Heat Waves and Poetry Scandals, Poetry Writer Dates, and Sending Out Work in the Summer

End of July Heat Waves and Poetry Scandals

How are you holding up in the heat? We’ve had literal weeks of 90 degree weather here in Woodinville, which is welcome to leave any time (although it’s not supposed to get cooler for a while.) I love being outside but right now even my sunflowers are wilting from too much sun!

I’ve been laying a little low while dealing with MS symptom misery, but not low enough to avoid reading about scandal after scandal this week! A woman scams the literary world (and I mean, why would you target the literary community? It’s a community without a lot of money. Go pick on a richer group! And she was particularly targeting feminist writers. Did I mention I think I was Facebook friends with her at some point in the past?) And another literary agent was just accused of fraud, even writing fake letters with offers from presses to writers she worked with. Yikes! Writers beware, indeed.
And a terrible poem that offended about just about every group that exists was published and that also caused a scandal. (Note: Persona poetry is not a crime, but maybe try to avoid taking the identity of someone who might be underrepresented…Also, it was not a good persona poem because it relied too much on obvious cliches…The editors of the magazine involved are really nice, hyper-socially-aware writers, which begs the question of…well, hey, even good editors have off days…) I tried to avoid getting too involved in the scandal and gossip maelstrom on Twitter etc. It is funny how many people would rather get together and hate on a poem than ever ever talk about something positive about a different poem. Ah well. Such is social media. Which brings me to the importance of in-person writer time!

Poetry Writer Dates

Much more uplifting – real life time spent with real life writers! Spent a whole lovely day with Kelli Russell Agodon talking about our latest poetry manuscripts, the poetry world, and, bonus, I got a 20-minute Instagram tutorial on hashtags (which I needed because I am still so clueless on Instagram.) Glenn put out strawberry cupcakes and sparkling rose from the winery next door and it was just so nice to relax and spend time with another writer one-on-one. Plus, I was able to tackle my manuscript revisions the next day, so now I feel like I have a better, more complete version of my manuscript to send out.

Glenn and I drove Kels down to the Edmonds ferry and hung out on the beach to watch her leave. The sunset was beautiful and the breeze off the Puget Sound was perfect.

Sending Out Work in the Summer

Yes, go out and enjoy the flowers and good things the summer offers that the rest of the year doesn’t. For me, I love watching the hot air balloons go up and down at sunrise and sunset around Woodinville, and getting to watch gardens at their loveliest – right now, the lavender and roses are loving the heat.  Yes, of course, summer is the perfect time for taking the chunks of downtime to revise a manuscript or even a few poems and stories, a great time to rest and restore and create, but did you know it’s also a really good time to send out work? Not as many places are open to submissions, true, but the ones that are get fewer submissions because people don’t schedule in a ton of submission time this season. A few great presses are open for submissions right now. Plus, more writers have the endorphins from vacations, time spent outside, and sunshine to help them deal with rejections. Check out Entropy’s list of place to submit during the summer months…It’s easy to let a whole month slip by without sending out work. Make sure you send out at least once before July ends!

Happy end of July! Wishing us slightly cooler temperatures and plenty of ice cream!