Hope you all had wonderful Christmas days!
We stayed home this year, so it was pretty uneventful, except my head cold turned into bronchitis, and…
Someone left a lump of coal in my stocking!
Casually checking my book on Amazon, I noticed someone had left me a nasty bad review of my Becoming the Villainess book…on Christmas Eve! It was just so hurtful. I know we poets ought to have thick skins, but you know, you pour your heart and soul into something…anyway, it was a bitter Christmas pill and just plain discouraging. And I was already feeling a little discouraged about the whole poetry thing. I did re-arrange and re-edit the Japanese fox-wife/folk tale MS, so it’ll be ready to send out again, but I haven’t really been writing or sending out work lately. Hmmph. What’s the use of writing poems if people are just gonna hate on them anyway?
It’s a Christmas Miracle – Sunshine on Christmas Eve in the rainy Northwest! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight. Don’t forget to track Santa with NORAD!
Happy Solstice from the Snow Queen!
For those of you interested in Snow Queens and tiny little letter-pressed broadsides…
Michaela Eaves (the cover artist for Becoming the Villainess) designed this 5×7 broadside and it is now available, signed, from me! The font is a little small but otherwise our experiment turned out beautifully. It’s a limited edition of 150 and Michaela gets 75 of those, so they won’t be available forever…
Available for free (signed by the author) with any purchase of Becoming the Villainess from me:
https://webbish6.com/poetry/villainess.htm
PS Some may receive copies from Santa in their Christmas cards if they’ve been very good. Or bad. I can’t remember how the Snow Queen works. Her morality is very ambiguous and her affections random.
The Solstice, the Holidays, and Your Nerves
It seems like everyone is a little down and anxious around this time…so many family expectations, the short short days, the colds and flus going around, the dark and gloomy weather (well, in the Pacific Northwest anyway) and the general unease that comes upon us during holidays. (Did I do blank? Did I get enough blank? Did the post office lose all my mail? Will little Johnny like his gift? Etc.)
Some good remedies include:
–hot chocolate, spiced hot cider, your favorite coffee or tea – in large quantities.
–telling friends and family you love them.
–Seeking out holiday lights, places that make you feel calm (for me, bookstores.)
–Wrap yourself in your softest, warmest clothes. Wear the comfortable shoes for once.
–Read something that feels warm, like Dante’s Inferno.
–Remember the days will get longer, the sun will come back, and that everyone is human, so show a little extra patience with their/your craziness.
–Please suggest your own comforts and coping mechanisms in the comment section.
Despite the stormy weather, we’re going out to the other side of the water to see Christmas lights, I’m going to get my increasingly shaggy hair cut, and perhaps some other fun things. Though my first instinct is to hibernate, I have the feeling that getting out and doing things is part of the key to not going crazy during five hours of dim daylight.
The Bottom Line: If you sent me correspondence, rejections, acceptances, contributor copies, or anything else at my PO Box address during the last month, chances are I have not received it!
To Speak of the Woe that is the US Postal Office…
I was feeling a bit paranoid since I hadn’t received any of the PO Box mail I was supposed to be getting, but it turns out it wasn’t paranoia – the nice folks from the Sandeen Prize e-mailed me to tell me 1. that my MS wasn’t taken and 2. that their notification sent to my (expensive) PO Box in Redmond was returned undeliverable and stamped “Temporarily Away.” Holy crap! Checks that freelance customers had sent (!!!), untold rejections, all for three weeks being returned to sender. When I called the post office they couldn’t explain it, demanded to see the returned envelopes (Which duh, I don’t have, my business and writing associates would have) and generally were no help. I am writing to the Post Master about this! I could have bitten a Christmas tree in half this morning. If only more poetry book contests and open submissions took e-mail! Then I wouldn’t have these horrible headaches dealing with the terrible post office. Of course, I sent all my Christmas presents back to Ohio via UPS.
And I’m still sick. And obviously, no poetry news in the last three weeks, and I have to track down rejections from possible places that even might have sent me rejections…And the windy, blustery cold weather hasn’t really let up since I moved here. I tried to walk yesterday in the park by the ocean but the wind blew me down, and then I felt much sicker afterwards.
