New Podcast on BeautyHunters, Bobcat Visits, and March Comes in Like a Jerk

Plum Blossoms in March

March Begins and a New Podcast: Q&A with Me and Tatyana Mishel Sussex on BeautyHunters

March has come in, not like a lamb or a lion, but like a jerk, bringing hail, sideways snow, heavy rain, sunshine and all in two days’ time.  The flowers continue to bloom through it all, and a bobcat comes to visit. Meanwhile, I’m reading a ton, trying to do some submissions this month, and getting ready for a ton of readings and talks later on in March and April.

From Tatyana’s substack:

What do you do when you’re told you have six months to live? Poet, author, and lover-of-life Jeannine Hall Gailey went immediately to a giant writer’s conference, bought a house, took up photography, and reminded herself of all the beauty around her.

“You have to give your body a reason to live,” Jeannine says.

And through all the years of doctors appointments and emergency room visits, pain and low-energy, Jeannine continued to be fully in life: writing and submitting poems, finishing and publishing books, beelining her way to parks when the sun shone, the leaves turned gold, the blossoms pinkened, seeing friends, starting book clubs.
In my view, Jeannine shows us what we’re capable of, even if we don’t feel we are—in the way we all show each other what we’re made of, and what’s possible beyond the limitations of our thinking.
Grab a cup of coffee or tea, take us for a walk—treat yourself to the gusto and all-in-ness Jeannine possesses, along with some fun, creative and wise views about all kinds of things.”

On how I faced a terminal cancer diagnosis, why I write, what I think about immigration, how I find beauty in the world, and an hour of all kinds of fun things. At the end of the interview you can hear a terrible noise which is my small cat trying to escape the bedroom because she really wanted to be part of the interview by jumping up on the laptop.

Bobcat Visits and March/April Mayhem

Jonquil in my garden

Below is a little Ring video of our bobcat visit. But in life news, I have several things lined up in the next two months, including a visit to NorWesCon, participating in a speculative writing panel for Cascadia Writers, a virtual college visit, and a Zoom reading for the Olympia Poetry Network. It seems April is almost here, bringing its National Poetry Month busyness, and hopefully some sunshine and warmer spring weather.

I’ve been trying to come out of my plague-years hibernation—doing AWP, my book launch, and visits with family last year. my first travel in seven years last month, and so, I’m trying to get out there in the world a bit more. I’m currently also working on my next book, sending out poems, doing serious edits (as opposed to those lighthearted edits of the last several years). But like the Northwest’s weather in March so far, it’s been a bit of a stop and start, with my energy and health being good for a while, and then having to rest and recover. Here’s looking forward to the warmth of true spring, better weather, and the opportunity to get out and enjoy it!