Little Bits: The Skagit River Poetry Festival, Strange Horizons, A Rumpus Review, a cold that will not die

Well, I’ve had several little bits of news since I last posted, and some of them are pretty exciting!

I’m very honored to have joined the featured poets at the Skagit River Poetry Festival this May (tickets on sale now!) as I was lucky enough to be a runner-up in their poetry contest! I always love the Skagit Poetry Festival, but I have several more reasons to be excited now, and I have a couple of friends (Kelly Davio, Susan Rich, Rachel Rose, and Oliver de la Paz, among others) who will also be featured poets. It will be really fun and I’m now already looking past AWP to springtime in La Conner!

Another little bit is that thanks to Lesley Wheeler Unexplained Fevers was one of the few poetry books mentioned in Strange Horizons’ roundup of books in 2013. Sally Rosen Kindred is among the august company there as well. Thanks, Strange Horizons and Lesley Wheeler!

And my review of Special Powers and Abilities by Raymond McDaniel is up on The Rumpus! You should especially check out the review if you’re a fan of comic-book poetry. Which some of you must be, right?

In other news, I’ve been fighting off a cold for what feels like forever (is really only a week, but I feel like saying “for all of 2014!) Which has really slowed down my brain power, unfortunate as I am coming up on several deadlines, one for a fellowship application and another for an article on how to publicize your book of poetry without alienating your friends. (Any tips on this? Leave them in the comments and I may quote you in the article!) This article will be full of reminders for me as I come up on AWP on how not to be obnoxious. I will try not to annoy people by trying to promote my books, but I will be hanging around several publishers’ book fair sites for book signings and be at a couple of offsite readings, etc, which will give me a chance to say hi to some of you all in person! The second edition of She Returns to the Floating World with new internal art work by Michaela Eaves should be out in print by then from Two Sylvias Press, which is pretty exciting! So, all in all, for 2014 I’m feeling sneezy, tired (sleeping all day) and not totally physically or mentally sharp but grateful for all this good poetry news. Hope your 2014 is going well!

Attempting to Practice What I Talked About in my Previous Blog Post…

Yes, as normally happens the day after New Year’s, it is difficult to stand by our lofty goals, even if they are not in resolution form. The day after I wrote that last post, I went into panic mode because of multiple deadlines, but being a little under the weather (head-cold? allergies? post-holiday lethargy?) everything just felt long and difficult, like I was banging my head against a wall. Watching a video on how to apply for a fellowship? Filling out said fellowship application? Trying to write a useful article? All of these goals seemed frustrating and frustrated.

So today, in the spirit of opening my life to more joy, inspiration, blah blah, I went out to my favorite little Seattle gallery, Roq La Rue, to see their exhibition that’s closing. There was some beautiful work by John Brophy, and my favorite one was titled something like “The Light of Genius,” where an enigmatic figure watches a lightningbug whose trail has a physics/mathematics equation on it:

Which reminded me of what we are all doing as artist – looking for a little light, a little inspiration. Isn’t that a great piece?

And then Glenn and I did a little post-holiday sale scavenging at the downtown Anthropologie and found some neat half-price stuff, including polar bear measuring cups and an adorable hedgehog tea towel. This, you understand, is not necessary, but it does make the kitchen area feel more cheerful! (We also think we saw Emilie de Ravin from Lost there. But we weren’t sure!)

Anyway, this made me feel positive-y enough to be able to complete my formally challenging fellowship application instead of torturing myself further, and now I can move on to finish my article (for which I have already obtained two wonderful quotes!) hopefully by the rapidly approaching deadline and then on to other assignments like my reviews etc.

It does remind me I am more efficient when, instead of kind of muscling my way through difficult tasks, when it’s not happening, take a break, squint into the sunlight, eat something chocolatey or fruity or something happy, and then go back in and finish. It just puts things into perspective.

Welcoming in 2014!

Good morning and Happy New Year and Rose Parades to you! Last night was one of the first times in a long time I was well enough to really celebrate New Year’s Eve, and we had the almost perfect set-up – an early dinner with friends, then home to watch the ball drop and make a toast. It was really fun to be able to be out and about, in a cool restaurant with great new friends. (I can fully recommend the salted caramel milkshake and the delightful airy (and gluten-free) tempura-esque eggplant wedges at new restaurant The Tipsy Cow, which also had really nice service, a rarity in the Seattle area!) Oh, and thanks to Karen Weyant for putting Unexplained Fevers on her best of 2013 books list!

So, I’m thinking about what we invite – and don’t invite – into our lives in 2014. I’m not much for new-agey-self-help, but I do think that it can’t hurt to invite in good things and close the door on the bad.

So, instead of resolutions, here’s what I’m inviting into my life in 2014:

–Spending more time with people I like – writers, friends, family.

–Doing things that actually make me feel happy – music, art galleries, visiting bookstores, going to the woods and muontains, maybe even some dancing if my ankles can hold up.

–Writing!

–Health – and I know more than most that only so much of our health situation is under our control -but I want to embrace doing good things for our bodies, appropriate sleep, gentle exercise, food that tastes good and is good for us. Don’t focus so much on the stuff that’s wrong with me, and more on the things I can do and enjoy.

–Letting good opportunities come to me, instead of scrambling so much. (Maybe scrambling is part of the writing life, but I want to do less of it this year.) More thankfulness for the good things I have.

–A better balance between paid and unpaid work, and the opportunity to do work I genuinely enjoy.

–More book awards and money (crossing fingers!)

