{ event museum }

Remembering Jayne Pupek (8 March 1962 - 30 August 2010)

2010-09-03T16:37:00.008+02:00

This feels like a dastardly time to be dusting this blog space, but as someone wisely pointed out, not everyone is on Facebook. Hopefully, this isn't going against Jayne's wishes. I have a feeling that she didn't want tributes or other stuff that go with, well, being dead. I did get some wine to appease her—ahem—spirit, just in case....

I remember the first time I read Jayne's writing at Poetry-W, an internet writing workshop that works through e-mails, and how it made my brain sizzle. I was amazed to learn, using my megawatt nosiness, that she had only started writing poetry. Had the poetry world been a Greek myth, Jayne was Athena who sprang into being—fully formed and fully armed with pen and paper—from the head of Zeus.

That was, I think, over six or seven years ago (sorry, I have the memory of a big goldfish and lose count after five years). The important thing is we got out of the -W cave and got into funky online forums—where we ran laps in the 30-poems-for-30-days marathon, together with other masochistic poets (you know who you are, so don't pretend to be innocent!) In the meantime, we discovered that we were both happily mental and shared a healthy—or unhealthy, depending on how you look at it—love for banter, cursing, wine and recently, zombies and Freud.

After both appearing, innocently, in the same issue of an online bisexual journal, you'd probably expect "something" to happen. And "something" did. Last May, we rented a room at the Etherpad where we literally had a tapeworm together. The little bugger, nicknamed Cobra, is still making its choppy way through submission school. We had planned to work on more short fiction this summer, but things came up and we had to move our trysts to late autumn. I'm still sad that we would never have other mutant babies to sic to editors, but I'm also grateful for Jayne's gift of laughter and... our Cobra.

Yesterday I had fun going through our last bawdy e-mails from June—under the eerie subject header: Good Omens—where we were exchanging double YAYs because she finally found a cover she liked for her poetry collection, The Livelihood of Crows and I happened to be a huge fan of Pamela Hill's art. I'm really happy that she got to see the book in its final form.

I thought I'd post the old bio on her website, which I managed back in 2007, wherein she talked more about her life and her family. For some strange reason, I held on to it—and am glad that I did. Jayne's wonderful nature and vibrant personality just shines through her words.

I was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1962. As the story goes, my mother went into labor during a March blizzard. My father was stationed in North Carolina, where he served as part of the military police. In his absence, my uncle drove my mother to the hospital. They barely made it through the snow drifts, but they did. I'm here, that's proof.

My only sibling, a brother, was born two years later. There would be no more children, as this was about the time my parents learned that I had a form of muscular dystrophy, a condition that would show up in any female children they produced. My childhood included a lot of things that weren't fun: wheelchairs, braces, surgeries, casts, sandbags, and so on. But I had a devoted family, books and animals, and didn't seem to need much else. That's still pretty much true.

With the exception of the Bible and The Farmer's Almanac, books were not valued much in my childhood home. Bedtime stories weren't part of evening rituals. No one wrote poems or spent time reading novels. If anyone in my family kept a diary, I never knew it. Despite their own lack of interest in books, my parents saw that reading was something I could do and enjoy. They gave me all the books I wanted and allowed me to read anything I chose. One of the advantages of growing up in a family of nonreaders was that no one censored what I read. To this day, my mother undoubtedly thinks Anais Nin's Little Birds is a story about sparrows. I'm not about to tell her differently.

While I read and wrote constantly, I didn't consider becoming a writer. In rural communities like the one where I grew up, writers were akin to astronauts, jugglers, and movie stars—sure, they existed, but no one in their right mind talked about becoming one. I went to college at age seventeen and majored in psychology, completing first my BS, and then my MA, both from James Madison University. I used all my electives to take English courses, continued to write, and published my first poem. I was given awards from both the English Department and Psychology Department.

During the next years, I worked with several populations, including battered women and the homeless mentally ill, but I found my niche as a therapist working with inmates. I relocated to Central Virginia to work with incarcerated sexual offenders. After several years working with adults, I transferred to a correctional center for juveniles, where I continued to specialize in the treatment of sexual offenders and their families.

Soon after leaving the Shenandoah Valley, I met and married my husband, a librarian. He is sane, stable, and a calming influence in my life. As I once heard Joyce Carol Oates say on C-Span, no one tells you that you're going to need somebody like that to write, but you do. If you don't have someone like that, go find them.

Ed and I are parents to three amazing children through adoption. Kaity was born in India and came home to us at age five. She was quite the feral child, as she was blind (born without eyes) and autistic; she had never spoken a word and understood no English, nor had she been potty-trained or taught how to use a spoon. Travis was also born in India and came home to us as an infant. He was actually our first child, adopted a year or so before Kaity. And finally, we adopted Ryan, an African American boy born in the United States. He was only five months old when he arrived.

When my children were older, I turned more and more attention to writing. I became more focused, and started submitting work to publishers, receiving a number of rejections, but also more acceptances than I expected. My work has appeared in numerous print and online journals and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I'm the author of two poetry chapbooks, Primitive (Pudding House Press 2004) and Local Girls (Dead Mule, 2007). My first novel, Tomato Girl, is forthcoming from Algonquin Books in 2008. That same year, Forms of Intercession, my first full length collection of poems, will be published by Mayapple Press.

—Jayne Pupek (August 2007)

Here's to you Jayne!!

(photo courtesy of Didi Wood—from Jayne's doll poems on Press 1)

Interview with Liz Gallagher

2009-10-28T23:45:00.005+01:00

In the Event Museum, there is no pleasure like wine and no pleasure greater than drinking wine with Liz Gallagher while talking about her first full-length collection of poems, The Wrong Miracle (Salt Publishing, 2009).

As part of their contract, poets are given a superhero costume to wear during the interview... just so they understand that we are dead serious.

Arlene Ang: Welcome to the Event Museum, Liz. I hope you're comfy.

Liz Gallagher: Hi Arlene, it is lovely to be here at the Event Museum, thanks for awakening me out of my non-poetry slumbering life and getting me up and about again. I so love the superwoman outfit that you had laid out on the couch for me, as you can see, I have slipped into it and also have delighted in the fact that my legs took on a new spurt of growth while doing so... I am totally comfortable sitting here and yes, if there is a large Martini going, I would be delighted. Hope you join me, and I adore your outfit too, I want your dressmaker's name after the interview.

AA: I'm pleased to say that our supporters have provided us with every type of liquor, but no glasses. It's probably a study on human adaptation. Just pick what you want and drink directly from the bottle. It's perfectly okay.

Talking of adaptation, I've always been intrigued that you were born in Donegal, Ireland and have been living in Grand Canary Island these past fourteen years. What impact did this have in your writing? Would you have any poems that shout Donegal or Grand Canary to you—they don't necessarily have to be about these places, but more of a feeling, maybe how they remind you of a period or time there?

LG: I really began writing while living here on Gran Canary Island. We are so fortunate as to live in a very beautiful and protected valley where there are only a few houses nearby so the quiet and relative isolation of the place is ideal for writing.

I think the fact that I am an 'outsider' here (even though I speak the language, know lots of people and am quite involved in the community) has also impacted on my writing as I can so easily go into 'objective mode' and sort of remove myself from my roots, so to speak, and thus feel freer to actually write about personal and 'root-like' things! I suppose there is some contradiction there!

I never really write while I'm in Ireland, I take notes and jot down expressions and things I hear as the wealth of expressions and sayings that my parents and neighbours use is very inspiring and amusing. One of the things I have found is that the minute I am on the plane out of Ireland, I am there with the food tray down writing away and usually it will be about Ireland, even if indirectly! It will take maybe two months for me to shake off the Irish experience and move on to other themes.

AA: I noticed some religious elements in your book, The Wrong Miracle—even the title hints on an "act of God" gone wrong. I remember exchanging notes with you once and talking about our Catholic background. In one of the poems there, "Sun Over a Tree Line," I'm fascinated by this image:

God becomes
a ragged fellow who moves
from tree to tree in the back of the mind.

He pursues the living and the dead stay dead.

Will you tell us more about this poem? It's almost as if God or religion is being relegated to the back of one's mind, to be taken out only on special occasions, like for an illness or a funeral. I'm also struck by the use of the verb, "become"—does this mean that we tend to use religion to suit our needs?

