Monthly Archives: October 2009

Trick or Treat Virgin

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Ok, I was joking about this on Facebook so I decided to do a full fledged post on it. No tricks! Although if you do want a treat, ya know you can find out more about pre-ordering my 2nd chapbook at Folded Word. Haha! Ya know I had to!

I wanted to add a picture to the blog today but I couldn’t find one! Why is that? I actually know I took pictures a few years back when I did decorations but they are probably on my old, defunct laptop in someone’s basement or something.

This is just further evidence of my lack of Halloween Experience. I will recount, 10 or fewer, Halloween’s for you and show you how much of a Trick or Treat Virgin I am!

  1. My first memory of trick or treating is odd. I have no costume. For some reason I am with my paternal grandparents at either their condo/townhouse in roughly the Virginia Beach area or someone else’s. I know they had one up there at some point because it was near Witch Duck Rd and well, that is a funny name. I went to a few doors there but I didn’t really know what to do and I had no costume. Lame. I am guessing I was about 6?
  2. There were some of those really silly plastic costumes in a storage cabinet above the refrigerator. Maybe Strawberry Shortcake and the like. Ya know the kind that are a plastic mask with a string around your head and an outfit that is also of plastic and looks like you put a glove over your head to make you look like you were Rainbow Brite. So, guess we must have dressed up for school at least once or someone gave us costume hand-me-downs.
  3. I remember asking my Mom why we didn’t go trick or treating. I’m guessing I’m about 7 or so here because we were still in the Red House, and this was before my parents divorced. She told me something along the lines of, “I don’t send my kids out begging.” Could it have been her Mennonite upbringing? Could it have been because we lived way out in the country? Who knows, but it didn’t really bother me not to go. We ate popcorn and watched pseudo scary Disney’s like “The Canterbury Ghost” – boogity, boogity, BOO! – Kidding. Tell me if you remember that reference :)
  4. One of these years when we didn’t trick or treat we went to the Jaycee’s Haunted Forest. OMG! That was SOOOO much fun. I won’t tell the story of one family member who got really, really scared. That is his, or er her, story. Hehehe.
  5. I’m 11 years old. I have not yet moved out of Perquimans County but we had moved to the other side of the county so we were in a new school for the first time in my life. 6th grade. I can’t remember my friends name but I’m think it might have been Becky for some reason? I went to her house for Halloween and we dressed up as punk rockers with pink and green colored hair spray along with stir-up pants and long overly loud T-shirts. She lived far out in her part of the county so she knew everyone whose house we went to. We really didn’t get a lot of candy, but it was fun – well except for getting the hair spray out of our hair!
  6. Now I’m guessing my next attempt was at 14. At least what I remember. We were settled into the new house with my Dad. We’d switched county’s and parents for a time! He lived in a fairly new subdivision. I decided I got to go again because I had to take my younger sisters. Right? I was a gypsy if I remember correctly. Which meant, wearing as many things as you could find. I didn’t ask for candy as the escort but most everyone gave me some. It is an interesting switch here to think how different the childhood each kid in a family has . . .
  7. At some point during high school we set up to give out candy. My Dad’s neighborhood became a popular spot because it was such a large subdivision. You could park and then send your kids for a good trek finding lots and lots of candy. I did the gypsy thing again but at a card table in the driveway where I tried to spook you before you could get your candy. At least one year when we were doing this my boyfriend at the time would hide in the back of his CRX and walk up behind kids in his grim reaper costume. One girl was so upset we let her hit him as pay back. Oh and one of my brother Richard put a football under his NC State sweatshirt to become Quasimodo. That was funny!
  8. My first college dorm was in one of the high rises at UNCG, Grogan. I was up on the 6th floor. I remember helping decorate the hall. My favorite part was putting eyes on the elevator so when it opened and closed you saw them. Hehe. They brought kids around to get candy from us. I enjoyed that a lot.
  9. When I switched dorms we actually had door decorating contests. I still think the door my room mate and I did should have won something! We made it look like a window with curtains and all and you could look out onto a witch flying by etc.
  10. And this year I am being Bah humbug for Halloween. I have given out candy on quite a few years but this year with a cat who likes to run for the door and a door that sticks a bit because we had to install a new door jam. Also, I am a bit turned off by it now, I think. I used to decorate and really enjoy it but so many of the kids who came up were teenagers not even in costumes who just grabbed at the candy. They kind of take some of the fun out of it. At least dress up! Maybe some Ikea shopping tonight instead? Hmmm

