What I’ve Been Up to in May – reports on writing a non-fiction book, goslings, concerts – and getting May submissions done

I’m almost finished with my non-fiction book for Two Sylvias Press, PR for Poets. Let me say, it’s 150 pages and soooo much more work than a poetry book! Luckily I’ve had my husband, my mom, and a wonderful student intern to help me do a final editing pass before I turn it in, and then I’ll be ready to send to beta readers for some early feedback! (So let me know in the comments if you want to be one of the beta readers for me!) I feel much more confident about the book now than when I finished my first draft last year. But once again, waaaay more time-consuming than I initially thought – but hopefully the book will be helpful for lots of poets who feel (like me) that they had no resources to learn how to sell their own poetry books!

In poetry news, I have a poem coming out soon in the Rise Up Review and I’m getting ready to do another reading for Field Guide to the End of the World at King’s Books in Tacoma on May 25. I hope some of you will be there!

Besides being busy with writing the PR for Poets book, I’ve been working on writing a new poetry manuscript – I’ve even sent it out once already! It’s a very personal book, but I notice once again there’s a little bit of apocalypse sneaking in to the personal aspects.  A few days ago there was an accident at Hanford. (You can read more about it here.) Even though I’ve already written one book, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, about my own experiences growing up in a very nuclear-immersed household, it still surprises me how little politicians – and people in general – know about the risks of their local and national nuclear sites, like Hanford, San Onofre, Oak Ridge National Labs, or the White Plains plant in New York. It surprises me how little the government tells us about the risks, and what people don’t know about protecting themselves from the long-term effects of nuclear pollution.

As you may know, I’ve been diagnosed with thyroid nodules and thyroid autoimmune disease, mysterious brain lesions, an autoimmune deficiency, and, most recently, tumors in my liver (and I’m due for another MRI of the liver tumors on Monday, always nerve-wracking.) I often wonder how many of my health problems are connected to my childhood exposure to Cesium-137-contaminated food, water, air, dirt – I grew up on a farm, after all, eating food that was grown there, playing in the mud on rainy days. I’ve been writing nuclear-related poems again, so I guess the subject isn’t exhausted in my poetry yet! I found out, for instance, in doing some research that children exposed to Cesium from Chernobyl exhibited some of the same problem with autoimmune IgG levels that I have. And of course, Cesium can be absorbed in the brain and liver, as well as skin and bones.

It hasn’t been all grim work and research – I’ve had time to get out to an Aimee Mann concert at The Neptune (good, singing some of my favorite lesser-known songs, with some quirky local talent and geek rocker Jonathon Coulton), discover some goslings along the Sammamish trail, and observe some new lilac, pink dogwood and wisteria blooming. I did sprain my ankle recently (yet again, sigh) and it’s mostly been too cold and wet to go out and have too much fun (plus I acquired a little spring cold, which didn’t help matters.) That’s okay. The downtime isn’t all bad.  More time to work on edits. And submissions! As you may know, so many places stop taking submissions after May, so this is the time to get as many poetry subs out as you can before the month is over! Then you can relax over the summer. Lots of good places are still taking work now – so check out Entropy’s great list of places to send!