A New Interview at Seattle Wrote, A New Poem at Stone Highway, and a Library Link

Keeping busy these days, but wanted to let you all know about a few things. I’m expecting the first proof of Unexplained Fevers from Ireland any day now, starting to plan out more spring events, and generally getting overscheduled, but in a good way! Now, onto the news – interviews, a new poem, and a library blog mention!

Here is a link to an interview that the very kind Norelle Done did with me for Seattle Wrote:
http://www.seattlewrote.com/2013/02/seattle-author-womens-themes-in-poetry.html
I give some advice for beginning writers, including:
“Then write as much and as often as you can, and start sending things out to the magazines you like best, whether they’re famous or not. Often you’ll know where to send, because you’ll connect with the poems published in the journals.
My mother’s advice for me when I was a 19-year old optimistic writer sending things out for the first time was to fill a shoebox with rejection slips, and that set up my expectations – there will be a lot more rejection than acceptance. But being a poet is as much about practice and perseverance as inspiration.”

Yes, I’ve been watching Wile E. Coyote, the ultimate engineer, at work for decades, so it seems natural that eventually I wrote a poem for him. Scroll down to page 25 of the Stone Highway issue to see “Introduction to Engineering from Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius:”
http://www.stonehighway.com/issue-22-january-2013.html

And last but not least, a very kind mention of my February 20th reading at Redmond Library is up at the KCLS blog today:
http://redmondlibrary.blogspot.com/2013/02/jeannine-hall-gailey-redmonds-poet.html

A Little Bit of Perfume in Your Poetry?

Once, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I took my biology degree and went and managed a perfume shop for rare and expensive perfumes in Cincinnati. It has since been shuttered, but it carried some wonderful lines that were otherwise unavailable to most people in Ohio: Caron, Hermes, Cartier, Parfums Grey. I particularly loved the carved flacons of Panthere, with little panthers and jeweled eyes, and the gorgeous “Blond Tabac” available for $150 in a carved glass flacon. I loved being around perfumes, until my asthma drove me into the more prosaic, and admittedly, more lucrative field of technical writing, in which I worked more or less happily for some years.
This preface is just to tell you why I’m writing about perfumes in the middle of a poet’s blog. I’ve long been attracted to difficult and hard-to-find fragrances since my days as a perfume salesgirl, and I have a pretty good nose (I’m also a supertaster, when I don’t have a cold, anyway!) I couldn’t afford the best perfumes when I worked at the perfume store, but I loved the samples and I still do! Buying good perfumes on a poet’s salary can be tough, so I do a lot of research before I invest in a new bottle (or ask someone else to invest for me.)
So, lately, there have been some fairly interesting new fragrances coming out, and since it’s near Valentine’s Day, that time-honored season of buying perfume for loved ones, and I’d acquired some new samples, I thought I’d give some short reviews. Another piece of preface: I tend to like complicated orientals (Coco by Chanel, the aforementioned Panthere by Cartier) but hate any notes of green or patchouli. I also, on the other hand, like extremely fresh citrus fragrances (Strawberry Flowers by Fresh, available a couple of years ago, was a fantastic, sophisticated version of a fruity floral, and Orange Verte by Hermes is another loved fragrance. Comptoir Sud Pacifique made a strange but wonderful line including a fresh grapefruit called Pamplemousse, some wonderful tropical-candy fragrances, not too sweet, like Coeur de Vahine.
But lately I’ve been craving something like Caron’s Blond Tabac, but a bit more playful, so I was looking forward to trying Tom Ford’s new Vanille Tabac.
—Tom Ford’s Vanilla Tobacco – I was finally able to find this fragrance at Nordstrom’s, and the top notes were delicious – a really true, dark vanilla and a nice non-smoky tobacco flower fragrance. But. But….two hours later, my wrist – despite three washes – smelt strongly of damp burning cedar and not in a good way. Dry down = terrible, although the perfume person claimed a “vertical drydown” – which by the way, is nearly impossible to achieve, so don’t believe it if anyone says their perfume has it. I will say, though that Tom Ford’s “Cafe Rose” – and I don’t usually like rose fragrances – was a nice true rose combined with a happy coffee-vanilla-and-white-flower fragrance, so if you’re looking to try one of his new ones, that’s what I’d recommend. Very romantic!
Atelier Cologne is a new line with extremely high levels of essential oils (so don’t expect a true “cologne” experience – it’s closer to an “eau de parfum” in most American perfume lines. Very hard to find here in Seattle since Neiman’s stopped carrying it, I had to order samples from the main store many states away, unfortunately. But, I didn’t want my experience wasted, so here you go!
—Orange Sanguine. I’d already fallen in love with this when it came out last year and Glenn brought home a  bottle for me, it does smell like just-cut oranges, coffee, and amber. Really long-lasting for a citrus fragrance, too.The company says it’s got a tonka bean bottle note, which I hate in Guerlain perfumes, but it doesn’t bother me and is not noticeably powdery.
The new fragrances:
—Rose Anonyme – Again, I admit to not being a true lover of rose, this one was very strong but surprisingly true and long-lasting. Base notes of Oud, incense and (that despised) patchouli but a very pleasant herbal middle note of ginger that I really liked. Good – but not for me.
—Oolong Infini.- I was expecting to like this one, because I love Barney’s Route du The and other tea-based perfumes, and I LOVED it. (The postcard alone – pictured here – would tempt any writer.) Along with the tea top note, leather, my beloved tobacco flower, jasmine – and a slightly more floral drydown than you might expect from that list. Clean, fresh, and truly unisex – it smelled as good on my husband as it did on me.
—Vanille Insensee – I don’t usually like sweet-artificial vanilla perfumes, available by the dozen everywhere these days, but this was very subtle and clean, almost herbal. That’s probably because of the oak, moss, cedar and coriander notes – notes as I said I don’t typically like – but the fresh lime and jasmine notes kind of clean up the dampness of those notes, I think. Anyway, great for people who like vanilla but not most typical vanilla perfumes.
—Grand Neroli – Clean and WAY more masculine than I was expecting for a “Grand Neroli” – orange flower is usually read as a feminine fragrance, but this is beefed up with some herbals, it almost reads like “4711” – a French cologne for men I really like. Don’t buy this expecting something sweet and girlish – it’s fresh, clean, bracing, and a teensy bit green.
Happy perfume shopping!