So maybe I haven’t really learned how to celebrate Halloween well. I never Trick or Treated much. I rarely dressed up, especially not at school or work where at most I’d wear something black. But, I love seeing the kids out having a good time, to go to the Mall and watch the clever costumes they come up with. Oh and the pictures to come in from my cousins and siblings as they show their kids and what they wanted to try and be for one night on this year.

Have a great Halloween everyone!

 

Friday Wrap Up

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Here we are again. A Friday. Almost the end of the month.  And a chance to report in.

S: 3

A: 0

R: 1

Again, small numbers as I have not been writing a great deal although I did scribble some poems down on Wednesday that I will work on revising next week.

One of my prior acceptances, however, is now up at blue fifth review. The poem is titled Far and Wee. It may actually thematically fit in with either of my two pending manuscripts. I think it’ll be in the one I am working on right now.

Also, if you check the side bar, or click through here to Folded Word Blog you can get some details about my upcoming chapbook The Wait of Atom for which pre-orders are starting tomorrow! Woo hoo!

As this year starts to close, I am definitely starting to assess things, to organize, to plan.  I started a new tab/page (above and to the side) called Wishful Thinking. I’m starting to put goals in there for the rest of this year and 2010.  Why keep those to myself when I can share?

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! I think I need to find a non-scary movie to go to tomorrow night because I haven’t bought any candy :)

Thursday Poem Share

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What to show you next from Paper House?

How about a prose poem.

The Red Voice

The voice they want is red. Not a screaming voice, but one still toned to red with words that come out rounded like lava lamp liquid. The laugh of that voice is deep for a woman. Succubus. From me they get that echo. When I realize this, I falter. How to be that voice? As soon as I know I’m supposed to be that, orange slices of diction slip into my speech. My words lengthen. I’m less colloquial. Urban. I’m back to pretending.

Now for a work in progress. And how rough is this? Typed up on 10-26. The original was scribbled the weekend before that so very fresh. Only a few revision notes on 10-27-09 so EEK! Taking a risk here on high suckiness but it is one of the drafts I want to try and put into my 2nd manuscript, if I can revise it to being where I want it to be.

[and the poem in progress is gone!]

This has been a short week (wasn’t able to do as much on Monday) so I feel like I have been playing catch up all week.  But I did do some marketing, vlogging, typing up poems, subbing work, updating Shape. I’m working on a book review, need to work on a video this week as well as an essay, a new sub strategy for next year (what will potentially be under the new Wishful Thinking tab) and I spent a great deal of time adding online journals to my Google reader and then adding that to my sidebar so people can find what I am reading. The journals that don’t have a blog or a twitter or something that lets people follow them are missing out I think. At the very least you should have a prominent notice of how I can subscribe to your mailing list! But that was a big goal for me this week to really dedicate myself to organizing where I read online so check out my Google profile/Google reader listings as I start sharing items that way. We shall see how it works!

Hope everyone is having a good week. Oh, you want a writing exercise? Take a classic idiom and change one word in it then try to write something about it. Like describing someone as “an old salty dog” well what if you said “an old salty pretzel”. Does that work and who could you describe that way? Or who would be saying that? Have fun with it! Would love to hear what people come up with so feel free to comment and link back here or leave writing in the comments. Yay!

