Do People Buy Books? Followers and Publishing, Plus a Reading and Class Visit Reports, Typewriters, Art Birthdays, and More

typewriter in my yard with cherry blossoms

Do People Buy Books? And Followers and Publishing, Thoughts on Two Threads on Social Media This Week

The end of National Poetry Month, and of course, I celebrate my birthday on the very last day of April. The news has been tumultuous lately, as has my personal life (MS flareups and a family member in the hospital this week, among other things), so it’s hard to for me sometimes to sort through the noise on social media to pick up on interesting or pertinent threads. But these two stuck out to me:

Pink dogwood, blue sky

First, there was an article “No One Buys Books” (with a rather negative tone, but a lot of useful numbers to people interested in book publishing and PR), and in a separate conversation, a friend of mine posted how a press had turned down her non-fiction book because they preferred “writers with 100,000 followers” (on what platform? no idea!) Both of these conversations seemed to cause a lot of angst and even despair, so I’m just going to do a little counterpoint to both right here. Listen: I watch a lot of film noir, I haven’t had an easy or charmed life (just check out my blog from the past ten years to see what I mean,) and I’m just as cynical as the next person when it comes to publishing industry, and I have my dark days, but…

1. Probably no one is publishing you – or not publishing you – because of your social media following. I mean, will it hurt you to have a solid social media following? Probably not. But it doesn’t guarantee you anything either. Are our followers even buying our books? That’s a very good question. Maybe you’re fun to follow on social media but your followers are not poetry fans. So, maybe, but maybe not. It’s not worth stressing out over. I mean, yes, if you want to be a successful writer (however one defines that,) put up a decent web site, get on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or whatever you want, and is it bad to be entertaining and insightful and talk about books (sometimes your own, sometimes others’?) No.
2. Yes, some people are still buying books – I buy books, my brother in tech buys books, my parents buy books, my friends buy books. I often buy people books as gifts. I receive books as gifts. So, are most book sales the Bible or Harry Potter or LOTR, as the article said? Maybe so. But I have had friends on the NYT bestseller lists. (Not poetry books, but they were poets!) I know plenty of us poets who have sold 1000 copies of their books (or over.) So it’s not some impossible dream. (Listen, this is why I wrote PR for Poets – so poets could sell more than the 50-100 books that might be the norm for most books. I didn’t write it to waste your time, or mine. Most of it is not lies. Basic PR and marketing – even if you have to do DIY – still works, maybe not as well or as fast as it used to, but that’s no reason to say “no one buys books” or “publishing a book is not worth your time.”
3. Pessimism isn’t always useful, and I know this, because I’m a half-pessimist myself. Optimism is much better at increasing your chances of winning – your chances of doing the things you want to do, and accomplishing what you want to accomplish. No one is looking at the bright side right now – the upcoming election, the Bird flu, the Middle East, Russia – and I understand why. But guess what? Yes colleges are closing because they lack financial stability, yes, book publishing as a business is very poorly run right now by people who are looking at profit not promise, yes, people read less than they used to. And things are expensive right now – that might be slowing books sales as well. But none of this is a reason to throw up your hands, and sigh, and give up. I haven’t and I’m just a poet. So, that’s my two cents.

Sunset with sculptures, Kirkland

Reading and Class Visit Reports

So, this week was pretty eventful for me poetry-activity wise. First, a reading with some Jack Straw alums in downtown Seattle, which went great—I loved seeing friends and hearing the other writers—and not-so-great—my MS was really acting up, leading to me losing balance in the middle of the reading and having problems with breathing. You can see the whole reading below—I’m the first reader—and see the trouble I was having (and also hear some poems from Flare, Corona you might not have heard before).

Then I had a class visit I was invited to, which went great—except that part of the class was missing because of campus things, students feeling threatened or scared to be on campus because of protests and students participating in protests. Besides that, the conversation was great, the questions asked by the students were intelligent, and the professor who invited me was wonderful. I wonder right now, with colleges shutting down left and right and the scary stuff on the news about students being attacked and/or arrested, what I would do if I were an in-person professor right now instead of a home-based freelance writer and editor. It definitely seems more stressful now that it did when I was getting my degrees, or when I was adjunct teaching. Anyway, I hope the talk was useful to the students, because writers, as I’ve mentioned, are in an anxious moment in many ways.

