Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Page for Flare, Corona, a New Poem in The Indianapolis Review, Welcome to the Big Dark: November, Twitter, Voting, Book Club

Cover Reveal for Flare, Corona (and Pre-Order Page is Up!)

I am so excited to finally reveal the cover of the upcoming Flare, Corona officially! Here it is! I am posting this a little earlier in the week than I usually do, but I thought I had enough news to justify it…

Designed by Sandy Knight at BOA Editions, the cover art is meant to suggest both an eclipse, a solar flare with corona, and the neurons that are attacked and inflamed during an MS flare. This was a harder cover than usual to think about in terms of design. There’s a lot of solar weather in there, I wanted the idea of the neurons, I thought about adding other things from the natural world. But in the end, this simple, striking design won out. As you may notice, the web site looks a little different too!

And here we have the official pre-order page from BOA Editions. The book will be out in spring 2023. Pre-orders really help gauge the size of the print run, generally, so each one is a help! Thank you in advance! I am so excited to be at Seattle’s AWP in person (hopefully protected by a new infusion called Evushield which supposedly protects the immune-suppressed for up to six months) and sign books (and hug people again).

A New Poem in the Indianapolis Review

I’m also pleased to share a new poem in the current issue of The Indianapolis Review, “Self-Portrait at Midlife as Horror Story.” A sneak peek at the poem below. This whole issue is terrific, and not just because it has a bunch of my poet friends in it! (Hi, Martha Silano, Emily Perez, Luke Johnson, Donna Vorreyer!)

Happy November, Voting, Twitter Thoughts, and More

It’s November, which is Seattle means the beginning of the long dark—after the time change, it will get dark—if it ever gets light enough with the rain—at 4 PM. It can be a tough time of year for a lot of people—the holidays, voting, Twitter being taken over by billionaires because they’re cranky someone didn’t let them tweet a conspiracy theory or something racist. Hey, I am with you. Washington State has a very close race between an anti-abortion Trumper named Tiffani Smiley and Patti Murray. I hope everyone gets out and votes. So much angst in the air right now. Antonio Gramsci’s quote, “The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters” seems apropos. Poetry prompt? Is now the time of monsters?

I had a great time on the Halloween podcast with Rattle—if you want to catch it, I think you can still watch it here on YouTube. It starts at about minute ten. Spooky poetry, PR for Poets, poems from the new book, and various side discussions in which I get pretty silly.

As for Twitter, I’m not leaving yet, but not because I’m such a fan of Elon—after all, I’m still on Facebook, and that’s not exactly run by a saint. But I’ll monitor how things go. So far, my Twitter feed looks pretty much the same, except a little smaller, but I mostly follow poets, mute anything even slightly likely to bring out trolls, and only go about once a day. I started Twitter for the same reason I started on Instagram—reluctantly, but because my poet friends were there. I’ll probably stay until that ceases to be the case. I can only hope we move from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter onto some better online networks eventually.

I got good news on one of my health scares from the last post—so far, they don’t think my thyroid tumor looks like cancer, so just monitoring it for the time being. And I’m possibly finally going to get the Evushield I was approved for months ago? I’m allergic to a preservative they use in the MRNA shots, and the J&J shot caused some other side effects, so Evushield would be my safety—and I’d finally be able to socialize, go to museums and shops, you know, participate in the world without as much fear. (I just got over a virus that was not flu or covid, and it was still pretty vicious, so, you know, I still have to be pretty cautious. No licking strangers for me!) This month is a bear, full of specialists discussing scary topics (possible liver cancer and biopsy, my bleeding disorder, etc), so I’ve got to schedule in some fun too. This is an important survival skill for the chronically ill/disabled, because it’s very easy for your whole life to be about blood draws and waiting rooms and grim-faced doctors who you have to tell your story to for the 4,000th time. You’ve got to schedule a little fun in between.

Oh, one thing I am looking forward to the next book club at Woodinville’s J. Bookwalter’s Winery on Nov 9th at 6 PM. Ward off those cold chills with wine and book talk! We’ll be discussing Melissa Studdard’s funny, sassy, moving book of poetry, Dear Selection Committee. We will probably be meeting inside, so mask to your comfort, and I will be bringing an air purifier with me!

Happy Halloween, Spooky Poetry RattleCast This Sunday, More Health Scares, and A New Blurb for Flare, Corona

Happy Halloween! Scary Poetry, Podcasts, and Health Stuff

Wishing you all a happy Halloween! Tomorrow is supposed to be drenched in rain, so we visited the pumpkin farm for the last time today. Glenn wore a raven, I wore a witch’s hat, you know, the same old. Our house has an appropriate number of pumpkins, we have plenty of candy for trick or treaters who brave the rain, and we have plenty of reading material to enjoy during a rainy Halloween.

