I have to start out this post with other people’s good news:

A certain robot scientist WON the Made in Express contest – http://www.madeinexpresscontest.com/
Congrats!

Kate Greenstreet’s first book of poetry is out! I want a chance to review it.

Went to Kathleen Flenniken’s launch of her first book of poetry, Famous – her reading at Open Books was great (crowded!) and the party afterwards was rockin. Thanks Kathleen!

I’m in a tizzy trying to finish up numerous projects before I leave for my eight-day Midwestern book tour on September 30th (well, just Kentucky and Ohio!) I have to send out my third packet – including an updated thesis MS – to Pattiann, send out a couple of applications for grants, readings, and festivals before their upcoming due dates, send out my second book MS to some open reading periods and contests, send out some poems (I’ve been running behind on submissions) and I just agreed to help run a reading series on the East side of Seattle and maybe start an anthology project and…and…and….
Too late. I got exhausted just thinking about it and now I’m just going to go shower. See what happens to my momentum?
Actually I’ve been spending all my spare moments researching, trying to get ahold of obscure Japanese fairy tale index references and out of print Miyazaki interviews. I have this idea that adding quotes to my book manuscript will help readers make sense of it – it’s a collection of poems about Japanese fairy tales, especially non-human wives and rescuing older sisters, about Japanese anime heroines, and, you know, a little about me in there too (I’m the boring part!) I had my brother’s former Japanese professor take a look at it, and her husband told me he was really proud of me for knowing a certain myth – he had done a book report on the subject in grade school in Japan– that he said even most contemporary Japanese people don’t know anymore. This means I’m almost definitely sending out stuff that normal readers/judges will have no clue about. Obscurity much? Oh, and the chances of some random reader knowing Japanese mythology AND having a working knowledge of Miyazaki movies? Probably low. Why do I get obsessed with these subjects? Why can’t I just write about my nice life, walking along and seeing a cow (or, as in my real life, some cute baby otters!) and communicating the wonder of life? Or how about some nice love poems which are not in the voice of some kind of fox-bird changeling? I think I would have a much better chance if I did that. Well, I have to close my eyes and pray for an eccentric publisher to discover my brilliance. (Hahahhaahahahaha – insert other maniacal laughter here.)