Reading good books, more poetry event-ing, gluten-free and okay, writing and publishing are two different things

As a reviewer, I get sent a lot of books for free. And I have a lot of friends who are really good writers who also send me books. This week I read a book that I not only enjoyed, but also felt something of a kinship with, since the author and I share an interest in femme fatale heroines and their sad fates, sci-fi time-travel, and nostalgia for the eighties. I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl is not only a wonderful read, but feels like a book I should have written. Dang it!

Continuing to celebrate National Poetry Month with even more poetry-related social events this weekend. Hopefully they will be fun! The sun has finally come out and finally visible are the products of spring – bunches of red-and-orange roses (this must be a Napa Valley obsession – red and orange roses are everywhere – on the walls of restaurants, in front of run-down homes, on street corners) – my primary care doctor’s office has become picturesquely draped with wisteria blossoms – and pink dogwood bloom in the tiny yards of of row houses. Thin asparagus is cooking on the grill, along with bulbs of fennel, almost every night. The minute I get diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, the local cupcake shops starts carrying gluten-free cupcakes, a week before my birthday. I mean, how could things not be looking up?

I wrote a poem I am really proud of this last week, but I’m not ready to send it out anywhere yet. I’m ready for another book to be published, I’m downright impatient actually, I’m ready to take on more work for more money, I’m ready to be healthy and get on with things in general. I feel madly in love with my husband – we’ve been married for 14 years, so you know what? That’s pretty cool. And I’m happy with my weight for the first time in a long time (I’m such a chick, but guess what? I cut out gluten and I lost a significant amount of weight in a matter of weeks. I recommend it! New weight loss/health advice book by me: figure out what the hell the foods are that you can’t digest and stop eating them. If you need to see a nice gastroenterologist who specializes in immune-system-related gastro problems like I did, so be it. It’s worth the time and trouble.)

So how much of my life do I have control over? I can try to get more freelance work, I can send out queries, I can send out my book manuscript in a poetry world surely crammed with the manuscripts flooding in after AWP. I can go and read new books of poetry and get inspired, go see poets read and get inspired, do things – like reading and writing – that reaffirm that I actually like poetry. That’s what I’m all about in this last week before I turn – gulp – 37. I’m going to do the things I can do and try to enjoy those things and not worry about the things I’m not in control of. I’m going to write new poems, they will be poems that take risks and allow me to try new things.

And if you haven’t entered my book giveaway yet, leave a comment here.