I have some poems coming out online soon to share and a spooky poetry podcast tomorrow, and I’ve had a bit of a health scare (at least it’s scary at the appropriate time of year!)

I’ll be reading some poems from the new book for the first time and some poems from Flare, Corona. I’m so appreciate of Rattle for giving me the opportunity! I’m also getting ready for our Read Between the Wines book club meeting on November 9 at J. Bookwalter winery, where we’ll be discussing poetry! This time, Melissa Studdard’s Dear Selection Committee, which I think is a great book for introducing people who might not usually read poetry to some fun, sexy, satirical poems.

Herbfarm decor

Spooky Poetry – I’m featured on Rattle’s Podcast This Sunday, 5 PM Pacific/8 Eastern

I’ll be reading on the RattleCast live this Sunday at 5 PM Pacific- this is the YouTube live link and there’s an open mic after if you want to join in – and I’ll be reading a Halloween-appropriate few poems from Field Guide to the End of the World and a few from the upcoming Flare, Corona, as well as making some reading recommendations. Hope to see you there!

It will also be archived at this link: Rattlecast | Rattle: Poetry

Hope to see you there! Woooooooo – spooky!

Apple Tree, Woodinville

More Health Scares

Among more normal Halloween activities, I’ve also had a bit of a health scare – my thyroid, this time. Think good thoughts for me. They’re also informing me about an updated scan of my liver tumors, which have been increasing in number over the last few years. All my scary doctor appointments are in November, for some reason – 10 doctor appointments, all important, all un-reschedulable, in November. Not my idea of a good time. So, if I’m behind on something or don’t get back to you as fast as usual, you’ll know why. I’ll be trying to counter the stress of all these doctor’s appointments with some fun November things – maybe a zoo visit (the holiday lights start fairly early), or the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, or Japanese Gardens – all weather dependent, of course. And I have the book club to look forward to! And maybe a new book cover reveal next week!

Fox statue, Redmond

More blurbs!

Did I mention I’m showing a new blurb for Flare, Corona, this time from another poetry superhero, Dana Levin, truly a dream blurber of mine!

Some Good News from AWP, A Quote in Poets & Writers, Blurbs for Flare, Corona, and Visiting with Writer Friends as Smoke Season Turns to Rain Season

Red sunflowers, last week of sun in October

A Week of Smoke, Good Poetry News, and Visits with Poet Friends

It’s been a week! We were mostly trapped indoors by smoke—except for a brief window where I saw poet friend Martha Silano and we went to our local pumpkin farm. I even had to cancel our wine book club due to dangerous air—over 300 AQI, which was disappointing.  Yesterday, we finally got some long-needed rain—which is supposed to last every day ’til past Halloween. Ah, smoke season turning to rain season. But it is nice to be able to breathe outside again!

I had some good news from AWP, then an unexpected appearance in the latest issue of Poets & Writers—both of which were a much-appreciated mood lift. I’m also starting to post blurbs for Flare, Corona, as a prelude to the cover reveal. This book is starting to feel real!

Martha and I with pumpkin and fox

Visits with Poet Friends—Martha Silano and Pumpkin Farms

I was very fortunate to see my poet friend Martha for short visit last Sunday, during which time the wind blew miraculously through in the right direction to give us three hours of relatively clean air—which we took advantage of by going to the local pumpkin farm. It was 85 degrees! Today our high was around 50. Talk about abrupt season changes.

We talked about the Skagit poetry festival, about submitting and rejection, and I spilled about my anxieties about my upcoming book. I am so lucky to have friends with whom I can share these kinds of things. It’s been fairly isolating during the pandemic, and so I appreciate these safe (as can be) in-person visits more than I can say.

Blurbs for Flare, Corona

So, I’m posting a few blurbs for Flare, Corona, this one from wonderful poet Beth Ann Fennelly. It literally brought tears to my eyes, when I first read it.

A Little Appearance in Poets & Writers

I received my issue of the new November/December Poets & Writers and was reading through it when I was surprised to see my name, and a call-out to PR for Poets, in an article by Nancy Reddy on Indie Publicists and Small Press Authors. A big thank you to Nancy and P&W! I wish I’d had this article when my very first book came out!

A Little After Rain Pumpkin Farm Visit to Close the Week

After today’s rain, we had a sunbreak, so since the JB Pumpkin Farm closes after Halloween, we decided to give it one more visit. It was muddier than the last time—and chillier—as you can see by me having to put on a fuzzy sweater later in the visit. Tramping around in the fresh air was great, after yesterday’s deluge and the week of staying indoors because of the hazardous air conditions, and we brought home a huge green pumpkin to add to our doorstep (we’ve got quite a collection now). Some of the sunflowers had been knocked down by yesterday and today’s wind and rain, which was sad, and my own garden today was covered in petals from our last flowers.

