Monthly Archives: May 2010

Friday Wrap-Up

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Friday is when I assess how my writing and attempts at publication went for the week. First the publication news.

  • Submitted: 2. A set of poems and a copy of my 3rd chapbook.
  • Accepted: 4! OK seriously! I’ve never had a number that high I don’t think. I had a poem accepted (with a few edits) for Redheaded Stepchild which is already viewable (posted yesterday). I had a story that will appear later in in Ragazine. Another poem for Southern Women’s Review and a final poem for a future issue of Young American Poets. Whew! All of these journals should be linked in the blogroll lit mag section in the sidebar
  • Rejected: 3 all with comments so that was nice. Had one from each genre declined – non-fiction, poetry and fiction.

An essay that I had accepted earlier this month is online. It is called One Way and is about my relationship with my father. I love writing creative non-fiction but it is very draining for me to write in prose so one of my regular readers and the editor at Girls with Insurance really helped the piece along. Thanks for the help ladies!

With so many rejections and acceptances coming in this meant a whole lot of material that is now back in my New folder ready to be revised or reviewed and sent back out so I’m digging through the stacks but I also started several new poems, two short stories and at least one essay. Yep. This is a busy busy week.

Would love to hear from you guys as to what you wrote this week or if you sent anything out to publishers. I’d also like to know if anyone reads any non-fiction in print or online that they could suggest to me as a good places to send my work? I have the hardest time finding places to publish my essays.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone! We are hosting a cookout so I’m in extra clean up mode and wanting to get as much writing and reading done before Sunday because I won’t have any time after!

Getting LOST

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As soon as I finished watching the series finale of LOST, I made a mental note regarding what I thought happened and my general feelings about that ending because I didn’t want to be influenced later by any opinions that I might stumble across.

Basically, I’m satisfied with the way the show ended. Do I think it was the best ending of a show ever or even in the top ten? No, but it was adequate and I think I’ll chat about it a bit from a writer’s perspective.

*SPOILERS START NOW*

I love everything about the story to do with Jack. I appreciate the fact that the writers gave you Jack in the very first scenes of the show and they fulfilled him as a character. Well, I love everything to do with Jack except for what I call “the purgatory story.”

Yes, LOST, I really think the parallel story in this last season, which basically seems to purgatory or an after death holding place where you wait before heaven or your final reward (whatever you want to call it because they left it purposefully vague) that story was kind of a cop out. I can’t decide if it is because the writers really wanted to think about the after life of the characters or if they were doing it as a ploy to please a certain segment of the fan base. I haven’t read interviews with the writers so I don’t know.

LOST was a great show but I think watching LOST was almost like watching a novel in its first draft. The first three seasons were like the writers falling in love with these characters, and I include the Island as a character. They went down all the avenues they were interested in. When they decided, however, the show was going to have a definitive end it felt like they were rushing to tie up loose ends. They didn’t end up tying everything up (which I appreciated) but I almost wish there could be a director or writer’s cut. That someone could novelize the whole series and make a story that really honors the concept but does so in a more cohesive way.

Summary? Good show. Decent ending. Not as bad as watching the end of Friends (sorry most saccharine ending EVER) or as good as watching what should have remained the end of Scrubs or say Cheers but decent enough that I don’t want to strangle the writers but not good enough for me to wish the show wasn’t over :)

At least I’ll probably be watching less TV in the future . . . unless they return to the Island and just do a whole series about The Dharma Initiative. I’d SOOOOO watch that.

Video Tuesday

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Are you, dear reader, thinking Video Tuesday? I thought that was gone? We’ll it is essentially gone except when I look at my list of links I want to share and realize I have three video links so here they come!

First up is one that many of you may have already seen: Bronte Action figures.

Next up is one in a series that band/booky kind of geek Matt puts up on YouTube. This one is looking at books vs movie – a discussion of Freaky Friday:

My final video of the day I have been holding for a while. It is a great video and voiced by the wonderful Bryan Borland but I post this now in sadness because the author of the poems, Rane Arroyo, passed away recently. Rane was terrific to work with during my time at “Shape of a Box” and the only reason his voice isn’t on the poems is because he wasn’t feeling well enough to meet with me to record during AWP 2009. Rest in Peace Rane. Your brillance will be missed :(

Monday Shout Outs

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Monday has rolled around again and darn if it isn’t almost the end of the month already!

