Discouragement, Nice Rejections, and Persistence
Sometimes reading an old blog post accidentally can be really enlightening. I posted about “nice rejections and the MFA blues” a few years ago, back in 2007.
http://myblog.webbish6.com/2007/02/does-anyone-write-nicer-rejection-slips.html
What’s especially interesting is that the comments were so supportive, mostly from people I’d never met (though I would meet some along the course of life as a writer.) David Barber has since continued to write me very nice rejection slips over the years. I almost look forward to them now!
I also thought it was interesting that Kelli Agodon said she had never sent to the Atlantic, and that was February of 2007. By August of 2007, her poem “How Killer Blue Irises Spread” was published in The Atlantic. John Gallaher mentions his own post-graduate blues; this is right before his second book, The Little Book of Guesses, appeared, to pretty terrific acclaim.
I was also thinking that I didn’t remember being particularly discouraged as a writer after my MFA – but apparently I was, because there is the proof, captured in an old blog post. A cycle of discouragement appears throughout the years on this blog – sometimes I’m excited and busy, like I am right now, consumed with a new project. But sometimes I feel sending out poems and manuscripts is drudgery (not the writing part, but everything that goes with writing.) Sometimes I feel happy with my work, other times not so much, but what’s interesting is the work keeps happening, whether I’m happy with it or not. My writing and submitting habits – which you could follow if you could see my files on the computer – stay remarkably consistent, regardless of what I’m feeling, apparently. Which I think is actually a good thing. Keep sending out your poems and manuscripts. Try sending somewhere you might not believe you’ll get an acceptance from. You just never know.
Cover Art – Rene Lynch’s Secret Life of the Forest "A Different Sleep"
Theme, Tone, Mood: Two Books and gluten-free banana bread
In my first couple weeks of the manuscript class I’ve been running, we’ve talked about the theme, tone, and mood of the manuscripts we’re working on. It made me think about the process of writing “Becoming the Villainess,” which began when I was in my early twenties, and the process of writing “She Returns to the Floating World,” which I started when I was in my early thirties, and how I changed during those years. The tone and mood of the two books changed as well. The first book is funnier and angrier; the second book is a little more melancholy and surreal. Though I use some similar strategies (persona poetry, mythology and pop culture references) “She Returns to the Floating World” is more bluesy, more wistful. The fact that I started writing these poems after I’d been married for ten years meant that some of that content showed up in this book, but didn’t in the first – the strange alienation that can happen between people that know each other really well, the distances between men and women. There is less violence but more of the animal nature. Illusion, transformation, disappearance. Also, you’ll see references to such anime classics as: FLCL/Fooly Cooly, My Neighbor Totoro, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Howl’s Moving Castle and many others!
Did I mention I’ve developed an anaphylaxis reaction to wheat in the last year? I’ve got a lot of French in me, so I’ve been missing my bread and cakes. For our anniversary, we tried out a new gluten-free recipe – banana bread. After a few misses – gluten-free baking can be very touchy – I think we have a hit:
Gluten free banana bread that even people who can eat wheat will like!
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup oil (We used canola.)
2 Tablespoons water
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Tablespoons molasses (for color – the bread stays very light colored without it)
1 and 1/3 cups ripe banana, smashed
3/4 Cup potato starch
2 Tablespoon potato flour
1 Cup brown rice flour
1/2 Cup white rice flour
3 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and put butter/put cooking spray on a loaf pan.
Beat eggs and sugar until frothy, and then add oil, water and molasses. Add the well-mashed banana and beat until smooth.
In a separate bowl, sift together the two rice flours, potato starch, potato flour, baking powder and salt.
Gently mix the dry ingredients into the banana and egg liquid until just combined (do not over mix).
Spread the batter evenly into the pan, and bake for about 60 minutes, or until middle is firm and the top has turned a golden brown. Let set for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Tastes great grilled and served with ice cream, yogurt, or cream cheese. Also good with coffee and brunch.