Video Wednesday

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First up is a non-fiction piece from Shape of a Box by Melanie Faith. Clicking on Shape of a Box will take you to Shape’s blog that has the video window for the piece as well as the text, but below is the direct video link. You won’t regret sharing a little time with Melanie’s words and photography:

Next up is me. I vlogged this week with a poem. I read “How We Met: Her Version” (and yes there is a “How We Met: His Version”) from my upcoming chapbook The Wait of Atom which is upcoming from Folded Word Press.

And finally for this week? Mel Bosworth reads short work by other people on his new YouTube channel. Here is one piece.

Hope everyone continues to have a good week! I am now in the process of clearing up an insurance issue and a fraud issue on a bank account. Yikes!

Submitting Chapbooks

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I am hoping to do another post about submitting full length books, but first I wanted to talk about submitting chapbooks since I was looking for a place to send the one chapbook I still have pending.

What is a chapbook? I have always called it a short book of poems (or fiction/cross-genre) below 32 pages but some are longer than that. Mine tend to be between 15 and 25 pages which I think is a good length for a chapbook which you could potentially read in one sitting.

I don’t think I had any idea what a chapbook was before my gap in writing (2000-2005). I don’t recall anyone in my undergrad courses ever talking about them and I’m not sure how I learned about them. It may have been from the NCWN who used to hold a chapbook contest for NC writers. I’m not even sure what chapbook I read first, but I think I picked up one of Emma Bolden’s after I found her via other friends online. I think I only bought one after I started entering contests, which is where I was still naive even back in 2006 when I came back to writing.

The first chapbook I put together was in December of 2006. At this point I still didn’t know I was going to an MFA (even though I had applied, that is a story in itself) so I was putting together a chapbook of older pieces just to see where I was. I called it Snapdragon and it contained quite a few poems that are in my upcoming full length collection Paper House. I entered that NCWN contest but I didn’t even try with that chapbook again. I realized it wasn’t up to par.

I did try to create another one in June of 2007. I named that one Echolocation and I sent it to one contest. The poems in that group are a very small section in the 2nd manuscript I am working on (do you see a theme developing here?). I realized when it came back it was also not ready.

But, I tried again. I put together one called In Snug Harbor in August of 2007 and I sent it out once, but realized that the poems in that would most likely be in my thesis and that I had more to write so I didn’t send it around again either.

You know, I was still at it though. I just have this drive for organization. In November of 2007, I sent out my first copy of At the A & P Meridiem. This chapbook was different than the others I had attempted. It had a cohesive principle, the hours of the day. I placed 8th on my first attempt! I continued to send it out. It went out to 14 additional places from November 2007 until September 2008.  It did not change much at all. I may have tweaked a few lines here and there, but nothing significant. I was also sending the individual poems around, trying to get them published before the chapbook. When Pudding House finally gave me the email that they wanted to publish it on 9/26/2008, I was ecstatic! I had to withdraw it from about 7 places because I did a lot of simul submits but it was done. Only one of the poems out of the 24 was ever published outside of the chapbook but I am going to reprint at least two in my full length manuscript.

Now, while I was sending A & P around, I also had another chapbook I had completed, Fat Girl. I started sending it out in February of 2008. I had written about 30 poems for the chapbook and then in revision realized I only had about 15 I really liked. I reworked it a few times as I was sending it around and ended up with 23 poems. I have no desire to write more for the chapbook and I really like where it is. The first time I sent it out, I received INK on it. I kept sending it. It became a semi-finalist. I then received a notice about being a finalist and a personal call about it!. Then another time I received ink but it is still waiting. Yes. Still waiting over a year later. It has gone out 22 times and is only under consideration by 1 place at this point. I am actually a little stumped about what to do next. I have a list of places where I’d like it considered but most have reading periods in the spring.  I have considered sending it to the places I sent it in 2008 since I may have made a few changes since those contests, and they may have other readers/judges but I’m just not sure. I’m not in a rush for it to come out but I really want it to be published by the right place. I think I am shooting for new places. I have about 9 on my list and I’ll try them as their reading periods come open at the end of the year and into 2010. I may even self-publish it at some point but since I have other projects coming out, why hurry? (Never thought I’d be saying that!) I have several poems in it that are published but the individual pieces I am still sending around.