LG: Oh gosh! Yes, G/god, in lower or capital does make his/her way into my poems a lot. I was never really aware of the pattern until putting the book together and thinking: 'Here, we go again, God/god is everywhere'... I will confess (!) to actually spending quite some time wondering whether to put G/god in lower or capitals in some of the poems in the book after having written them. And yes, Arlene, I was brought up a Catholic and was educated by the nuns and no doubt that has left its mark and it comes out in a sort of half-rebellious way every so often in some poems.

This poem was written after the invasion of Iraq. There were protests and general disgust at this whole event happening. It felt like a collapse of civilisation, the fact that something so barbaric could happen in the 21st century and that the world stood by and let it happen. The over-riding feeling was one of chaos as shown by some of the images in the poem ( e.g. Humpty Dumpty, hoof-prints, pedicures for Dictators, door frames collapsing, dead bodies and water-logged blankets..) ..... and at the end I suppose God is being implicated in what is happening, like the lurker behind the tree who comes to pick at the spoils... I've never really analysed this poem before but yes, it is a move away from an all-loving G/god to one who is part and parcel of the chaos and the resulting deaths.

And to answer your question about using religion to suit our needs, I think this is possible, even though Catholic religion, as I know it, has always been so 'boxed-up' and 'defined' that I have never felt that I could make it adapt to my needs, that in fact it was a case of adapting to it or nothing, but yes, I know what you mean about all of a sudden finding a purpose for a G/god /religion, especially non-institutionalised religion, in times of grief and sadness.

AA: Another favorite poem, "Cosmic Noise" is such a perfect depiction of marriage—not just between two people, but also between two opposing forces.The pullmi-pullyu bickering in the first stages, then the establishment of balance:

I settle
to enjoy lunch. You settle to enjoy lunch.
Two people, their bearings found, and settling.

Would you relate this to your writing, too? Can you discuss your own relationship with poetry?

LG: I love your interpretation of this poem, Arlene. And yes, I do think that balance is needed to be able to write. I cannot write if I am unhappy or worried. The word 'settling' to me is really important, it's about that 'stretching-out-of-one's-legs' and the 'sigh-of-contentment' feeling that means turmoil is held at bay for a while but like you said the 'pullmi-pullyu' bickering is a sort of foreplay to settling as settling implies having been unsettled beforehand. This is my relationship with poetry, to a certain degree—there are so many preludes/interludes/general-life-happenings that prevent me from writing and when I do actually get down to writing, I always give a sigh of relief. And since I physically write with my back against my study wall (cushion between back and wall though and my legs stretched out before me on the study futon and laptop on lap, then it is the physical act of settling as well as the psychological.

AA: I have to say that after all this time, "Episode iii: The Day the Shelling Started" remains in my mind as one of the best poems I've come across. There's this haunting tango between the horrific and banal happiness:

The doctors said her tumors had shrunk. A wedding
took place across the street...

... An artist in Lebanon ties
a microphone to his balcony to record the "Summer Rain"

of bombs breaking the sound barrier, he plays the trumpet
in the background and sketches drawings in the hushed

seconds of a starry night. An ex-hostage dreams of the blood
letting being over. He imagines one day sitting under

a magnificent oak and letting the beauty of the place soak into him.

I've always wanted to ask you about this poem, what made you write it. Will you tell us more about Zena el-Khalil to whom this piece is dedicated?

LG: As you know, Arlene, I have taken part in poem-a-day activities with yourself and others in Inside The Writers' Studio 30:30 forum. It was during one of these 30:30's that I wrote this poem (just to explain to other readers, 30:30 means writing a poem-a-day for 30 consecutive days! ) It was in July 2006 and it was during the invasion of Lebanon. I used to read the Guardian online every day to find out what was happening and I remember reading Zena el-Khalil's account of being there during the invasion and it affected me greatly.

At one stage for about 10 days during this particular 30:30, I lost my Internet connection but I didn't want to give up the poem-a-day activity (nor to give up reading the Guardian) so I used to go to the nearest village which is 10 minutes away and go into a Cyber Café there to read and write my poems. Because it was duirng the summer holidays, there used to be lots of young teenage guys there playing very loud computer war games and there I was stuck in the middle of them trying to get inspired to write poems—actually, most of the poems that came out of that time evolved around the invasion of Lebanon and war in general. The artist mentioned in the poem is a real person, his name is Mazen Kerbaj. He actually did record from his balcony the 'summer rain' of bombs. He blogs here www.mazenkerblog.blogspot.com and has a 6 min. 31 second recording of the bombing alongside saxophone improvisation.

Another weird aspect that added to the 'war' element was that in mid-July the rabbit-hunting season starts here on the island and the ironical thing is that where I live is big-rabbit-hunting ground (it is ironical considering it is actually a protected-valley, but not for rabbits, seemingly!) and every Thursday and Sunday there are loud gun shots which brought the whole horror of killing that little bit nearer.

AA: WOW. I never imagined so many outside events influenced this poem. The rabbit-hunting came as a surprise. It does sound harrowing.

You're such a gifted photographer, too. Have you ever found yourself using images from your pictures in your poems or vice versa? It would be interesting if you could point out some poems or stanzas in the book and show us what images inspired them.

LG: Arlene, thanks, that is very kind of you to say so. Funnily enough, I have never used actual images as inspiration for writing. I do have a visual memory though and find that just seeing words or phrases brings up the image for me and I can then go with that image. I very much enjoy taking photographs and find it indirectly helps me get worked up and inspired to write.

AA: Okay, here's a fun last question, then we can go fishing: Do you have any bad habits that actually make you a better poet? Any suggestions to aspiring writers?

LG: Oh, love this question, Arlene! Well, one bad, (well maybe more odd than bad), habit might be that I write in the dark with only the light of the computer screen. I suppose in that sense I am a vampire-writer. It is a little ironical too considering the near-constant light and brightness I have here on the island. Not sure why I write in the dark but know for sure I cannot write in the sunshine. I also love writing with my night-wear on... this falls in line with the dark thing, I suppose and the fact that I write at early dawn-ish accompanied by the very welcome first cup of tea. I am also a pre-shower, pre-combing hair writer. Maybe it's the earthiness and primitive back-to-basics feel of it all that gets me going!

I am also quite obsessive, a possibly or possibly-not bad habit. I obsess over whatever poem I happen to be writing but it is never long-lived and usually within a few days I am obsessing about another poem. I still consider myself to be an aspiring writer and the things I do that help me get writing would be things like 'disciplining' (ha!) myself to get involved in daily writing activities with other writers, not taking myself nor the writing too seriously, always being open to different types of writing and wanting to read, read, read as much poetry and other forms of writing as possible. Oh and one last thing, what keeps me wanting to write is the need to recapture that feeling of excitement that comes from seeing a piece of writing take shape... even if after a week or so, on return to that piece of writing, I sometimes begin to wonder what got me so excited about that particular piece in the first place. And so the cycle begins again....!

Thanks, so much for having me here, Arlene, I so enjoyed slipping into the Superwoman suit you had ready for me and I know it will be replacing my night-wear to become my writing-attire. The questions you posed were so interesting even if it did take me a few months to settle-down (there is that word 'settle' again!) and answer them.

Next week I'll be crossing the Atlantic to land in Texas with Brenda Nixon Cook at her 'The Art of Breathing' Blog... I'm looking forward to it a lot.

AA: Thanks so much for dropping by, Liz. I look forward to seeing you at Brenda's place. If we catch enough fish, I think she'll cook it for us. I hear she's a mean cook.

Event Museum Rules

2009-08-08T13:44:00.004+02:00

There are those who would ask: Why do these museum employees write in the third person? What happened to the first person? Was foul play involved?

By contract, the museum staff is required to use the third person at all times as this facilitates the concept of having sheep for brains. As part of the museum's public relations campaign, a short film on personnel recruitment has been made available to the concerned community:

As primary job requirement, all employees need to have previously existed as Tim the Enchanter (interested parties may take the FB Test to find out if they are Event Museum material). When it doubt while searching for the washroom, the public is advised to address a museum employee as O Tim. Codeword for the washroom is The Holy Grail.

Photo of museum guard in summer uniform wearing the customary ram horns and ID.

Recent events in the Event Museum:

• The 2009 Contest Finalists Festival and Treasure Hunt: Marsh Hawk Press Room, Ground Floor

Activities on this modern farm include food, wagon rides, music, reading activities and lots more. Visitors may also be asked to join in finding these secret objects around the museum and capture them with a digital camera: Arlene Ang, Rebecca Aronson, Anne Babson, Douglas Blazek, Jack Coulehan, Kimberly Davis, John Estes, Bernadette Geyer, Jamey Hecht, Carolyn Hembree, Matthew Hittinger, Lesley Jenike, Cory McClellan, Luigi Monteferrante, Carrie Oeding, Deniz Perin, Richard Robbins, Hugo Rodriguez, Sarah Wetzel Fishman, and S. Scott Whitaker. Hints are available at the front desk.

