Grateful Holidays, Lit Mag considerations, doors opening…

This year, I am celebrating my holidays in Seattle, far away from my family, but happily, close to many of my friends, and I’m excited about squeezing in dinner and coffee dates, as many as possible, around Christmas. I am feeling unbelievably grateful for my wonderful, eccentric group of friends.

I don’t want to say too much about anything specific yet, but I have the feeling lately that after a few years of banging hard on doors and not getting anything but bruised knuckles, that when I knock on doors these days they’re sort of…opening on their own. Maybe it’s just foolish end-of-year optimism…or maybe my luck (writing-wise anyway) is changing…

My new e-reader has been a bunch of fun to play around with, but I’m hoping that more lit mags will get on the e-reader bandwagon – wouldn’t it be great to be able to travel with new issues of your favorite lit mags on your Kindle or Nook? The lit mag really would lend itself to this kind of reading, with a bit of poetry or fiction or essay on the go. I can’t see reading a great many novels on the e-reader – still prefer paper books for that – but research and reading bits and pieces of things works fantastically on the Kindle Fire. Are many literary magazine editors considering creating maybe slightly cheaper versions of their magazines for e-readers? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks to Jessica Goodfellow for nominating this little blog for a Liebster award, which I am also grateful for! All the blogs she nominated I follow and and admire, actually!

Unexpected Enthusiasm Edition: The Kindle Fire

Surprise! I love my e-reader!
Yesterday, I had a rheumatology appointment. It took three and a half hours for me to get in and out of that dreary, constantly-under-construction UW medical building. Yes, if you want to suck the will to live out of a person, I’m afraid the hospital environment does a great job!
But, knowing I was going to be trapped in a waiting room for hours, I unwrapped an early Christmas present from my parents: The Kindle Fire. I knew there were going to be practical advantages to having an e-reader, though I’m a born-and-bred book lover (my grandmother and I recently bonded over our mutual unwillingness to get rid of old books.) But what I didn’t expect?
How much I’d love it!
The picture quality is beautiful. I tried streaming a couple of things, including the classic movie “Christmas in Connecticut” (Another unexpected Christmas movie that’s a sharp critique of the expectations of working women to be both domestic goddess and shrewd moneymaker) – and it looked better – better – than my television. The sound quality was better than my laptop’s speaker system. And Glenn downloaded the Kindle version of She Returns to the Floating World – and it looked exactly right! Line breaks preserved, everything. The only downside was that with the Kindle version, you don’t get to see the full impact of the beautiful color cover of Rene Lynch’s art work (it’s there, but smaller, and in black and white.) Still, it was much better than I had expected after all the hullaballoo about how troublesome poetry was on e-readers. And definitely I’m giving credit to the Kitsune Books editors (thanks guys) for taking their time and doing it right with the e-reader conversion – a troublesome, time-consuming process. Now, I’m really looking forward to reading this anthology on my new toy!
The screen was easy to read. The only thing I’m finding difficult is getting the much-discussed free access to many classic works (I haven’t figured out where to find those yet, and Amazon – for some unknown reason – doesn’t make it easy to access free content.)
There’s also a way to access your music on the “cloud,” which I haven’t done yet, and since the Fire is color, it might be a good way to read magazines as well – I haven’t tried it yet. You can stream free content if you sign up for Amazon Prime, I believe – some television, some movies, some books and music – but you can’t download it for non-wi-fi times.
Anyway, as someone who loves book and hated – HATED – learning to use her smart phone (which I’m still in the process of doing, if you want to know the truth) – the Kindle Fire is easy to use, beautiful, and just plain exciting for anyone who travels a lot (or is stuck in waiting rooms a lot.)
And don’t be afraid to read poetry on it! The screen even flips so you can read long lines. I’m excited to be able to bring more poetry with me wherever I go!

A Kirkland Reading and a Holiday Special!