A New Anthology from New Binary, and the death of poetry

I finally got my contributor’s copy of New Binary Press’s first Anthology, which contains, among other poems, several from me, several from fellow Washington poets Annette Spaulding-Convy and Kathleen Flenniken, and an array of Irish poets that it was a pleasure to read. I recommend it! I’m always interested in international anthologies, even if this one wasn’t be published by my third book’s publisher! Here’s a little picture, courtesy of my mother’s cell phone.

Also, a short retort to all the hullabaloo about the death of poetry. What I’ve noticed is, most people these days can barely read, and when they want to read, they want something wish-fulfillment-y and unchallenging. Poetry makes you work, and thus, is described as “hard.”
Which is not one whit different from any other time in history, except people who don’t want to read have a range of other options to entertain themselves with.  And poetry these days doesn’t always rhyme, which always seems to surprise people (one of the complaints about the inaugural poem) though the prose poem came around in the late 1890’s, and the Modernists – starting in the 1920s – really brought that whole “no rhyme” thing into fashion. Like, eighty years ago. Get with the trends, people!
So, in summation: poetry is no more dead than it has ever been, unless you count back in ancient times, when poets were the substitute for newspapers, movies, and rock concerts.

Lucky, or What it Takes

Lucky…it is such a loaded word, isn’t it?

I had a really bad day a couple of days ago – nothing earthshattering – a lost check, a husband accidentally breaking a cell phone, an ankle contusion, a disappointing doctor’s appointment, money worries, a fight with family – but a day that made me question what it is I’ve been trying to do all these years with poetry, and if it was possible to have any kind of “successful” life given the health stuff I’ve been handed by the universe.

I used to work ninety hour work weeks as a technical manager, until the combination of a heritable bleeding disorder and connective tissue autoimmune problems almost killed me. I was literally forced to rethink the way I was living, and had to quit my very demanding job. And since I quit, that was almost ten years ago now, I decided to try to live a life around what I really wanted to do – which was write poetry. I volunteered for literary organizations, I went and got an MFA and then taught at an MFA as an adjunct, I published first a chapbook, then a book and then two books. I haven’t been able to do some things a writer really should do to be successful – travel a lot for book tours, for example, or go to AWP every year – mostly because of health reasons, but sometimes also money reasons (the lack of a full-time job is not great for finances, in case you were wondering…) I’ve worked almost a year as my city’s Poet Laureate, a position that’s required every ounce of tact, enthusiasm, planning, and the ability to handle challenge and disappointment as well as a thrilling chance to get to know and help my own community. And I’m looking at book three coming out in a couple of months.

