Fall Creeping In

I confess that since my last blog post, I’ve had two trips to the hospital – one for a pretty bad concussion and the other for a particularly nasty (food poisoning? stomach flu? evil demon?) that left me dehydrated and unable to go outside for the last two days and enjoy the spectacular beautiful weather we’ve been having. The ER doc said, “Well, your white blood cell count is 21,000, so you’re probably fighting something.” Indeed. So I haven’t been deliberately neglecting you, my e-mail, etc…it’s just that I’ve been elsewhere. Mostly, getting catscanned, IVd, etc.

It’s a good thing I bought the Hunger Games soundtrack right before these two events, because there are lyrics (from “The Civil Wars” “Kingdom Come”) that go “Don’t you fret my dear/ it’ll all be over soon” that were replaying in my head. The Hunger Games soundtrack has a beautiful Appalachian sound that reminds me of the music I used to hear growing up in Tennessee.

But, let’s hear some news about other folks, shall we?

Kathleen Flenniken is featured in Seattle Magazine here!
Would your book group like me to visit? What about another Northwest Poet? Check out info on “A Poet at Your Table!” at Susan Rich’s blog…
Ever wonder about “poetry marketing advice?” This is pretty solid…

The school year is starting, the days are getting shorter. Literary magazines have re-opened to submissions. Regarding the sad book news I posted last week, well, continue to wish me luck. May have some leads about keeping “She Returns” alive as an e-book, and am still looking for a home for “Unexplained Fevers.” I’m hoping for a luckier… and healthier… month in September…

YouDoPR Twitter Interview for Poetic PR, and Deborah Scott’s painting of a Robot Scientist’s Daughter

Have you always been curious about PR and Poetry? How does that work, anyway? I’m having a twitter conversation with the folks at YouDoPR and you! Bring questions, helpful suggestions, etc!

And, don’t worry, I’m not leaving my “career” as poet for artist’s model – yet! But Deborah Scott did a wonderful portrait called “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter” for the magazine Poets and Artists, which you can find (along with her wonderful write-up of why and how she did the piece) on page 37. The whole issue is pretty freakin’ fun to read. I’m only sad I didn’t get to put up an Ode to Deborah. She definitely deserves it. But what a great idea – artists and writers doing portraits of each other. Pretty cool! Thanks Deborah for doing the painting (in which I wobbled around on a sprained ankle, which makes for limited posing, so she definitely had her work cut out for her!)
http://poetsandartists.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/septemberlowres2012.pdf

Two Poems in The Pedestal Magazine, Plus Thanks and Plans for this Fall

First of all, thanks to all of you who wrote to me and commented on the last post. It really helps.

Second, if you’d like to read (and hear me read) two speculative poems, “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter [Apocalypse]” and “Introduction to Mutagensis” go on over to The Pedestal Magazine’s new issue here. The whole issue is wonderful. Thanks to John Amen and his editors for such good work! The celebration of speculative poetry continues. Well, except in representation at the AWP 2013 panels. Hopefully, AWP people, you will have at least one speculative poetry panel at our 2014 Seattle conference – I mean, you will be in geek territory, after all! Let’s all propose a panel on it!

Yesterday I was strolling – well, limping, with my sprained ankle that’s probably a more accurate representation of my movement – through one of the local public gardens, and there, next to a splendid set of bright dahlias, was an apple tree with fall apples all over the grass. They smelled delicious. But like fall. The air – the blue sky, the crisp sixties-temps – called for September. Usually August stays summery here, but already August is slipping away….Watermelons will disappear, replaced by delicata squash and cranberries.

My plans for fall events for the Poet Laureate program have started going into action. I have to write a PR release for the first event, the Inaugural reading (with art exhibit by Michaela Eaves) on October 6th. Set up the Redmond Library Events for “Redmond Reads Poetry” – a program to have the whole community read the same poetry book, this quarter, Kathleen Flenniken’s Plume.
I also have to start sending out poetry packets again, since it is that time of year. Have to straighten out the situation with my second book, third book, and fourth manuscript. Write some reviews. (And, of course, reading. Really enjoying “The 6.5 Habits of Moderately Successful Poets” by Jeffrey Skinner and Lesley Wheeler’s book from local sci-fi feminist press, Aqueduct Press, “The Receptionist and Other Tales,” which is almost like a collection of short stories in verse, if that makes sense.) What are your fall plans?

