In Which Many Things Happen All at Once

So, signing the new book contract with Kitsune, and signed on a final offer for a townhome near Glenn’s work within the same 24 hours. The place needs a little work, but is mostly in good shape. Hope the inspection and appraisal both go okay! Today I talk to my money person to see what stuff we need to get together and by when. It’s been a bizarre process shopping for a house during this so-called buyer’s market – because of the low prices, there’s been very little inventory, and so, very few houses to look at over the past four months that were even close to being okay to live in without needing, say, 75K worth of work. Two interesting web sites for those of you interested in Seattle real estate: the Seattle Bubble blog and The Mortgage Porter, both of which I’ve been reading religiously for about four months along with scouring real estate listing site Redfin. I’m glad I can finally stop reading them all ! This is the last time I want to move for a while.

Now, my National Advanced Poetry Class is starting up in a week or two, plus I’m putting together a proposal this month for a very exciting possible project that I can’t talk about yet but I will ask you guys to cross your fingers for me on…And writing a bunch of reviews. With the writing life, it’s so much about a life of months of waiting, followed by two weeks of hectic opportunities that must be accomplished all at once…

Amid all the excitement, I want to say I’m excited about the upcoming April 4 reading at Hugo House for the persona poetry anthology A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry ; I’ll be reading my own poem included in the anthology, “When Red Becomes the Wolf,” and also Charles Jensen’s “After Oz.” The other readers are all fantastic and I expect it to be a really fun happening.

IthacaLit and a Tuesday Night Reading

So happy to be the featured poet up at IthacaLit. You can click here to read my interview there or here to read some poems (including some sneak peek new poems from my upcoming third book, Unexplained Fevers…see previous post for more news about that!)

And my last March reading…I happen to be reading in a coffee shop tonight with a few other talented writers in North Seattle at Seattle Mobile Espresso, 13000 Linden Avenue North – one block west of Aurora, from 7 PM to 8:30, part of the ThirdTuesdays Poets and Writers series.

The weather has been weirdly wintry, my life is in a whirlwind of upheavals, most of which are good. If we hear back positively tomorrow from a seller, we may have a new – and permanent – little homestead to move to within a month! Whereupon we will start the bookshelf-building and painting preparations…

Unexplained Fevers, my third book, coming out in 2013!!!

Yes, good news to announce today…It’s official! Kitsune Books will publish my third book, “Unexplained Fevers,” in late 2013!!!
This book is especially exciting for me because it will be a collaborative book with Seattle painter Deborah Scott, and will be unusual because it will feature color art plates of her paintings along with my poems! If you take a look at her paintings, you will see why her art and my poems might be a good fit…she has a subversive sense of humor and pop culture influences in her fairy tale paintings that will be fantastic in the book! So I’m super excited!
Did I mention today I put in an offer on a townhouse as well? It’s a day of contracts and excitement. And Happy Luck of the Irish! Since I’m turning 39 next month, there’s this sense of everything coming together right before my 4th decade begins…

A few things: Appearances, APR, Opportunities to Review, haiku get-togethers, Lessons from a person with a degree in poetry, and More…

If you are at all interested in still writing a review of She Returns to the Floating World, Galatea Resurrects has a copy waiting to be reviewed…here’s a link to this and other books they have available! I love reviewing for Galatea Resurrects. Eileen is so wonderful!

I am very excited to announce that I will have a poem in the upcoming May/June issue of American Poetry Review! Eeeep! I have been reading APR for so many years and can’t believe I’m finally appearing there! And it’s from my third book manuscript. Which I may have news about soon…

Speaking of appearances, here is an appearance that I am honored to be be invited to…the Japan Language Meetup on April 10, where we will be talking about haiku. Here’s a little bit more about it.

In other news, have been running a 101 fever and head feels like it is rattling full of hammers. Going on a week now. Note: this is not as conducive to poetry, dear universe, so how about a break with the thundersnow and such, just some regular nice spring weather would be great! (My home town of Cincinnati today was a sunny 77 degrees. Way to make us look bad, midwest!) Basically, every time I walk outside, I get sicker. Cough. Achoo. Blusterhailsnow. On the plus side, my husband has provided me a vase full of daffodils, some British fashion magazines, and a page of My Little Pony stickers as “get-well-soon” totems. And he learned how to make wheat-free crepes.
On the downside, even looking at consolidating my student loans made me so depressed I had to quit looking at them, and still in the anxiety-about-finances-provoking state of house-searching. Kids, a little life lesson courtesy of Auntie Jeannine: if you’re going to spend a lot of money on a degree, be sure it enables you to do something that actually makes money. That is all.