Anniversaries, Cover Art, and Twitter
Today I’m celebrating my 16th wedding anniversary. That just seems crazy – where did the time go? In Napa, the weather is really romantic this time of year – always warm with the smell of jasmine and green things, the hills with vines on them, white egrets flying in the sky and deer and jackrabbits on the trails.
Also, since I became allergic to wheat after 36 years Glenn has been diligently learning new gluten-free recipes left and right. I am thankful he is trained in chemistry and just like that Old Spice commercial guy – baking me a cake in a kitchen he built with his own hands! (Well, we’re renters, but I’m sure he could build a kitchen if he needed to.)
I’ve been thinking hard about cover art and what cover art can and can’t do for a book. Good cover art might make someone pick up a book, might give someone a correct impression of what’s inside, and acts as an adjunct for the writing. I really like Kelli’s cover art, which seems evocative and strange, something that invites rather than subtracts. You want art that invites the reader into the book. Something that communicates the mood without ruining the surprise. Also, how awesome is it to worry about cover art? So much more fun than worrying about rejections. Doing a little happy dance again for the book and for my new publisher. So many things to be thankful for this weekend!
Related to this: I promised a story about how twitter led to me finding a home for my second book. For a long time I resisted twitter. What can you do in 140 characters, I asked. Then, for some reason, I just signed up. I knew Margaret Atwood was up there, twittering away, and Aimee Mann, two artists I respected. I knew publishers – like Kitsune Books, Graywolf Press, among others – had twitter accounts. One of the terrific side-effects of signing up for a twitter account was learning more about a potential publisher and their likes/dislikes – the Kistune Books editors talked about music, querying, and publishing biz – all of which made me like them more and feel that they were a good fit for my work. This led me to the querying, and then the rest is history.
Another reason to sign up for twitter? A suprising number of job leads – people post links to jobs almost every day!
In honor of my publisher and the fox-wife theme of my new book, here is an adorable picture of baby bat-eared foxes for no reason!
Books Reviews, 5 AM, Twitter, Summertime
I have a new book review up at The Rumpus, where I compare Karyna McGlynn’s I Have to Go Back to 1994 And Kill a Girl to Twin Peaks, Momento, and Sixth Sense. It’s one of my favorite books of 2010 so far!
It is finally feeling like summer here. Wednesday we drove an hour and a half to walk on the beach and the wind was so hard and cold it blew sand into my teeth and hair but the water was so blue, the sky was cloudless. We lost twenty degrees driving out to San Francisco, what seemed like dramatically too-warm clothing at home felt too skimpy near the water. We went to the San Francisco Zoo at the Golden Gate park, the zoo is shabby and not updated except for the fantastic meerkat-and-prairie-dog exhibit which is open to the sky and has wonderful heated rocks all around. Still, though it was a sad zoo, otters showed off every time I walk by, as river otters do. The most beautiful otters. I still miss being able to go out and see otters every day on the dock at my Port Townsend beach.
For a long time I resisted twitter. Now I have an account and you can follow me there if you look me up under “Jeannine Hall Gailey” or find me @webbish6. Later I will tell the story of how twitter helped me find and fall in love with my new publisher. I actually signed up to “follow” a bunch of my favorite poetry book publishers!
My heart still hasn’t slowed down from the time I got the news about my book. I don’t think it will settle down until the book is in my hands, until then, I’ll just be a skitter mass of nerves. All things to get in order: blurbs, cover art, maybe a new author photo. I have to proofread, proofread, proofread. I’m changing order, adding new poems, deleting lines from old poems, reshaping the MS. You think it’s finished, then you realize you weren’t.
A shout out to the lit mag 5 AM as I am always pleased with the reading experience whenever I am lucky enough to get a contributor copy – the magazine falls towards the quirky and funny, along with the occasionally heartbreaking, so I guess maybe my poem “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter [circuits]” fits in alongside the “quirky” in Issue 31 with other poets such as Marge Piercy, Michael S. Harper, Charles Harper Webb, and Denise Duhamel. Buy it! Read it!
