Notes…
on Reading
On Goodreads you learn fascinating things. Like that Ron Silliman and I share a love of the book, Bread and Jam for Frances.
On the Poet’s Dilemma Part I: Finances
Trying to figure out how to live a life of balance. How to not obsess about money all the time. How to stay healthy with a body that seems especially susceptible (for whatever reason) to illness and injury, which has pretty much kept me out of the full-time corporate work I did for twelve years. Is moving to a small town a way to escape the escalating costs not just of money, but of time, and stress, living in a wonderful but absurdly overpriced and traffic-choked city? Can we afford to just be poets (doing a little teaching, editing, freelance writing on the side?) Ideally, I think, I would have a part-time job publishing or teaching or managing something arts-related. (This is a hint, universe!) I still want to start up my own book publishing deal, but the monetary costs right now seem overwhelming. Like saving up enough for a house down-payment in a place where even the average small-town home runs about $350K…a distant dream right now. Hopefully not forever. Lately I’ve been doing so much freelance work I haven’t had much time to write or submit. Freelance work is always feast or famine – everyone wants something done right away, or it’s a ghost town.
On Television:
This should probably be on my other blog, but last night’s Family Guy hour-long spoof of Star Wars was so funny I was out of breath. And I can’t wait to see the new Heroes tonight!!!
One more thing:
Go check out this ridiculously beautiful Japanese shampoo commercial, posted on Endicott Studio’s Blog for it’s Rapunzel-esque though absolutely Japanese storyline:
http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/09/hairy-tale-by-k.html
Bloggers invading dreamscapes: Last night I dreamed I was checking into a huge floating business hotel for a conference. At the desk, I got to introduce Rebecca Loudon to my mom, who for some reason were both attending the conference with me. All the rooms had no walls between connecting rooms and one glass wall that looked out on a cityscape.
Deb Ager has introduced me to the terrible addictive Goodreads.com. I spent 45 minutes there last night. Is that productive time? Still, a lot of fun to see what other people are reading, and I joined two groups – “Murakami fans” and “Mythic Fiction.”
I went into the local library to thank the librarian who put my book up in the “New and Interesting Reads” display. It was already checked out again! She was very sweet. Yay for good librarians who read poetry. Although she did divulge that she doesn’t usually put poetry up there, but she thought the cover was very cool.
I’m going to Forest Grove, Oregon this Thurday and again next Friday, for a reading and then my official graduation ceremony. It’ll be fun to see some of the faculty and meet some new students. They seem to get better every semester. Anyway, after that I have some downtime for the summer, which I should probably fill up with freelance work.
Glenn and I are thinking about moving a couple of hours away from Seattle this fall, to be able to afford a real home and not just a very small and somewhat dingy apartment home. We are looking at Bellingham and Port Townsend…where homes (real freestanding ones) still fall in the 300K range rather than the 750K range. I also feel this arrangement would be good for my writing. Suburbia has never agreed with me. I like the feel of the country and small towns, especially small towns with good parks, libraries, bookstores, and grocery shops (my homes away from home.) With a big city a comfortable drive away for access to hospitals, shopping, readings, etc. I think we would like to settle down and not move every six to eighteen months for a while, too. Maybe we could get a dog to go with our cats!
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