Crabapple blossoms

Typewriters, Art, Birthdays, and More

So, a little early birthday celebration involved art—a beautiful art book Glenn got me of Frida Kahlo, her complete paintings and illustrated journal pages and photographs of her throughout her life, big and glossy (and twelve pounds! almost too heavy for me to lift!)—a framed print that Dewi Plass made for me of her painting, “Dreaming of Dragons” (which she had already sold, but she ran a limited edition for me! You can see her handwriting her on the print in pencil).

Here it is below:

Art book – complete paintings of Frida Kahlo

Some birthdays (like last year) involve big parties, but this one was quiet, which was fine given my health stuff, and involves art and my little brother (who I haven’t seen in a while) coming over for dinner. Speaking of art, I’m thinking of making some stationary with my typewriter art photos, like the one at the top of the post. Is this something you’d be interested in? Anyone have any good ideas about finding a good place to make custom stationary with photographs? I might have to start at Etsy shop! LOL. The last refuge of the creative?

On the last day of April, I hope for some modest fun – my brother over for dinner, a visit to the local bookstore and Paper Source, maybe, if the weather’s good, a walk around to look at everything that’s blooming (wisteria! lilac!) that I haven’t been out to see because mostly it’s been rainy and cold. I want to get back to some writing, too, since it feels like I haven’t been doing it enough. Too much bad news, not enough writing – not a good state for the soul. Looking at art, spending time in the garden, with friends and family – I know those things help, at least they help me. I wish you a happy ending to National Poetry Month, to April, and wishing you some peace instead of anxiety, some inspiration instead of discouragement, love and kindness instead of injustice and meanness. I wish you lilacs in your path.

Last Days of 50, Catching Up on Pop Culture, Reading This Week in Seattle, Tulip Festivals, Risk vs Reward and Knowing Your Limits

Last Days of 50

It’s about a week until my 51^st birthday, so these are the last days of being 50! Glenn took me up to the tulip festival a few days ago to celebrate, hence some beautiful pictures of tulips, on days when we surprisingly had really nice weather—sunny, windy, not too hot. I have been feeling my age—or maybe it’s an upper respiratory infection I’ve been fighting for two weeks, MS, or my anemia—anyway, I haven’t had much get up and go, honestly. It doesn’t seem very rock-n-roll.

Being a little down—with the addition of some car travel time—allowed me to consume some modern culture. I listened to Beyonce’s new “country” album—though I would call it more a mashup of country, folk, gospel, and blues, and hey, I loved listening to it (and actually hearing Beyonce’s voice for a change—it’s a surprise to hear her voice mixed so that you can actually hear with warm timbre). And of course, listened to Taylor’s The Tortured Poetry Department Anthology—only really loved one or two of the songs, like “Florida” and “Clara Bow,” unlike the way I instantly loved Evermore. Also, I was expecting more poets to show up in her album! I also watched the new Dune part II, which while something of a spectacle, had very strange pacing—a problem with the first Dune as well. Now, I’d love to see David Lynch’s original five hour cut that never got aired years ago. The whole book (and movie) is a pretty straight- up metaphor for countries battling over oil in the Middle East, along with a strong critique of religions in general. Of course, it was written in the seventies, and those themes were everywhere then.

Reading This Week in Seattle with Jack Straw Alumni

In a rare real-life appearance this week, I’m reading with the Jack Straw alumni in downtown Seattle Wednesday night at 7 PM at the Jack Straw Cultural Center. I’m only reading for about ten minutes, but my book will be there so if you haven’t gotten a signed copy from me yet, this is a good chance! I’m also doing an online appearance the next day for a class, which should be fun. I just need some energy back!

Tulips and Risk vs Reward

As I said, I’ve been feeling a little under the weather but Glenn took me for my birthday up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Afterwards I couldn’t make my legs work for a while (an MS thing—when you push yourself, stuff stops working) and I was exhausted, but today I was so happy I experienced the beauty and the sunshine and the positive experiences interacting with people and the art show (women artists on forests) at the Museum of Northwest Art and seeing all the flowers and one field of scented tulips (?) and the hyacinths and apple trees and yes, the pictures are wonderful and fun to take, but sometimes it pays to take a little risk—in my case, making my MS symptoms a little worse—to experience something that makes you happy and your life better. Risk vs reward, another lesson?

As I get older, I need to learn to practice self-care, acknowledge my limits, and also, when to take a shot at something that might be a little bit hard. It’s hard to know the exact right balance. If any of you have all the answers, let me know. Anyway, I think I will enjoy feeling like a real poet again this week.

