Monthly Archives: September 2008

What Do You Have There Mr. Postman?

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Everyday, I eagerly await the mailman (and yes it is a he!). Pretty much everyday is a disappoint. But yesterday I received my contributor copies for the Iodine Poetry Journal I’m in for this fall.  It is not available yet on their website so I’ll link through at a later date.  I was so happy to get into this journal on my second try!

But, alas, the rest of the mail was boring.  And I had nothing to send out either.

Although email did bring me a rejection notice on my other chapbook I have floating around. Ah email you cruel and wonderful creation.  I actually remember my first experiences with UNIX interfaced email in college. I believe I first used email in 1993. Woo hoo! I’m old!

But just babbling a bit.  Heading out in a few to get weighed in.  Think it will be a good week for me.

Maybe the mailman will have something good for me today.

Maybe he brings like some KFC for dinner.

Maybe he’ll bring a sudden surge in the economy?

Maybe I still believe in unicorns.

300 pages done in one weekend!

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Over the weekend, I did something I had not done in quite a while–read a single book for hours.

Ever since I started the MFA program almost 2 years ago, I have been reading a lot of assigned books but also things I am interested in.  To get so much read, I tend to have about 10 different things I’m reading at a time and I read about 10 pages a piece in each one a day.  I don’t know if I’ll keep doing this after the MFA but I have gotten A LOT of reading done this way.

But, in any case, I have been reading Michael Chabon’s “The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” for what seems like forever and I still had about 300 pages left in the book.  I decided I just wanted to go ahead and finish it.  So I hunkered down and I did finish it.  I enjoyed this book much more than “The Final Solution” so guess that teaches me not to always give up on an author if their first book is not stupendous.

So keep that in mind, readers, if you decide to order my chapbook when it comes out (most likely later this year) it is my first!

I organized the poems in the next chapbook I plan to send around (My “Fat Girl” series is still out to about 5 publishers, although I received an email rejection today) but there are a few poems in it (total of 19) that I’m not 100% sure about and I’m starting to second guess myself.  But I probably won’t send it out until next week because there are no current chapbook contest/reading deadlines looming, none really till the 15th.

Need to do some more research for my small press project. I’m getting more and more excited! Even though at the back of my mind I know I may end up having to go back to work if my husband loses out on his second job (it involved a financial institution) so we shall see.

Can’t wait to give more details about the chapbook!!

Have a great week everyone :)

OMG! My Chapbook is Going to Be Published!

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To the point. I found out last night that one of my two chapbooks, “At the A & P Meridiem,” will be published by Pudding House Publications!

Lesson learned: Don’t give up :)

I sent this chapbook around to 7 different publishers before it was picked and actually it was out to 6 other publishers at the time it was selected of which I have emailed all to withdraw it from consideration.

Now that 2nd chapbook–come on!

Vlogging and Venting and Vacation and Ventures

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My vlog for this week will be posted at the bottom. I really should have made the vlog yesterday afternoon or at least this morning when the results of my haircut yesterday were still decent now the humidity got to it and BOING. Puff levels!

But seriously just a quick note to vent a little (not a venti) because after booking my vacation at the end of last month to have a good 6 months out we come to find that one of our flights has been cancelled and an essential flight.  So after being on the phone with expedia and the airline I now have a flight the day before which would give us a layover where we’d need to either get a hotel for one night and/or sleep in the airport.  I am not running out to book the hotel, however, given the likelihood that all of this will probably change with 5 more months to go.  

You can’t win with traveling.  I love to see new places but you need to book early to get a good fare and to make sure you get flights but then this kind of frustration occurs.  *sigh* There was a part of me that wanted to just cancel the whole thing but I know how much I like to travel once I actually get to my destination and we likely couldn’t get our money back anyway.  Just gonna buck up.

Also in the early stages of planning my after graduation venture: Publishing. I have set up an email for what I hope will be my small press Folded Word Press.  I still have a lot of research to do but my first project will most likely be an online zine via YouTube called Shape Of A Box.  There will be more details to follow on that.  If I get time to work on it while finishing up my thesis I might have it go live before the end of the year.

