More On Skagit Poetry Festival, Pumpkin Farm Visits, Poetry Business for the New Book and the Smoke in October

More on the Skagit Poetry Festival and La Conner

I promised more last week on the Skagit Poetry Festival and our trip up to La Conner. On the second day of the festival, I got to see a terrific panel with Washington State’s current and former Poet Laureates, which was one of my favorite readings of the festival, and an evening with Terrance Hayes and Jane Hirshfield, who were both great. I also got a close encounter with a great blue heron (but missed my usual seals and otters) and enjoyed the sunny skies and relatively clean air. But by the end of the festival, I was exhausted, and there were a couple of people I talked with that ended up getting covid at the festival. A reminder to wear our masks indoors, still. Sigh. I took tests at 3 and 5 days after the exposure, but ended up fine, relief. But it was certainly a wake-up call for those people who keep saying the pandemic is “over.” Over for whom? Not for me or the folks who got covid, I guess. Did I have enough fun to make the risk worth it? I think so! It was really good to see some friends and get updates on their lives, get their newest books, and just talk writing with writers. We ended up driving home after the last reading and arrived home at about 1 AM and crashed the next day. With MS, you cannot go and go—you do have to eventually rest!

On our second day of the festival, I also made sure to spend extra time at one of my favorite La Conner things, the Museum of Northwest Art, and enjoyed some paintings, including several portraits of Frida Kahlo. So below: me with painting, me with Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest, Great Blue Heron, and Glenn and I with a bird sculpture.

A Visit to Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin Farm on Our One Smoke-Free Day This Week

We had one day this week back in Woodinville that was smoke-clear enough to go outside, and that was Tuesday, so we went and visited Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin Farm, a twenty-minute drive out into the country near Maltby that was totally worth it. I got to talk to a microbiologist who was working one of the kid’s games—it always amazes me how many biologists and engineers are working on farms now! We came home with corn, honeycrisp and pizazz apples, and great pickles and preserves. It was so nice to spend time outside, but it was almost TOO warm and sunny— tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 80s—in October! And still no rain! It’s a weird year. The smoke —which seems ever-present with only brief breaks and no rain—can make you feel even more trapped than covid—because you can’t even go outside to walk around to burn off your energy. I hate it. Hey, I didn’t move to the Pacific Northwest to be trapped indoors by wildfire smoke all September and October!

WordCloud for Flare, Corona

Poetry Business and the New Book

So, this week was busy in terms of planning for the new book, Flare, Corona, which will be out at AWP but whose official launch date is May 2023. BOA Editions had a meeting set up with me and the production and marketing team (!!)—something I haven’t had at other publishers—so we talked galleys, ARCs, dates, the cover, the blurbs, everything.

I realized how much work you can do on a book six months in advance—but the nice thing is, this time I’m not doing all the work by myself. It’s a nice feeling to have support!

Given that I might be a little more disabled and chronically ill than I was at the last book launch, I’m considering hiring some help to do more of the PR. I had an intern for my last book, PR for Poets, and it really helped with some of the detail-oriented work I probably wouldn’t have gotten to without her. This time I’m considering hiring a PR professional to do things that might slip between the cracks otherwise and to help set up Pacific Northwest events. Have any of you done this?

Smoke-filled sunrise

It’s surprising how many of the top poets we all know the names of are hiring PR representation, but not really talking about it. I don’t know why this is, or if there feels like there’s a stigma? I have noticed that people don’t like to admit that they do any marketing for any kind of books, even though you absolutely have to do some amount of hustle, no matter what genre or subject, to get any book a decent audience. It’s why I wrote PR for Poets in the first place—to give people an understanding of how a book gets sold. Some people say, “I’m an artist, I don’t want to think about sales and marketing.” And that’s fine if you don’t care about your book selling or have someone else doing that work for you. In my case, I understand the work, I just don’t have the energy and time that I used to.

Anyway, soon I’ll do a cover reveal, have a pre-sale page up, Galleys, all these things. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking. Will anyone like the book? I hope so! It’s a different kind of book for me, though it still has foxes, supervillains, apocalypses, it’s definitely a more personal collection. I’m talking to some poet friends today which will help remind me I’m not the only one who goes through all this! Wishing you a smokeless autumn week with turning leaves and temperatures cool enough to wear a sweater!