It’s truly turning—I don’t know if it feels like fall, it feels like we went straight from a hot, smoky summer to winter-time temperatures and rain, which is a shame. Winter means more writing, of course. But less time in the garden with flowers and birds.

So, we’re saying goodbye, finally, to smoke and fire, to over 80° temperatures, and welcoming in the rain and the cold, and occasionally putting on pumpkin sweaters. I’m so excited about some AWP news that I can’t quite share yet, and there’s more news about Flare, Corona coming soon.

And I’m doing a podcast – the “Rattlecast” on Sunday, October 30th, 8pm Eastern Time: Jeannine Hall Gailey I’ll be talking, appropriately enough, about spooky poetry, and reading a few spooky poems from Field Guide to the End of the World and the new book, Flare, Corona. So tune in if you want a sneak listen to my new book’s poems.

More On Skagit Poetry Festival, Pumpkin Farm Visits, Poetry Business for the New Book and the Smoke in October

More on the Skagit Poetry Festival and La Conner

I promised more last week on the Skagit Poetry Festival and our trip up to La Conner. On the second day of the festival, I got to see a terrific panel with Washington State’s current and former Poet Laureates, which was one of my favorite readings of the festival, and an evening with Terrance Hayes and Jane Hirshfield, who were both great. I also got a close encounter with a great blue heron (but missed my usual seals and otters) and enjoyed the sunny skies and relatively clean air. But by the end of the festival, I was exhausted, and there were a couple of people I talked with that ended up getting covid at the festival. A reminder to wear our masks indoors, still. Sigh. I took tests at 3 and 5 days after the exposure, but ended up fine, relief. But it was certainly a wake-up call for those people who keep saying the pandemic is “over.” Over for whom? Not for me or the folks who got covid, I guess. Did I have enough fun to make the risk worth it? I think so! It was really good to see some friends and get updates on their lives, get their newest books, and just talk writing with writers. We ended up driving home after the last reading and arrived home at about 1 AM and crashed the next day. With MS, you cannot go and go—you do have to eventually rest!

On our second day of the festival, I also made sure to spend extra time at one of my favorite La Conner things, the Museum of Northwest Art, and enjoyed some paintings, including several portraits of Frida Kahlo. So below: me with painting, me with Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest, Great Blue Heron, and Glenn and I with a bird sculpture.

A Visit to Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin Farm on Our One Smoke-Free Day This Week

We had one day this week back in Woodinville that was smoke-clear enough to go outside, and that was Tuesday, so we went and visited Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin Farm, a twenty-minute drive out into the country near Maltby that was totally worth it. I got to talk to a microbiologist who was working one of the kid’s games—it always amazes me how many biologists and engineers are working on farms now! We came home with corn, honeycrisp and pizazz apples, and great pickles and preserves. It was so nice to spend time outside, but it was almost TOO warm and sunny— tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 80s—in October! And still no rain! It’s a weird year. The smoke —which seems ever-present with only brief breaks and no rain—can make you feel even more trapped than covid—because you can’t even go outside to walk around to burn off your energy. I hate it. Hey, I didn’t move to the Pacific Northwest to be trapped indoors by wildfire smoke all September and October!

WordCloud for Flare, Corona

Poetry Business and the New Book

So, this week was busy in terms of planning for the new book, Flare, Corona, which will be out at AWP but whose official launch date is May 2023. BOA Editions had a meeting set up with me and the production and marketing team (!!)—something I haven’t had at other publishers—so we talked galleys, ARCs, dates, the cover, the blurbs, everything.

I realized how much work you can do on a book six months in advance—but the nice thing is, this time I’m not doing all the work by myself. It’s a nice feeling to have support!

Given that I might be a little more disabled and chronically ill than I was at the last book launch, I’m considering hiring some help to do more of the PR. I had an intern for my last book, PR for Poets, and it really helped with some of the detail-oriented work I probably wouldn’t have gotten to without her. This time I’m considering hiring a PR professional to do things that might slip between the cracks otherwise and to help set up Pacific Northwest events. Have any of you done this?

Smoke-filled sunrise

It’s surprising how many of the top poets we all know the names of are hiring PR representation, but not really talking about it. I don’t know why this is, or if there feels like there’s a stigma? I have noticed that people don’t like to admit that they do any marketing for any kind of books, even though you absolutely have to do some amount of hustle, no matter what genre or subject, to get any book a decent audience. It’s why I wrote PR for Poets in the first place—to give people an understanding of how a book gets sold. Some people say, “I’m an artist, I don’t want to think about sales and marketing.” And that’s fine if you don’t care about your book selling or have someone else doing that work for you. In my case, I understand the work, I just don’t have the energy and time that I used to.