After the online zine?  I’m thinking about chapbooks.  I have researched pricing for printing and some other details so I am feeling pretty good about it! 

Hope everyone has a good weekend.  Even if here in Charlotte we now have rain and long lines at the gas pumps.  So glad I already have the gas taken care of. Oh yeah and a house to be in.

 

Gas and a Haircut..More than 2 bits :)

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Woke up to a really bad headache at like 6am.  Stayed in bed till 7 and then just gave up that the headache was going to go away, also I knew I needed to get up earlier than usual because I had a hair appointment and well I needed to hunt for gas.

Found gas at the first station I went to (planned to go a back way to the hair appt) and while I thought about driving to see if I could find a less crowded station I decided to test out my patience.  I was patient. I was there for 20 minutes.  I only minorly cringed at the occupants of the vehicle in front of me who BOTH got out of the vehicle and went inside to buy coffee BEFORE pumping the gas when there were cars lined out of the gas station and onto a major thoroughfare (Mallard Creek). *sigh* But I had my books on hand so I did some reading while I waited. They also only filled up like 5 gallons, hmm…those of us who waited until we only had 40 miles left in our tank were not amused.

Haircut looks pretty good. Combined the rest of my trips and I only travelled about 10 miles today including gas, haircut, lunch and grocery shopping. The skies look like they are getting ready to open up and it is crazy windy outside.  I might do a second post and vlog as well today (while my hair still looks ok) to show the weather. Or maybe instead I should finish my other work.

But I did work! I organized my new chapbook which does have a few poems that are also in my thesis but that is no longer a big issue.  After much annoyance with my thesis I picked 50 poems today that I feel are pretty strong with the full knowledge that these poems, as a group, will not be the first manuscript I send around (unless my thesis advisor just goes WOW which I seriously doubt). My thesis is a culmunation of the poems I have written and/or workshopped during the last 2 years. It is a testament to believeing in myself and poetry again. And I am at peace with it :)

Doesn’t mean I don’t still have work to do.  Tomorrow I need to try again to organize them and then do any additional revisions so I can put this in the mail before I’d say about Oct 15th (due Oct 20th to my advisor).

Hunker down!

Perhaps My Thesis Will Have 4 Sections…Hmmmm

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My new schedule served me well today.  I was able to complete all my reading, a good amount of cleaning and I banged my head against some poems this afternoon.  I even used the internet at a reasonable level but I’m ready to be done with literary pursuits for the day–or at least for a few hours.

I’m still butting heads with my thesis.  I had decided to try, today, to organize it into 4 sections given the prevelant themes in the thesis and that fleshed out ok but it took forever and there are parts of it I just don’t feel great about.  Am I going to be a poet who is unable to publish a book?  I know I am stressing about this too much and I’m moving more and more towards realizing that this is a thesis project and will not in any likely hood be the first manuscript I send out.

I have sent both of my curernt chapbooks out again this week for readings/contests.  I want to put together another chapbook comprised largely of already published poems but after working so much on my thesis today, I started to doubt my ability to even put together another chapbook.  I will though.  The big decision I will have to make is whether or not to use poems that are in my thesis or to stick to other pieces.  Decisions. Decisions.  More work on that tomorrow.

But for today, I’m ready to go and maybe get a drink and a snack.  Do a little walking.  See if I can find gas.  Ya know, the usual.

Spending Too Much Time of the Internet

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Here I go again, concerned that I am spending too much time on the internet.  I debating dropping more of the sites I go to but I don’t actually go to that many and I try to keep my visits to once a day to each for just a few minutes, well, except for one–YouTube.  I really enjoy YouTube.  I didn’t get to use it while i was working in my old office job and I don’t watch that much TV so it is like my primary source of at home entertainment.

That said–I was subscribing to just too many people and spending way too much time watching videos so when I got back in this afternoon I unsubscribed from quite a few people (sorry!) and I’m going to limit my YouTube use to the afternoons to the afternoon because this morning I didn’t even finish my reading and I’m already behind on my writing stuff. Bad me! (Well part of that was going to spend some time with my sister for shoes an shop talk about her wedding planning, but I digress)

So sorry YouTube I must limit my addiction a bit and get myself focused!

I’m already feeling the withdrawl :)