• Day of the Dead: The Contrary Hall, 2nd Floor (Summer 2009)

Family-oriented activities. For example, volunteers will be asked to choose someone dead to bring to life in an animated film or to keep in a jar. Best accompanied by white wine or vodka.

• Dead Men Talking: Museum Graveyard, Lot #10 (August 2009)

The current rotation includes words by Arlene Ang, David Gwilym Anthony, Greg Billingham, Michael Cantor, Enriqueta Carrington, Antonia Clark, Mary Cresswell, Ann Drysdale, Bill Greenwell, John Milbury-Steen, Timothy Murphy, Frank Osen, Rob Plath, Daniel Sluman, C.P. Stewart, and Peter Wyton; and a selection of art by Patricia Wallace Jones recording Shit Creek Review's upstream voyage from silence into vibrant conversations with the dead.

• Origami Condom: Safety First Gallery, 5th Floor (7 August 2009)

A selection of 39 safety procedures required when reading and/or writing poetry—a prison pass, self-extinction, improved room acoustics—from this prominent 14th PDF collection, most never before exhibited outside the North Pole. Some collaborations (with Valerie Fox) are featured due to the complex nature of condoms.

Arleneus Angeli Exhibit: Lobby, The Extinction Loft

2009-07-27T16:20:00.010+02:00

Many people think that their Arleneus angeli is dead when it is simply molting and dispose of the gastropod while it is still alive. The Arleneus angeli will usually bury itself in the sand or plop on the lawn for days or weeks when it begins to molt. It must leave its shell to molt, and at that time it will not move and may appear to be dead. You can tell very easily whether your gastropod is molting or dead by the pungent smell it emits.

Other events in the Event Museum:

• Blogging and the Feather Duster: First Floor, The Dead Skin Cells Alcove (27 July - 29 October 2009)

Because the museum will be the first stop (October 29) on Liz Gallagher's virtual book tour, the curator has decided to host a practical blog-cleaning exhibition. The museum guards are so excited about Liz's first full collection, The Wrong Miracle that they have decided not to leave for their summer vacation in order to stand under the sun and badger people with lines from the book, like Your bedroom is roped by genuflecting visitors or I have a hunch and it has nothing to do with the price of eggs. The French maid outfit is courtesy of Sims 3 and the professional playing Sims 3.

• I Edit Therefore I Exist: Second Floor, The Mouse Trap Gallery (21 June - 21 August 2009)

Issue 52 of The Pedestal Magazine features poetry by JoAnn Balingit, Nicelle Christine Davis, Jude Goodwin, Rich Ives, Jim Redmond, Brandon S. Roy, Amy Small-McKinney, Jari Thymian, Ann Walters, Sarah Wetzel, Gerald Yelle, and Amanda Yskamp. Free psychiatric admission.

• Here and Now: Third Floor, The Allen Itz Washroom (July 2009)

Six Sims-illustrated poems explore the continuing impact of a widely distributed game on lobster thermidor recipes around the world. Despite countless exposures of the video game as public drunkenness, the desire to actually live among cow-inspired furniture has retained incredible influence on poets and udder people with extra-long acrylic noses. Today, technology has made the sim-self available to anyone with Internet access, and it continues to be circulated by those who promote rabbit head keychains, experimental drugs, and even cave art.

• If I Had An Eye Patch, I'd Give You My Eye: Fourth Floor, The Cerise Press Room

Homo sapiens with eyes have always been considered the most interesting of species ever to land on Earth. Since the climb down trees, they have recorded centuries of self-captivity in all its richness and diversification. This selection by the Cerise Press editors shows every aspect of the performance process from the eye-extraction program to the latest in eye-patch fashion. It also demonstrates a range of techniques, from approximative translations to orphanage development and includes some of the best eye owners in the business such as Patricia Fargnoli, Tess Gallagher, Diane Gilliam, Ray Gonzalez, James Harms, Laura Kasischke, Robert Kelly, Karen An-Hwei Lee, Éireann Lorsung, John Minczeski, Nate Pritts, Natasha Sajé, Susan Thomas, David Welch, and Eleanor Wilner.

• Things She Told the Rooster Before It Became Glass: Sixth Floor, The Holly Rose Ballroom (June 2009)

The Passion Collection includes fragments of objects. These are often secretive, demonic and revealing in their own right. On first becoming infected, like for example with swine flu, we often wonder what we are. By examining a detail we can understand more about the whole survival of the self, what completes it, and from which source it sprung. This display showcases passion and examines the art of turning it into blood.

• Robot Melon: Ninth Floor, The Mail Conservatory (June-July 2009)

This display reveals the never-before-released whereabouts of the postwoman when she stops delivering mail (insert cow). The RM's outstanding collection of psychiatric studies features classics like Heather Momyer's Even Boys Dream Dreams that Bunnies Can Dream and Justin Hyde's lost & hung-over on a pre-dawn gravel road with socks but no shoes.

The dead has risen...

2009-05-24T11:38:00.005+02:00

... and it is drinking. It has recently been quoted to say: Just being alive should make you late for everything. In case you've never noticed, the dead are always on time.

Time, including the passage of, is all in the mind of strange moving creatures. Hence, since the last blog entry, no time has passed at all and there is no need to feel sheepish and hide under the table.

As Nabokov (dead) would put it: I confess I do not believe in time.

Currently logged in the Event Museum:

• The May-August 2009 issue of Press 1 is now up with fab poetry and fiction from CL Bledsoe, Ken Cenicola, Holly Day, Daniela Elza, John Grey, Christine Hamm, Kate Irving, Miriam N. Kotzin, Lynn Levin, Sean Lovelace, Clare L. Martin, Matthew Salesses, Paul Siegell and Ann Walters. The spectacular artwork is courtesy of Mario Sánchez Nevado.

• Have finally retired the G4 and gotten a 24-inch iMac. All I can say is that there's nothing like "the" Mac experience... oftentimes compared to dying and going to heaven.

• It's now official: I have two poems, Alopecia and the grizzly bear and I'm Not Supposed to Wear This Gorilla Costume in Best of the Web 2009 (Dzanc Books), slated for publication on July 2009. Fellow contributors include: Waqar Ahmed, Michael Baker, Marcelo Ballve, Marge Barrett, Carmelinda Blagg, Benjamin Buchholz, Blake Butler, Jimmy Chen, Amy L. Clark, Amber Cook, Bill Cook, Michael Czyzniejewski, Darlin’ Neal, Matthew Derby, Ryan Dilbert, Stephen Dixon, Alex Dumont, Claudia Emerson, D.A. Feinfeld, Marcela Fuentes, M. Thomas Gammarino, Cassandra Garbus, Molly Gaudry, Anne Germanacos, Matt Getty, Todd Hasak-Lowy, Karen Heuler, Ash Hibbert, Philip Holden, Roy Kesey, Hari Bhajan Khalsa, Tricia Louvar, Peter Markus, Michael Martone, Heather Killelea McEntarfer, Lindsay Merbaum, Corey Mesler, Laura Mullen, Joseph Olschner, Jeff Parker, Elise Paschen, Elizabeth Penrose, Kate Petersen, Glen Pourciau, Sam Rasnake, Jonathan Rice, Tom Sheehan, Claudia Smith, Lynn Strongin, Terese Svoboda, Jon Thompson, Davide Trame, Donna D. Vitucci, Helen Wickes, Kathrine Leone Wright, and Jordan Zinovich.

• Have cloned myself on Facebook — for the gaming purposes — and have begun to exist as my clone 95% of the time. At some point, I removed my clone from my friends list because of her insistent game invites. It's sad, but true: I'm longer FB friends with myself.

Having multiple FB identities is probably the modern way to experience split personalities since only one consciousness (per browser) can be dominant at a time. Hee. It's a rather confusing experience.

• Last Friday the potato chips and nuts that my sister mailed me on 11 December 2008 finally arrived. The box had the seal of the Deparment of Health... as if to say this could be swine flu. The customs people even made me sign a month ago that I will be held responsible in case of an epidemic or something. Hee!

Acceptances, from most recent to oldies:

• Pen Pusher Magazine accepted a poem, Drive-Thru Hazards.

