Two New Reviews for Field Guide, Elgin Award news for The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and September Falling into Melancholy

Welcome to Fall! Said goodbye to my parents this morning as they flew back to Ohio and as I am nearly all the way recovered now from the pneumonia – just a little tiredness and cough remains – I’m ready to face the new fall weather, start reading and writing more, work a little harder on the book’s promotion. (Several friends mentioned to me this week – did you have a book come out?)

So, in that vein, two new reviews of Field Guide to the End of the World:
*This beautiful review by Kathleen Kirk at Escape into Life: http://www.escapeintolife.com/blog/field-guide-to-the-end-of-the-world/
*Kristin Berkey-Abbott’s thoughtful write-up on her blog here: http://kristinberkey-abbott.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-field-guide-to-end-times-and-our-times.html

I also got the news that The Robot Scientist’s Daughter won second place for the Elgin Award, the SFPA’s award for full-length poetry collections of a speculative nature. (More info about all the Elgin Award winners here.) Thank you to the SFPA members that voted for it! Sadly, it was not a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards, which curiously chose three out of five poetry finalists from states other than Washington State for this past year’s candidates. Susan Rich wrote a very interesting essay about this here: http://www.seattlereviewofbooks.com/notes/2016/09/19/why-does-carl-phillips-need-the-washington-state-book-award/

As I’m getting better from the acute (pneumonia and pleurisy) I’m able to think again about the cancer problem – getting second opinions, contemplating tests and treatment options. Thinking about mortality – how much time is left? What am I doing with my time? It’s funny how struggling to breathe for a week or two can tear your focus from near distance (this year or next year) to the immediate – how am I going to get through this night, how am I going to be able to breathe/talk/laugh/walk today. Also, note to self: do not get pneumonia the month of your book launch, and definitely not within two weeks of it.

Was talking to my friend Kelli how the beginning of fall always signals that it’s time to focus, to write and send out work, to spend time curled up with books instead of chasing that elusive and short-lived summer sunshine. I’ve been eating lots of apples as the grocery stores run out of in-season peaches, blueberries (apple and sheep cheese omelets? baked apples with honey? apples in chicken salad with grapes?) and listening to Lord Huron’s “Ends of the Earth”. This year the urgency to write and send out is more pronounced; if not now, then when, I ask myself?

You try to grab at time – the time I spent laughing and playing cards with my folks, the time I spend walking holding hands with my husband through Woodinville’s many gardens, the time I spent with the dear friends that showed up to the winery to the book reading and party – but nothing lasts long enough, and it’s hard to press those things indelibly into memory. Like a fire, like the end of September you have to keep feeding your own life to keep it lit – every bit of brightness over in an instant.

It’s time for the migration of snow geese and trumpeter swans. We usually don’t get them in Woodinville, they travel farther north through La Connor, but here is a snow goose who decided to move in with a pack of Canadian Geese and eat some grapes at Chateau Saint Michelle! Check out the black tipped wings and tail, which become much more striking in flight. This is as close as I’ve ever gotten to one, though I’ve seen masses of them move through the sky before:

Book Launch Reading and Party Pics, Two New Reviews of Field Guide to the End of the World, and an Interview about the book on JMWW!

: Kelle Grace Gaddis, Natasha K. Moni, and me (holding books!)

: listening to Kathleen Flenniken’s apocalypse poems

: Lovely poets Susan Rich, Kathleen Flenniken, Natasha Moni, and me

: With poet Jared Leising and his lovely wife Julie

: Me with Glenn and the parents right before the reading

: View from Woodinville Sunday

As I’m writing this part of the post right after my reading, I just watched a golden-tinged-almost-full moon rise listening to the tail end of the Tears for Fears concert down the street from my back deck, feeling pretty happy with all the day’s events. Lots of things could have gone wrong – I just barely had gotten my voice back after a bout of pneumonia, storms had been forecast (for an outdoor reading venue,) etc. But the weather turned sunny and cool just as the reading started, I kept my voice for the majority of the reading, and I didn’t get stressed or hive-y or break down into coughing fits or anything. I got to listen to one of my good friend’s poetry (Kathleen Flenniken, who read several “end of the world” poems) and see people I don’t normally get to see and we had unexpected guests, too, which was fun. Having my little brother and parents there was an extra bonus, too (my mom even sold books for me!). Above are some pics!