Then there is my final chapbook The Wait of Atom (see side bar or chapbook tab for more details) which started as a full length project but really ran its course at 19 poems. I started sending it out in June of 2009. First place I sent it I received INK. Then it was turned down a few times. I then woke up one night and realized it was the perfect theme to be published as an e-chapbook! I started researching places I could send it as an e-chapbook when a conversation resulted in my publisher wanting to put it out as one! Wow! It will be out in just a few short weeks. So it really only went out to three places and was withdrawn from 5 before it was published. A very different experience. I only had a few of the poems in it published.

What have I learned along the way?

  • Research. Buy chapbooks and read them from different chapbook publishers. Make sure you are submitting work to a place where you’d want your chapbook to be published.
  • If you think you might have a chapbook, put one together but also think about whether this same set of poems may be something you want in a full length in the future. You can, but it is not suggested, that you publish a whole chapbook as half of your full length book.
  • Follow the guidelines of the contest/reading period you are submitting to. You’d hate to be turned down just because you didn’t follow the guidelines!
  • Chapbooks don’t have to be themed but they seem to sell better and get more consideration if they are.
  • The individual poems don’t have to be published but the more that are will really help you know how “successful” you might be in submitting the chapbook itself to a contest or publisher.
  • Patience :)

Hope my journey might help you guys as you are considering putting together chapbooks. I just love them and I have seen more fiction chapbooks as well. Feel free to post any additional questions you might have about chapbooks or anything else below and I’ll do my best to help.

Monday Shout Outs

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Finished an issue of The Colorado Review over the weekend. I believe I received the subscription because I entered their first book contest. I really enjoyed the fiction and non-fiction in this journal but not so much the Poetry so I don’t think I will be sending my poetry their way in the future. But, definitely a good read for fiction and non-fiction. I have an extra issue I probably won’t read if anyone is interested.

Wanted to give a shout out to my publisher, Folded Word, and the Ning they started. I tried to start a Ning once but it was a bit overwhelming in what I wanted to do with it. Folded Word plans to use theirs for contributors and fans of their projects. Their first will be a chat on November 1st for the new Twitter zine unFold.  My chapbook, The Wait of Atom, will also have a web release on that site around Nov 9th so you can chat with me. Whee!

This new poetry site Ink Node is by invitation only to post your poems but you can register and subscribe to poets. If you click through on Ink Node above I put up a previously unpublished poem that will appear in Paper House, my upcoming full length collection.

Have I given a shout out to Poet Mom before? If I haven’t. I should have. I’m not a Mom but I am a poet and Poet Mom always has good posts about living the live of work, poetry, family etc. Stop by and have a read.

Here is a blog I don’t normally follow but I might start because this post for poets starting out, trying to get published. Quality stuff.

Monday always seems to go by too fast, but at least I slept well last night and I’m looking forward to a nice, slowed down kind of week as I give myself a chance to get better from that stupid sinus infection I had. Sometimes, I just forget to take it easy. Have a great week everyone!

Where to Send Your Work

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A lot of people have asked me recently how I decide where to send my work for publication consideration.  I have tried quite a few different systems, but honestly, I’m starting to feel haphazard in the work of getting published. Anytime I can feel a shift coming. I always feel antsy when I feel a shift coming, but when I finally just let it settle over myself a certain sense of peace comes.

Here are some different models I have gone with over the years for sending my work out.

