in mid-pandemic Paris and inspired by the work of Jack Gilbert.

Zoe Marie Bel is a writer of fiction and poetry, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Australian Book Review, Mystery Tribune, and more. Foothills is her debut book of poetry, a slimbook intended as a tasting plate for new readers.

Follow news and read online pieces at zoemariebel. com.

---------Related contentFor an interview with the author, as well as links related to the book content, visit the 'Foothills' book page at scatterpunk. com.

---------Spine text alignment issues'Foothills' is called a slimbook for a reason: it's a sleek, lightweight and super-thin book designed to be carried around without effort and to fit snugly just about anywhere. A hazard of a book quite this thin is that the spine text can sometimes misalign in the print process.

The text along the spine might appear to have tried to make a run for it onto the front or back cover. If your book arrives from Amazon with the spine text misaligned in this way, please know this is defective and you are not expected to just put up with it.

On the contrary, you are entitled to a copy of my book whose spine text is well-behaved. Here's what to do if, when your book shows up, your spine text has gone rogue:Go to Your Orders page on Amazon and locate the order summary for my book.

Click the Return or replace items button in the order summary. Report the defective spine text to Amazon and request an immediate replacement (or an immediate refund, if the rapscallion spine text has made you tired of life).

If you ordered multiple copies, and only one or some of them has spine text issues, be sure to specify only the defective quantity in your replacement request. A replacement copy (or copies, if applicable) of my book will be dispatched to you immediately, at no cost to you (no delivery fees).

Typically, you will not be asked to send the defective copy back to Amazon, although this will vary according to quantities ordered. If you are not asked to return the defective copy, please consider donating it to a school, Free Little Library, or other good cause, rather than simply frisbeeing it into the garbage.

(After all, a blemish on the skin of an apple does not make it fit only for horses. .

. ).