Anyway, soon I’ll do a cover reveal, have a pre-sale page up, Galleys, all these things. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking. Will anyone like the book? I hope so! It’s a different kind of book for me, though it still has foxes, supervillains, apocalypses, it’s definitely a more personal collection. I’m talking to some poet friends today which will help remind me I’m not the only one who goes through all this! Wishing you a smokeless autumn week with turning leaves and temperatures cool enough to wear a sweater!

Skagit Poetry Festival and a Trip to La Conner, A Visit with my Brother and Bathing Hummingbirds, and Socializing Again While Trying to Dodge the Smoke

Glenn and I at Roozengaarde with dahlias

Skagit Poetry Festival and a Trip to La Conner

The Skagit Poetry Festival was this weekend and it was really fun to sort of dip my toe back into social literary events again. I got to see a lot of old friends, picked up some books, stopped by some of my favorite places – Roozengaarde Flower Farm and Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA. And we had terrible air in Woodinville, so fleeing to La Conner for better air was a good bet. I’m looking forward to tonight’s reading and will have more pictures next week, I swear.

It was wonderful and therapeutic to be outside without worrying about asthma or burning eyes, especially with all the flowers. It was also wonderful and therapeutic to be around writers and book again, in a somewhat-almost normal setting. Some friends I hadn’t seen in over a year at least. And just being around poets gives you a feeling of…not being so alone in being a poet.

Me with Flower/pumpkin stand at Roozengaarde

I’ve got some more pics that show the flowers against the smoky sky and smoky hills, so even though the air was better, the wildfire smoke hung all around, threatening. La Conner is not a long drive but I don’t visit often enough, and often I just make it up for the tulip festival. But the birds, the flowers, and the general friendliness to art and culture reminded me I should try to make it up more often. Sleepy cows and crowds of red-winged blackbirds didn’t make it into the pictures, and the occasional eagle overhead.

I just love being in a more rural area, and like I said, it was nearly euphoric to be able to walk outside without worrying about wearing an N95 mask (outside! not right! stupid smoke!)  and really the town had pumpkins everywhere, blooming flowers – really unusual for this late in October.

Hunter’s Moon

Brother Visits and Bathing Hummingbirds

A shot of the Hunter’s moon yesterday night. Might be even better tonight!

Before the festival, I had a chance to visit with my little brother and his wife, who came out to Woodinville on a still smoky day and we visited the Woodinville/Redmond JB Grower’s Pumpkin Farm. They went home with five pumpkins!

We had a great time despite the air quality, and it was really nice to visit with them. Another thing I don’t get to do often enough these days: see my family!

Also, I got a wonderful shot of an Anna’s hummingbird taking a bath in our bird fountain. Magical! The birds were in a frenzy all week at the fountain and the feeders. I have more bird pics for next week.

Next blog post I’ll have more info on the new book, Flare, Corona, more pics from Skagit, and hopefully other literary fun news. Wishing you a lovely and smoke-free remainder of October.

Welcome to October: Upcoming Book Launch Planning, Upcoming Book Club, Poetry Festivals, and Podcasts

Welcome to October! And Literary Events!

Can you believe it’s October already? It’s 80 and smoky outside today, breaking records here in Seattle, and we’re supposed to go to a pumpkin farm this afternoon but it still feels like August.

This shot was from a visit to the JB Grower’s Pumpkin Farm, where I got to walk a little way into the sunflower walk (they have acres of corn maze and sunflower walk, as well as their pumpkin patch) and came home feeling fall feels, despite the heat.

It also hit me just this week that my book is real and coming out in six months. The cover for Flare, Corona was chosen this week (reveal soon!), and I started thinking about mailing lists, updated business cards, and scheduling readings. Oh yes, and Seattle AWP next March. My PR for Poets book recommends starting six months ahead of time laying the groundwork for the book launch, and that suddenly hit me.

Also, this month is full of literary activity: the book club I host is meeting on Oct 19th, the Skagit Poetry Festival is happening next weekend, and I’m working on an interview and a spooky poetry podcast. Plus, I’ve got poet dates—getting back into social life is gradual for me—because, let’s face it, in Seattle most of us start hibernating in November and don’t come out until March.

Anyway, here are a few more pics from the pumpkin farm visit to show you it really is pumpkin season even if it doesn’t feel like it today…

Woodinville Hot Air Balloon

Woodinville Book Club and Molbak’s

We did our usual annual visit to Molbak’s for their glass pumpkin patch, and they already had holiday decorations up, including a starry cityscape we posed for pictures with.