Jeannine Hall Gailey and Joannie Stangeland Read at Kirkland’s Park Place Books
Wednesday December 14 at 7 PM

I’m kind of nervous about this reading with Joannie Stangeland tomorrow night at Kirkland’s Park Place Books, partially because it’s the holidays and maybe everyone is too busy to show up at a poetry reading and also because the East side’s readings are sometimes less well-attended than downtown Seattle readings…but Joannie is a doll and a really fun reader with a brand new book and if you haven’t seen me read from She Returns to the Floating World yet, you should come out!

And, for all your holiday gift-giving needs (and, note the previous post on poetry economics!):

Super special! Get my first book, Becoming the Villainess, and my second book, She Returns to the Floating World, both signed to the person of your choice, for only $21!! I’ll include some special holiday swag too!

And if you pick up a copy of my new book, She Returns to the Floating World, for the full price of $12 (including shipping right now during the holidays,) not only will you get the cool swag and signature, you will also get this cool new magnet thing (some may differ slightly from this one, but will include some part of the book cover) that my husband Glenn has made:

Send an e-mail to me at jeannine dot gailey at live dot com to take advantage of either offer! Only available through December. I take Paypal and checks! 🙂 Support your local poets!

The Economics of Poetry

Do you ever think about the sheer economic craziness of writing and publishing poetry? Honestly, I try not to, but whenever I do up my taxes or look at my income/output statements, I can’t help but think: why do I do this?

On jobs for poetry MFAs, typical poetry payment, etc:
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/poetry-2011-12/
You know what my delusional take from this article was when I first read it? “Oh, I’m not that far away from Jane Hirshfield in sales…” Yes, that’s right. I told you it was delusional.
Hat tip to the PF and Jessica Goodfellow for that cheery link…

Journals that pay for poetry:
http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/show-me-literary-magazines-pay
Hat tip to January O’Neil for that link. Once, one of my poetry mentors, Pattiann Rogers, told me she almost exclusively submitted to journals that paid. It was such a simple and direct statement, so full of Midwestern common sense. If only I could follow it. But I do admit, my heart does swell a little bit when I get a little check for anything having to do with poetry. It shouldn’t matter, maybe, but it does.

Yes, the holidays are a crazy time – I try to stay on budget, and usually fail fairly spectacularly (and in my defense, I have a huge family!) Is it financially crazy to be a poet? It is crazy to give poetry as a gift at Christmastime? Is it crazy to try to live a creative life? I think it’s not. Among the most valuable things in my life: my friends, my family, and poetry. If I ever come into money, the first thing I will do with it is start a small poetry press. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, but the last couple of years have been tough financially (hopefully that will turn around in 2012!) That is what would give me joy: to put more poetry in the universe. So, maybe that is crazy.

I live far away from my family (and my husband’s,) so this time of year, I’m all about celebrating with my adopted family – my friends! I’m so excited about the next couple of weeks and getting together and celebrating…oh, and I’m reading with Joannie Stangeland at Park Place Books on Wednesday night, so if you’re going to be around Kirkland, WA on Wednesday night, stop by! She’s phenomenal and I’ll be in a holiday celebrating mood!

Poets Versus Illness, Good News for Mary Agner, and the holidays continue…

Good news for fellow science-poetry-writer Mary A. Agner: her new book, The Scientific Method, is out. Here is a pic at her blog, lovely! Congrats Mary! Just in time for Christmas!
http://www.pantoum.org/entries/2011/12/06.shtml

I wrote a long blog post after reading Rae Armantrout’s essays on her cancer and my own long experience with health issues, and I put it up on my PAI-1 deficiency blog. It’s called Poets Versus Illness: How to Be Your Own Superheroine. It’s kind of long, and personal, and details some of the things I think are crucial to think about when you’re sick and tips I’ve gleaned on how to manage your own health care. I’m putting the link here in case you are interested in that kind of thing.

Yes, missing a reading at Seattle Arts & Lectures tonight I really wanted to go to – Terrence Hayes, who is a great reader. So blech to that. Still having some trouble breathing with the pleurisy, so, you know, rest, fluids, new inhalers, etc. The endless ice fog here in Seattle is not helping things. If only I could beam some Napa weather up here for the holidays. Also found out I’m still having trouble keeping up the b12 even with monthly shots. Guess we’re going to twice a month. Now, if only I could get shots of sunshine…