Anyway, this morning (pouring rain – we really did dodge the bad weather!) there are two new reviews of Field Guide to the End of the World up:

One by Lori Holuta: http://www.ceejaywriter.com/review-field-guide-to-the-end-of-the-world/

And another At Necromancy Never Pays: https://necromancyneverpays.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/field-guide-to-the-end-of-the-world/

And I have an interview up with Curtis Smith about the new book (among other things) at JMWW.
https://jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-and-i-feel-fine-an-interview-with-jeannine-hall-gailey-by-curtis-smith/

So although ready for more rest, I am feeling lucky and thankful. Thank you to everyone who came out, bought books and generally made the day brighter with your company!

Wine, Poetry, and the End of the World – Reading and Book Party Sunday!

Glenn and my mom with a blow-up poster of my book cover

Me with my parents at Matthews Winery

Tomorrow is our book launch reading and party for Field Guide to the End of the World, at Matthews Winery in Woodinville! 3 PM. Followed by a little wine-cheese-cookie-cupcake reception! Kathleen Flenniken, Poet Laureate of Washington State emeritus and author of the stunning Plume, will be the opening reader, so don’t be late. My mom (Pictured above with my book cover poster and at Matthews Winery) will be selling books – isn’t she adorable?

All the reasons you should come:

Wine!
Poetry!
End of the world!
Hanging out with awesome poets!
I’m hoping to see you there! It’s my first reading for the new book. I’m so excited! And here are some random pictures of hot air balloons rising in my backyard!

Lighter Side of the End of the World on Tahoma Review, Nice Things about Field Guide, and upcoming readings!

A few quick announcements today:

I wrote a piece for Tahoma Review on “The Lighter Side of the End of the World” about why I wrote Field Guide to the End of the World and why I strove to find the humor in destruction.

Here’s Jan Priddy’s lovely write up of Field Guide to the End of the World on her blog. Thank you, Jan!
A big thank you to everyone who wrote reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. They have been lovely so far! It’s been so nice to see them popping up. Speaking of Goodreads, there are only two more days to sign up for the Goodreads giveaway to win a copy of Field Guide to the End of the World for yourself.

I think I’ve FINALLY turned a corner on this pneumonia thing, after an entire week of antibiotics, bed-rest, and various inhalers. Doctor checked me out yesterday – main problem now is the asthma, not the pneumonia, so the antibiotics and bed-rest have worked! Now on to trying to get my voice back for the big reading on Sunday Sunday Sunday! I have already started picking out poems and vainly flipping through things in the closet to see which exude “celebratory apocalypse/winery” for the Wine, Poetry, and the End of the World event at Matthews Winery in Woodinville. I’m so excited to see everyone this weekend, especially if our beautiful summery-fall weather holds up AND I’m feeling better! There is nowhere prettier on earth than Woodinville in the fall when the sun is out, I’m convinced. I love our little corner of the earth.

Out of Commission – Pneumonia Attacks! Holiday Weekends, Thwarted Plans, and Other Ways to Live Through This

Where have I been? Well, I had a very pleasant holiday weekend seeing family and friends, even taking a day trip up to Skagit Valley – and I hope you did too – until I was struck by a sudden non-ability to breathe. We went to the ER, had a chest x-ray and some blood work, and sure enough, it was pneumonia – and the next few days were a blur of no-sleep and lots of coughing, headache, fevers, chills, antibiotics and nebulizers. This was two days before my parents arrived and exactly 11 days before my book launch and party on Sept. 18.

This is the first day – four days later – that I’ve had the mental power to write even a blog post or a cogent e-mail (though somehow I did end up writing “ax attack” today for “when you get a chance” from a phone e-mail – how is that possibly an autocorrect anyone would want??) I did watch an eerie, moody British apocalypse survival-from-a-teen-girl-perspective film called “How I Live Now” which I highly recommend, just for the soundtrack and the amazing combination of gorgeous rural English scenery and horrifying post-nuclear-and-more-war imagery. (One of the more disturbing images involved foxes eating decaying human bodies. Just so you know if you’re up for that.) It also goes surprisingly well with my new book! The lead, Saoirse Una Ronan, whom I already loved for her work in Hanna, was terrific in this. I don’t know, when you’re struggling to breathe and walk/talk without choking, it’s nice to watch people surviving things.

