Redmond Reporter article and Tiny Bunnies

After last week, I needed a little good news, and yesterday, the local paper did a story on the local Poet Laureate of Redmond:
http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/168839026.html
Thanks Redmond Reporter!
And, She Returns to the Floating World had a very nice new review on Amazon that was more thorough than some of my “official” reviews! Thanks, anonymous reviewer! And remember kids, that book is going out of print in December when Kitsune Books closes, so buy your holiday copies now!

The hummingbirds are hummering around outside my window after yet another beautiful sunny day, while I am recuperating from last week’s excitement. And, to cheer you all up, here’s a picture of a local tiny bunny (we’ve been watching it since it was the size of a peanut, so we call it ‘nanobun’ or ‘peanut’) for absolutely no reason!

Fall Creeping In

I confess that since my last blog post, I’ve had two trips to the hospital – one for a pretty bad concussion and the other for a particularly nasty (food poisoning? stomach flu? evil demon?) that left me dehydrated and unable to go outside for the last two days and enjoy the spectacular beautiful weather we’ve been having. The ER doc said, “Well, your white blood cell count is 21,000, so you’re probably fighting something.” Indeed. So I haven’t been deliberately neglecting you, my e-mail, etc…it’s just that I’ve been elsewhere. Mostly, getting catscanned, IVd, etc.

It’s a good thing I bought the Hunger Games soundtrack right before these two events, because there are lyrics (from “The Civil Wars” “Kingdom Come”) that go “Don’t you fret my dear/ it’ll all be over soon” that were replaying in my head. The Hunger Games soundtrack has a beautiful Appalachian sound that reminds me of the music I used to hear growing up in Tennessee.

But, let’s hear some news about other folks, shall we?

• Kathleen Flenniken is featured in Seattle Magazine here!
• Would your book group like me to visit? What about another Northwest Poet? Check out info on “A Poet at Your Table!” at Susan Rich’s blog…
• Ever wonder about “poetry marketing advice?” This is pretty solid…

The school year is starting, the days are getting shorter. Literary magazines have re-opened to submissions. Regarding the sad book news I posted last week,  well, continue to wish me luck. May have some leads about keeping “She Returns” alive as an e-book, and am still looking for a home for “Unexplained Fevers.” I’m hoping for a luckier… and healthier… month in September…

YouDoPR Twitter Interview for Poetic PR, and Deborah Scott’s painting of a Robot Scientist’s Daughter

Have you always been curious about PR and Poetry? How does that work, anyway? I’m having a twitter conversation with the folks at YouDoPR and you! Bring questions, helpful suggestions, etc!

And, don’t worry, I’m not leaving my “career” as poet for artist’s model – yet! But Deborah Scott did a wonderful portrait called “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter” for the magazine Poets and Artists, which you can find (along with her wonderful write-up of why and how she did the piece) on page 37. The whole issue is pretty freakin’ fun to read. I’m only sad I didn’t get to put up an Ode to Deborah. She definitely deserves it. But what a great idea – artists and writers doing portraits of each other. Pretty cool! Thanks Deborah for doing the painting (in which I wobbled around on a sprained ankle, which makes for limited posing, so she definitely had her work cut out for her!)
http://poetsandartists.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/septemberlowres2012.pdf

Two Poems in The Pedestal Magazine, Plus Thanks and Plans for this Fall

First of all, thanks to all of you who wrote to me and commented on the last post. It really helps.

Second, if you’d like to read (and hear me read) two speculative poems, “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter [Apocalypse]” and “Introduction to Mutagensis” go on over to The Pedestal Magazine’s new issue here. The whole issue is wonderful. Thanks to John Amen and his editors for such good work! The celebration of speculative poetry continues. Well, except in representation at the AWP 2013 panels. Hopefully, AWP people, you will have at least one speculative poetry panel at our 2014 Seattle conference – I mean, you will be in geek territory, after all! Let’s all propose a panel on it!

Yesterday I was strolling – well, limping, with my sprained ankle that’s probably a more accurate representation of my movement – through one of the local public gardens, and there, next to a splendid set of bright dahlias, was an apple tree with fall apples all over the grass. They smelled delicious. But like fall. The air – the blue sky, the crisp sixties-temps – called for September. Usually August stays summery here, but already August is slipping away….Watermelons will disappear, replaced by delicata squash and cranberries.