     Submission sent: 9 April 2009
     Reply date: 20 May 2009

Incidentally, they have launched a poetry competition (no fees attached) with the Latitude Festival 2009. First prize includes a chance to read on the New Voices stage in the prestigious poetry tent at Latitude. Goal is to write a poem about where you live. More info at their website.

• Thieves Jargon plans to publish the cheeky poem, A Driving Instructor's First Experience with a Tango Teacher in an upcoming issue.

     Submission mailed: 13 April 2009
     E-mail reply: 9 May 2009

• Thanks to Liz for mailing me a gorgeous copy of The Stinging Fly, I decided to send them some work myself. They accepted two poems for publication in a future issue: Apple, Pear and the Body Running Through Them and Suffocation Prelude (sonnet).

They're currently closed to submissions now and will be open again from January 1st to March 31st.

     Submission mailed: 19 January 2009
     E-mail reply: 1 May 2009

• Weave Magazine — a literary print publication and organization based out of Pittsburgh — accepted a poem, Feeding the Husband for a future issue. Payment is one copy. Very quick response time, too!

     Submission sent: 21 April 2009
     Reply date: 29 April 2009

• DIAGRAM accepted a prose poem inspired by the James Castle exhibit in Philly, Unidentified dark object (with shoelace) for an upcoming issue.

     Submission sent: 31 March 2009
     Reply date: 29 April 2009

• Holly Rose Review accepted a poem, Things She Told the Rooster Before It Became Glass for the Passion issue (#2, June 2009).

     Submission sent: 9 April 2009
     Reply date: 11 April 2009

• Oranges & Sardines accepted three poems: The Girl in the Bathtub, Ownership, and Disconnection for an upcoming issue.

     Submission sent: 9 January 2009
     Reply date: 12 April 2009

• Arch Literary Journal accepted two poems, April Morning and Sunday for their Winter 2010 issue.

This is a lovely 'zine with fantastic poetry. And quite new, too. They're currently only their second issue... but it's fast becoming a favorite.

     Submission sent: 7 December 2008
     Reply date: 17 March 2009

• Inertia Magazine, a literary journal based in NYC, accepted Roadside Motel for their Issue #7, slated for release in July 2009.

     Submission sent: 4 February 2009
     Reply date: 9 April 2009

• Caketrain accepted a longish poem, Self-Portrait in Green Dress for Issue 07, tentatively slated for publication in late 2009. Yay!

     Submission sent: 9 January 2009
     Reply date: 8 April 2009

• Boxcar Poetry Review accepted a poem, Living Without Water for an upcoming issue.

     Submission sent: 23 November 2008
     Reply date: 19 March 2009

• Found out last April that my prose poem, Family was accepted for a future issue of Drunken Boat. Never thought I'd live to see the day... plus anything with the letters d-r-u-n-k in it makes my cuppa poison.

The downside is they can't seem to send me an e-mail. Have changed twice now and they've sent the acceptance e-mail twice, but nothing. They seem to have fairly quick response times... my advice is to just check your submission regularly on their database manager in case this should happen with your e-mail addy, too.

     Submission sent: 19 December 2008
     Reply date: 27 February 2009 (DB records)

Publications, from recent to oldish:

• The Spring 2009 (volume 2 number 3) issue of diode is up with poetry by Adonis (trans. Khaled Mattawa), Neil Aitken, Michelle Bitting, Jason Bredle, Travis Brown, Brooklyn Copeland, Mark Cunningham, Patrick Donnelly, Kate Durbin, Anne Haines, Catherine Jagoe, Karyna McGlynn, Keith Montesano, Miguel Murphy, darlene anita scott, Nate Slawson, Sally Van Doren and a pair of elbows interpretating the afterlife.

     Submission sent: 26 January 2009
     Reply date: 7 March 2009

• Have six poems in the Fantasies issue of Succour — which went out on 11 May 2009. It's one of the print journals I've discovered through Facebook via friends of friends of friends. FB does have its neat uses. Poems list:

» The Self in the Mirror is a Test
» Please Meet My Nails
» I'm Only as Half-Drunk as You Think I Am
» twelve: crackle (from approximative translations)
» The dog in the rearview mirror
» What the postwoman can't fight

     Submission sent: 16 February 2009
     Reply date: 28 March 2009

• The Summer 2009 issue of Rattle is out! People have been writing me to say, but — again — I still haven't gotten my copies. Will keep my fingers crossed that they get here before Christmas. My poem, Tonsillitis is in there aching.

They've also got a call for subs on Sonnets for the Winter 2009 issue. So get those da-DUM da-DUM nuts cracking.

• My first published flash, The Dreaming Lake came out in the March-April 2009 issue of Oak Ben Review.

• qarrsiluni published some poems and fiction that I co-wrote with Valerie:

» Jennie, or How Things Go Down in The Yankee Doodle (24 April 2009, fiction)
» Visions of Lamb Cooked in Slight Brine (8 April 2009, poem)
» Little Boys and Snips of Donkey Tails (20 March 2009, fiction)
» We Wrote a Letter to Jesus and He Told Us To Buy a New Car (5 March 2009, poem)

• An oldish poem, Memento Mori made it into the 20th issue of Blue Print Review: The Missing (hehe) Part.

     Submission sent: 2 April 2009
     Reply date: 6 April 2009

Interview and chapbook giveaway

2009-02-23T10:56:00.003+01:00

There's a three-part interview with me up at Savvy Verse & Wit, plus a review of Secret Love Poems and a chapbook lottery. If you'd like to try your luck at winning a copy of the chapbook, just leave your e-mail address here. The deadline is 26 February 2009.

Thanks so much for this honor, Serena!!

Currently at the Event Museum:

• Am seriously considering renaming this blog as The Event Museum... where for months only one important event is happening — based on a ticklish collaboem I've been writing with Valerie.

• Have been busy redesigning my website. Good grief. I've been rechecking all the links from way back in 1995... and finding so many dead bodies, I mean, dead 'zines. At this rate, I'm going to outlive all my publication credits.

• Am scheduled to leave for Manila on Friday... and so have only three days more to get my act together — which includes answering my messages — or will be forced to forever hold my peace. Hee.

Recent publications:

• qarrtsiluni has posted the first collaboem (with Valerie) in their "Mutating the Signature" series, In retrospect, 1984 made a fine sausage. The audio file is between me and John Vick.

• Three poems: Polish Dancer Prelude (sonnet), The Local Physician Returns to the Ski Lodge and The 38th Secret Love Poem are in Issue 2 of Blackbox Manifold together with the works of Vahni Capildeo, Joshua Clover, Vona Groarke, Alan Halsey, Lisa Jarnot, John Kinsella, Peter Larkin, Matt Merritt, Drew Milne, Geraldine Monk, Paul Muldoon, Vivek Narayanan, Chris Nealon, Francis Raven, Ian Seed, Ben Stainton, Kyle Storm, Matthew Sweeney and Nathan Thompson.

Double yikes

2009-02-06T10:15:00.004+01:00

Let's pretend it's still January... 2008. So this blog entry is almost a year early. Hee.

Special Events in The AA Event Museum:,

• The January-April 2009 issue of Press 1 came out too soon, a case of multiple breech births, with the following bouncing bunnies: Lydia Cortes, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Theresa Edwards, David Erlewine, Rebecca Guyon, Mark Lowe, Lilla Lyon, Sally Molini, Michelle Panik, Meg Pokrass, Ron Price, Don Riggs, Denise Scicluna, and Robert Anthony Watts.

• Someone fell off the 30:30 wagon three times. She is now on Day 23 (round 15) and should be able to make it with her favorite sandbox playmate, Valerie helping her out with the other half of the poems.

• Because drinking was making A one heck of a depressed drunk, she decided to stop... or at least drink only on weekends. Plus, the wine store across the street has had a change of owner. There's a woman there now. She has terrible wine — believe me I tried them all. I used to think I can glug down anything... I was mistaken.

• Have bought a ticket for Manila... and have started having anxiety dreams about the plane taking off without me again.

• The laptop caught a virus for the second time in two years and had to be reformatted. The cure seems to agree with Muerte (as re-baptized on 13 January 2009). Since then it's been more quiet, ventilator-wise. No more crazy chopper/hacking cough sounds. Yay!

• Chainsaw rant coming down here —

Recently discovered on my own that London Magazine didn't include my poem in their Anglo/Indian issue after all. I'm quite pissed about it since they didn't even bother to tell me after all this time when I could've sent it off elsewhere. Oh yes. I remember. On their guidelines page they say they don't send rejections. First they send me the proofs, with a two-day response time or else (they chopped off the first stanza, too without so much as a by-your-leave). I okayed everything next day, then sometime later got invited to the issue launch. A good thing I was in Philly that time... if I had gone all the way to London to read a poem that they chose not to publish, I'd probably have gone after somebody with a knife.