  • This week is one of the two weeks that my old MFA program is in session at Queens University of Charlotte. There are a lot of readings going on if you are interested in the whole schedule email me. Of note for me is a 5pm reading today with at least one poet reading. Faculty reading tomorrow night at 8:15pm. Student readings at 5pm on Thursday (there is a fiction writer I know reading then) and three poets I really enjoy who are reading at 5pm on Friday. These are just the readings I am going to and I skipped out on the faculty reading last night. Yeah, I stayed home and watched the series finale of LOST instead. Nerd alert!
  • Friday has the potential to be a busy night because it is also the Green Rice Art Gallery open mike which I enjoy attending. It starts at 7pm. If Queens runs on time I might just be able to make both if I have like a granola bar for dinner :)
  • I recently finished Cenfuegoes by Chris Deal. The author actually read at one of the open mikes I regularly attend and was giving a few copies of the book away. At only $5 not a bad one to pick up anyway as a quick read. Nice production values on the book although I really like having page numbers and this one doesn’t have them. I think Chris called this a flash fiction collection but it is hard to tell if these are poems, stories, vignettes? I ended up giving the collection a 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads because it is a decent first chapbook kind of collection but many of the pieces felt like they were just the start of stories but there are some terrific lines and individual pieces such as  ”home” about bringing someone you are dating home for the holidays. Will be interested to see what other work Christ does in the future. I have some cousins with the last name Deal. I wonder if we are related…
  • Recently finished another nice issue of the Tipton Poetry Journal.  This was Issue 16 in which I have a poem and I join the lovely company of poets such as Anne Haines (see blog roll) Maria Bennett who opens this particular issue, as well as Thomas O’Dore and Lylanne Musselman whose “Resurrecting Poets in 2010″ might be my favorite poem in the short but so enjoyable journal. The poems starts with “If / he returned in 2010, // would / Frank O’hara write lunch poems // on / a laptop in Starbuck’s” etc
  • For my final shout out I’d like to mention a writer I just published at Referential who has a fun blog and an online journal you guys might want to check out. Rose Hunter. Speaking of Referential. I need to finish updating a new contributor page. Finally received a nice influx of art work for my journal!

I’ve categorized the blog roll now into Lit Mags and blogs and I’ll try to keep updating it as people let me know of sites that should be added. Hope everyone has a terrific week and perhaps a book review is in order for tomorrow? Perhaps?

A Gay Review

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Saeed Jones has this great series of posts going on at his blog called: What Makes a Poem Gay? I love the discussions that go with these posts and I wanted to link to one that I found particularly quote worthy (although they have all been great). My favorite quote in this post from Ocean Vuong was: Nonetheless, a poem is gay when a gay reader can relate to it to some degree. That really opens up the sphere of what it is to “fit” a piece of writing into a social category. It makes me think of a critical theory course I took in grad school and how you can shape anything you read through the filter of theory such as women’s studies etc…

I quote this particular line as an opener to my review/discussion of the new YA novel: Will Grayson, Will Grayson which was co-written by John Green and David Levithan because at least one of the authors (if not both) is not gay.

Can non gay writers, write from a gay perspective and/or write gay characters?

WG/WG is told from two narrators in alternating chapters. Both narrators are named Will Grayson. One is gay, the other has  a gay best friend. I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreaders mainly because there were a few moments that felt too coincidental (although the authors almost make fun of the whole small world/coincidence idea) and for some of the language.

I’m not a prude by any means but for a book geared at YA readers to have so much swearing and chat sex…well …. it might be pushing it just a bit and I only say that if you are thinking of giving this to younger YA readers. The story is about 16 year olds which often means that those younger than 16 want to read it but this is one that is definitely for an older teen if not a twenty-something reader.

My favorite way to recommend books for YA readers is to say this is a good selection for parents to read and then discuss with their children. The characters are interesting, gay and non-gay, and I especially liked how the parents are represented in such a real fashion.

The book started a bit slow for me but I think that was mainly because they main characters were mostly boys so, for a while, I was having trouble getting into the mind of the teenage boy. I’m still glad I read the book and I would recommend it with the same 4 out of 5 stars I rated it on Goodreads. And since I started talking about quotes why not finish with some?

“Since when is the person you want to screw the only person you get to love? … You know what’s important? Who would you die for?”

This is a book about learning how to love and not just along sexual lines, but to those who are your friends and family. I know at least one person who mentioned they might want my copy now that I’m done!

Friday Wrap-Up

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Friday is the day where I look back on my writerly work week to see what I have or have not accomplished. I always love to hear what my readers have also accomplished, so feel free to comment!

  • Submitted: 2. 1 copy of my 3rd chapbook to a contest and a set of poems
  • Accepted: 2! YAY! I had an essay accepted (after a re-write) and a flash fiction piece (that used to be a poem) I’ll link to these when they are published in the upcoming lists but they are under my publications tab if you want a sneak peek at the journals I’ll be in. Both online.
  • Rejected: 2. One with ink that said “we like you” aww that is nice to know

On the book front, as you can see, I feel confident about my 3rd manuscript so I am going to start sending it around again. I sent it around for about 18 months from early 2008 until summer 2009 when I stopped sending it. I wrote a few new poems and I think it is much stronger now. It was a finalist before so many this new version is a winner!

I’ve made a decision on my 2nd full length book but I’ll have more details on that when I am at liberty to discuss them. hehe Sneaky!

Mostly revisions this week but I did write two new poems (one that is up on poetry Thursday) and I’m hoping to perhaps work on a few more today as I say No to housework and Yes to relaxing!

Hope everyone had a good week and that they’ll will also have a great weekend! My list of books I need to review is piling up so may blog this weekend on some of those or should I just review them on Goodreads? Decisions!