But, on the positive side, driving out to get soup from the coffee shop yesterday, a pair of white-headed sea eagles (commonly known as bald eagles, a terrible name) rode the wind motionless about fifteen feet above my car. I nearly wrecked trying to get a better look on them. They are really much more beautiful than you would think from their depiction on American money.
Let’s see, I got to see Matthew Zapruder and Seattle’s own Peter Pereira read at the festive Copper Canyon open house the other night. The reading was so crowded I couldn’t even see my six-foot-four husband sneak in the back of the room at the beginning, so I didn’t know he was there! I came away with some new books and a broadside and really enjoyed the reading itself – Peter read new work (which was really good!) and though I’d seen Matthew read a couple of times, this was his best reading yet.
Then yesterday we spent eight hours downtown shopping, from giant superstore Uwajimaya (notebooks, stuffed Japanese characters like Totoro and some new baby seal character, cranes in glass bulbs, so much eye candy! and actual candy!) to Nordstrom and their discount sister The Rack, and I think I actually set foot in about twenty other stores, bookstores, kitchen stores, but now I am done done done! I do love getting people presents, but…sometimes I wish I was one of those people who did everything by e-commerce.
I still have work waiting for me (another re-write of my essay, stress stress) but I was tagged by Karen W. to reveal seven crazy things about myself, so even though in general I don’t go for these meme things, I can’t risk the wrath of Karen!
–I lack the enzymes or something to process alcohol, so I can’t drink, not even a half-glass of wine. And sunlight? Pretty much a no-go as well. And garlic. So, I could very well be a vampire. Except I don’t really like blood. Even bloody meat makes me squeamish. Anyway, all those Sandals resort ads this time of year are like an evil parody of things I can’t do – tan, drink margaritas, etc. Sad. I am not, however, allergic to dairy, wheat, nuts or strawberries, or animals. So, it could be worse!
–I grew up on a farm with chickens and horses and like 20 roaming dogs and cats and acres of strawberries and used to do farm chores like gathering eggs and mucking stalls and currycombing and everything. Moving to the suburbs was very painful after that.
–When I was growing up my mother didn’t encourage me to wear pink or feminine clothes, because she didn’t think it was feminist (possibly also because she was encouraging me to wear my brother’s hand-me-down’s as well.) This may explain the amount of pink in my closet.
–I still get excited about the concept of XML.
–My single favorite Christmas present of all time was when my little brother tracked down a in-box lost toy (called a Nyamy kitten) that I was so upset someone stole at girl-scout camp when I was eight, that was only made for six months in 1980 because I believe it is stuffed with hazardous materials. It has a treasured spot in my home, with all its highly flammable parts and everything. (It actually has a warning tag that read: “danger – stuffed with iron filings.”)
Yes, the holidays are here, a time for making extra sugar cookies, seeing friends and family…and buying them presents! Specifically, poetry presents! Remember, supporting this industry (rather than some other multi-industrial-complex) might actually bring about a better, happier tomorrow!
So here are a handful of recommended poetry books (I can’t fit them all, this is just a sample of the terrific work out there) I propose you buy for your friends and family. I promise most of them won’t scare away poetry-phobes, and might be a good introduction to a whole new world of fun. The links are all to Amazon, but a lot of these are available through the publishers as well!
Becoming the Villainess is a book of poems in the voices of characters from Superheroes to fairy tale and mythological characters. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but it’s funny, approachable, and edgy – perfect for your daughter, wife, girlfriend, etc, especially if she’s supercool. A lot of guys like it too, I’ve heard.
Becoming the Villainess
Looking for more pop-culture references, play with language, and general goodness? Check out Lana Ayers’ new book, Chicken Farmer I Still Love You, worth the price of admission for the title alone, don’t you think?
Chicken Farmer I Still Love You
No, this isn’t about machine-languages, you techies. Laurel Snyder’s new book, The Myth of Simple Machines, is fresh, playful, melancholy, and fun to read. A can’t miss.
Myth of Simple Machines
For friends who can handle something a little more challenging, a little more complex, and a little sexy/grittier, I prescribe the dazzling books of Rebecca Loudon, Tarantella and Radish King:
Tarantella
Radish King
More hot, sexy, faintly disturbing, feminist genius work you say? Look no further than Kristy Bowen’s The Fever Almanac and Mary Biddinger’s Prairie Fever:
The Fever Almanac
Prairie Fever
Looking for some juicy and delicious poetry that magically makes everything taste better? Try Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Miracle Fruit. Looking for moody, witty tales of love and grace? Try her At the Drive in Volcano.
