The Residency for my MFA was quite an adventure – got to see Yusef Komunyakaa, Dorianne Laux, and Marvin Bell read and teach – and, of all things, Sharon Olds reading humorous poetry along with a jazz bassist. Surreal. Met a lot of nice writers as well, including this wonderful fiction writer named Debra Magpie Earling, who is just a beautiful person inside and out, who writes the kind of lyrical, mesmerizing fiction that I would call some of the best poetry I’ve heard. Her new book (which is not yet published)will be fantastic, based on what I’ve heard of it.

I’ve been sick/swamped with work since I returned, which is a good thing for my freelance writing and editing business, but bad for blogging 🙂 The weather here has been perfect too, sunny and 80 with a breeze, the blue water right outside my window…ah, it takes a lot of discipline to work at all during the summers here. This morning I saw a heron, two bald eagles, and a doe walking around in my yard. Wildlife abounding.

Got a rejection note for my poetry today and that was discouraging, although it was countered by an acceptance of one of my poems in the Washington poetry anthology put out by Floating Bridge called Pontoon. I am still hoping for some good news on my poetry book, which is out at several publishers.

I’ve been writing up a storm on Web services security too, it seems. Everyone wants to know more about security, especially with all the viruses and attacks that have been raging lately. I’ve been reading all the books I could put my hands on that address this subject and if you paste them all together, they just about give you enough information. Maybe my next tech book should be on this…