In other Woodinville news, our Read Between the Lines Book Club book club is meeting soon at J. Bookwalter Winery. We’re reading the appropriately spooky book Where the Crazy Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, which is a comic feminist retelling of a bunch of traditional Japanese ghost tales. We will have wine AND candy, which is a terrific combo for a book club, right?

And here are a few pictures from our Molbak’s visit:

Expect pictures next week from Skagit, and here’s some info on the podcast I’ll be appearing on to talk “spooky poetry” with Tim Green at the Rattlecast on Sunday, October 30th. I love talking about horror and speculative poetry and hope to talk about some of my favorite writers and an anthology or two to recommend.

It’s Decorative Gourd Season! Autumn Equinox and Fall Feels, Pumpkin Farms, and Decisions About Cover Art

At the entrance to JB Grower’s Pumpkin Farm

It’s Decorative Gourd Season! Autumn Equinox, Pumpkin Farms and Fall Feels

I promise I am going to talk about real serious writer book stuff in a minute, but for this first part, can I say…whee, it’s decorative gourd season and I am celebrating fall by visiting pumpkin farms and burning candles like there’s no tomorrow.

We visited one pumpkin farm on the autumn equinox and another the next day. We had beautiful, unsmoky weather and I decided we should take advantage of it before it all turns into the inevitable winter rain. (Someone joked that Seattle has three seasons: rain, summer, and smoke. Sort of true for the last few years!) Besides getting to talk to local farmers, which I love, it gave me and Glenn a chance to get out of the house, into fresh air, get some mild exercise (I’m still using a cane, there’s only so much pumpkin farm tramping I can do), but it also sort of helps your body know: hey, we are changing seasons, pay attention to the leaves, to what is blooming and what is dying, what grows out of the ground, the colors of the sky. Haven’t poets been writing poems about that stuff for years? Fall is my second favorite season after spring (although Seattle springs are mostly damp and brief), and I’m sure many of you feel the same.

Anyway, this first gallery is from McMurtrey’s farm, which is really mainly a Christmas tree farm that we used to go to way before we moved out here to get our trees, but they do a bunch of seasonal stuff for kids and have a beautiful patch of dahlias and sunflowers and pumpkins. Small but photogenic.

The second gallery is from JB Grower’s Pumpkin Farm and Puzzle Patch, on NE 124th (south of their lavender farm and on the other side of the Sammamish River), which is acres of corn maze, acres of what they call a sunflower walk—it has a pattern you can see from the air, which is kind of cool—and just a huge working farm for pumpkins as well. They have a little gift shop for snacks and gourds and amazing pumpkin candles made by a local candlemaker, and it’s adorable—and enormous (tons of parking too). Great for kids who have a lot of energy to burn off, but also fun for farm nerds like me who fondly recall their childhood farm life in Tennessee, for instance. I’ve gotten to know the farm manager at JB Grower’s, who is also a writer and avid reader, and it kind of makes me wish I’d gone into agricultural science instead of pre-med. I could be running a farm right now! LOL. Seriously though, all this farm interaction has made me really glad I stayed in Woodinville and didn’t flee to even more remote ex-urbs during the pandemic, which we seriously considered.

Anyway, I hope these photos help share all the “fall feels” and show how much I appreciate the place I live and the people I live around.

From JB Grower’s Pumpkin patch, with sunflowers

Decisions About Cover Art

Well, I told you there would be serious writer talk and here it is: I am in the middle of working with BOA Editions on deciding what the cover art for Flare, Corona is going to be. Their designer came up with a bunch of options and now I have to narrow them down and eventually pick one.

If you follow this blog, you know I’m sort of a visual art nerd and have friends who are artists and go to galleries a lot, so usually I walk into a book deal having already picked my cover art and artist, but it wasn’t like that this time around. I had the idea of using a solar eclipse shot with a corona, but that seemed very literal (although eclipses do show up throughout the book) for a book about experiencing a cancer diagnosis, an MS diagnosis, and then, bam, the coronavirus years. (Hey, it’s still me, so it’s got some funny sci-fi and speculative stuff in between, don’t worry.)

Sunflowers and Dahlias @ McMurtrey’s

So, I wasn’t really sure at all about what I wanted or needed to communicate about the book with the cover art, which I consider super important—after all, it, not your words, is the first thing the reader experiences with the book. You’re lucky if they glance inside or even at the blurbs on the back—if they don’t like the cover. So, a lot of pressure, right? Anyway, BOA has been terrific about it, and whatever we end up with will be “right” for the book, right? I’ve even contributed photographs for other people’s cover art, so this should have been a breeze, but it wasn’t, and I think part of it is I didn’t go in with a clear idea of what the cover needed to be.

