Poets and Artists, Biker Bars, and More Prep for the Book Release
First of all, I want to say that I have really felt blessed to spend time with interesting people in the last few days. I had a good talk with my poet-friend-in-the-Bay-area Natasha (featured in this article on a 14 Hills reading in SF Weekly, with amusing results) and then had a coffee meeting with artist Deborah Scott who talked in a fascinating way about the artistic process of her paintings (see a few of them here) which reminded me of all the ways that poets and artists work in common. We looked at Tarot cards and talked fairy tales, which was really fun.
But Natasha reminded me that she had been reading my blog and didn’t see the full title of my upcoming second book anywhere! Egads, PR disaster! She Returns to the Floating World, due out officially at the end of July, has arrived in ARC (advanced reader copy) form. Contact Kitsune Books (contact at kitsunebooks dot com) for a copy! You can pre-order it now too. I got a copy of the ARC and have become so excited about the physical artifact of the new book – I mean, I can’t imagine getting so excited about the launch of an e-book, can you? Seeing the cover, the back, the little ISBN number…yes, I’m a paper-book-geek all right.
And those of you who’d like to know what this second book is all about? Well, one of the Tarot cards I picked up while visiting with Deborah was a picture of a young woman holding a lion by the mouth. One of the interpretations of the card is about how a person interacts with their animal nature, especially a woman – the being inside us that is instinctive, fierce, blood and lust. That is one of the themes of the new book – one of my abiding interests, including how to be heroic, is the idea of the transforming woman, in between states, from fox or willow tree or seal or dragon and back into a human body again. The book has a series of poems about little brothers and big sisters, another about the frustrations and beauties of married life, and a third about the dangers to our earth, the apocalypse. It is also a book about the intersections between Japanese and American folk and pop cultures.
Enjoyed Kelli and Ann’s reading last night, especially the part where G and I got to go out to dinner with them beforehand, where one of the readers (can’t tell you who!) threw red wine on the other in a fit of rage. Just kidding. But there was some hilarious (for those of us on the other side of the table, anyway) wine spillage action. I’m going to have to quit being a hostess of the SoulFood Books readings, which I’ll miss, since I’m moving in November.
Got an order for a chapbook last night, and I realized that after I fill that order, I don’t have any more regular (without printing problems) chapbooks left. I’ll have to post the “sold out unless you go through Pudding House” sign on the “Female Comic Book Superheroes” chapbook sale page. I still have some irregular (printing problems) ones I can bring to readings, I think.
Battling a sinus/sore/throaty head cold and, according to my back specialist today, some kind of cervical spine nerve problem. (I’ve been having neck and shoulder pain, and last night during the open mike, my entire right arm went numb.) I am hoping both go away in the next week so I can be healthy and happy for my Ohio/NY mini-tour.
Still trying to figure out where to send “second” book manuscripts (I now have two full-grown ones ready to go.) It seems that all the listed contests are for first books, and after that, good luck! Maybe the Pleiades Press or the Journal/Ohio State?