My plans for fall events for the Poet Laureate program have started going into action. I have to write a PR release for the first event, the Inaugural reading (with art exhibit by Michaela Eaves) on October 6th. Set up the Redmond Library Events for “Redmond Reads Poetry” – a program to have the whole community read the same poetry book, this quarter, Kathleen Flenniken’s Plume.
I also have to start sending out poetry packets again, since it is that time of year. Have to straighten out the situation with my second book, third book, and fourth manuscript. Write some reviews. (And, of course, reading. Really enjoying “The 6.5 Habits of Moderately Successful Poets” by Jeffrey Skinner and Lesley Wheeler’s book from local sci-fi feminist press, Aqueduct Press, “The Receptionist and Other Tales,” which is almost like a collection of short stories in verse, if that makes sense.) What are your fall plans?

When Things Fall Apart: A Few Sad Announcements

Blistering Heat, Playing Hostess, Speculative Poetry and a Nice Write-up of our Geek Girl Con Panel

Sorry to be absent – it’s been a rare week of 90-degree summer days here in Seattle, so despite my sprained ankle, my husband and I have been showing my parents, who are visiting from the midwest, around to all the summertime fun available in the Seattle area. The Seattle area isn’t famous for its air conditioning or its poolside culture – almost no one has air conditioning, including most businesses – so it’s been a little bit challenging sun-dodging and searching for a cool breeze. Hilariously, because some engineer didn’t take into account that Seattle’s weather could possibly ever get this warm, they had to shut down a UW-area bridge every hour on the hour to hose it off to keep its joints from crumpling. Ah, yes, that was some civil engineering planning success there…”Hey, do you think it’ll ever get to 90 degrees here? Nope! Let’s build the bridge to only withstand temperatures to 85!” Yesterday, we took a trip North to escape the heat – ice cream and waterfront strolls in art-gallery-filled-and-tulip-famous La Conner; today we’re going to take them down to Golden Gardens park, and then maybe watch the Hunger Games. 

Thanks to Chelsea Novak of Geist Magazine, who gave our panel at Geek Girl Con on Geek Girl Poetry a nice-write up at Paperdroids:
http://www.paperdroids.com/2012/08/18/geekgirlcon-2012/
““Monster Brides, Robots, Superheroines, and Anime Girls: Geek Girl Poets!” was devoted entirely to geek-themed poetry. Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of She Returns to the Floating World (Kitsune Books) and Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books), and Lana H. Ayers, author of A New Red (Pecan Grove Press), read some of their own poems, as well as poems from other women about female characters in pop-culture. It was a funny, inspiring panel and a good way to start the second day of the conference.”

Speaking of geek-themed poetry, keep your eyes out for the new upcoming “Speculative” of The Pedestal Magazine – out August 21, I believe – and then the “Speculative” issue of Rattle, due out in December.  Is spec poetry having a moment?

If I owe you a blurb or e-mail, I’m running a bit behind on my paperwork, so please feel free to remind me!

Geek Girl Con 2012 – Notes from, including run-ins with Last Unicorn artists and Buffy Writers and More…

So, I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning to make it on time to my panel this morning at Geek Girl Con, and my biggest worry that my panelist friend and I would be greeted by an empty room at the conference center because we were the very first panel slot on the Sunday after the late Saturday night parties…but lo, there were about twenty bright-eyed and etc audience folks waiting for me as I breathlessly arrived, fired up the PowerPoint, and launched into a paper on pop culture, zombie stripper body image problems, superheroes and monsters, and other “Geek Girl Poet” matters. Afterwards Lana Ayers (my co-panelist) and I wandered the vendor fair and looked at art, then signed books for a surprising number of buyers – there is hope, people, for a poetry-buying audience, but it’s not poets buying the poetry – it’s geeks!  I have seen the future of poetry – and it might be appealing to this kind of audience.

Two great meetings – the artist behind several comic books and the beautiful graphic novel relaunch of The Last Unicorn, Renae De Liz (check out her great rendering of Wonder Woman and the Womanthology, a collection of women comic book artists’ work she put together – a gorgeous hardback books with proceeds going to charity – from female artists, ages 7 to ninety something. There’s something incredibly beautiful about an anthology so inclusive, so lovingly put together. The other really exciting encounter for me was chatting with Buffy (and Once Upon a Time) writer Jane Espenson, and explaining to her how last year at the same con I was interviewed by a news-person who mistook me for her because we had signings at the same time. (All writers look alike to the media, I joked. Which might be sort of true.)

Where to Find Me At Geek Girl Con Sunday

Geek Girl Con at the Seattle Conference Center (Across the Street from the Convention Center)

My presentation:  

Monster Brides, Robots, Superheroines, and Anime Girls: Geek Girl Poets!
What do monster brides, robots, comic book superheroines, and anime girls have in common? Poetry! These geeky awesome Northwest poets celebrate the women of the pop culture fringes in their work. They will read some poetry, discuss the inspirations for their work, and point readers towards exploration of even more geeky girl poets!
Lana Ayers and Jeannine Hall Gailey (Tiffany Midge had to cancel)
Sunday Room 204 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM  (Yes, it’s early. Bring coffee!)