Anyway, soon I’ll be able to share cover art and blurbs and all that good stuff with you! But I wanted to talk about the process—this is my sixth book, not my first, so I wanted to share how these decisions get made. Sometimes the publisher, not the writer, has a clear idea of what they want for the cover, but that hasn’t been the case for me yet. I’ve worked with wonderful artists (some of whom are now good friends) on the cover art along the way, and I am very grateful for that. My only wish is that I myself was a better visual artist, so I could just—boom—design my own brilliant covers exactly representing what’s in each book. Sadly, my only visual artistry skill is photography, and I’m still learning even on that skill set. Anyway, it’ll be nerve-wracking until it’s done.

And I’m doing a podcast for Halloween on spooky poetry, so stay tuned here for more news about that coming up!

Woodinville Book Club Meets and Talks Art and Fraud, Last Visit to the Flower Garden on a Chilly Evening, More About Submission September

Me with a good book and a glass of wine, pre-book club at J. Bookwalter

Woodinville Book Club Meets and Talks Art and Fraud

The first meeting of the “Read Between the Wines” Book Club was this Wednesday to talk about Barbara Bourland’s Fake Like Me. It was a great group – I got to meet a couple of poet friends from social media that I’ve never met in person, two of the winery people showed up to talk with our group about art (turns out one of them had an art degree!) and fraud, what makes art “art,” women’s reputations as artists (and writers), and Fake Like Me‘s literary predecessor, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. We got a quick picture with at least some of the group as a hot air balloon rose overhead. Book club magic!

Next meet up will be appropriately spooky, Japanese ghost stories retold with a comic and feminist contemporary twist in Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda. We are meeting at J. Bookwalter in Woodinville at 6 PM on October 19! I am really looking forward to talking books and getting to know more readers, writers, and artists in the community.

Me holding dahlias, with sunflowers

Last Visit to the Flower Farm on a Chilly Evening

I had been a bit under the weather after the book club (sometimes MS can clobber you if you do too much), so Glenn decided to cheer me up after a few days of bed rest with a special after-closure visit (with permission – thanks guys!) to my happy place, JB Family Growers Lavender Farm and Flower Farm in Woodinville. This time it was cold enough to need a sweater—just last week it was 90, remember? And it was dark by 7 PM! It’s turning to fall rapidly. But a lot of the flowers were still in full bloom and beautiful; we got to see some beautiful dark red sunflowers we had never seen in bloom in any previous visit, and while Glenn was taking a picture, a hawk swooped out of the sunflowers and almost grazed him as it chased some swallows! And we found some dahlias that matched my sweater.

Steller’s jay in my flower box

More About September Submission Season

One of the good things about doing a “submission season” with your friends—our group tries to do a submission a day on a certain month, this year September, is that is motivates you to look at journals you might not have heard of, or considered before, or considered outside your reach. When you really look at where you submit over time, it’s probably the same places over and over again, and maybe there’s an editor at another magazine you’ve never sent to that will absolutely love your work. It’s also a good excuse to get to the bookstore in person and look at literary magazines available in your area—you might be surprised what you can find. It also forces you to take a look at the poems you’ve been writing—is this one ready to send out? Why has this poem you like been sitting around, not submitted anywhere yet? And also to update your records—in my case, an Excel spreadsheet—to see how many poems and submissions you have out. Sometimes I catch duplicate poems or even duplicate submissions— hey, I’m as human as the next person, and probably slightly worse at keeping records. So, I encourage you all to take a look at your poetry and see where you could send your work and try some place new this month. And take advantage of any nice days to get out and see the last of the flowers, or the beginnings of fall, put on a jacket, walk around, drink a hot cider. I am definitely going to try to take advantage of this as we transition into the rainy season…

What Makes You Happy (September Edition) and Submission Season Returns (with Wildfire Smoke)

Two poets and their husbands in a field of zinnias, Woodinville (Rose, Kelli, Glenn, and me)

What Makes You Happy (September Edition)

September can be a bittersweet month here in the Northwest. Perfect clear, cool blue skies are sometimes followed with (like today) an orange sky thick with wildfire smoke. You take time to get together with friends at a flower farm, even though you are worried about friends and family with biopsies waiting, new covid infections, and of course, you might also be worried about the state of the world.

I read an interesting article and interview about a book by a former Google data scientist (the Master’s degree my husband is getting from Pepperdine is in data science) that discussed what really makes people happy. I was shocked, and also not shocked, by some of the facts. Spending time with people you love, your significant other, friends—that makes you happy. Also on the list: gardening, fishing, listening to music. A lot of that stuff is free.

Glenn and I at Matthew’s Winery garden

However, also interesting to note, the happiest income starts at $75K a year and perfects itself at, by this data scientist’s estimate, 8 million dollars, a sum that is pretty far from most of our stretch goals for income. The things that make you least happy also won’t surprise you: work, especially with people you don’t like, commuting, social media. The most happy we’ll be is doing something we love with people we love, most often by a large body of water on a sunny warm day. Makes sense!

