Monthly Archives: July 2010

Photography as Metaphor

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I was the kid who loved to have a camera around. Perhaps that is why I always find myself using photography as a metaphor for my other love: writing.

I’ve talked a little about this before; I even planned a class on it, but today I am thinking more about the move to digital photography and how that reflects on the world of publishing.

I had a pretty early version of a digital camera while I was finishing up my undergrad degree. It was expensive and I eventually sold it on eBay (ah the early days of eBay before everyone started over charging for shipping) but I loved the idea of taking as many pictures as you want and then saving and/or printing off only the ones you liked best.

This, to me, feels like a good way to understand the current world of publishing. I might publish a few things online here and there (more and more) but the items that I really want together, I eventually want to see collected together on the page.

I’m not saying that online publishing is somehow inferior to print publishing (heck I run an online magazine!) but you are able to publish more than you can in print. You don’t have to spend money on paper (or for photography film) so you can share more.

That first digital camera I had was clunky and didn’t take particularly good photographs but now for the same price I can have an excellent 10 megapixel (or higher) camera that takes amazing pictures. I wonder if this is what will happen with e-readers? I just don’t see the joy in reading on an e-reader. It’s so plain. You don’t have a pretty color cover to turn to or blurbs on the back to scan. There is no bookmark to place. But will they, eventually, become so gorgeous (as ISSU and iPad are getting closer) that we won’t miss the heft of a book in our hands in the same way I don’t even own a film camera anymore?

I’ve just been thinking about this more as I still continue to read traditional books and to seek traditional modes of publishing while at the same time reading quite a few (probably too many) online journals but no online books?

Just things that make me go hmmmm

Friday Wrap Up

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I managed to complete my submission packets for the week yesterday but it was really draining this week. I think it is due, at least in part, to the fact that I had created so many new items (essays in particular) last week. I didn’t start much in the way of new work this week so hopefully next week will be a bit quieter.

  • Submitted: 6 including poems, fiction and non-fiction
  • Accepted: 1 non-fiction! woo hoo!
  • Rejected: 2 both fiction but one with comments

Have to laugh on the rejection where I received comments. I sent them a micro fiction piece. The comments that came back were that they liked it but wanted more development. The last time I sent that story out (in a longer form) it was rejected because it took too long to develop. Ah. What fun.

Lots of information has been going back and forth on my adjunct teaching gig. Looks like I have 3 classes for next summer and 5 for the spring. Not sure how all this will shake out but looking forward to the adventure!

On the weight loss front I am down 10 pounds after one month of working weight watchers with my husband. Having a buddy you can really count on makes a HUGE difference. Also have a copy of wii fit back (we needed a consistent scale anyway). Hoping I can keep my eating and exercise in check as I do a bit of running around.

Had been feeling slightly overwhelmed but now that I’ve updated this and balanced the check book (pay day for hubby!) I feel like I can prepare myself for journeys east, and then west and be thankful my sister is close enough by to house sit :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend and that they are enjoying the writing and/or submitting world! *hugs*

Thursday Poem Share

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Poetry Day! Poetry Day! Not only am I going to post poems today but I’m also working on submitting some while I type up this post and do other interweb related activities.

How about listening to a poet read to start your day?:

Also how about a good interview with a poet?

Now, what about my poem in progress. Hmmm…what do I have for you today…Shoot, I have nothing in my new/idea document. This means I need to type up something specifically for you guys!  (Really got behind and took me until late in the day to have a chance to type up something new from my notebook and it is a Daddy poem. SORRY! Really not sure about this one either but I’m pressed for time!)

[in revision!]

Comments on my pending work are always welcome as are your own poems and/or links to your work (or the work of others you admire) in comments.

To Poetry!

My Hidden Past

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I have been itching to make a new YouTube video for my channel but I just haven’t quite had the time. Those of you who have known me the longest already knew about my YouTube experience, but even you were always surprised by how “natural” I was on camera. I enjoy making the videos, especially the ones I don’t have to edit, but I’ll let you in on a few secrets as to why I seem so natural on camera. Perhaps you can use these if you make your own videos someday?