Here are some cheerful pics with writers Lana Ayers who is living us for Oregon, Natasha Moni, and Glenn and I goofing around in tulip country up in La Connor, WA right before I was felled with the nasty germs.

: Glenn and I with dahlia blooms in La Connor

: Natasha Moni and I

: Lana Ayers and I strike a pose with my new book

Anyway, this is how author’s get ZERO book promotion stuff done nine days before their book launch party – life interferes with even the best laid plans – but if you want to do me a favor and review Field Guide to the End of the World, or talk about it on your blog, or leave a little Amazon review (hint hint), please let me know and I will try to get you whatever you need!

Book Launch Web Site Face Lift, Poem on Rogue Agent, and Post on Contest Winning at The Next Best Book Club!

Hey everyone! You may notice things look a little different today on the site. Yes, the graphics now reflect the new book graphics. What do you think? Better/worse? Too scary? Do you like the green, or is it off-putting green? Feedback appreciated!

That was to celebrate, of course, that today’s the official launch day of Field Guide to the End of the World. Hooray! It’s good to have something to celebrate after what’s been a very rough year. Please feel free to order a signed copy from me (now with swag magnets!), get it from Amazon, or order it through Moon City Press (distributed through University of Arkansas Press) here. If you want to really make my day, leave a review up at Amazon or Goodreads, or just your blog! Or even a mini-review on Twitter. Every little bit means a lot!

A poem from the book is up at Rogue Agent, a fab journal focused on the body. The poem, “Narcissist’s Apocalypse,” is pretty dark, but actually one of my favorites from the book. It’s a persona poem, yes, but it also reflects the very real feelings that we can experience when our bodies fail us. Also, don’t you love the name “Rogue Agent?”

I also have a post up at the Next Best Book Club on how it felt to win a book contest – on my fifth book – and how winning a contest so far has been different from publishing with indie presses through open submissions. I have to say it was kind of nice to finally win something after all those years (and books!) But as I say there, the most important thing is having a good relationship with the folks at the press.

I’m on my way tonight to Megan Snyder-Camp’s book launch (actually, it’s a double book launch. Does that make me feel lazy?) at the new Hugo House location (which I haven’t been to yet.) We poets have got to support each other, right? My own official launch party and reading (Wine, Poetry, and the End of the World, Sept 18 at 3 PM at Matthews Winery in Woodinville) isn’t for two more weeks, so I’ve still got time to be nervous, prepare, get nervous again, etc. But it’s always fun to see poets out with their new books, especially on a grey rainy day like today. When you think about it, fall is a great time for reading books. I feel I’ve got a ton of reading to catch up on, now that all my bookshelves are built and my boxes of books unpacked!

Last, here is a gratuitous picture of snuggling cats – Sylvia and Shakespeare, our two half-ragdolls.

Field Guide is Here! And its first review up at Savvy Verse & Wit! Plus a Goodreads Giveaway!

: Kitten with books!

: Box of Field Guides!

A box of books arrived yesterday, and immediately the kitten went to check it out. It was copies of my brand new book from Moon City Press, Field Guide to the End of the World.
You can now order a signed copy from me, order it from Amazon, or buy it from University of Arkansas Press, who distributes for Moon City Press. (My book order form is a little wonky right now, so you’ll have to fill out the amount on Paypal – it’s $14.95 plus $1.50 shipping, which is $16.45 total. I apologize and hope to have that fixed soon with my technical support team, i.e. my husband Glenn!)

And, you can enter to win a copy of an ARC – for free – at this Goodreads Giveaway! I’ve been doing this for my last few books. I can’t tell if it helps anything, but it is fun!
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/200625-field-guide-to-the-end-of-the-world-poems

The first review of Field Guide to the End of the World is up at Savvy Verse & Wit, too! Exciting timing! Thanks to Serena Agusto-Cox. Here’s a link:
http://savvyverseandwit.com/2016/08/field-guide-to-the-end-of-the-world-by-jeannine-hall-gailey.html

Field Guide to the End of the World is Almost Here! Plus The Writer’s Chronicle, End of Summer Anxiety, Socializing as Good Medicine

A few days ago I received a small box containing ten official Advance Review Copies (or ARCs) of Field Guide to the End of the World. So exciting! I still have a few left if you want a review copy. Mike, one of the editors at Moon City Press, may have a few more copies left as well; you can contact him at mczyzniejewski at missouristate dot edu. Pretty soon the actual books will be here!

