First of all, thanks for your good wishes!

My regular blogging schedule has been interrupted by the need to unpack and unload boxes, pack up and clean the old rental place, and commute between them three times away with carloads of extra “Stuff” we couldn’t fit in the U-Haul/didn’t have time to pack. Moving is such a pain. Also, my writing biz things – envelopes, staplers, stamps, notebooks – have never really been organized, so I keep finding (a cup of highlighters! The draft of a poem! Sases!) in boxes full of shampoo or cartons of crackers. I hope at some point we can settle down someplace. Although Glenn and I have been married 13 years next month, we’ve never lived in any one place longer than two years. Are we pathological or what? I mean, we’re in our mid-thirties now. Don’t most people in thier mid-thirties have a house and two cars and regular jobs and kids and some kind of deeply worn groove? I fear that we have missed some switch, some marker we should have been paying attention to.

Last night I bought and read Haruki Murakami’s new book of interwoven stories, “After Dark.” Its main conceit – two sisters, one a beautiful model who does nothing but sleep, the other a ferociously smart and independent insomniac – was fascinating to me, especially as I have been writing about the “Snow White” story lately. When I was a kid, Snow White was the only non-blonde princess option. But I never really “got” her story – really, her main action is non-action, which wasn’t very interesting. Murakami’s prose style (as far as I can tell – of course I’m reading a translation) is really delightful to me, detached yet playful and poetic.

I read an interesting post on responsible and smart corporate blogging, here. It makes me think about what it means to be a “responsible” blogger in general. Did you know a kid, a few years ago, got fired from Google for posting about the differences between Microsoft and Google’s benefits? Do poets have the same kinds of vested interests, for instance, talking about various literary magazines or influential poets could keep them from a job or from getting published? This guy also talks about the need for transparency and honesty – a blogger who never says anything negative has no cred. I think that’s probably true.

I’m reading a bunch of times in the next few weeks – on the 6th, at ParkPlace Books in Kirkland, WA, on the 16th with Lynnell Edwards at Elliot Bay Bookstore in downtown Seattle, then the 22nd at Pacific’s Alumni Reunion in Forest Grove, Oregon. I’d love to see some folks at any of these readings, so come out!

I discovered the newish online journal Siren because of the illustrious Dorianne Laux’s recommendation. Now I’m up there, along with fellow Crab Creek editor Natasha Moni. Check out their newest issue!