Prepping for a third book – what are the steps these days again?

Hello, dear readers! Now that it is the new year, I have bought a new wall calender and am looking at planning out the next year, not just the Redmond Poet Laureate events, but now, planning for the launch of Unexplained Fevers from New Binary Press in the spring, and all the accompanying la-di-da.

So, what are the necessary steps to launch a book?

1. Plan a book tour. Yes, even if it’s just in and around your own city, you should probably do this six months in advance at least. I have to remember that some reading series and schools book up to a year in advance, so the time to start asking about readings is…right now.

2. Redo your web site – I try to redesign my web site around the themes of every book that I put out! Did you know that? So, besides redoing the theme, I want to the new site to make some new things (like buying books, booking a reading, signing up for editing services) easier, and I’m going to try to do it in WordPress, which seems really terrible-and-migraine-inducing for someone who has been using FrontPage and Blogger for, oh, seven or more years, but I think it’s time to make the switch. My sister-in-law Jen Gailey, a graphic designer, my artist friend Michaela Eaves, my little brother (who is starting his own web site business) Michael Duke Hall, and my kind techie husband Glenn are all conspiring to help me to do this, thankfully, because left to my own devices, I’m pretty sure my web site would end up looking very strange.

3. Planning some PR. Putting together a mailing list for book cards and a reviewer copy list. (Which, by the way, if you want to be on the reviewer list for Unexplained Fevers, leave a comment or e-mail me.) I’m also looking at using the PR services of YouDoPR, which makes it very easy for authors to do some basic PR services for themselves. What else? Blog tours, book giveaways? Facebook page for the book? I’m not sure what kind of promo is the most successful these days. Leave ideas in the comments! I’d love to know what you are doing, what you’ve done that was or wasn’t worth it, etc!

Poet Laureate Event on January 5, A New Review, and New Poems Up at Rose Red Review

Poet Laureate Event Alert – If you are looking to talk about multi-culturalism in poetry and discuss the language of science in poetry – look no further than Redmond Library tomorrow, Saturday January 5 at 3 PM, where I’ll be hosting a panel with guest poets Natasha K. Moni and Raul Sanchez. http://www.redmond.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=82418

A new review of She Returns to the Floating World is up at Poets Quarterly, written by Ann E. Michael. She did a really nice job of talking about the book. It’s always interesting to see which poems reviewers focus on and their take on the messages of the book. I learn something with every review! http://www.poetsquarterly.com/2013/01/she-returns-to-floating-world-by.html

Two new poems from my upcoming book, Unexplained Fevers, at Rose Red Review.
Rapunzel, After and Snow White Dreams by Jeannine Hall Gailey

In other news, over the break I managed to partially dislocate my first rib, sprain my knee, and get the flu. Today I had to go to an emergency physical therapy appointment so she could put the rib back. Which is super painful, but better than having that rib pressing on a nerve, which by the way, can literally make you see stars. Then I dressed up, went to Bellevue Art Museum, read poetry and taught a class, and now I’m home preparing for tomorrow’s event. No rest for the wicked? I feel that perhaps now I am due a time of strength and good health for the rest of January. Can you hear that, universe? I mean, I haven’t even seen The Hobbit yet!

Starting 2013 Off with a Little Poetry and Art

Happy 2013 All!
If you’d like to celebrate the new year with a little poetry and a little art, then I’d like to invite you out to Bellevue Art Museum on its free first friday, January 4.
You can listen to some of my recorded poems from She Returns to the Floating World along with information about the new Japanese art exhibits – follow the instructions here:
http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/featured.html

Check out this information about the whole Japanese celebration event on the 4th here:
http://www.bellevuearts.org/calendar/#search-by=featured-event&query=1/4/2013&title=Celebrating%20Japanese%20Traditions%20at%20BAM

The whole day’s schedule looks pretty cool. Besides my reading with art show by Michaela Eaves, there’s also manga lessons, a talk with one of the featured artists, and a bunch of cool stuff. Plus my book will be available at the gift shop!

