Happy December! Some Good News, and Asking for Good Thoughts

Well, six months with very little in the way of good news, then I got a ton of it the day after Thanksgiving!

New Binary Press has nominated my poem from Unexplained Fevers, “Once Upon a Time,” which first appeared in American Poetry Review, for the Pushcart Prize, so cross your fingers for it!

I got an acceptance from one of my fave online fairy-tale reviews, Rose Red Review, of three poems. And an acceptance of three poems for the Drawn to Marvel anthology coming out in March from Minor Arcana Press!

Then, I have good news for those of you who are fans of my little second book, She Returns to the Floating World, which went out of print when Kitsune Books closed…Two Sylvias Press is re-releasing and re-launching a print version of the book, with some new edits AND…drumroll…with new art work inspired by the poems by Michaela Eaves inside! Cool, right? Should be out by the end of the year!

We’re decking the halls a little early this year in preparation for my parents’ visit in about a week, so we’ve put up the Christmas lights, our tree, our mantel has stockings…

But a little worry is overshadowing my holiday excitement and happiness and thankfulness for all this good news. Thailand has had some political unrest, and my little brother is living out there, so think good thoughts for he and his wife out there.

Black Friday Poetry Sales?

The only sane kind of shopping to do today is online shopping. Better still, online shopping for poetry! It makes a thoughtful gift, especially combined with, say, some other down-time-appropriate accessories, maybe some fancy coffee or tea and a nice throw. In that vein…

If you live near Ireland, check out my third book’s publisher, New Binary Press, and their holiday sale! My book Unexplained Fevers is available for 8 euros, which is about $10.80 American.

And, if you want signed copies of all of my books for yourselves or for friends, I’m doing a package deal of all three of my books (Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, and Unexplained Fevers) for $30, plus $3 for priority shipping. You’ll receive a little something extra too, like an art card or bookmark or something fun! It’s the holidays, after all.

“Click here to order – available for seriously a limited time only, and I even made a special Paypal button for it! If you want me to sign one or all of the books to you or someone special, put that request in the “Add Special Instructions to the Seller” popup comment field.

As for me, I’m going to spend “Black Friday” decorating for the holidays, organizing, and enjoying delicious leftovers, maybe doing some poetry work. And maybe even getting on my exercise machine…we have some snow in the forecast, so I guess I better for real start wearing a coat and a sweater. One good thing about living near the ocean is usually our winters are pretty mild, but we have some very chilly temperatures in the forecast (so dress accordingly if you’re planning to visit!)

Some Good News to be Thankful For – a Relief, a Finalist Announcement, a B12 warning, and More

So, this week of Thanksgiving, I definitely have some things to be thankful for.

After several neurologist visits and a barrage of tests, though they did find some neurological permanent damage and some other oddities, the consensus seems to be that I most likely do not have MS (though I’ll probably need another MRI down the line to make sure.) I hadn’t realized how much this news lifted a dark cloud over my head that’s been there for a few months, kind of weighing down my thoughts, trying not to think about the bad stuff ahead. I was so exhausted from the many tests that I didn’t even register the good news at first, it just kind of felt like the sun was out. Which, also, the sun was out in Seattle in November, a small miracle in itself (even if our air quality is in the tank! Ha! Can’t have everything!) I even wrote a poem the day I found out, which I hadn’t done in a while.

The other news was that I not only had a very good conversation with a lovely, kind and witty small press publisher about my fourth book manuscript The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and that the manuscript is also a finalist for this year’s Brittingham and Pollak Prize. So I am hopeful that good things are happening in that direction.

I would like to take a small moment to give you all a little bit of info and a warning about the seriousness of B12 deficiency. The first time I was tested for b12 deficiency was 2007 in Port Townsend; my symptoms then were frequent sore throats, mild intermittent buzzing in my hands and feet, and severe neck pain, which I thought was injury-related. The doctor was pretty smart for even thinking for look for a vitamin deficiency with that set of symptoms, I think, and sure enough, the blood test revealed very low b12. He started me on b12 shots monthly, which I took for years, and oral supplement drops. Unfortunately, I don’t absorb b12 through food or even through the shots very well, it turns out, and years of severely low b12 (starting probably years before 2007) have left me with some permanent neural damage, and I will always have to stay vigilant about getting tested for b12, even while getting shots or my current regimen of twice-weekly nasal spray b12. Some of the symptoms, like the neck pain, numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, clumsiness due to motor skill damage, and some memory issues – may stick around my whole life, I’ve been told. B12 deficiency, if it is severe enough, can damage your nerves’ myelin sheath in much the same way MS can. Now you know! Because I didn’t! This is why, during a few days of holiday cheer and down time, and if you have some spare time to get to a doctor, I’d encourage you to get some of your basic vitamin levels tested – including the B’s and maybe D, especially if you feel tired, or low, or especially numb, clumsy or ache-y. (My husband, by the way, who eats a fairly healthy diet and has no food allergies like I do, who had been complaining about feeling tired, and because of my insistence, got tested and turned out to be mildly deficient in Folic Acid! A surprise! So you never know until you get your B vitamins tested what you might not be getting through your diet.)

