The tour goes on…

Back in Seattle long enough to catch my breath, throw all my clothes in the laundry, (catch up on a little blog reading and television – Heroes – X-Files meets X-Men?) and indulge in some of my husband’s great cooking (yesterday, grilled salmon and beet and orange salad, mmm) before we pack up tonight and race off to the next reading on Wednesday night in Portland, Oregon.
I’m looking forward to seeing Portland State University for the first time and seeing some Portland friends, as well as meeting Laurel Snyder…Thanks to Burnside Review and Portland State for making this happen! Here’s the listing from Burnside Review’s web site:

“We’re excited to announce that Burnside Review in conjunction with PSU’s Literary Arts Alliance will be bringing 2005 Chapbook Contest winner Laurel Snyder to Portland October 11th. She will be reading from her winning manuscript, Daphne and Jim. Jeannine Hall Gailey will also read from her new book Becoming the Villainess. The reading will take place at 7:30 on the PSU campus, Smith Center, Cascade Room 238. Admission is free.”

So, be there, if you can…I think it’ll be a lot of fun.

Post from the road:
Survived the readings in Kentucky and Ohio with no major incidents, I’m happy to report. I loved being a guest-teacher in publisher Tom Hunley’s WKU classes in contemporary poetry – the students were so articulate and interesting I would have loved just staying there chatting with them. The crowd at WKU was surprisingly big and enthusiastic – the faculty there were very welcoming – it was just an ideal trip. Tom and his wife Relaina hosted a party afterwards for me and the students and faculty – Relaina even made cookies decorated with red icing versions of my book cover and the blurbs (Michaela you would have been impressed)
Going back to University of Cincinnati was really disconcerting – the campus has been really improved since I was there – but my professors all looked younger than I remembered. How does that work? My college roommate – who I hadn’t seen in years – came to the reading, which was really cool, and I enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting some of the new graduate students there.
Today my parents are having a book party for me so I’ll get to hang out with old friends and some new folks as well. Then tomorrow flying back to Seattle…and back to my normal life…

Here’s where I’ll be this week – if you’re around, come out and say hi!

Tuesday, October 3 – Bowling Green, Kentucky. Jeannine Hall Gailey is reading from her new book, Becoming the Villainess, at Western Kentucky University at 7 PM, Room 125 in Cherry Hall.
(PS – A short hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee!)

Friday, October 6, 2006 – Cincinnati, Ohio. 4 PM – Jeannine Hall Gailey reads from her new book, Becoming the Villainess, at the Elliston Poetry Room in Langsam Library at the University of Cincinnati

Also, there’s a little newspaper article about the readings:
http://news.communitypress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060927/NEWS01/609270677/1062/Loca
I’m not sure I said all those quotes – especially the last one – in exactly that way, but overall, I thought the writer did a very nice job.

Think good thoughts for me maintaining health – I’m on a couple of antibiotics right now, and struggling to get better from a mean chest/throat/eye infection, and air travel is always iffy for me anyway, I catch everything. Does this happen to anyone else before readings? It’s like your body knows…

Well, it’s no poetry bus, but I am going to be doing a bit of a book tour for the month of October…Wish me luck!
Here’s the schedule: On Saturday the 30th I leave for Cincinnati. I stay there a day or so, getting adjusted to East Coast time and saying hi to family before driving to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to speak with Tom C. Hunley’s classes and do a reading at Western Kentucky University on October the 3rd. After that, I turn around and make the five-hour drive back to Cincinnati, attend a Shakespeare play-in-the-park with the family, and then read at University of Cincinnati on Friday October 6th. On Saturday, my parents are throwing a little book-party shindig at their place in Cinci, which should be a good opportunity to see some old friends. I fly back to Seattle on Sunday, then on Wednesday the 11th, I sneak down to Portland to do a reading with the imitable Laurel Snyder, courtesy of the excellent Burnside Review guys, at Portland State University. Then, the 21st, I go up to Bellingham, WA, near the Canadian border, to do a reading at Village Books with Martha Silano, my fellow Steel Toe Books author. Anyone besides me exhausted yet? I don’t know how those Poetry Bus people do it, driving to a different city every day and reading. With no showers!
I’ve been a little under-the-weather, which is why I haven’t posted, plus I had to have a little adrenal tumor CATscanned, which isn’t too traumatic, but I’m supposed to get the results this week, dan dan dannn, which leaves one a little nervous, even though it’s probably nothing. I’m taking lots of vitamin C to prevent any colds on the trip, and was very happy to wake up today and hear the news that the TSA is going to allow liquids (such as lip balm and hand lotion, bottled water, etc.) on planes again. It was just too terrible to contemplate flying with no water bottle and no lip balm. I know, I’m spoiled. I almost contemplated taking a train (from here to Chicago, and then to Cinci) but it was too expensive. Plus I’ve submitted several packets of poems, a couple of book manuscripts, and trying to do all last-minute errands.
I’m also trying to research the history of female savior characters in Japanese mythology and anime. If you have any theories about this subject, or know of any place to read about them, please post them. Miyazai in particular builds these great myths of female heroines and links them to Japanese tradition through historical references and fairy tale structures. But I’m linking this to the legend of Queen Pimiko (or Himiko) who was one of the first documented rulers of the early tribes of Japan, and also the legend of the sun goddess. The more I study this stuff, the more interested I get. I’m currently addicted to my stack of out-of-print books from the library.
In other news, congratulate Paul Guest, who is the monthly feature at Verse Daily!

I have to start out this post with other people’s good news:

A certain robot scientist WON the Made in Express contest – http://www.madeinexpresscontest.com/
Congrats!

Kate Greenstreet’s first book of poetry is out! I want a chance to review it.

Went to Kathleen Flenniken’s launch of her first book of poetry, Famous – her reading at Open Books was great (crowded!) and the party afterwards was rockin. Thanks Kathleen!

I’m in a tizzy trying to finish up numerous projects before I leave for my eight-day Midwestern book tour on September 30th (well, just Kentucky and Ohio!) I have to send out my third packet – including an updated thesis MS – to Pattiann, send out a couple of applications for grants, readings, and festivals before their upcoming due dates, send out my second book MS to some open reading periods and contests, send out some poems (I’ve been running behind on submissions) and I just agreed to help run a reading series on the East side of Seattle and maybe start an anthology project and…and…and….
Too late. I got exhausted just thinking about it and now I’m just going to go shower. See what happens to my momentum?
Actually I’ve been spending all my spare moments researching, trying to get ahold of obscure Japanese fairy tale index references and out of print Miyazaki interviews. I have this idea that adding quotes to my book manuscript will help readers make sense of it – it’s a collection of poems about Japanese fairy tales, especially non-human wives and rescuing older sisters, about Japanese anime heroines, and, you know, a little about me in there too (I’m the boring part!) I had my brother’s former Japanese professor take a look at it, and her husband told me he was really proud of me for knowing a certain myth – he had done a book report on the subject in grade school in Japan– that he said even most contemporary Japanese people don’t know anymore. This means I’m almost definitely sending out stuff that normal readers/judges will have no clue about. Obscurity much? Oh, and the chances of some random reader knowing Japanese mythology AND having a working knowledge of Miyazaki movies? Probably low. Why do I get obsessed with these subjects? Why can’t I just write about my nice life, walking along and seeing a cow (or, as in my real life, some cute baby otters!) and communicating the wonder of life? Or how about some nice love poems which are not in the voice of some kind of fox-bird changeling? I think I would have a much better chance if I did that. Well, I have to close my eyes and pray for an eccentric publisher to discover my brilliance. (Hahahhaahahahaha – insert other maniacal laughter here.)