Post-Christmas – Gearing Up for 2013!

So, now that the world hasn’t ended and Christmas is behind us, I guess we can get down to the serious work of figuring out what we will do with ourselves in 2013!

First of all, I want to thank my husband and his keen gift-getting skills for this little load of thoughtful (and cute!) gifts: a hedgehog set of measuring cups, a set of arctic-fox and snowflake canape plates, and a carnelian necklace (carnelian is supposed to be good for healing! I hope it works!)

I was very happy to get some good news from the Jack Straw Writers Program on Christmas Eve, along with a check from my poem published in American Poetry Review a few months ago. What a lovely surprise from Santa – Poetry good stuff! (I also, strangely, got two rejections on Christmas Eve. Ho Ho Scrooge?! But that’s okay. The other things made up for it.)

So, in the beginning of January, I’m going to be reading at the Bellevue Arts Museum and giving a short workshop on haiku and haibun on January 4 at 4:30 PM. The next day, January 5th, I’ll be hosting a panel at Redmond Library on multi-cultural poetry and the language of science (featuring Natasha K. Moni and Raul Sanchez) at 3 PM. Whoosh! Starting the year with a bang. Then I’m reading on January 11th at King’s Books in Tacoma.  So, if you want to know where to find me in January, I’ll probably be running around in a panic. (I also have several freelance writing and editing deadlines in January, and I start teaching again in February, so…)

Which leads me to the question of – what is it you want to do in 2013? I’m very excited about my new book coming out from New Binary Press in April of 2013, Unexplained Fevers (and I’ve been collaborating with artist Michaela Eaves on doing some special-edition art for a UK special edition which is going to be available along with the regular soft-cover edition and an e-book! That’s three editions! Craziness!) I am hoping I will be healthy enough to get out to the UK for a few readings at some point, otherwise I’m starting to put together readings for 2013 in the Norhwest.
What else? I’m planning a book party/40th birthday party sometime in the spring as well, because if you can’t celebrate turning 40, well, what’s the point? And I’ll be doing Poet Laureate stuff AND Jack Straw things as well next year. It seems like a year of busy poet work. And who can complain about that? I want to spend 2013 getting healthier, wealthier, and writing and reading more poetry. Maybe paying off some student loans. But especially the writing part. And finding a home for my fourth book. And I have 46 good pages on a fifth book that really hones in on the nerdy stuff – engineering, algebra, apocalypses, more superhero poems. I should probably also try to send out some work – see, a poet’s work is never ever done!

So, what are your plans for 2013? I am wishing you all a healthy, happy, and more peaceful and prosperous new year!