University Bookstore Table Signing, in case you want to ask questions or talk or get a copy of one of my books signed – 1:45 PM – 2:30 PM

I’ll also be wondering around the vendor area after my presentation, probably buying comics and various geeky wonderful trinket-type things.

I’ll try to post about the Con tomorrow night…wish us luck!

Geek Girl Poets and Publishers Disappearing

Working on a presentation (with Lana Ayers) for Geek Girl Con on “Monster Brides, Zombies, and Superheroes: Girls Write Geek Poetry” (which will happen Sunday 10:30 AM at the Seattle Conference Center.) Am trying to decide which poems to include, handout versus no handouts, and I’m already looking forward to walking around the book/art fair afterwards and checking out local comic art, cool writers and artists, etc.

There has been a sad thing I’ve been noticing – University and small presses disappearing…People announcing on Facebook that a book will go out of print soon, or that their book has been cancelled. New Orleans University Press is being dissolved and the person who ran their press AND their MFA program is being let go (and it turns out he was an adjunct, just like me – easy to let go!) You can read more about it here. A lot of small presses haven’t been able to weather the fluctuations – with Borders closing, and small independent bookshops struggling, and an uncertain future for both e-books and print books…Anyway, it feels like a shrinking pool of both buyers and producers of poetry books.

Which leads me that bad news I’ve been hinting about. Along with being super busy planning Poet Laureate stuff, trying to get a non-existent art scene to exist in my city, teaching, freelance writing, reviewing, and trying to be a poet, I’ve been fighting against some bad news that left me floored and feeling sad in a way I wasn’t expecting. 

I won’t be able to make any announcement for a while yet, but if you’d like a print copy of She Returns to the Floating World, you’d probably better order it now. You can order it from Amazon, from me, directly from Kitsune Books for a few more months. I think Open Books in Seattle has a few copies left as well. It seems the lifespan of my second book will be shorter than the first, just two years. More about what this means about my third book in another post…

Language that Doctors Use and Toughing It Out For Poetry

There is a certain language that doctors use that makes one nervous. Once such type of language was uttered at one of my (multiple) specialist appointments this week: “You’re so brave.” When doctors start calling you brave, you start to worry. In the television movie of the week, that is never a good sign.

So, some health problems (involving, among other things, ultrasounds, EKGs, emergency room trips for loss of vision, and such fun) have been inconveniently interrupting my summer schedule of readings and gatherings. But we still managed to pull it together for Wednesday night’s Cincinnati Review reading at the Richard Hugo House, where I got to read with Don Bogen and a bunch of Seattle poetry glittering literati – Martha Silano, Carolyn Wright, Rebecca Hoogs, Megan Snyder-Camp (whom I’d somehow managed to have never met before that night,) Kelly Davio, and Priscilla Long (all pictured below.) What a great group, right?

I had a wonderful time and it was a beautiful night – that kind of 70-degree sunny evening that has been rare this year. Driving back over the bridge, the full moon was yellow and had cloud wisps over it, and a bald eagle on the bridge was silhouetted against it in the half-light. Those kinds of moments – moonlight and eagles and the water of Lake Washington – those are what make living in the Northwest worth it.

When you think about what is worth doing in life – what is worth sacrificing for, what is worth doing with your time – I rarely dream of living more hours of hospital visits and doctor’s offices, tests and record-searching. I don’t like focusing on the part of me – that is, for me, mostly the physical body – that doesn’t always work correctly. When I’m told that I’m so cheerful for someone with the problems I have, I say “what’s the alternative?” and I mean it. You either embrace what you have and keep driving, or…what? Dissolve into melancholia? Bah.

Again, in between doctor’s appointments this week, I’ve been working on an essay about speculative poetry, a review of a really good poetry book, a presentation for Geek Girl Con that I’m hoping I’ll be well enough to give. I wrote a poem. I even tried to plan some Redmond Poet Laureate stuff, wrangling budgets and meetings and contracts. This is the work I’d like to do, the me I like the focus on. I’ve had a bit of a setback as writer in the last few months too, some bad news that I can’t share yet but has really punched me in the gut with disappointment. You can’t avoid the sad or bad or hard things about life, or about being a writer, how transient everything is. I keep being reminded. You just keep doing the work.

We don’t get to choose much about lives, but we can choose what to do with time we’re given.