Upcoming Reading with Jack Straw, Unreasonable Hope (in Hard Times), Meanwhile Cherry Blossoms

Upcoming Reading with Jack Straw April 24

Jack Straw, the program for writers, has decided to do a Jack Straw Alumni Poetry reading series celebrating those of us with books that have come out in the last year or so and I will be part of it! On April 24th at 7 PM at the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle, I’ll be reading with other great writers (and friends), and the host will be Kathleen Flenniken. I hope you can come out!

I haven’t done a live reading in a little while (save an open mic at my book club recently) and I’m a little nervous. Then the next day I have a virtual class visit that I’m really looking forward to!  It’s a reminder that even with everything going on, April is still poetry month.

Unreasonable Hope (in Hard Times)

Sometimes life requires perseverance and hope that is not logical.
I planted this cherry tree after I was diagnosed with terminal cancer and then MS, after the 2017 solar eclipse. Now it is over 20 feet tall and in bloom.
The day I took this picture, a few days ago, I was told by one of my doctors I should stop trying to make money and go on disability (not an easy process—or one I want to go through at this point), then went to the book club I curate for a Woodinville winery where we did a book-club open mic and I stayed late until the stars came out, and I looked up and saw a crescent moon weirdly aligned with a bunch of planets. I felt alive and connected to my community and able to contribute.
Today’s news with “WWIII” trending on Twitter and the threat of global war seems very dark, and outside of my control.
Sometimes you have to continue on with life even when confronted with things that could leave us feeling that hope is unreasonable. Sometimes it’s important to call the people you love just to tell them you love them. It’s important to plant something that looks like a small dead stick in the ground and hope something will come of it. The world feels hard and unforgiving right now. If it feels that way to you, too, you are not.

Meanwhile, Cherry Blossoms

Today we had a breath of real spring—above 50°F, finally, some sunshine, and the final set of cherry trees responded accordingly. Today, Glenn and I drove around to look at different patches around our side of town, and along the way we stopped to get flowers and go to the bookstore where I noticed all these children of different nationalities, speaking different languages, and the harassed parents running after them, and it felt like: all people don’t want to kill each other. People just want to give their kids ice cream and walk in the sunshine with the cherry blossoms. And I felt, briefly, illogically happy. No one reports: peace breaks out unexpectedly! Some place was blaring “La Vie en Rose.” Anyway, every day can offer these brief glimpses into an alternate universe, but we have to keep looking.

Solar Eclipse Reading Material (and book birthdays), Flare, Corona, Under the Weather in Springtime, More Reading Notes, and Upcoming Zoom Classes and Readings

Solar Eclipse Reading Material (and Book Birthdays)—Flare, Corona

The solar eclipse is tomorrow, and it’s almost my (and my book’s) birthday, so may I suggest some eclipse reading material? Flare, Corona has eclipses, solar weather, supervillains, terrible diagnoses, surviving, and a surprising number of foxes and coyotes. You can order Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, Ltd., or from local bookstores like Open Books, or a signed copy directly from me. Okay, that’s enough eclipse cross-promotion for now.

I was thinking about my last birthday, and the book launch last year, and seeing my parents and little brother and friends all together. It was a really fun day. The last four years have not had enough celebration in them. I’ve been so stressed lately I haven’t taken the time to be grateful for the good things that have happened in the last year. Even in the last couple weeks, when I’ve been stressed about a) trying to get an ADA bathroom remodel done without losing my mind or all my money, b) my purpose as a writer, and c) just general depression, I’ve had so many friends encouraging and supporting me, so thank you to all of you who sent me a little note or bothered to say something nice. I am grateful to you!

And, thanks to friends’ encouragement, I’m going to run a few Zoom classes, including one on “Possible Futures: Apocalypses and Solarpunk,” and another on persona poetry. I may also run one on PR for Poets if there’s enough interest, which instead of generating poems, would include Q&A.  (Let me know in the comments if you’d be interested!)

I’m also doing a live in-person reading as part of a Jack Straw Reunion special at the Jack Straw Cultural Center on the evening of April 24, with other Jack Straw Alumni and friends. My first in-person reading in a while, so if you’re in the area and free check it out! 

I did get the good news that I’ll be doing a writing residency on San Juan Island this summer, which will mean…two residencies in a single year…I’ve never done that before. It really does help when I’ve got a manuscript I’m working on and new poems that need to be written.