When Things Fall Apart: A Few Sad Announcements

You may wonder what kind of sad/bad news I’ve been alluding to over the past month. This news has put me in a bit of a tailspin, I’ll admit. I didn’t want to make the announcement too soon, or talk about things that weren’t my business, but the fact is that, for reasons beyond anyone’s control, my wonderful press, Kistune Books, is closing at the end of the year and so my second book She Returns to the Floating Worldis going out of print in December and my third book of fairy tale poetry and art, Unexplained Fevers, which was going to come out in 2013, is now orphaned, cancelled, all the terrible words. (And Yes, I am actively looking for presses who might welcome sassy fairy tale collections with ready-to-go art and slamming blurbs AND a press that will put my second book She Returns to the Floating World back into print…If you are interested, e-mail me Jeannine dot Gailey at live dot com and I promise I will work like crazy to make your adoptions successful ones!)

Anyway, this is what a lot of poets are facing these days. Tiny presses who rely on one main publisher/editor are always in danger, for the reason that these people – for health, financial, or other life reasons – aren’t invulnerable, and so these presses disappear. Even university presses – as I discussed in a recent post – aren’t protected. Even if you land a big press, your editor might quit, they might decide to quit publishing poetry for financial reasons….yes, I get it, universe, poets and their books are vulnerable. We are. We can be on top of the world one second and desperately searching around for a hero(ine) to ride in on a white horse the next. It’s a riches-to-rags fairy tale, in which all the things you hoped for suddenly come crashing around you. And it’s happened to better poets than me for less noble reasons (remember, for instance, the Zoo Press fiasco?) before in the last few years.

So it’s been hard for me to be rah-rah and chin-up about poetry. Even writing this post is making me tear up. I don’t want to be one of those bloggers who pretends everything is always great; part of the journey of being a writer is the hard stuff, the stuff that knocks you back and makes you want to quit. And in the long run, things aren’t so bad – I still have great opportunities ahead (she says optimistically.) I do wish I could wave a magic fairy wand and make the problems behind Kitsune Book’s closure (a very sad situation on its own) go away. If only. But we can go only go forward and try to make the best of the situation.

Blistering Heat, Playing Hostess, Speculative Poetry and a Nice Write-up of our Geek Girl Con Panel

Sorry to be absent – it’s been a rare week of 90-degree summer days here in Seattle, so despite my sprained ankle, my husband and I have been showing my parents, who are visiting from the midwest, around to all the summertime fun available in the Seattle area. The Seattle area isn’t famous for its air conditioning or its poolside culture – almost no one has air conditioning, including most businesses – so it’s been a little bit challenging sun-dodging and searching for a cool breeze. Hilariously, because some engineer didn’t take into account that Seattle’s weather could possibly ever get this warm, they had to shut down a UW-area bridge every hour on the hour to hose it off to keep its joints from crumpling. Ah, yes, that was some civil engineering planning success there…”Hey, do you think it’ll ever get to 90 degrees here? Nope! Let’s build the bridge to only withstand temperatures to 85!” Yesterday, we took a trip North to escape the heat – ice cream and waterfront strolls in art-gallery-filled-and-tulip-famous La Conner; today we’re going to take them down to Golden Gardens park, and then maybe watch the Hunger Games.

Thanks to Chelsea Novak of Geist Magazine, who gave our panel at Geek Girl Con on Geek Girl Poetry a nice-write up at Paperdroids:
http://www.paperdroids.com/2012/08/18/geekgirlcon-2012/
““Monster Brides, Robots, Superheroines, and Anime Girls: Geek Girl Poets!” was devoted entirely to geek-themed poetry. Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of She Returns to the Floating World (Kitsune Books) and Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books), and Lana H. Ayers, author of A New Red (Pecan Grove Press), read some of their own poems, as well as poems from other women about female characters in pop-culture. It was a funny, inspiring panel and a good way to start the second day of the conference.”

Speaking of geek-themed poetry, keep your eyes out for the new upcoming “Speculative” of The Pedestal Magazine – out August 21, I believe – and then the “Speculative” issue of Rattle, due out in December. Is spec poetry having a moment?

If I owe you a blurb or e-mail, I’m running a bit behind on my paperwork, so please feel free to remind me!