I guess I'm just pissed for the most part that that poem, which is about a woman mourning the death of her unborn child, didn't make it right next to that half-page SMB ad: for all your corporate and personal tax advice. Hee.

Anyway, I'm blacklisting this magazine. I think they're a bit better via snailmail, for some strange reason. But that was way back in 2007.

Recent (and not so recent) publications:

• The Winter 2009 issue of blossombones is now live — with poetry by Lana Hechtman Ayers, Margaret Bashaar, Elizabeth Bruno, Juliet Cook, Athena Dixon, Jo Hemmant, Amy Hinrichs, Charmi Keranen, Daniela Olszewska, Kristen Orser, Nanette Rayman Rivera, Toni Scales, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Bill Yarrow, Susan Yount, and (ahem).

• A new 'zine, Fleeting posted two poems, Confessions of a Road Sign Collector and Dream Interstate 104 on 26 January 2009.

• Canopic Jar #22 with poetry by coreyMesler, gabebaBaderoon, isobelDixon, johnMcCullough, kayMckenzieCooke, leeAnnPickrell, leeStern, matthewGillis, michelleMcgrane, myeshaJenkins, patrickSullivan, phillippaYaaDeVilliers, rethabileMasilo, roseDewyKnickers, ruthSabathRosenthal, santiagoDelDardanoTurann, and someKindofStrangeOrgan. They have some fab pRose and aRt sections, too.

This is an elegant online journal, quite eclectic tastes. With regards to response times, the editor actually wrote me on 17 December 2008 to ask if the poems were still available. The in-between e-mail exchange kind of made the waiting seem less.

     Submission sent: 7 October 2008
     Reply date: 9 January 2009

Okay. I confess. I knew he was my kind of editor when I read his e-mail signature quote:

         I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
                                  —W.C. Fields

Just because I no longer drink on weekdays (again), doesn't mean I've stopped thinking of it.

• Two poems, Mendel experiments and We stand the postal clerk are up in the current issue of Cricket Online Review (volume iv, number ii).

• Found out just last week that they made me (woohooo!) Featured Poet in Identity Theory (Summer/Fall 2008). Thanks for the nod, WP!

Recent (and not so recent) acceptances:

• Cerise Press accepted four poems (2 spanking new/2 oldish) on 5 February 2009:

If I had an eye patch, I'd give you my eye—
Orphanage
five : leap
six : sundown

for their first issue (Summer 2009). They officially open to unsolicited submission on 1 April 2009 — for the Fall/Winter 2009 issue. Don't forget. It's a neat, sleek 'zine. Response time was one day — really quick, but under normal circumstances they give 2-3 months in the guidelines.

• While hopping from one 'zine to another, I discovered Robot Melon and couldn't resist submitting. Who could resist such an order as ticklish as, In the body of the e-mail give us a 2-3 line biography. If you like a certain type of bear, this might be the place to mention it. Neat little bear trap, ain't it?

Anyway, I was thrilled that they accepted my prose poem, What Happens to the Postwoman When She Stops Delivering the Mail for Issue Nine. Nothing like some robot lovin' to wake up to in the morning. Hee.

     Submission sent: 30 December 2008
     Reply date: 18 January 2009

• Three collaboems, (1) Visions of Lamb Cooked in Slight Brine, (2) We Wrote a Letter to Jesus and He Told Us To Buy a New Car, and (3) In retrospect, 1984 made a fine sausage — that Valerie and I wrote last year have been accepted for publication in the Mutating the Signature issue of qarrtsiluni.

     Submission sent: 2 January 2009
     Reply date: 15 January 2009

• Wooopwooop!! I received my first ever flash fiction acceptance from Oak Bend Review. Very quick response times, too (see below)! My shorty, The Dreaming Lake is slated for their March/April 2009 issue.

     Submission sent: 4 January 2009
     Reply date: 8 January 2009

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T13:57:00.003+01:00

Yikes. It's been more than month since my last confession... I mean, blog entry. I AM NOT DEAD. I have been Facebooking where I am the mayor of a small town. Oh yes. I even have an electric sheep. I may also be Twittered though I haven't exactly understood all the mechanics of making sounds every half-hour.

That said, I'm thrilled to announce that the 49th issue of The Pedestal Magazine is now up! With fantastic poetry by Eduards Aivars, Margaret Bashaar, Lisa Fay Coutley, Katie Fesuk, Brian Foley, S. Jason Fraley, Paul Hostovsky, Shaylah Kloska, Michelle Menting, Natasha Kochicheril Moni, Rick Marlatt, R Jay Slais, Sarah Sorenson, Tammy F. Trendle and Joseph P. Wood.

Recent publications:

• The Autumn 2008 issue DMQ Review is now up — featuring the poetry of Lana Hechtman Ayers, Robert Lee Brewer, Claudia Burbank, Ellen Elder, Joan Fiset, Paul Fisher, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Virginia Konchan, Robert McDonald, Chad Sweeney, Mary Wang and Fritz Ward with artwork by Chris Roberts-Antieau.

It was such a fab surprise when editors announced that they've nominated my poem, Like Closed Eyes for the Pushcart Prize. It's my 9th ever (yikes) and the 2nd (yay) this year — the first nomination (8th) coming from Juked for Anima Nera, one of the poems that received the 2008 Juked Poetry Prize... a poem written two years ago, incidentally, after a post-Christmas hangover. Hee.

• Three poems in Seven CirclePress: Ants, How Did Her Garden Grow and Phantom Limb.

• Two poems, Inheritance and I met my mother and called her Night (with audio) in the inaugural issue of Holly Rose Review — an online poetry & tattoo literary journal — which also features the poetry of Danny Bellinger, Debbi Brody, Lane Falcon, Beatrix Gates, Peter Joseph Gloviczki, Donnelle McGee, Karen Neuberg, Rhonda Palmer, Simon Petkovich, Mani Rao, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Maria Williams-Russell, Jane Wohl and Cyril Wong.

• Am tickled that the Pirates issue of Painted Bride Quarterly is now online — just in time for the holidays. I have poem here with private parts in 100% gang green. Arrrrrrr!

Recent acceptance:

• blossombones accepted two poems, So What If It's a Red Dress and Celebrating the Therapist for their Winter 2009 issue.

Submission sent: 15 October 2008
Reply date: 12 December 2008

Balls! Balls! Balls! —

Are you done shopping? Have you finished wrapping all the gifts you've bought? Have you taken a shower? Is it the fog or are the windows just dirty? Are you sure you have clean clothes to wear for the party? Is that the smell of Santa's beard burning in the open fire? Why are all these liquor bottles empty?

Have a merry dance through the ballsy holidays everyone!

Officially in working condition

2008-11-17T17:40:00.007+01:00

Or almost. Got back from LA last Friday night and have slowly gone through my stack of TPM subs. Yep, I'm the editor on duty again for the December 2008 issue of The Pedestal Magazine. On that note, I should like — hinthint — to receive more nonlinear, surreal, experimental poetry. You have until December 14 to send those puppies my way. I will know who hasn't been submitting. You will not receive a note from Santa. You have been warned.

Also, I've finally gotten myself into Goodreads. If anyone wants to link up, just hoot. I am, at the moment, friendless... but already armed with Freud. Hehe.

The Philly readings:

They actually went better than I feared. For one, we had fantastic supporters in the audience. For another, I had a fab time meeting so many poets/writers for the first time — people I've known over the internet casually for years and never dreamed I would one day see in the flesh. Plus, Valerie and I even managed to sell copies of Bundles!

The university readings were a bit harder because of the Q&A afterwards. Because of some pointed questions from the students, I realized that our Bundles book is full of criminal intentions — from crank callers to stalkers, from pirates to extortionists... and no one has bothered to notify the cops. Someone asked Valerie if she had a rough childhood, and I almost heard a sigh of disappointment when she said no. I was asked if I had personal dealings with stalkers or being in prison... whereupon I admitted openly that I just like stalkers and prisons — which ended the discussion right there and then.

Here we are, thanks to John V who came to Philly all the way from Minneapolis just to be with us. He took pictures (and video) of our last reading at Disque 109 in Drexel University. We had some mints, but no liquor.

