Friday Updates: Two New Reviews for Field Guide, Black Moons, Shifting Energies, and Small Annoyances

Two new reviews for Field Guide to the End of the World!

Thanks to the Chick with Books blog for this review:

http://chickwithbooks.blogspot.com/2016/09/field-guide-to-end-of-world-by-jeannine.htm

And to Suko’s Notebook blog for this:

http://www.sukosnotebook.net/2016/09/field-guide-to-end-of-world.html

Thank you so much to the reviewers for their hard work!

So, the end of September, the Black Moon tonight, which of course you can’t see as it’s a new moon, all these things represent  changes, shifting energies, the ends of one season and the beginnings of another. (Download the cool song “In a Blackout” by Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam for good melodic accompaniment to the new moon!)  I’ve been experiencing a series of – not tragedies, but annoyances. For instance, I dropped something heavy on my foot a few days ago, and it might be broken – I’ve been resting and wrapping it and hoping for the best! I’m going to get it x-rayed today. They’ve also been paving my neighborhood this week, so we got trapped in our house (or conversely, outside our house) at awkward times – when I was supposed to go to the doctor, or when we were coming home with groceries. The air has heavily smelled of tar, so being outside the house for even a small amount of time – like going outside to watch the birds – brought on coughing fits. This could be a metaphor – the destruction of the old sidewalk and road and the laying down of new materials – but this week it’s just felt…well, annoying. Like my foot! Not the end of the world, but enough to make things a little painful and awkward.

On the plus side, I finished one of the book reviews I was working on (When the Rewards Can Be So Great, a collection of craft talks from Pacific University’s MFA program) and am almost done with another (Dana Levin’s apocalyptic Banana Palace.) I wrote a few new poems. I moved summer clothes out of my closet, and warm jackets in. It’s been beautiful – sunny and in the sixties, which is my favorite weather. Now if I can just get back to walking!

I’ve been invited to do several class visits in the upcoming two weeks – a couple of them by Skype/Google Hangouts – which I feel very lucky to do. I’m going to see Ada Limon read on the 5th, which I’m excited about. I love visiting with students! And of course the Open Books signing/reception for the new book on October 15th. Then a bunch of poetry stuff goes on at the end of the month – including a Hugo House event (with Sherman Alexie as judge!) and LitCrawl. October looks like it’s going to be busy but hopefully more productive (and less pneumonia-y) than September!