Now, I’m off to a physical therapy appointment followed by a date with my husband to see Catching Fire! It’s a glamorous life all right, and I am feeling thankful for it today. Merry Thanksgiving to All!

Things to Get Done Before the End of the Year

Yes, it’s the end of November, and we’re counting down til the end of the year. For me, this means a flurry of doctor’s appointments and tests, important to schedule them now because if I get anything done after January 1 our deductible goes back to zero, and everything is out of pocket for the first few thousand dollars. So: blood draw yesterday, neurologist today, thyroid ultrasound Saturday, and yet another couple of doctor’s appointments to schedule that I just haven’t had time to get to…Phew! I’m exhausted, or maybe that’s just the blood draw talking. I’m off to downtown for today’s appointment in a few minutes.

I checked my “gift box” and noticed that I have already done a lot of my Christmas shopping, which I did really early this year, picking up gifts I thought were thoughtful when I saw them at a good price throughout the year. This makes me a little relieved that I don’t have much left to do shopping-wise. Every year we have fewer grown-ups who want to exchange gifts but more children, thanks to my super-procreative brothers and brother-in-law. For Glenn and I, we usually do our gift exchanges after Christmas, which was a tradition in my family growing up poor – we always shopped the after-Christmas sales with my Dad’s January 1 paycheck. It’s actually a nice way to extend the season and not stress out the bank account – I recommend it! As a child it was hard to wait, as an adult it just seems logical!

It’s been freezing cold here (lower twenties at night) which means I had to unearth my box of heavy sweaters, which with the usual winters here I can leave in storage, because our winters are typically rainy, gray, but in the fifties-range during the day. Not this year! I’m also trying to locate a warm-enough coat – most of my “coats” are thin jackets, which, once again, work most years…

And what about poetry and writing, you ask? Well, it’s the end of the year for that too, so I’m taking stock of submissions still out, looking at any recent poem and short story drafts and considering which are worth keeping, thinking about where I want to send work (if anywhere) for the rest of the year. My fifth manuscript is getting into good shape, finally – it took some more personal poems to make the apocalyptic-and-pop-culture-themed collection to find some resonance, but now it’s feeling closer to complete. My fourth manuscript is still…well, let’s just say there’s some movement on it but nothing I can announce yet. It’s in a liminal space, so to speak, between the worlds of creation and production.

So what’s on your list of things to get done before the end of the year? Which boxes are you taking out and shaking?

Interview with Renee Emerson, and a little bit about discouragement

If you’d like to know which poet I’d like to trade places with, which first books I recommend reading, and other sundry items, check out this interview with Renee Emerson at her blog:

http://www.reneeemerson.com/2013/11/interview-with-jeannine-hall-gailey.html

Thanks Renee!

I was just talking to another poet about how much of the poetry world is grinding our teeth, waiting to hear things, pondering whether or not we should continue to do blank and/or whether this or that is worth doing. I mean, it’s enough to put you in an existential crisis, right?

But the big thing to remember when you are going through a tough period – the loss of your job or your writing spark, the countless rejections, the disappointment of a grant not received or prize not won, is that the single most important key to success – and this is something I have heard over and over again from people who are very successful writers – is to learn to put that energy – the toothgrinding energy, let’s call it – into trying again. Writing another poem or story, sending out your work to another market, making plans to start your own magazine or publishing company.

I watched the movie Frances Ha and was reminded that sometimes when life feels like a bunch of rejections (in her case, by a boyfriend, a best friend, a job situation) that maybe it’s because life is pushing you in a different direction. Because she couldn’t stay in her in-between (jobs, partners, apartments) position comfortably, she was forced to do new things – in her case, she wanted to be a modern dancer, but instead accepted an admin job at the dance company and started doing choreography. I thought it was a charming way to talk about the artistic life – sometimes you don’t get exactly what you want, you don’t get to be the star dancer of the dance company, but you get to contribute and create in a way you didn’t expect. At 27, for a dancer an advanced age, you have to either give up or alter your goals. For writers, the age limit isn’t quite the same – many great writers started late and still ended up very successful – but at one time or another, we will all hit a wall in between our beginning lofty goals and what is realistically achievable. I am 40, and I feel I am eying that wall right now. What is it I want, and what can I achieve from here? We might not get the things we wanted, but as the Rolling Stones said, we just might get what we need.