Other Philly things:

On top of everything, I also had a great time in Philly because, apart from going museum-hopping with John V, I also found a playmate in Valerie's M. Isn't she adorable? She has great fondness for (1) Egyptian culture, (2) A's lingerie, (3) eyeballs on a toothbrush, and (4) butlers.

San Francisco in brief, snappy sentences:

Had clam chowder. Drank wine. Went to the Museum of Modern Art and Chinatown. Had six kinds of oysters. Drank wine. Fell in love with the Pier 39 seals. Had crab and lobster. Drank wine. Walked six blocks uphill to Lombard Street. Did some heavy breathing. Listened to my heart attack. Drank wine. Had cioppino. Had hangover. Spent the day in the California Academy of Sciences. Drank water. Had dinner with Meg Pokrass. Went to Sonoma Valley. Drank a lot of wine. Had little to eat. Watched the sister snore in the car on the way back. Had water. Devoured a burger (medium-rare).

Halloween in LA:

This is me. Really. I was one bad-ass ghost. I stood creepily behind the screen door and waited for the children. At some point, I had to remove the head covering because they were avoiding the house and my sister needed to get rid of the candies. The brave ones who approached me ran for their lives as soon as I handed over the sugar. Bwwwuaaaahaaaahaaaaaahaaaa!

Recent interview on Bundles:

Valerie and I were interviewed by Robert Watts about our Bundles book in ASK (The Journal of the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University).

If anyone's interested in a copy, it's already available at Amazon.com (just click and the link should take you directly there).

We are also offering discounted author copies, dedication included, for $12 — postage and handling (hehe) included in the price. Feel free to drop me or Valerie a line.

Recent acceptances:

• When The London Magazine wrote me, they mentioned strongly considering my poem, Agasthya-Tirtha Lake, Badami for their Anglo/Indian issue. On Halloween, they invited me to their November 14th issue launch... so, I take it that I did make it into their pages... right next to an SMB ad: for all your corporate and personal tax advice. Tickles!

This is one fancy print journal, too. And they're accepting e-mail submissions now. The only drawback is that they reply only to authors whose work they're accepting. It's worth a try though — I don't think they keep backlogs, and it's probably safe to assume that once their next issue is out (depending on which issue deadline you met) that your work hasn't been accepted. I used to send by post and this is my first encounter with them via e-mail. You do get a receipt when you send them work via e-mail — a day or two later.

     Submission sent: 25 August 2008
     Reply date: 14 October 2008

• Blackbox Manifold accepted three poems, Polish Dancer Prelude (one of the serial Chopin sonnets), The Local Physician Returns to the Ski Lodge and The 38th Secret Love Poem for their January 2009 issue.

BBM describes itself as an online forum with a slant towards innovative poetry that has prose, narrative, or sequences in its sights. That said, they seem to have very eclectic tastes — from experimental to narrative free verse to formal poetry.

     Submission sent: 18 August 2008
     Reply date: 15 October 2008

• Merge accepted three poems: Apple, At the Checkout, and Leak for their Fall/Winter 08/09 issue.

This is a gorgeous print and online journal — held up by deliciously eloquent poetry. You just know you wanna mate... I mean, MERGE with it.

     Submission sent: 18 July 2008
     Reply date: 16 November 2008

Recent publications:

• Issue 8.5 of Diagram is now up, which includes my poem, Shipwreck. Everyone's probably tired of hearing me say that this is one of my favorite 'zines, the better half of my brain, my pet x-ray of lung, my undying love for all things dead.

• The 7th issue of Parameter Magazine is also out. It is a UK-based print journal — with the contents, fiction, poetry and reviews saddle-stapled individually. A driving student conceptualizing rain as well as reasons for not writing poetry may be chanced upon at their website.

Philly schedule and general pre-departure update

2008-10-14T14:08:00.002+02:00

Had the funniest dream this morning. Full of poets. Actually, it freaked out. Or more precisely, Brenda Nixon Cook freaked me out... but that came later.

We were in a place that looked like somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest. It was a poetry reading. James Tipton had the floor — his poem was describing how he drove home to his farm one day and found the land, crops and all, traveling in the opposite direction. He suddenly realized that this was happening right then. To save his farm, he had us — Brenda, Ellaraine Lockie, CE Chaffin and me — removing the overgrown fronds around us. Being nervous about insects, I just held the garbage bag for everyone to put their "weeds" in. I freaked out initially when I saw a finger-long white slug on a leaf. I stopped holding the bag. Ellaraine and Brenda chided me for being afraid of such darlings (!) and started going through the trash. Suddenly, Brenda picked up two orange slugs and placed them on her chest. She was Barbie-doll naked. She wanted me to pat the giant slugs. They were cute, I admit — being carbon copies of those Lotsa Legs stuffed toys. Same creepily smiling faces, too. Then they started spitting slime, like llamas, like baseball players. Ewwww! I think they had to spit, otherwise, they would drown in they own saliva. Double ewwww. Brenda kept insisting they were adorable. She was inching towards me. I woke up squeaking like a trapped mouse. Squeak!

Talk about bizarre dreams!

A's schedule in Philadelphia:

• October 17, Friday afternoon: Talk with Miriam Kotzin's Readings in Poetry Class, Drexel University

• October 19, Sunday, 1300hrs: Reading with Leonard Gontarek at Robin's Bookstore

• October 21, Tuesday, 1900hrs: Reading with Valerie Fox at Green Line Cafe

• October 22, Wednesday, 1700hrs: Reading and Q&A with Valerie Fox at Kutztown University, DeFrancesco Building, Room 100

• October 23, Thursday, 1400hrs: Reading and Q&A at Drexel University, Disque 109

Recent interview/publication:

• NOO Journal is conducting a NOÖ Loves Everyone project. They are in the process of interviewing all their past contributors in an orderly manner, A-Z. I was tagged second.

• A wicked poem, Reasons for the Mass Destruction of Pigeons in Venice is up in the "Journaling the Apocalypse" issue of qarrtsiluni (October-November 2008). People with hearing aids will be able to detect the audio file as some kind of alien communication, not dangerous.

     Submission sent: 22 September 2008
     Reply date: 30 September 2008

Recent acceptances:

• Poet Lore accepted a poem fresh out of 30:30 called Pictures for their Spring/Summer 2009 issue.

     Submission mailed: 14 August 2008
     E-mail reply: 25 September 2008

This is one my favorite print journals. I continue to submit because Ms. Scrooge here has a vested interest in getting the one-year subscription that comes with the acceptance.

• THE SHOp accepted a poem, First Day Back — the first poem I wrote in 30:30 after a two-month hiatus.

     Submission mailed: 14 August 2008
     E-mail reply: 1 October 2008

• Octopus Beak Inc accepted three poems: Marcia's Best Friend, On Sitting in the Dark with the Wipers On and Eve is the New Gorilla Suit for their end-of-the-year Cool Season Edition.

     Submission sent: 30 September 2008
     Reply date: 9 October 2008

• And pfew! After relentless submissions to the Rattle editor, I've finally made it (again)! My poem, Tonsillitis has been scheduled to appear in their Summer 2009 issue.

     Submission sent: 27 June 2008
     Reply date: 11 October 2008

• Cricket Online Review, after a nice series of rejections, has accepted two poems: We stand the postal clerk and Mendel experiments for their next issue.

     Submission sent: 28 June 2008
     Reply date: 13 October 2008

Saving the best for last—

This little carrot just received word that she won the 2008 Juked Poetry Prize!

Her Royal Jukedness will receive a check for US$500 and inclusion of her poems, Anima Nera and Like Blue Light Inside the Man with a Missing Arm in the print issue #6. She may or may not be brought before the guillotine.

Zombie haiku

2008-09-21T14:08:00.004+02:00

John V tagged me ages ago to reveal six unspectacular things about myself.

1. I still sleep with a night light on. When the husband is away, I sleep with ALL the lights on.
2. I can't tread water. In two years of obligatory swimming class, I managed to learn the forward crawl, the backstroke, the breaststroke and the dolphin kick... but not how to stop myself from drowning.
3. I like to read literary fiction in the —erm— toilet.
4. I'm a Word Spy aficionado.
5. I have eaten rabbit and asked for a second serving.
6. From our island-hopping tour yesterday, I realize I prefer visiting ex-mental institutes, ex-leper colonies, etc to nature walks and mushroom-picking.

Terms & conditions!
1. link the person who tagged you: John V
2. mention the rules on your blog: (these are them)
3. list 6 unspectacular things about you: (see above)
4. tag 6 other bloggers by linking them: Maggie E, Nathan M, Valerie L, Sara, CE C and Cheryl C.

