Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Gone Simming

It's summer, and A deserves a vacation from her —erm— vacation.

These past weeks she's managed to come up with something like 2,000+ fantasy/sci-fi names and surnames for her future Sims. Right now she's still in the process of rebuilding their wardrobe and coiffures. At the rate she's going, as the husband observed, by the time she starts the actual playing, Sims 3 will already be out.

Work-wise, Valerie and I have received our sample copy of the Bundles manuscript. We're really happy about it... just needs a few more tweaks here and there. I don't know what it is about margins and page alignments that regresses me to the anal stage — but that's where I am, together with my (future) Sims and their tacky high heels.

Anyway, just rushing through this blog with the usual updates, for my records. I also have a real-life 2008 agenda where I note these things down, but it always disappears the moment I need it — the problem with physical things — not to mention that between April and June, the lines and dates disappeared and left me to fend for myself. Boo. I made a mess trying to date the pages since I couldn't even see which month I was in. It was a really cheap agenda. Hee.


Recent publications:

WARNING: Long list ahead. Please don't urinate in the kiddie pool.

• An oldish poem, After the Affair is up in the Herstory Issue of Cahoots Magazine (Spring 2008).

• My copy of Chiron Review #83, Summer 2008 arrived yesterday. Have three poems in this issue, Driving Home, Snow Globe and Sunday Morning Mass.

• Three poems, The 37th Secret Love Poem, Relic and This dirty napkin are up in the Summer 2008 issue of Dirty Napkin. I was so thrilled to read the exciting poems of fellow bloggers, Jayne and Nanette in this issue, too.
If you subscribe, you'll be able to hear us say Ni.

Valerie and I have a set of poems (plus recordings) from the Bundles manuscript up at John Vick's Adroitly Placed Word. Valerie did some stunning, surreal vocal effects in her readings... while I just tried to cheat my way with cheeky background effects. We're both proud Audacity users.

Another RC Flyer Off Course is up in Thieves Jargon — on its trail, Mark Baumer and I had an ultra-weird conversation at Everyday Yeah. I've been cleaning the house ever since after this and getting dirtier by the day.

• Have an oldish poem, Squeeze and a spankin' new one, A Kind of Pompeii in Prick of the Spindle (Vol 2.2).

They were really quick here — i.e. time between acceptance and publication. Or maybe I'm just sluggish.

     Submission sent: 25 May 2008
     Reply date: 19 June 2008

Banned for Life, the first poem I did in my 12th round at 30:30 made it in the — guess what — "Banned for Life" issue of Six Little Things.

Was so thrilled to see Annie Bien's poem, The Harmonious Society — which I remember from one of her 30:30 rounds — in this issue, too. Yay!

Okay, so I'm really sluggish. Here's the response time of this ultra-cool 'zine.

     Submission sent: 16 May 2008
     Reply date: 4 June 2008


Other acceptances:

Pebble Lake Review accepted my poem, Window Screen for their Spring 2008 issue.

They now request an audio recording of published pieces. Yikes. It's kind of becoming a norm with online 'zines.

     Submission sent: 13 February 2008
     Reply date: 8 June 2008

Ambit accepted a sestina, The Magnificent Shrimp World of Fergus — and made me one happy fish.

Like with Stand, their response time is pythonic. Hee. But the editors did apologize, saying that my submission got lost before it was found. So, this is probably just in this case.

     Submission posted: 6 July 2007
     Reply received: 18 June 2008

Beneath the Weave, a Medea-based poem, was accepted for inclusion in In the Telling anthology (Cinnamon Press).

     Submission sent: 13 February 2008
     Reply date: 23 June 2008


Persistent summer ditty in A's head:

Oh yeah, life goes on,
long after the thrill of living is gone.


             — John Cougar Mellencamp