(It also turns out my foot bones were not broken as I feared last week, just soft-tissue damaged, so I only have to stay off the foot for a couple of weeks while it heals, and side note, my foot bones are stronger and thicker now in x-rays than my x-rays six years ago! Take that, age related bone density! In all seriousness, I think this is because I’ve been able to exercise more in the past six years, ironically, since my MS diagnosis in 2017, because the diagnosis led to more intense physical therapy, and now I am able to do much more outside than I used to be able to. So see, even things to be grateful for that I didn’t realize I’d be grateful for, like getting diagnosed with MS, which led, ironically, to better physical health.)

Fox statue with pink rhododendrons

Under the Weather in Springtime (and National Poetry Month)

I love April, and I’m usually fairly healthy in spring, but I’ve been taken down by another upper respiratory bug this last week (not covid, but still unpleasant), the weather’s been unseasonably grey and cold, plus foot injury recovery, so I’ve mostly been staying in.

Despite being sick, spring continues all around, this week with blooming rhododendrons and tulips starting. I hope I’ll be well enough next week to get up to La Conner to see the tulip fields there, which we always try to do around my birthday. I love it up there. I always come back feeling inspired. And thinking about retiring to a farm with miniature horses.

More Reading Notes

Two books this week that are worth noting are The Husbands: a Novel by first time novelist (and former game designer) Holly Gramazio. The premise is that a single woman comes home from a party to find that she is married to a man she has never met, and that when she sends a husband into her attic, a new husband appears, and her apartment (and life) change accordingly. You can tell the book was written by someone who loves math and gardening. No spoilers, but the book ends up being quite a meditation on marriage and the importance of (and dangers of) regretting your “what if’s.” It’s lighter than my usual fare, but speculative enough to keep my interest, and I read the whole thing in one sitting.

My other read was my Bookwalter Winery Book Club Pick for National Poetry Month, Terrance Hayes’ So to Speak. It’s a bit quieter (more meditative?) than Hayes’ previous books, as he takes on topics like the pandemic, and makes references to his previous book, American Sonnets for My Once and Future Assassin, and even has a comic based on Octavia Butler (one of my favorite solarpunks) and DIY sestina exercises complete with charts and graphs. It’s an enjoyable read, even if you haven’t already been introduced to his work, and if you were already a fan, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at some of this new work. If you’d like to join the book club, we’ll also be doing a brief open mic after the book discussion. It’s at the Bookwalter Winery tasting room in Woodinville, we meet at 6:30 April 10, and yes there will be wine!

Keep your eyes open for more information about the upcoming readings and Zoom classes. Enjoy your eclipse!

Hoppy Easter and Spring Awakenings, Weird Vibes in the Lit World, Stress Fractures in Home and Body, More Reading Notes

Bunny with Daffodils, back yard

Happy Easter and Spring Awakenings

Hoppy (or Happy) Easter to those who celebrate, and a happy spring to all! Though our weather is still indecisive—one day, a breezy 57° and another day, freezing rain—signs of spring are all around—cherry blossoms, daffodil, quince, camellia are brightening our Pacific Northwest landscapes. I even saw three kite surfers at a time in Kirkland and managed to snap a pic. The second round of cherry blossoms have bloomed, though the late-blooming cherries have not yet opened, and that’s probably a good thing given we’re supposed to get freezing temperatures again tomorrow.

But let’s focus on all those blooming flowers and a possibly early-ish spring approaching.

Bunny statue in Kirkland

Weird Vibes in the Literary World

There have been a lot of weird vibes in the lit world this week, from the surprising closure of SPD, a distribution center that has been the sole source of distribution for many small presses and literary magazines, who also stiffed all those nice presses and lit mags for their sales in the last year, so if you have extra money, be sure to order your poetry books straight from your favorite small press. There was a weird article from a 27-year-old about marrying someone older being the key to solving all your life goals as a woman and a writer which had a lot of weirdly internalized misogyny and tradwife vibes. (Um, nope, say all the members of my family who have huge age differences in their marriages.) Also, just general negativity and snarkiness, which always feels like it’s amplified by the internet.

Tomorrow, National Poetry Month begins, and I’m doing several appearances and readings, including a reunion reading with Jack Straw writers and a class visit to a university or two. Ironically, April becomes a little harder to write and submit during, because so many of us are busy organizing book club poetry readings or class visits or other things to promote poetry in our communities. America in general does not seem very interested in poetry right now, though its citizens are reportedly lonely and depressed at record levels. (Not that poetry is a cure-all, but it can help you feel not so alone.) It seems like decreasing money towards the arts in general is starting to have spiraling consequences, which is a bummer if you are an artist and you need money to live, like many of us.