  1. Prior to 1996, ah when I was still just exiting my teens, I only sent to student publications or entered contests my teachers mentioned. Not much happened.
  2. During 1996 I tried to send out work about once a month during the latter half of the year. I had picked up Poet’s Market and I was using their guide of sending work to publications that were interested in “new” writers. I was published in a student mag that year and I had a poem accepted for a themed type journal that was published like two years later.
  3. During 1997 I sent work out once a month but I sent to big named journals. Nothing came of that. But picked up by a student pub again. This may have been the influence of poetry workshop teachers saying to aim big, but I’m not sure.
  4. During 1998  I was still on the once a month strategy, but I must have bought a copy of Poet’s Market again because I was alternating between journals that were open to new writers and big names. I was also sending out in alphabetical order (like first month some journal called asspants, next month The Blue Skunk Companion). One poem was accepted but I never received a copy of the journal so I don’t think it really happened.
  5. 1999. I’m married and out of college. What will I do? I was back on the once a month strategy and alternating between new and experienced but I was also trying a few contests. One poem was accepted by Alembic and is a fairly strong poem for the time. A slightly revised version of it will appear in my upcoming book. I was also sending to more than one journal on my once a month submit frenzy. Usually 2 at a time.
  6. I kept up the once a month theme in 2000, continuing down the alphabet from Poet’s Market (I still tend to buy one every other year, so I think I am due for one this year). I had two different sets of poems accepted but I know at least one pub ceased publication before it went to print (my poem 3am was the one that was accepted and it appears in my chapbook At the A & P Meridiem) and the other publication just never sent me anything so I assume they are gone.

Then, as those of you who follow this blog know. I just stopped. That is its own story and it has been told before.

  1. 2006 is a new start. After a trip to Japan, I started writing and submitting again. I was now trying to submit once a week and I started with some NC journals then I went back to my old theme of alphabetical order. I was starting to write new work (first items accepted for pub were haikur for bear creek haiku) but mostly I was revising old work from back in the 90′s. My pattern seems to alternate between big and small journals. I didn’t even really know how much online stuff there was at this point (I was an internet user but really just email and google). I received a string of comments near the end of the year but no additional acceptances.
  2. Ring in 2007. Once a week. One journal a week. I must have made a list of all NC journals because that is where I started. I had an early acceptance by Main Street Rag and comments from two other journals. I was starting to BUY journals and find examples online so I knew more about them. Since I was an MFA student as of Jan 2007 I submitted and was accepted by The Red Clay Review, then I had work solicited by The Dead Mule (my first online publication) and I continued to receive comments.
  3. 2008 I started with submitting to journals whose work I had read in Best American Poetry 2007. I only submitted to publications whose work I enjoyed reading (that should have been a sign to me!). Early in the year Iodine Poetry Journal accepted one of my poems. I was still at once a week but now sending more than one packet a week.  I tried more contests, placing in two and I was a finalist in another. One of the wins was 3rd place which resulted in my poem “Sex Education” (which will be in Paper House) being published in MARGIE. After my BAP list ran out I was pulling from lists I had made from Poets & Writers and Poet’s Market. I was sort of all over the place alternating between all kinds of journals in print and online. I actually still need to follow-up on one acceptance from 2008 that has yet to appear! It was a pretty good year for acceptances. See my publication tab!
  4. And now we are in 2009. I was again sending to places off my BAP list as well as places that had given me INK the year before. I also have a document going on my computer with names of lit mags from CRWOPPS or from other people that I wanted to try.  The lists are actually starting to overwhelm me and I send out poems, still, once a week but more like 3 or 4 sets at a time. I’ve had a good  number of acceptances this year, but no luck with contests, although for the first part of the year I wasn’t bothering with them much. I am probably going to finish this year with the lists I have but I am becoming more and more focused.

SO what is changing in me? Despite the name or prestige of a publication, I am finding I like to publish where I enjoy the work and where the editors seem interested in my work. I enjoy a polite, personal email from an editor or the handwritten notes. I want to fine tune my lists for next year to what I enjoy to read.  I want to be alongside the people whom I enjoy. I think the once a week strategy works well. I am also opening up to more contests and theme issues. I can see a radical change in my submission policies for next year and this blog post is just one way of me admitting how all over the place I have been.

Oh, but where would we be if we were not constantly a work in progress?

How do you guys decide where to send your work? Have you found strategies that work or didn’t? What other topics would you like to see covered? I thought I could also discuss sending out chapbooks and full length books if you guys are interested as well as my limited experience sending out fiction and non-fiction.

Is it football time yet? :)