If you get The Writer’s Chronicle magazine, you may notice the brand new September issue has a great interview in it with poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, who talks a bit about one of my favorite poetry topics: persona poetry. Check it out, it’s definitely worth reading (and there may be a little quote from me hiding in there someplace 😉

My life has been: working on getting unpacked and the house set up, doing myriad pain-in-the-butt cancer tests, and doing book stuff. These usually have separate days associated with them because I can’t really do anything useful on days I’m spending in doctor’s offices, and setting up the house occupies a different brain space than writing up an author interview or essay. We finally got a handywoman (a writer friend, even) to come help Glenn finish up some projects – tiling the guest bath, drywalling the huge holes in the wall from putting in kitchen venting, and doing the kitchen backsplash. It was great to have the help, and we feel 25 percent more finished. Still cardboard everywhere, but…fewer holes in the walls!

I will say one good thing about the new house – I’ve already done more entertaining in it in the last few weeks, despite it being in construction mode almost every day and still having piles of plastic and cardboard containers in every corner, than I did in the same number of months in the last place. This week it was my amazing British artist friend Jacqui, who brought me a beautiful hand-made-dyed silk scarf (she makes these art works with crushed flowers, fruits, vegetables from the farmer’s markets and grasses – this one is gray and lavender, just gorgeous!) I love hanging out with visual artists – they always have such different energy from writers. The other good thing is we’re just a two minute’s drive from lots of nice walks, a Barnes and Nobles (hey, we don’t have any other bookstores on the East side, so…), a nice-ish grocery store, and of course, all the wineries and an Arabian horse farm. I love looking at the fancy horses. I’m pretty sure their barns are nicer than our new house. Even after the renovations!

End of August always brings on a strange end-of-summer anxiety with it, you feel the need to try to cram everything you want to do outside – because it rains for the next nine months straight. So, we took a (not so quick) jaunt out to Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo to see its three baby clouded leopards, a baby muskox, and my beloved red wolves and arctic fox, among others. I’d run to the San Juans if I could and maybe back to Snoqualmie Falls. It’s been in the nineties which just makes me want to nap, but we got to see the tall ships at Carillon Point last night at sunset (when it was still 84!) And of course the kitten has really been trying to help me write some new poems.

: Glenn and I in Dahlia Garden

: Tall ships at Kirkland

: Kitten Sylvia, Helping my writing

: Clouded leopard cubs, sleeping in a pile

: Glenn with seal statue

: Mt. Rainier from Tacoma

I think the cancer testing stuff and the house transition and the upcoming book launch which I feel I’m totally behind on just have sort of upped the usual August anxiety a bit. I haven’t sent out book cards yet, which I usually try to do a month ahead of time. I’m still finding important things are missing – hidden or lost, possibly, in moving boxes. I’m trying to focus on having perspective, breathing, staying in the moment, appreciating hummingbirds and hot air balloons at sunset. I’m trying to remember that no matter what I do – or not – in terms of my fifth book, I have to hope it finds its readers. As I unpack and fill my bookshelves, I notice how many of the poetry – and fiction! – books I’m shelving aren’t by strangers anymore, but by friends. Tonight I’ll be going to an open house at Open Books, our all-poetry bookstore, to celebrate its transition and to reconnect with my poetry self. I need to keep reminding myself of the good.

A poem in The Collagist, ARCs and Poetry, Cancer, and Ambition

Thanks to The Collagist! My poem “Are We There Yet?” (from my upcoming book, Field Guide to the End of the World) is featured in their wonderful new issue 85. (Check out work from other notables and friends such as C. Dale Young.)

And speaking of Field Guide to the End of the World, my publisher has finally gotten in the ARCs (advanced review copies) so if you want to review it and want either an e-galley or a print ARC contact Moon City Press or let me know at jeannine dot gailey at live dot com. You can also leave a comment and I’ll get back to you!

