Hailstorms, HWA Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Field Guide, Elgin Award Nominations, and Tapping into February Despair for Positive Actions
- At February 23, 2017
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 1
Woke up to hailstorms (second day in a row) and a little good news: Field Guide to the End of the World made it to the finalist round in the HWA’s Bram Stoker Award! Hooray!
http://horror.org/2016-bram-stoker-awards-final-ballot/
It’s also been nominated for this year’s Elgin Award! Thank you to those who nominated it!
So if you’re a voter in either the HWA or the SFPA but have yet to see Field Guide to the End of the World for yourself, there’s a special link here where you can download the PDF. Every vote helps! Just like in real life 🙂 Also, if you’ve read it and liked it, please put a review up on Amazon! I’d really love to see at least ten reviews up there!
February Despair, and How to Channel It
So, it’s February, and the weather’s been dreary, wetter and colder than usual, I’ve been sick for the majority of the month (it also hit my normally healthy husband) and then I knocked a tooth out Monday night which resulted in my very first crown (so $$$!) and Glenn needed thumb surgery after a kitchen accident. The news of course has been horrifying (people being asked for their papers before they’re able to get off planes; people being picked up in the middle of the night, burning the Standing Rock camp, The EPA/Russia stuff, Arizona deciding it can take your house if you plan a protest, in case you missed any of that fun.) If I check back on my blog in years past in February though, chances are I’ll be blogging about discouragement, depression, and despair, because February is the month of giving up/getting sick in the Northwest. This year everyone else across the country has been getting sunny, warm, spring-like weather, and I also had to miss AWP, which sort of made it worse! Anywhere but here…although since I’ve lived in so many places I know intellectually that each place has a downside, that this feeling will pass, that I’ll love the Northwest again (but not as long as snow is in the dang forecast! Come on, spring!)
But how to turn this February despair into something positive? Well, since I’ve been stuck at home for the most part, we’ve gotten started on the taxes, I’ve gotten started on two new articles for Poet’s Market, and I’ve been hard at work on an editing pass on the PR for Poets book, which I realized was in worse shape than I thought and needed tons more work. Isn’t that always the way? You’re so proud of yourself on the first draft, and then you look at it a few months later on the editing pass, and you’re like: “What was I thinking? This all needs to be re-written!” I’m also working on a full-length new manuscript of poetry (title still undetermined), which somehow has found itself put together since January, and I’ve been working on it a little at a time. Plus calling and writing my representatives about the various nightmare political stuff. So, to recap: being disgustingly sick and fairly discouraged/down but trying to channel this into making things better. At least when I’m not so sick I can’t even sit up or focus on the computer, which has been a good amount of time!
Sometimes being chronically ill makes me hibernate, though I’m more outgoing in nature than most writers. You just 1. want to avoid germs, either getting or spreading them 2. don’t feel you have the energy (See: The Spoon Theory from “But You Don’t Look Sick”) and 3. tend to have a more pessimistic outlook when your body physically hurts. I need to make more of an effort to socialize, to get out when I can, because we really do have a lovely poetry community here. And I found out we’re about to get our very own independent bookstore nearby in Redmond Town Center called Bricks and Mortar Books. It opens in May, and I’m excited about that! Nothing is more demoralizing than having to drive 45 minutes and pay a bridge toll to get to an indie bookstore! I will also make an effort to be a bit more active on social media until the weather turns better/my health improves. At least I can contribute that way and it’s very difficult to give anyone the flu through e-mail or the phone. Anyway, if I owe you an e-mail or phone call, please don’t hesitate to bother me!
Deborah K. Hammond
Awesome news on the award nominations! So very deserved, Jeannine!