More good news than bad —

• The Bundles book is finally ready for order at Texture Press. Yay! I still haven't seen the physical copy, but Valerie says it's looking good. We were worried they wouldn't managed to center the spine text, but they did.

• One of my serial sonnets, Raindrop Prelude received Honorable Mention in the 2008 Biscuit International Poetry Prize. The prize money was £25 (+£5 for the exchange), but I opted for 4 poetry books from their catalog... the publisher mentioned he threw in an extra book by Maureen Almond and their audio CD of short stories. Any more thrilled than this and I'd be drunk and laughing off a building.

I was excited to see that Annie Bien, a 30:30 person herself, won the 3rd Prize. Woooohooo! Go send her flowers and hugs!

• Received three acceptance e-mails within a 24-hour period... which nicely balances my standing record of three rejections within a 24-hour period.

• Ever since I stopped drinking alcohol during the week, I haven't been able to drink much over the weekend. After the second half-glass of wine, I get warning bells that chime: Vomit Season! Vomit Season! in my mind. OH NO. This is SO wrong. As in, I have a day-trip to Napa Valley in November to think of for crying out loud.

• The season here has gone from summer to winter in one snap of the fingers. As an excuse to warm myself, I've purchased a nice bottle of Marzemino. Yuk yuk yuk!

• Started yoga class again this week (my 4th year at it). Tuesday and Thursday. I woke up Friday morning thinking I was paralyzed. Apparently, there are muscles around the ribs that could create pain. And our yoga instructors actually told us, "Because you're all rusty, let's start off nice and easy."

• Because we're leaving on November 2 for San Francisco, my sister called to say that she won't be hosting a Halloween party this year (sigh). However, she said that I can wear her genie costume and give candies to the children (oooooh). She also has a nun's habit, but that might be too scary for everyone. Hee.

Recent publications:

• My poem, Holding a bucket in one hand is up in juked (09.04.08).

• Two ticklish poems, Genesis and About Your Bucket may be found in the September issue of Defenestration — a neat 'zine to read when you're drunk or want to be but can't go to the supermarket because your camouflage outfit is still in the washer.

     Submission sent: 11 July 2008
     Reply date: 11 September 2008

• past simple has my three prose poems, with one title longer than the other, in their 5th issue. Audio recording included. Just discovered this neat 'zine with a bent for the experimental, the surreal, the plain-jane weird while hopping from one link to another. Went through the fab archives and just craved for more.

     Submission sent: 11 August 2008
     Reply date: 12 September 2008

• Rumble is primarily a micro-fiction magazine, but they do publish poetry! Which is why The Body At Rest can be found in their September 2008 issue.

     Submission sent: 13 August 2008
     Reply date: 12 September 2008

Recent acceptances:

• Other Poetry accepted my poem, A Photography Student Interrupts a Mosquito for an upcoming issue.

     Submission sent: 26 April 2008
     Reply date: 1 September 2008

They have a 3-4 months response time — they usually send a note within this time bracket to say whether or not any of your poems made it to the final round. Then a 2-4 weeks wait before they write back with good or bad news. It's a gorgeous print magazine — and a paying market to boot.

• Opium Magazine accepted a dictionary-type prose poem, pacifier (from Laslow’s Guide to Counteracting Bad Luck) for a future post.

     Submission sent: 2 March 2008
     Reply date: 7 September 2008

Oh dear, is this me they're talking about?

You Are Arson

No doubt about it, you have a serious destructive streak. You can't help it!
Sometimes you just get so frustrated with the world, and you have to let your aggression out.

You have a notoriously bad temper. You are obsessed with getting your revenge.
You are obviously a pyromaniac, whether you realize it or not. It feels great to watch something burn.

Tell me, what Felony are you?

Issue 5 of Press 1 now online

2008-09-01T13:15:00.002+02:00

It's barbecue time! The 5th issue of Press 1 is now officially live.

We celebrate the end of summer and the arrival of winter with the visual artistry of Héctor Pineda García; poetry by Jillian Bledsoe, Allan Peterson, Karin Randolph, Paul Siegell, Rina Terry, David Michael Wolach, and Changming Yuan; fiction by John Bruce, Kate Evans, and Nathan Leslie; plus an exclusive interview with Jayne Pupek.

Incidentally, this seems to be a Jayne Pupek day since Kate's review of her book, Tomato Girl (Algonquin Books, 2008) is also just up in Quarterly Conversation.

Jayne was lovely enough to send me a copy of Tomato Girl and I've gone bonkers over it ever since.

Stuff of which A's days are made of —

• Finished my 13th round in 30:30 without a hitch. Impressive. Valerie and I are doing collaboems for the first time and it's certainly more fun than writing alone.

• Have found a new love: writing fiction. This is really strange for me since I used to hate it... but now I wake up every morning thinking: "Now what would I have Mr Tickler or some other nut do today?"

• For some strange reason, I've stopped drinking alcohol during weekdays. It may or may not be because the husband has recently taken to cooking calf's liver for dinner. Hee. I've been waiting expectantly for my hands to shake, like in my poems, but so far have been disappointed.

• Migraine. Cured, in part, by vanilla ice cream.

• Obsession about calling ahead for a baked potato at Ponder Steakhouse in Ponder, Texas. Valerie's fault for mentioning it twice — once in a poem, and then in an old story we did together. I just connected the two dots and haven't been the same since. I still find it hard to believe that such a place really exists!

• Watching past seasons of Stargate Atlantis and Spooks. Am particularly tickled that MI5 (Spooks) uses the same Mac as I do. Makes me feel all 007 while I submit my poems and prepare the pages of Press 1.

• What else? I'm trying to enjoy the last 7 days of being a 33-year-old. Afterwards, I think I get to be prime roadkill material.

Recent acceptance:

• Identity Theory accepted five poems, (1) Bodie Ghost Town, (2) Something like a husband's death, (3) Close Your Eyes, (4) Goldfish, and (5) Extinction for their next issue.

Submission sent: 2 July 2008
Reply date: 28 August 2008

A's writing motto, or Please flush Robert Rehder from my head:

I am Rumpelstiltskin
And this is my stamp collection.

Oh my ears and whiskers...

2008-08-23T11:48:00.004+02:00

... how late it's getting! as the Rabbit would say.

A is officially not on vacation or sic (sic) leave. She's been in 30:30 — which is a kind of Wonderland where the words, DRINK ME lead to a lot of rabbit holes. Like pretending to be in India without rabbits. Like playing (with Valerie) at being an imaginary reviewer of an imaginary children's book called Bunny Steals a Pirate Ship. Like using rabbit's foot keychains to bring luck into several kitschy poems.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake —

• The Mad Hatter has disappeared with our Bundles ms and hasn't been heard of since. Good grief.

• On the other hand, Valerie has amazingly completed the schedule of our Bundles readings. Our appearances in Drexel University and Kutztown University have been solidified on paper. I've got a reading scheduled on October 19 with Leonard Gontarek at Robin's Bookstore and on October 21 with Valerie at Green Line Cafe, both in Philly. Will post our full schedule here before I leave in case anyone would like to come.

• The September 2008 issue of Press 1 has been prepared well ahead of time.

• At some point, my Stand 187 contract was signed and mailed back to the sender.

• Advanced birthday gifts were exchanged between the husband and myself: a fancy iPod for him; a cheap mouse, a 300GB hard drive and a laptop cooler for me and my long-suffering laptop, my so-called better half.

• My copy of Best of the Web 2008 finally arrived!! It's gorgeous — with really great writing from people whose works I admire: Benjamin Buchholz, Jared Carter, Valerie Loveland, Christopher Rizzo, etc. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover the writing of Carmen Gimenez Smith through her poem, So You Know Who We Are or rather the exciting dandruff in this poem — I've never seen such a sordid detail used so eloquently. Wooohoooooo!

Recent publications:

• Two poems, Alopecia and the grizzly bear and mortality: a study are up in Issue 17 (Summer 2008) of Arsenic Lobster. I'm particularly pleased by the amount and variety of animals in this issue — chickens, a star-nosed mole and potato eyes (which, after reading Joshua Diamond's poem, might as well be an animal).

• Discovered that my poem, Window Screen (plus mp3 recording) has been up for, quite possibly, ages in the Spring 2008 issue Pebble Lake Review.

• Have two poems, flashlight solo and The Model Particular in the Fall 2008 issue of Caffeine Destiny. Am really thrilled to be part of this terrific 'zine — one of my favorites — because I never thought I'd get into this issue. Fairy tale story below.