I wanted to write a little bit about poetry and ambition, in the context of finding out you have a terminal illness. You may remember an anecdote I’ve told before on the blog about me waking up in the hospital in San Diego, about seven years ago, with a very severe case of double pneumonia and pleurisy. I could barely breathe and definitely couldn’t sleep due to a loud roommate and the constant waking for blood pressure checks. I thought then that that might be the end of me (in fact, the same weekend, another girl who had swine-flu-related pneumonia, same thing that I had, did die – and she was 15 and healthy, at the same hospital I was staying in.) My mind raced with all the things I still wanted to do. My strongest thought was “I can’t die yet! I still have to publish three books!” This was before my second book had found a publisher. My next three books were published in rapid succession shortly after this revelation – She Returns to the Floating World by Kitsune Books in 2011, Unexplained Fevers in 2013, and The Robot Scientist’s Daughter in 2015.

None of these publications changed my life. My work hasn’t been widely distributed, given big prizes, nor have any of them made me a household name. But I felt satisfied, after The Robot Scientist’s Daughter came out, that I had fulfilled my promise to myself to get the books out there.

Now, as I returned yesterday from a bunch more boring yet stressful and unpleasant cancer tests, I was looking through a similar lens as that hospital bed – a limited time frame, and a sense that I need to focus on what’s most important. This time around, I had strong urges to reach out to the people most important to me, to spend time outdoors appreciating the beauty of the world around me, to spend time with friends and family. (Hence the nature picks – lots of exploring our new neighborhood, especially at sunset and dusk when it’s cooler..) But I do have a sense of urgency about this upcoming book and the one I’m in the middle of writing about my journey with cancer. Cancer is ugly and scary to people, I think – and I think one way to diminish the fear is to speak about it as clearly as possible, to share experiences with it. So I’m trying to trick myself into writing poems even though we’re not all the way settled into to the new house yet (usually it takes me a few months after a move to be able to write again) and I’m trying – despite somewhat scattered energies – to focus on doing what I can to promote Field Guide to the End of the World, which is coming out in September. Poetry takes on a weird form of importance – even though so few people read it or respond to it – when you’re thinking, OK, this might be my last shot. What do I want to leave people with?

So I’m planning a book launch party (Sept 18!), a reception in October at local poetry bookstore Open Books (Oct 15!), some other local readings, getting ready to send out book cards and a newsletter and design a flier for the book..all kinds of “busy work” things that are important if you want to get your book into people’s hands. Remember that notes to authors, book reviews, and buying books – all things that support a writer in their lives’ work – might have a lot of impact. We never know what writers are going through when they’re writing, when they’re posting little PR blips about their books. Your support may mean more than you think.

Haircut adventures, Poem up at Alyss and new essay up at The Mighty

First, some publication news!

Thanks to Alyss for publishing “Dorothy: Since Arriving in the Emerald City” in their issue 4. It’s a fantastic issue, including work by Jessica Goodfellow, whose work I really love. Check it out!

Thanks to The Mighty, a blog community for people with disabilities and illness, for publishing my essay on cancer and luck:

https://themighty.com/2016/08/does-luck-play-a-role-in-receiving-a-carcinoid-syndrome-diagnosis/

Please click on it and leave a comment if you like. I’ve been writing tech documents, poetry, and book reviews for some years now, but I’m a bit of a novice at the art form of the “personal essay,” so this is really me getting my feet wet in that area. I’d love to know what you think!

Well, the cancer stuff – we’re now in a phase where I have to do some more fancy rare tests where I go off half my medications and eat a weird diet for a while, then do the rare tests, then get info back on how we move forward on treatment. I thought I’d be getting my first chemo dose at the end of the month, but because the endocrinologists suspect even more weirdness concerning my neuroendocrine tumors, they want to be sure it’s the right kind of chemo before we jump in. Which makes sense, but is frustrating because MORE WAITING.

Had a great long coffee visit with an old friend yesterday who also struggles with chronic health issues. Right now all the support and friendship I can manage to squeeze into my schedule seems like an extremely good idea. Finally made some headway with the post-moving box problem and have started to think of this new place as a place I can actually entertain! After years of tiny apartments, this seems like an enormous luxury.

In the meantime, because one of the side effects of the chemo is some hair loss and change of texture, I decided to lop off about three more inches of hair. I grew it out all last year, so it was a little emotional, but it is much easier (as every woman with short hair claims). Here’s a pic of the haircut, with the very dry grass in my backyard, courtesy of my husband. I also want to get you some kitty therapy here, so here’s another pic of little kitten Sylvia, this time sacked out next to Shakespeare. I call this art masterpiece “Sacked Out Ragdolls.”