Kitsune Books – She Returns to the Floating World
So, since my new publisher just tweeted about it, I guess I can make the news official:
Kitsune Books, a wonderful publisher down in Florida of all kinds of speculative lit, has decided to accept my Japanese-folk-tale-and-anime-themed manuscript, She Returns to the Floating World, for publication (tentative publication date – late 2011!)
I am so excited to be working with them and to have a new book on the horizon! Second book second book second book!!! Thanks to everyone who has read it for me and kept encouraging me along the last few years.
Also, thanks for Valerie Loveland for her kind review of my first book, Becoming the Villainess, here.
secrets!
- At June 25, 2010
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In mysterious good news, secrets
3
I got some good news this morning, which I can’t tell you anything about until it’s official. Huge tease, I know, sorry. Yay for waking up to good things in the e-mail box…
Summer Manuscript Class – Sign Up Now!
Are you trying to put together a first collection of poems, or is your book manuscript languishing in a drawer? Do you need some feedback? Are you ready to spend some time and energy getting it into shape for the fall submission deadlines?
Then sign up for my poetry manuscript summer class, eight weeks for $250, where I’ll give you my feedback on your poetry book manuscript, plus you’ll get feedback from your classmates (and I have some great poets signed up already.) We’ll have weekly sessions with discussions and exercises on subjects like organization, theme, tone, and, of course, we’ll talk about publishing. We’ll even have visiting guests to provide advice and encouragement. Send me an e-mail at Jeannine.gailey@live.com. I’m looking to start the class July 1, and I only have space for one or two more poets!
Splinter Generation and Becoming the Villainess
Jessie Carty writes about needing a hero on Splinter Generation, and says nice things about Becoming the Villainess there. Thanks Jessie Carty! And Splinter Generation!
Seattle and Portland: Poetry Wonderlands
Getting ready to make the 12+ hour drive home to Northern California, I’m lugging way more books. There are new chapbooks by Dorianne Laux, “Dark Charms,” and Joe Millar, “Bestiary,” from the Pacific University MFA reunion last night, where I got to see Kwame Dawes, Jack Driscoll, and Pam Houston read. Yes, Kwame Dawes is as good a reader as you might think. It was wonderful to see all my former advisors – the whole faculty there are still as warm and sweet as ever – and the shiny faces of all the new students. It’s been a few years now since I graduated, so there weren’t any of my old classmates there, but I still feel a sense of pride and happiness whenever I visit. I got to hang out with my sci-fi-writing friend Felicity for a few hours beforehand too, which gave us a chance to discuss genre and the blurring of lines between literary and “other,” Michael Chabon, Margaret Atwood, Junot Diaz, etc.
Of course, due to a visit in Seattle at Open Books, I ended up with way more books than I even have time to read – the Gurlesque anthology, Canadian poet Susan Holbrook’s “Joy is So Exhausting,” an anthology of interviews called “Poetry in Person,” Allen Braden’s first book from U of Georgia Press, “A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood” – which was even better since I ran into Allen at the bookstore and had him sign it – poetry books by Stephen Burt the critic and Lisa Russ Spahr, and, my friend K. Lorraine Graham would be proud, a book of experimental feminist poetics called “Feminaissance” that has a pretty rockin’ cover as well. So I’ll have to write my next two reviews and get to reading this summer!
It was chilly and rainy almost the whole week I was visiting the Northwest, even a little chilly and rainy for Northwesterners, which is saying something. It reminded me why I owned so many sweaters and wore so few sandals when I lived up here. The other thing I was reminded of is why a community of writers counts for so much in a person’s life. I felt renewed and energized to go back home and pay attention to my writing, to revision and submitting and all the things that can sometimes feel like chores.
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.