I am secretly a theater kid. Kind of. Even as a young child, even as an introvert, I liked reading and putting on little plays – what kid didn’t? Especially recording fake news broadcasts on an old tape player we had. Even in elementary school I wondered what it would be like to be on the stage. Maybe it was about wanting to be noticed? The only time I was ever on stage as a kid was in the school Christmas pageant (where I was always the “littlest” stocking – seriously, all three of the girls in my family played that same part in the school play!) without any lines. I had lines once. I was supposed to start singing “The First Noel” but we never practiced it and seeing the audience actually full made me clam up.

I think most of all what I liked about theater was the idea of becoming someone else for a moment. There weren’t really venues where I could have participated in theater when I was in elementary school given where I lived. There were auditions, a county away, when I was in about 3rd grade for a production of Annie but no cajoling could get anyone in my family to take me. Interestingly enough my future best friend in high school (in that other county) was in that production.

It wasn’t until Junior High that I really had a chance to participate in theater. My 8th grade elective was Theater Arts. I was intimated by my teacher though so I rarely spoke up and I wasn’t in very many parts. I should have known then that my theater days would be limited because I was so short and always tending towards the chunky side.

It didn’t stop me. These two pictures show the types of theater I ended up participating in during high school. I took three years of drama and I was on the debate/speech team for three years.  I still had issues with the types of parts I was receiving because so many people want to cast by looks. Even as this continued to be reinforced to me I tried to ignore it. I went to college as a Theater Education major and took a few classes, I was even in a student directed play twice before I finally realized I was never going to be an actress. It was more of a hobby.

What all of this theater and speech experience gave me was an understanding of how to project (for poetry readings); how to put on a persona (helps with job interviews!); how to go over in your head what you are going to say before you say it (making short videos without having to edit) and probably a lot more. I enjoyed my theater days and I’d really like to help out with some children’s theater but the local group on has professional volunteers. Yep. I don’t count for that.

You just never know what you can learn from doing something completely outside of your personality :)

Oh, and if I make some more videos what do you guys want? Book reviews? Poetry readings? Discussions of writing topics? Babble? Surprised I don’t write plays?

Aim High?

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I always carry a writing notebook with me even though I do a lot of composing on the computer. I just don’t want to have to wait for a computer or mobile device to boot up while I lose my train of thought. I also keep a long, lined post-it note in the back of the notebook with little writing tip reminders. I need to update the list because it is full, but before I do so I want to share some of the tidbits with you, dear readers. I’ve done so before but this one also ties in to some of the questions that have recently come in comments.

How do you pick where to submit?

I title this posting as Aim High because that is the note that made me want to do this post. As I went through my MFA program, and even after, I often heard the advice of “Aim High” when submitting your work. By this, most workshop leaders meant send to places with a notable reputation like Poetry, The New England Review and The Southern Review just to name a few. Don’t get me wrong, I do submit to a lot of these publications, especially if I like the work they publish but I’m not sure I’m behind the “aim high” mantra anymore.

First of all, what does it really mean to say aim high? I note what many of my workshop leaders said but what if my work doesn’t really fit into those storied publications? What if those aren’t publications I would ever read? Do I just want to submit there because having the name of one of those publications on my CV/resume/publication history looks good?

When I think of aiming high now, I think of submitting to not just the “best and old” journals out there, I think of submitting to the ones who publish work I admire. Whether that is a young start up online journal (hate to play favorite but such as “The Northville Review” and “Vox Poetica”) or a print journal with deep roots (again hate playing favorites but still “Iodine Poetry Journal” and “Rattle”), I want to send my work so I can be alongside other writers whom I admire.

It is getting close to the time of the year when I’ll start thinking about where I want to send my work next year. I normally read “Best American Poetry” (not out till September) to get some ideas by marking page numbers of poems I like then submitting to those journals. I also go back to my previous years of submits and note ones that sent me personal notes or who responded promptly and professional. I add them to the list of places to send to again. I also go back and add places that have published me before where I had a good experience to see if I can, perhaps, be a fit for them again. Throughout the year I add places that are new or new to me. It is a process that, at times, feels a bit out of hand but I enjoy planning. I’m very geeky that way.

Once I get a good comprehensive plan for next year, I’ll probably do another post to give you guys an idea of how I am going to proceed but I’d love to hear any of your questions regarding sending your work out as well as any interesting stories about your own process.