All of this is exciting, but is it lucky? What is luck? If you volunteer for ten years and study and work really hard at submitting and dedicating yourself to the craft of poetry writing and do readings/social media…you will still have days when you doubt yourself and your work and wonder if anything you’re doing is worthwhile. You have to remind yourself of your successes and try to ignore the rejections, the empty reading chairs, the unexpected things you’ll take too hard (for instance, my doctor the other day revealing that his son was the head of creative writing at a large university and had won a Stegner fellowship and a Whiting Award and was on his third book. The son was my age. Talk about a blow to your self-esteem while still in a dressing gown! Not cool. For some people it seems so easy…they seem so lucky!) You can not let yourself be stopped by bad things (Flannery O’Connor had lupus and died at my age, 39, but managed to create an amazing body of literary work, friendships, and spirit, for example.) That’s not luck, but determination. You can take advantage of opportunities that come your way, and work hard when you get these opportunities. You can be kind to people in general because being kind is work you probably won’t regret down the line. On your bad days, you have to believe…maybe the combination of hard work, persistence, and luck and faith will somehow win you…if not the life you’ve dreamed of, maybe a life you can be proud of.

Thanks to Robert Brewer for inspiring my meditation with his own blog post on luck, here: http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/2013/01/3-ways-to-make-your-own-luck.html

Reading Friday Evening at Tacoma’s King’s Books

Hope to see a few of my Tacoma friends there! Come on out in you’re nearby and say hello!
http://www.kingsbookstore.com/event/poetsjan

7 PM, Friday January 11th at King’s Bookstore

This monthly event features a Distinguished Writer followed by an Open Mic. This month features poet Jeannine Hall Gailey, the Poet Laureate of Redmond, WA. She is the author of Becoming the Villainess (2006) and She Returns to the Floating World (2011). She teaches part-time for National University’s MFA program and volunteers for Crab Creek Review. Following her is an Open Mic, open to all poets, sign-up is at 6:45 pm. Admission is free. The event occurs monthly the second Friday of every month at King’s Books. Sponsored by the Puget Sound Poetry Connection and the Tacoma Arts Commission.

A Sneak Peek at the Cover of my Next Book, Unexplained Fevers

This is a sneak peek of the cover of my upcoming third book, Unexplained Fevers. The art work is by Michaela Eaves. Let me know what you think! Would you buy this book?

Prepping for a third book – what are the steps these days again?

Hello, dear readers! Now that it is the new year, I have bought a new wall calender and am looking at planning out the next year, not just the Redmond Poet Laureate events, but now, planning for the launch of Unexplained Fevers from New Binary Press in the spring, and all the accompanying la-di-da.

So, what are the necessary steps to launch a book?

1. Plan a book tour. Yes, even if it’s just in and around your own city, you should probably do this six months in advance at least. I have to remember that some reading series and schools book up to a year in advance, so the time to start asking about readings is…right now.

2. Redo your web site – I try to redesign my web site around the themes of every book that I put out! Did you know that? So, besides redoing the theme, I want to the new site to make some new things (like buying books, booking a reading, signing up for editing services) easier, and I’m going to try to do it in WordPress, which seems really terrible-and-migraine-inducing for someone who has been using FrontPage and Blogger for, oh, seven or more years, but I think it’s time to make the switch. My sister-in-law Jen Gailey, a graphic designer, my artist friend Michaela Eaves, my little brother (who is starting his own web site business) Michael Duke Hall, and my kind techie husband Glenn are all conspiring to help me to do this, thankfully, because left to my own devices, I’m pretty sure my web site would end up looking very strange.

3. Planning some PR. Putting together a mailing list for book cards and a reviewer copy list. (Which, by the way, if you want to be on the reviewer list for Unexplained Fevers, leave a comment or e-mail me.) I’m also looking at using the PR services of YouDoPR, which makes it very easy for authors to do some basic PR services for themselves. What else? Blog tours, book giveaways? Facebook page for the book? I’m not sure what kind of promo is the most successful these days. Leave ideas in the comments! I’d love to know what you are doing, what you’ve done that was or wasn’t worth it, etc!