So, one of the things I’ve started prioritizing above, yes, even my writing work and things like dental and medical work (which take up a surprising amount of the life of any sick person, and definitely cost a lot AND don’t make you happy) is: spending time with people I love doing things I love. This week I took Glenn around Woodinville one cool sunny day to Molbak’s to check out the fall gardening stuff (and brought home flowers to plant) and a winery to see how its pandemic garden was doing (terrific!). A great way to spend an afternoon getting into the fall spirit.

I also had a good poet friend, Kelli Russell Agodon, and her husband Rose, over this week to celebrate her book being a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, and after champagne and cupcakes and a cheese and fruit plate, took the whole group over to my local lavender and flower farm, which closes tomorrow for the year. Sunflowers were still up, as were zinnias and dahlias. Mt Rainier was shining, and charms of goldfinches, red finches, and red-winged blackbirds soared over our heads as we stood among flowers and listened to the hum of the very happy bees. All of us stood in wonder at the mountain, the sun, the flowers and birds, just awestruck by the beauty of it. That flower farm was definitely one of my “happy places,” and I realized it isn’t just me—everyone I took to visit it was charmed by the return to nature, the smell of lavender in the air, the simple act of walking among sunflower fields. I will be so excited when it returns next year, with even bigger lavender plants!

Full Moon with orange wildfire smoke haze

Submission Season Returns (with Wildfire Smoke)

Alas, every day could not be as perfect as that one – the next day after our visit a strange orange haze settled over us, the full moon shining spookily overhead. Some of my poet friends in WA and OR were evacuated today as wildfires sort of ringed the Seattle and Portland areas. It was also almost 90 today, on top of dangerous particulate levels (above 150) so—I was consigned to the indoors, with Glenn going to get the mail and do errands in a KN95 mask—sure, for covid, but also, for evil smoke.

On the positive side of being cooped up for two days, I got to watch the new Ring of Power series (beautiful production), the new Thor movie (silly at the beginning with a lot of laughs and screaming goats, sentimental and sad at the end?) and get a bunch of submissions in as the literary magazine submission season starts up again for the school year. So many places are closed for the summer, and I’ve been less motivated lately than I should have been, so it was good for a bunch of us to give ourselves the goal of doing a submission a day during September.

Scrub jay in Flower Box

One of the other benefits of getting together with writer friends (besides the overall happiness thing re: above) is that you can discuss your worries (in my case, author photos, promotion, cover art) and it really helps your anxiety. So not only do friends help with the happiness levels, but they can help you feel more normal and less stressed about things like your upcoming book. And you can discuss grants, which literary magazines are open for subs, and congratulate each other for your wins and console each other over your losses.

When Martha came over last week, she left me a few literary magazines to look through, and Kelli brought me Denise Duhamel’s new book, which I’m looking forward to reading, along with Jenn Givhan’s newest, Belly to the Brutal. So, I do have a bunch of good reading material while I’m cooped up, along with looking forward to the upcoming new Woodinville book club at J. Bookwalter’s starting Wednesday with a discussion of Barbara Bourland’s Fake Like Me. I’ll have to give my report on that event next week! Hopefully I’ll be a good book club host, and this will help build more literary community in Woodinville and on the Eastside in general.

Mt Rainier with flower field in Woodinville

I’ll leave you with this last picture of Mt Rainier with a field of zinnias, dahlias, and sunflowers to remind you (and myself) how beautiful the Pacific Northwest can be (especially when we’re not having wildfires.)

*All flower fields pictured (except for the Matthew’s winery garden shot and my back deck) are from the J.B. Family Grower’s Lavender and Flower Farm in Woodinville, closing this Sunday for the season. They will be opening a sunflower and corn maze with their pumpkin farm in a few weeks in another location in Woodinville, so we can look forward to seeing that. 

Visiting with Seattle Poets, Welcome September, and Planning for March/April Next Year and Thinking about Post-Covid Book Launches and Book Marketing (In an Uncertain World)

Peppermint stripe roses

Welcome September!

I don’t know about you guys, but I was ready for September. I’m not a big summer girl (hey, I’m allergic to the sun and heat just flattens folks with MS), even though this summer was less brutal than last year’s, and I’m ready for cooler air, clear skies, the pumpkin farm opening down the street…and more time reading and writing.

In the last few days of August, I got a chance to see a few friends, and, oh yes, get three crowns with the last of my dental coverage – and was then told I needed a root canal under one of the crowns, oops. Then I spent a few days recuperating, mostly in my garden.