And goodness, I need to come up with a better way to submit fiction and non-fiction! I’m such a prose virgin :)

Monday Shout Outs

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Today, I think, gave me a glimpse into what my life will be like, starting August 16th, when I start teaching. It is a life I’m looking forward to but will be one where I most likely don’t have a chance to update Facebook, blog etc until after noon on M,W,F. I’ll also be teaching Tuesday nights but I don’t think that will significantly change my schedule. Although, I might make T and R mornings the days I grade papers so that I am starting a regular schedule of netbooking after noon. Decisions….

  • Here is a shout out for myself but also for a bookstore that I first heard about when I was a freshman in high school back in the dark ages of the late 80′s/early 90′s: Malaprop’s. I was VERY excited when I found out they liked my book enough to put me on the roster of readers. I’ll be reading there at 3pm along with two other poems. That’s Asheville, NC if you want to spread the word. Friday and Saturday I won’t be reading but I’ll be in the Chapel Hill area as a guest at a writer’s event (not an open to the public one) but hopefully have some free time if anyone contacts me about visiting.
  • Next up, I’d like to give a shout out to Dorothee Lang. I have published some of her artwork in Referential but I want to link to her blog so you can see all the projects she is involved in and so you can see how wonderfully she discusses the conjunctions of writing, reading and art.
  • Finished Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. I loved the movie Fight Club and I had been looking forward to reading some of Chuck’s books but I wasn’t blown away by this book. I gave it a 3 stars because I found myself largely ambivalent about the book. On one hand, it is written really, really well. There is a cadence to it (use of sentence repetition like a chorus throughout the book) that felt almost like a poem but from the get go the author warns you you aren’t going to like the narrator. And, you wan’t. He is a sexaholic just to name one of his issues. As if that as the subject matter isn’t hard enough (oh that could be a bad pun), the book itself seems to wander around a bit and ends in a place that didn’t really fit. The book is like an intriguing idea, written well, that didn’t quite know where to end. I’m still on the fence on this one. VERY MATURE MATERIAL.
  • I also finished Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg. This is subtitled: The Practice of Writing Memoir. This book was given to me when I was looking for Natalie’s famous Writing Down the Bones. I’ve been told this isn’t as good as her other books but I still found a lot of the information inside very helpful for anyone who has some non-fiction they want to write but they are not sure where to start. I wrote at least three poems while reading the book and I wrote down several essay ideas. I think I will be coming back to this book to try some more of the writing prompts when I’m stuck. I gave this a 4 out of 5 on Goodreads.
  • Final link for today is for Juked Magazine which is an online journal that has been around for quite a while. They have a great looking site, easy to use RSS feed for blog readers and terrific material. The link through to Juked is a story I particularly enjoyed.

Hope some of these shout outs are useful. Please feel free to leave your own shout out links in comments. Here is to another week *cheers*

Friday Wrap-Up

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I had a busy week on the submission front because I had a lot of recently rejected material, some older material I had gone back to revise and even a few new pieces. Imagine that!

  • Submitted: 9 Told you it was a busy week! This includes stories, essays, poetry some even to contests and one entrance for a small fellowship where you spending a Saturday teaching a class and giving a reading.
  • Accepted: Had an essay accepted for publication
  • Rejected: two sets of poems which means many more rejections to come soon.

Quick note on one of the rejections because it is important for new people sending work out. It isn’t often I am asked to specifically send work some where and one of these rejections was the case where I felt I was specifically solicited (it was hard to tell from the email-long story-since, in part, because it is email but I’m pretty sure it was a specific requested after I received positive feedback from entering the same publishers book contest which I didn’t place in). What I want to say is that just because you are solicited for work doesn’t mean it will be taken. I feel good about the work I sent but, for whatever reason, it wasn’t what they were looking for so I’ll re-read those pieces and see if they need to be revised before sending them on to the next location.

Lots of revising this week and a few new pieces. Really hauled through my old idea list to try out any pending items that were there so I could just start working on fresh material soon. Feels good to clean off the sheet and to start afresh.

It’s been pretty quiet around here so hope everyone is well. Reminds me of when I first started blogging and for at least a year I was pretty much talking to myself :)

Have a great weekend everyone!