Poet Laureate Event on January 5, A New Review, and New Poems Up at Rose Red Review

Poet Laureate Event Alert – If you are looking to talk about multi-culturalism in poetry and discuss the language of science in poetry – look no further than Redmond Library tomorrow, Saturday January 5 at 3 PM, where I’ll be hosting a panel with guest poets Natasha K. Moni and Raul Sanchez. http://www.redmond.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=82418

A new review of She Returns to the Floating World is up at Poets Quarterly, written by Ann E. Michael. She did a really nice job of talking about the book. It’s always interesting to see which poems reviewers focus on and their take on the messages of the book. I learn something with every review! http://www.poetsquarterly.com/2013/01/she-returns-to-floating-world-by.html

Two new poems from my upcoming book, Unexplained Fevers, at Rose Red Review.
Rapunzel, After and Snow White Dreams by Jeannine Hall Gailey

In other news, over the break I managed to partially dislocate my first rib, sprain my knee, and get the flu. Today I had to go to an emergency physical therapy appointment so she could put the rib back. Which is super painful, but better than having that rib pressing on a nerve, which by the way, can literally make you see stars. Then I dressed up, went to Bellevue Art Museum, read poetry and taught a class, and now I’m home preparing for tomorrow’s event. No rest for the wicked? I feel that perhaps now I am due a time of strength and good health for the rest of January. Can you hear that, universe? I mean, I haven’t even seen The Hobbit yet!

Starting 2013 Off with a Little Poetry and Art

Happy 2013 All!
If you’d like to celebrate the new year with a little poetry and a little art, then I’d like to invite you out to Bellevue Art Museum on its free first friday, January 4.
You can listen to some of my recorded poems from She Returns to the Floating World along with information about the new Japanese art exhibits – follow the instructions here:
http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/featured.html

Check out this information about the whole Japanese celebration event on the 4th here:
http://www.bellevuearts.org/calendar/#search-by=featured-event&query=1/4/2013&title=Celebrating%20Japanese%20Traditions%20at%20BAM

The whole day’s schedule looks pretty cool. Besides my reading with art show by Michaela Eaves, there’s also manga lessons, a talk with one of the featured artists, and a bunch of cool stuff. Plus my book will be available at the gift shop!

January 4, 2013

Celebrating Japanese Traditions at BAM

11am to 7pm

Post-Christmas – Gearing Up for 2013!

So, now that the world hasn’t ended and Christmas is behind us, I guess we can get down to the serious work of figuring out what we will do with ourselves in 2013!

First of all, I want to thank my husband and his keen gift-getting skills for this little load of thoughtful (and cute!) gifts: a hedgehog set of measuring cups, a set of arctic-fox and snowflake canape plates, and a carnelian necklace (carnelian is supposed to be good for healing! I hope it works!)

I was very happy to get some good news from the Jack Straw Writers Program on Christmas Eve, along with a check from my poem published in American Poetry Review a few months ago. What a lovely surprise from Santa – Poetry good stuff! (I also, strangely, got two rejections on Christmas Eve. Ho Ho Scrooge?! But that’s okay. The other things made up for it.)

So, in the beginning of January, I’m going to be reading at the Bellevue Arts Museum and giving a short workshop on haiku and haibun on January 4 at 4:30 PM. The next day, January 5th, I’ll be hosting a panel at Redmond Library on multi-cultural poetry and the language of science (featuring Natasha K. Moni and Raul Sanchez) at 3 PM. Whoosh! Starting the year with a bang. Then I’m reading on January 11th at King’s Books in Tacoma.  So, if you want to know where to find me in January, I’ll probably be running around in a panic. (I also have several freelance writing and editing deadlines in January, and I start teaching again in February, so…)

Which leads me to the question of – what is it you want to do in 2013? I’m very excited about my new book coming out from New Binary Press in April of 2013, Unexplained Fevers (and I’ve been collaborating with artist Michaela Eaves on doing some special-edition art for a UK special edition which is going to be available along with the regular soft-cover edition and an e-book! That’s three editions! Craziness!) I am hoping I will be healthy enough to get out to the UK for a few readings at some point, otherwise I’m starting to put together readings for 2013 in the Norhwest.
What else? I’m planning a book party/40th birthday party sometime in the spring as well, because if you can’t celebrate turning 40, well, what’s the point? And I’ll be doing Poet Laureate stuff AND Jack Straw things as well next year. It seems like a year of busy poet work. And who can complain about that? I want to spend 2013 getting healthier, wealthier, and writing and reading more poetry. Maybe paying off some student loans. But especially the writing part. And finding a home for my fourth book. And I have 46 good pages on a fifth book that really hones in on the nerdy stuff – engineering, algebra, apocalypses, more superhero poems. I should probably also try to send out some work – see, a poet’s work is never ever done!

So, what are your plans for 2013? I am wishing you all a healthy, happy, and more peaceful and prosperous new year!