Sunday, October 28, 2007

In pre-Halloween mode

Sticking my tongue out today. Have banned myself from touching the laptop because I always end up playing Chocolatier — when I should be replying to e-mails, sending out submissions, calling home, hauling my ass on the treadmill and writing.

In the meantime —

• There was a stomach flu epidemic in our little house in Manila. I declined my sis-in-law's kind invitation to come over and help spread it across Europe.

• My winter wardrobe came out of the closet to inform me that it's already winter.

• The pile of dirty clothes in the bathroom has reached the level of my chin.

• My mom-in-law has, after more than a week, finally recovered from a bad case of hives. Cause, as yet, unknown.

• My two-going-to-three-year-old niece received the Best Creative Design Award for her Halloween costume. She was the only one who showed up as a witch in her class. I have a feeling she's going to top the weirdness test someday.

And talking of Halloween and Blogthings

I Am
(rumored to be)
an Alien

You're so strange, people occasionally wonder if you're from another world.
You don't try to be different, but you see most things from a very unique, very offbeat perspective.
Brilliant to the point of genius, you definitely have some advanced intelligence going on.
No matter what circles you travel in, you always feel like a stranger. And it's a feeling you've learned to like.

Your greatest power: Your superhuman brain

Your greatest weakness: Your lack of empathy - you just don't get humans

You play well with: Zombies
[insert picture of Husband here]


Recent fiction acceptance:

Valerie and I were simply overjoyed when Admit Two — an online journal that features only works of collaboration — accepted our ticklish rabbit story, I Have Names For the Ways They Twitch Their Ears for their March 2008 issue.

This story was in the submission box of A Public Space since last December. A little critter got tired of waiting. Such a shame because they've got a really cool submission system — where you can see the status of your work and withdraw it as you please.

     Submission date: 28 September 2007
     Reply date: 17 October 2007

Recent publications:

• Issue of 3 of Mimesis is now out with poems by Annie Bien, Jeff Calhoun, Anthony DiMatteo, Brent Fisk, Fred Johnston, Matt Merritt, Derek Motion, Steve Mueske, Alistair Noon, Chris Powici, Dave Rowley, Carolyn Srygley-Moore, Jon Stone, Mark Terrill and Emily Tesh. One of my poems, Cordon Bleu is among the samples in the preview page. Am so thrilled to find fellow 30:30ers, Annie and Dave in this issue, too!

Am still waiting for my copy though. Postal service seems sluggish lately — the new postwoman only comes twice week. Am still waiting for my Secret Love Poems (Rubicon Press) copies, which were mailed to me last week.

• The October 2007 issue of Blood Orange Review is now online with poetry by Kate Cumiskey, Ayn Frances dela Cruz, Brent Fisk, Todd Heldt, David W. Landrum, Don Mager, Wendy C. Ortiz, Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Nicholas Ripatrazone, M.E. Silverman and an economy-class passenger who's never made it into any frequent flyer program because she hasn't been flying frequently enough.

4 comments:

Liz said...

Arlene, congrats on the collaboration and the other string of successes...love the collaboration title : )

Love the weirdness test...very pinky-ticklish indeed : )

Anonymous said...

alf: stop eating cats! the mothership's been calling for days. your satellite frequencies are off, but a good bit. retransmit please.

also, we hear debbie harry wrote a song about your eating bars, cars, and guitars. thankfully she had the good sense to change your gnndrr, but we recognized your work.

stop scaring the humans: the experiment is in jeopardy.
retransmit please.

codeword*nlrywco*
rendezvous:csbbyd

Poet Hound said...

Thought I'd return the favor and check out your blog. I love it! Entertaining and funny.

Sasha Pimentel Chacón said...

It's a beautiful poem you have on that journal. I'm glad I got to read it.