Me with white cherry blossoms and Lake Washington

Stress Fractures in my Personal Life and Body

In my personal life, I’ve been very stressed out by the fact that the company we hired to redo our main bath to make it ADA accessible doubled their original estimate, and then after we signed a contract, added another 50 percent to it. I’m not sure whether to cry or call a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure one of those things is the answer. Add to that I had an accident this weekend in my non-ADA shower that may have resulted in a possibly broken foot, it’s just been one of those weeks. You know, those weeks where you wake up heart-racing and weeping with stress at 4 am. That’s not normal, right?

I’m still struggling to figure out how to make money and feel like I’m able to financially contribute, despite my physical problems. It’s hard to feel “useless” to society that bases so much on how much money, what your job is, how able-bodied, beautiful, successful, healthy, you are. It was a good week to watch Frida, a semi-animated documentary about Frida Kahlo in her own words and illustrations, see notes below. Sure, I have health problems, but hey, how many months have I spent in a full-body cast? Even if your answer is more than one, it still wouldn’t be as much time as Frida did.

Easter with white cherry blossoms

More Reading (and Watching) Notes

So, I finished up Emily Van Duyne’s Loving Sylvia Plath: a Reclamation, which I have to say answered a lot of questions, and also will enrage and simultaneously explain why you might have been made fun of and/or belittled for daring to appreciate Sylvia Plath’s writing your whole life (spoiler alert: the result of a lot of men belittling Sylvia’s writing and life after her death.) The author also did an interesting thing by including some personal life details that must have been unsettling to write about given her subject matter, but her vulnerability allows the book to resonate even more.

I watched the wonderful animated semi-documentary, Frida, on Amazon Prime, which includes her paintings and animations from her illustrated diary, letters to and from lovers, her struggles with her health and her art (things I didn’t know: she never sold a painting ’til after she divorced Diego, and when she remarried him she made him sign a no-sex contract),  Frida, like Sylvia, was a frustrated, underappreciated female artist with a cheating spouse, but unlike Sylvia, had no big help from kind wealthy folks or grants or supporters early in life, a lot of really bad health luck (even beyond the bus accident, which left her alive but suffering and in pain for most of the rest of her life, and at the hands of surgeons who may have just made things worse). But she channeled her anger into her amazing art, directing her anger at, in her words, a “bourgeois, petty” art world, a husband with a huge ego and a problem being faithful but simultaneously being super jealous, and yes, a body that left her feeling trapped and broken and unable to do many of the things she dreamed of. (Originally, before the accident, she went to a prep school with dreams of becoming a doctor, which would have been just as revolutionary in her time as being an artist.) By the time she had successful shows in New York and her home, Mexico, she would almost be at the end of her life. Yes, I cried at the end of the movie, because you realize that Frida but it also really inspired me to be a tougher version of myself, because even at her hardest moments, she exuded passion, glamour, bravery and a strangely fierce embrace of her own uniqueness.

I’ve also been reading Percival Everett’s Erasure, the book on which Oscar-winning American Fiction was based, and it is even better than the movie, so if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, do both. No surprise, the novel is more nuanced, funny and clever than the movie, and just a different experience. Yes, it’s a fascinating satire of academia and the publishing world’s standards and regulations of artists who are people of color, but also a whole new take on race in America. And it was written back in 2008.

Also, speaking of the intersections of race and art, Beyonce’s newest country album (which shouldn’t really surprise us, because she grew up in Houston and has performed at rodeos multiple times) has spawned several mini-documentaries of the influences of Carribean and African music on what’s thought of as country and Appalachian music, and the sort of erasure of black country artists from the beginning of country music’s history. One of the shows featured one of my personal favorite musicians, Rhiannon Giddens, who plays banjo on Beyonce’s album, and is a tremendous artist and music researcher documentarian in her own right. So if you get time, pick up one of her albums as well, because she is definitely worth a listen, and I’m glad people are talking about the weird idea that country music is only for white people (because historically it’s just not the case).

Anyway, it seems that my reading and viewing choices have been all about people who embrace their art in a world that isn’t particularly receptive for whatever arbitrary (racism, sexism, etc…) reasons, and how many artists don’t relate to that? Wishing you a happy National Poetry Month!