January 4, 2013

Celebrating Japanese Traditions at BAM

11am to 7pm

Post-Christmas – Gearing Up for 2013!

So, now that the world hasn’t ended and Christmas is behind us, I guess we can get down to the serious work of figuring out what we will do with ourselves in 2013!

First of all, I want to thank my husband and his keen gift-getting skills for this little load of thoughtful (and cute!) gifts: a hedgehog set of measuring cups, a set of arctic-fox and snowflake canape plates, and a carnelian necklace (carnelian is supposed to be good for healing! I hope it works!)

I was very happy to get some good news from the Jack Straw Writers Program on Christmas Eve, along with a check from my poem published in American Poetry Review a few months ago. What a lovely surprise from Santa – Poetry good stuff! (I also, strangely, got two rejections on Christmas Eve. Ho Ho Scrooge?! But that’s okay. The other things made up for it.)

So, in the beginning of January, I’m going to be reading at the Bellevue Arts Museum and giving a short workshop on haiku and haibun on January 4 at 4:30 PM. The next day, January 5th, I’ll be hosting a panel at Redmond Library on multi-cultural poetry and the language of science (featuring Natasha K. Moni and Raul Sanchez) at 3 PM. Whoosh! Starting the year with a bang. Then I’m reading on January 11th at King’s Books in Tacoma.  So, if you want to know where to find me in January, I’ll probably be running around in a panic. (I also have several freelance writing and editing deadlines in January, and I start teaching again in February, so…)

Which leads me to the question of – what is it you want to do in 2013? I’m very excited about my new book coming out from New Binary Press in April of 2013, Unexplained Fevers (and I’ve been collaborating with artist Michaela Eaves on doing some special-edition art for a UK special edition which is going to be available along with the regular soft-cover edition and an e-book! That’s three editions! Craziness!) I am hoping I will be healthy enough to get out to the UK for a few readings at some point, otherwise I’m starting to put together readings for 2013 in the Norhwest.
What else? I’m planning a book party/40th birthday party sometime in the spring as well, because if you can’t celebrate turning 40, well, what’s the point? And I’ll be doing Poet Laureate stuff AND Jack Straw things as well next year. It seems like a year of busy poet work. And who can complain about that? I want to spend 2013 getting healthier, wealthier, and writing and reading more poetry. Maybe paying off some student loans. But especially the writing part. And finding a home for my fourth book. And I have 46 good pages on a fifth book that really hones in on the nerdy stuff – engineering, algebra, apocalypses, more superhero poems. I should probably also try to send out some work – see, a poet’s work is never ever done!

So, what are your plans for 2013? I am wishing you all a healthy, happy, and more peaceful and prosperous new year!

Apocalypse Wow – A poem, a puzzle, a review, and warm wishes

Yes, friends, it could be the end of the world, but nevertheless, and even more so, warm wishes, happy holidays, and etc! In the midst of darkness in a dark time, it’s time to light a fire, tell people you love them, hand someone a present for no reason, write a poem, paint a picture, make a feast.

I have an appropriately apocalyptic poem up at The Chiaroscuro called “The Scientist Solves a Puzzle” so check it out!

I also had a review of Elizabeth Austen’s Every Dress a Decision up at Galatea Resurrects.

I’ve been pretty sick after a whirlwind of holiday activities and family last week, and with the bad news all over the television, sick at heart as well. There are only so many ways to respond to these things – with humor, and love, and encouragement, and gathering the ones you love around you, with anger or grief. I’m no wise woman or spiritual sage, but I hope that you remember the season is about comfort and joy, even on the coldest, darkest day of the year. Let’s make some wishes for 2013, for a renewed world that protects its children, that reminds us that our hard work in our fields can make a difference, for the old sense of apocalypse – the drawing aside of a curtain, and a revelation – a clear reading of something that’s been obscured.

Okay, hokey well wishes over. Merry Mayan Apocalypse, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!