The last of our flowers – dahlias, roses, zinnias, and sunflowers – are starting to fade, and our farmer’s markets are full of corn and tomatoes, waiting for the first pumpkins and apples to come in. Here are a few pictures of September at the JB Family Growers Lavender and Flower Farm down the street.

Tonight, we visited and for the first time, I was hit by the smell of 10,000 lavender plants. It was a wonderful late summer/almost fall moment.

Me and Martha Silano on my deck

Visiting with Seattle Poets

Got a chance to visit with wonderful Seattle poet Martha Silano this week, catching up, trying out some new local Woodinville wines, and talking writing talk, which is always encouraging for me. I’m definitely taking a few more chances to socialize more, because two and a half (plus) years of living in my covid isolation bubble has been tough.

Martha and I both published books with Steel Toe Books way back in 2006 (her second and my first), so we’ve actually known each other for a long time. But sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to stay in touch with friends who live on the other side of town (or even on the other side of the water, or the country) especially during a pandemic. I’m so glad we had a few hours to catch up on a beautiful day!

Immature hummingbird with red sunflowers in foreground

Planning for March/April or, How to Start Getting Over the Pandemic and Learn to Promote Your New Book (Again)

Trying to plan ahead for Seattle’s AWP and my next book’s launch is a little tricky. I’m trying to plan to 1. stay healthy and 2. try to follow some of my own advice from PR for Poets, which includes starting early in terms of thinking about a book launch – like six months ahead of time – which is, almost, now. Yikes! Am I ready?

I don’t have cover art yet. I do have blurbs. I decided not to apply for a pretty punishing fellowship this year and wait ’til next year. I need to order new business cards; the last time I made business cards, I had a different e-mail address, which means it’s been at least a few years. Did the pandemic make us all a little unaware of the passage of time? I know I’m going through my closet saying, I literally have a wardrobe of yoga pants and cardigans, easy dresses, and slippers, after two and a half years of a pandemic. I’m sure I’m not the only one considering AWP and thinking: do I even have appropriate shoes for that?

Pileated Woodpecker

Another reality: this is the oldest I have ever been, and so maybe book promotion works very differently now than it did even five years ago. If covid changed workplace dynamics, it probably also changed book marketing and publishing. I will probably have to learn some new skill sets for this book launch.

But I’ll probably do some things I always do—send out postcards, e-mail friends and families (sorry, you’ve been warned in advance) when the book comes out, try to set up a fun book launch party around Woodinville (probably at the winery I’m doing the book club at, J. Bookwalters) and once again, make my health a priority for the months leading up to AWP and the official book launch.

I went to AWP in California—was that 2017 or 18? —while skipping out on liver cancer chemo thinking I had no chance of making past six months. (Fortunately, that doctor – and a few others – were wrong, and waiting on chemo and going for a third opinion ended up saving me a lot of pain and sorrow.) I went to AWP the last few times (well, the times before covid) with a broken arm, recovering from pneumonia, and dealing with MS flares, so it’s not like I don’t have a reason to be a little cautious. Having AWP in town does make it easier, and safer—after all, if something happens, I can retreat home without a plane flight and my medications and doctors will be easily available. But I’m hoping my body doesn’t choose that week in March to stage a revolt. I will act accordingly in terms of taking care of myself as best I can.

The two pictures of very different birds—the gigantic, dinosaur-esque pileated woodpecker with its bright head, and the tiny, fairy-like immature hummingbird—represent something about literature and book promotion that’s very true—it’s not always the biggest and brightest writer, flower, or bird that wins the evolutionary race—sometimes it’s the smallest, most camouflaged and flexible. My best assets as a writer now at 49 are different than they were at 32. My poems are different, my experience of the world, and my outlook. So, I guess it makes sense that I’m a little nervous this time around, sensing that my book—and my person—have been changed, that I’m a little less certain, less confident but quicker to shift gears and adapt. In most fairy tales and myths, the protagonist is often changed against his or her will be their journey—sometimes literally into birds or cats or white deer, sometimes by their actions, like Gretel’s quick dispatch of the witch that threatened her. No one comes out unscathed from their magical journeys, even if they disappear into the haze of a happy ending.

It’s the external world around us that changes as much as the internal—after all, in the last few years, we had an unsuccessful coup, we have a reversal of rights for women, we have an ex-President under scrutiny for treason and espionage, we have a once-every-hundred years pandemic that’s still happening. If we weren’t a little transformed by that, we wouldn’t be human. And our own personal dramas can only feel magnified by the constant barrage of war, destruction, and devastation in the news. It’s been a high stress time for me, and for the world, and probably for you, too. So, I guess we will have to forgive ourselves for not having exactly the right outfit, or remembering how to do small talk with strangers, or even trying to think about something relatively unimportant like “how do I do my best for this next poetry book to launch it into the world?”