- At September 25, 2006
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
7
Well, it’s no poetry bus, but I am going to be doing a bit of a book tour for the month of October…Wish me luck!
Here’s the schedule: On Saturday the 30th I leave for Cincinnati. I stay there a day or so, getting adjusted to East Coast time and saying hi to family before driving to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to speak with Tom C. Hunley’s classes and do a reading at Western Kentucky University on October the 3rd. After that, I turn around and make the five-hour drive back to Cincinnati, attend a Shakespeare play-in-the-park with the family, and then read at University of Cincinnati on Friday October 6th. On Saturday, my parents are throwing a little book-party shindig at their place in Cinci, which should be a good opportunity to see some old friends. I fly back to Seattle on Sunday, then on Wednesday the 11th, I sneak down to Portland to do a reading with the imitable Laurel Snyder, courtesy of the excellent Burnside Review guys, at Portland State University. Then, the 21st, I go up to Bellingham, WA, near the Canadian border, to do a reading at Village Books with Martha Silano, my fellow Steel Toe Books author. Anyone besides me exhausted yet? I don’t know how those Poetry Bus people do it, driving to a different city every day and reading. With no showers!
I’ve been a little under-the-weather, which is why I haven’t posted, plus I had to have a little adrenal tumor CATscanned, which isn’t too traumatic, but I’m supposed to get the results this week, dan dan dannn, which leaves one a little nervous, even though it’s probably nothing. I’m taking lots of vitamin C to prevent any colds on the trip, and was very happy to wake up today and hear the news that the TSA is going to allow liquids (such as lip balm and hand lotion, bottled water, etc.) on planes again. It was just too terrible to contemplate flying with no water bottle and no lip balm. I know, I’m spoiled. I almost contemplated taking a train (from here to Chicago, and then to Cinci) but it was too expensive. Plus I’ve submitted several packets of poems, a couple of book manuscripts, and trying to do all last-minute errands.
I’m also trying to research the history of female savior characters in Japanese mythology and anime. If you have any theories about this subject, or know of any place to read about them, please post them. Miyazai in particular builds these great myths of female heroines and links them to Japanese tradition through historical references and fairy tale structures. But I’m linking this to the legend of Queen Pimiko (or Himiko) who was one of the first documented rulers of the early tribes of Japan, and also the legend of the sun goddess. The more I study this stuff, the more interested I get. I’m currently addicted to my stack of out-of-print books from the library.
In other news, congratulate Paul Guest, who is the monthly feature at Verse Daily!
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
Tom C. Hunley
We’re all looking forward to your visit, Jeannine. Fliers just went up all over the building today, and I’m hoping to get some coverage in both the college newspaper and the city paper. I’ll email you in a day or so to make sure you have all my contact info and to find out where you’re staying in Bowling Green.
Tom
Oliver de la Paz
I’ll see you at Village Books, Jeannine!
Tamara Kaye Sellman
Thumbs up to you on the lip balm and water bottle, J9! And have a great tour, c u soon,
Tamara
Chuck Williamson
Ditto what Tom said. I have read through Becoming the Villainess frontwards and backwards many times now, and the thing just borders on miraculous every time I read it. So you can imagine I’m very anxious to meet you and see you read. So expect there to be one froth-mouthed fan in attendance.
I am beside myself with excitement — but not literally, because that would mean something supernatural was afoot.
jeannine
Thanks Tom!
Oliver – that would be terrific! I’m hoping to see you read in Seattle soon!
Thanks Tamara and Chuck – supernatural extra selves welcome 🙂
Peter
What a road trip! Have a great time and good luck!
xop
Rusty
There is a Chinese myth about Hangzhou, a city that (according to my Lonely Planet) Marco Polo called “one of the most magnificent in the world.”
The myth is about a young man who sees a beautiful woman and her “sister” (in this case, more like a kindred spirit rather than a blood relative) on the Broken Bridge of West Lake in Hangzhou. The young man was handsome, and the woman fell in love with him. Turns out, the woman was really an ancient snake (as was her sister), with magical powers and human form. She eventually married the young man and helped him cure people with her magic and his traditional Chinese medicine. Then one day a Buddhist monk came to town, intent on killing “the monster” even though the woman was kind-hearted. The young man doesn’t believe the monk, but eventually discovers his wife’s true nature and dies of shock. She is so sad that she flies to the realm of the gods on a tall mountain (not sure which of the holy mountains this is, I think it may have been Taishan) to get a special flower which will return her husband to life. She has to fight off the guardian gods of the place after she steals the flower, and eventually receives pity from the king of the gods for her plight. She returns her husband to life, and he forgets that his wife is a snake. The monk returns though, and he sort of kidnaps the young man, and the woman and her sister are forced to get all magical Kung-fu on him with an enourmous army. But the woman (she is called the White Lady) is eventually defeated and imprisoned in a tower by the monk. The husband eventually dies of old age; but their son and Blue (or sometimes Green, the sister) free White Lady later.
Anyway, a little Chinese female savior character story. It’s a famous traditional opera, novel, and even a kung fu soap opera over here.