–More Good News of all types!

–More day trips!

Things I’m closing the door on from 2013:

–Stressing out over things that just aren’t that important.

–Making work the priority over fun, relationships, writing, health, happiness.

–So much time at the doctor’s offices.

–Letting negative emotions rule my days – frustration, jealousy/comparisons, general grumpiness.

What are you inviting into your 2014? What are you ushering out the door?

Happy New Year! Year in Review + some recent fun stuff

Happy Approaching New Year, everyone! Yes, everyone is taking stock of 2013, which was quite hard for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, including a down economy and some just weird bad luck. Everyone is making lists and resolutions. Before that, I had two little pieces of news I wanted to share about my third book: Serena of Savvy Verse and Wit was kind enough to place Unexplained Fevers on her best books of 2013 list; a new review of Unexplained Fevers appears in the new issue of The Pedestal.

Some good things happened for me in 2013: my third book, Unexplained Fevers, came out in the spring from New Binary Press; I worked as Redmond’s Poet Laureate, and I got to be a Jack Straw Writer, all pretty cool. I was lucky enough to be published in some really exciting places, including Poet’s Market 2014. Creatively, I wrote my first real short fiction pieces, worked on finishing a fifth poetry manuscript, and seem to be close to finding a home for my fourth, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter. (Fingers crossed!) I made new friends as part of the outreach I did as Poet Laureate, too, which was probably the best thing about that job, including poets, editors, teachers, and artists I would never have met otherwise.

The bad? Well, trying to build a poetry community on the fairly stubbornly non-literary East side of Seattle was harder (and way more discouraging and energy-consuming) than I expected; I spent at least six months tracking down and getting tested for autoimmune/neurological issues, including un-fun things like blood tests, expensive MRIs and shock tests and discovered I had some permanent neurological problems that I have to deal with (although I am on intensive b12 therapy, which seems to be helping); spent lots of time in physical therapy painstakingly trying to build back up my brain’s connections to my tendons and muscles (still a work in progress) so I wouldn’t keep tripping, spraining, falling, and tearing things and would be able to walk without a cane or a wheelchair; I didn’t have much time to write or see friends, both of which are very important to my inner self’s happiness.

So, for 2014, my resolutions are fairly low-key: I want to refocus on writing, on friendships, on feeding my creative self and treat myself in general with more respect and care (re: autoimmune issues, which are a real bitch if you don’t have an “off” switch – I’m still trying to find mine!) I’m thinking about going back to doing freelance writing as a way of bringing in income, rather than doing as much editing (see this article on why being a freelance editor can be tremendously trying rather than rewarding) and of course I’d like to do some preparation for upcoming big Seattle events, such as Seattle’s hosting of AWP and the Skagit River Poetry Festival. I think I’d like to start getting paid on a regular basis for my book reviews and maybe some essays (also see this fine interview with Stephen Burt on poetry book reviewing.) I’m thinking hard about how to do the most effective book promotion for the next one, as book promotion has changed so much in the last few years. I want to read a little bit more for fun. In general, I feel like I’m hoping for unexpected good things to happen in 2014. That’s what 2014 will be about: writing, friends, and hope!

In the spirit of celebrating fun and friendship, some photos from the last few weeks hanging out with poets and artsts I really like, holiday lights, trees, merrymaking, etc. Happy New Year! May it all be merry and bright!

Feeling Grateful after a Stressful Year – and Try to Catch the Magic

It’s hard work trying to be aware of the tiny magic around us all the time. Right now, it’s cranberry meringue pies in the oven and MST3K’s “Santa Conquers the Martians” on television. My cat upside down on my stack of books, tamales in the fridge for tomorrow.

This time of year can be stressful. I tend to want everything to be peaceful, perfect, easy. But at least one or two things can trip us up. Today was sunshiney, very strange for December in Seattle, I ran outside with wet hair and just stood in a cold sunbeam for five minutes.

I was talking to my little brother in Thailand on the phone late tonight and was telling him about my year, and realized though I had really felt terrible for much of this last year, my perception was that I was stressed and sick, that a lot of good things had happened, I just had never slowed down long enough to count my blessings, or I was so distracted by the bad/things that went wrong that I just missed the magic completely.

But I have a lot to be grateful for this December. Not just reconnecting with family and friends (though I love that holiday getting-back-in-touch squishiness) or presents in the mail. Even in the last couple of days – this morning I learned my newest manuscript, with poems about the end of the world and sciency stuff, is a finalist in a book contest, that New Binary Press released Unexplained Fevers as a PDF e-book especially for the holidays, and Two Sylvias Press just sent me the pdf proof of the re-issue print version of She Returns to the Floating World (which will be available soon – we’re just putting on the finishing touches!) The feeling of relief after months of testing I had with the hotshot neurologist told me he was 99.9 percent sure I didn’t have MS even if I did have some weird neuro stuff we could treat, when the immunologist said “You’re doing so much better, we can delay (X experimental immunological treatment.)” All my brothers are employed in jobs they like, my parents are feeling happier than I’ve seen them in a long time, and I’m going to try to rediscover my own joy. In writing, in my friendships and marriage, in work – I want to do more of what I love and worry less. Literally, my only 2014 resolutions are to stress myself out less (usually whatever I’m worried about is less catastrophic than I thought,) to be kinder to my body (rest when I need to rest, otherwise my immune system will force the issue, so…that’s a lesson I keep relearning) and to look out for the magic that’s constantly around, instead of focusing on the mess.

Merry Merry Magic!