Miracle Fruit
At the Drive-in Volcano
Elegant and graceful, Suzanne Frischkorn’s work has long been dazzling me, and soon will come to feature-length fruition! Til then, her chapbooks are available here:
http://www.suzannefrischkorn.net/books.htm
Does someone you know need a vacation from heartbreak? Try Collin Kelley’s Better to Travel!
Better to Travel
Have you got a doctor or other medical professional on your list? Nothing better than kicking back between patients with the work of Dr. Peter Pereira, Poet Doctor Extraordinaire.
Saying the World
What’s Written on the Body
Inspiring, humorous, strong and generous, Kelli Russell Agodon’s Small Knots deals with breast cancer, motherhood, love and angst in even-handed and surprisingly whimsical ways.
Small Knots
Also whimsical, heart-breaking, and defiant, Oliver de la Paz delights and surprises in Names Above Houses, and takes a more serious, elegiac view in Furious Lullaby.
Names Above Houses
Furious Lullaby
Dorianne Laux’s sensitive, earthy and passionate work is a good gift for almost anyone – here are links to her newest, Facts About the Moon, and her reissued Awake:
Facts About the Moon
Awake
I mentioned this list is incomplete, since there are so many good books out there I could go on forever – Diane Lockward’s What Feeds Us, Ivy Alvarez’ Mortal, Paul Guest’s Notes to my Body Double, Rebecca Livingston’s Your Ten Favorite Words, many chapbooks by poets lile Rachel Dacus and Charles Jensen, Kathleen Flenniken’s Famous, Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life, Catherynne Valente’s spooky, mythical stories and poems – and check the blogroll for more great books too – but if you buy, please support small presses like Steel Toe Books, No Tell Books, Switchback, Wind Publicatons, and a host of others that depend on little buyers like us to survive. And giving a subscription to your favorite small magazine is always a great gift too!
Update: the hard part of this post is I keep remembering so many great books and chapbooks that came out in the last couple of years. So please, help me out by adding your fave books to my comment field!
Thanks to Kelli for pointing out this wonderful interview with Dorianne Laux, one of my favorite poets, about her new books – and if you look hard, there might even be a mention of me right beside one of my other favorite poets, Denise Duhamel. I’m honored to be in the same paragraph! Thanks Dorianne!
Heading into Ballard for a poetry reading tonight. Had a lovely time yesterday at a holiday gathering of friends, despite a persistent head cold that has rendered any talk of venturing out into the blistering cold (temps in the 30s which is awfully chilly for coastal Washington) deeply uninteresting.
Just a few days left to finish up freelance work and finish Christmas shopping for my family…
Thanks to Allen B. for sending me a link to the New Yorker’s online slide show of Fairy Tale-themed artworks:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/11/05/slideshow_071105_chast
Cool, right?
The Snow Queen broadsides should be available right before Christmas, on the 21st or right after…
I’m almost finished with my review of Margaret Atwood’s The Door. It was a hard one to write because although I’m an ardent fan of almost all of Atwood’s writing, this book just didn’t hit me as hard as most of her others. I did enjoy the attached CD, however. Atwood’s reading voice and style are exactly how you would imagine them.
Then I’ve got to work on a piece about Modern Life and Japanese pop culture. Reading Japanamerica over again and will maybe watch some Ghost in the Shell or FullMetal Alchemist for good measure. When my prose work is done, then I can think about writing (and submitting) poetry again! Got to get those two book manuscripts out into the world.
This week is a whirl of parties and (other people’s) readings, social social social. Got to drag those party clothes out from the back of the closet.
- At December 07, 2007
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Dragons, snow queens
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In the Mood for Dragons?
I almost bought a shimmery little stuffed dragon in a shop yesterday while Christmas shopping. But I refrained.
Here are two haibun about dragons from Poemeleon’s Prose Poem issue:
http://www.poemeleon.org/table-of-contents2/
They also encourage you to click on the link to their author bookstore. After all, tis the season…
Thanks for all your comments on Michaela’s lovely Snow Queen broadside. I’ll post something here when it’s available – it’s snowy! and evil! but in a holiday-themed way! (PS Not suitable for those who wear Christmas sweaters.)
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.