Is destiny or just Caffeine Destiny?

Once upon an August day, the editor of Caffeine Destiny wrote asking if she had recently accepted anything from Little Red Writing A because she had A's name on file for the Fall 2008 issue. A, being a meticulous kind of girl, checked her records and replied that what she had on file was a rejection, but was incidentally preparing another batch to send (she didn't know the 'zine was already closed to submissions until January 2009 — still giving herself a whack with the blunt edge of the axe for not rechecking the submissions page at the time). Instead of chocolates for her good record-keeping skills, the editor agreed to give A a chance to send over the batch before the month was out. The rest is happily ever after. With the peace broken intermittently by...

The funniest laugh ever:

While raiding Radiohead songs on YouTube, I stumbled upon this weirdness. I used to think my siblings had the funniest laugh, but this one just beats my family members to pulp. I'm so tickled pink.

Back from vegetable land

2008-07-31T22:26:00.003+02:00

With much thanks to the wake-up calls of Liz who said that Simming season is over and Sam who left this meme —

As an adult, the following selections have influenced or impacted me the most —

Book:
      Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

(It's actually a play, but I've never seen it. Peeked into the movie version, but I've always preferred how it's set up in my mind.)

Film / network series:
      The Pianist (2002), Roman Polanski, Dir.

Music / spoken word recording:
     In Ogni Senso and Tutte Storie by Eros Ramazzotti

(Heck, without this fella's lyrics, I've have never learnt Italian.)

The downdate on A:

• We're finally seeing the light on the Bundles mss!! Because the CafePress product wasn't very satisfactory, we've decided to find another printer. All I need now is to —erm— center the same image on the book cover. Equilibrium has never been my forte.

• Talking of equilibrium, I've spent this month on a trial go at attending yoga class twice a week. I seem to be able to handle the pain and have decided to continue in September when the school re-opens. I still fall asleep (and dream weird things) every 5 breaths during the meditation... but not even Buddha grew his paunch in three years.

• Don't think I mentioned having already gotten my e-tickets for Philly and LA this October/November. I've actually got some readings scheduled with Valerie and Leonard. Yikes! The sister and I will probably head for San Francisco for a few days, too — it's the reason I'm forcing myself to play Big City Adventure and take note of places that seem interesting to visit.

• I'm tickled pink by The Middleman.

• I thought today was August 1. The back-to-30:30 day. I woke up early (1100 hrs). I wrote a god-awful poem and since then have breathed in fear of tomorrow.

Recent publications:

• The Best of the Web 2008 anthology is out! Valerie Loveland mentioned she's got work in it, too — yay! Can't wait to get my copy. I'm still in the dark. They were supposed to use my poem, Possessions... but according to this Time Out Chicago review, they opted for Ceremonial Spoon instead.

• My poems, Addiction and The Official Miss de Bourgh Letter to Stalkers, plus Valerie's Eros in the Cafe, Annotating His Non-Illustrated Dream Book are up in the avant-garde first issue of CEllA's Round Trip.

• Am back in my gorilla suit in Juked.

They're a bit sluggish with replies, but if you query (as I did) you get a reply soonish!

     Submission sent: 9 March 2008
     Reply date: 6 July 2008

• Received my copy of THE SHOp — it's gorgeous!! And the €20 inserted between the pages allowed me to feed the husband a balanced diet of meat and veggie for a total of three days.

A quick look at their website indicates that they're currently looking for more poems on "war, terrorism, torture, child abuse slavery, denial of women's rights, political corruption." They accept submissions only via postal mail, but they do reply via e-mail.

Other acceptances:

• Arsenic Lobster accepted two poems, Alopecia and the grizzly bear and mortality: a study for their August 2008 issue.

     Submission sent: 16 April 2008
     Reply date: 10 July 2008

• Wheelhouse Magazine accepted three poems, Rearview, The Gorilla Suit Admires Itself in the Mirror and Poetry Reading at Y's Penthouse for their 6th issue.

     Submission posted: 10 March 2008
     Reply received: 17 July 2008

• DMQ Review accepted an oldish poem, Like closed eyes for their Autumn 2008 issue.

     Submission posted: 27 June 2008
     Reply received: 28 July 2008

Gone Simming

2008-06-25T15:08:00.002+02:00

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

15 days of hell

2008-05-25T22:42:00.005+02:00

Not to mention crap. Have dragged my sorry ass back to 30:30. It's one of those rounds where every poem is a just placeholder since three-fourths of my brain is either raiding the playfirst site (again) or youtubing senselessly.

Have been very good today though: (a) went through the Press 1 subs and sent my "votes" to the PA gang, (b) after more than a month, remembered to call my sister, (c) submitted some poems around, and (d) hey, am actually blogging now.

The Bundles manuscript is still undergoing corrections and edits. The compound nouns are driving Valerie and me rather crazy. It's a learning experience though. Like coalmine (not coal mine) and bunk bed (not bunkbed).

First ever interview (in English):

Susan Smith Nash's interview with A is up at E-learning Queen. Yikes. Only goes to show that in this world, not only vampires get interviewed.

Recent print publications:

• Received my copy of Orbis #143 — which includes two sonnenizios, Airborne (on a line from Ros Barber) and Breakage (on a line from Jean Cassou).

This issue also has poetry by familiar names such as Neil Campbell, Alison Chisholm, Sarah Law, David Lawrence and Todd Swift — along with book and magazine reviews.

• My copy of Seam #28 also arrived. Have two poems also in this issue, The Plagiarist and Outdoors.

It is 73 pages, flat-spined, with a two-color card cover. Was really excited to read the poems of fellow bloggers, James Midgley and Rob Mackenzie.

Recent acceptances:

• CEllA's Round Trip, a spankin' new 'zine accepted two poems, Addiction and The Official Miss de Bourgh Letter to Stalkers for their first issue (Spring 2008).

Much thanks go to Sean Lovelace (author of the ultimate drinking poem, So, This Is Drink) for introducing me to this terrific-looking journal. On a hunch, I also sent Valerie's stuff to the editor and was doubly thrilled when they also accepted her Eros in the Cafe, Annotating His Non-Illustrated Dream Book, one of my favorites in the Bundles manuscript. So excited about this!

OH. YES. Now I remember. The lovely editor called me Angela twice in her acceptance letter. Later, she admitted she didn't know what made her type that when she actually knew my name was Arlene. ***Twilight Zone theme song playing in the background here***

     Submission sent: 30 April 2008
     Reply date: 12 May 2008

• After years of trying, was overjoyed to receive my second acceptance note from DIAGRAM. Wheeeeee!

They accepted my longish poem, Shipwreck — the one based on this dream I had about entering a submarine and looking at all the dead people. It was eerie, to say the least.

     Submission sent: 12 April 2008
     Reply date: 14 May 2008

• Thieves Jargon, another cool 'zine, accepted an oldish poem, Another RC Flyer Off Course for a future issue.

     Submission sent: 5 May 2008
     Reply date: 25 May 2008

[oops, editing to add this bit 26.05.08]

• Dirty Napkin sent me a third acceptance e-mail for my poem, Relic. On receiving their first two e-mails and seeing that they've removed my submission from their database, I thought this went into the rejection box — but it seems that they reply to each work individually. It might be a good idea to keep that in mind when submitting to them.

They made me do a recording for this, too. They gave me a third excuse for drinking myself hoarse in front of the microphone. To give more depth to my reading, I wore a party hat. In private.

     Submission sent: 14 March 2008
     Reply date: 16 May 2008

[Existential question for the day: If you're not drunk, what's going to happen to you?]

A's Official 30:30 Song:

Was going through an REM phase when I came across this video at YouTube. Tickled me silly. That furry yellow monster at the back is a creepy incarnation of my brain — which goes (same intonation, same whine percentage), I AM SO SAD! as soon as it sees me settle down to write my daily poem. Come to think of it, these monsters look every bit like my little gray cells... at Carnival time. They make the same happy/sobbing noises in Dolby Surround in my head.

Hope this video brings a smile to someone's day. C'mon, monsters! You don't have to cry, we can be happy! YEAH! Teehee.

New issues of The Pedestal Magazine and Press 1

2008-05-08T10:40:00.003+02:00

Am clapping-my-hands-happy to announce that the 21 April 2008 issue of The Pedestal Magazine is finally up.

It's quite late, I know — we've had to struggle to get it out because the site was hacked, declared DOA, resurrected... and on the third day, as in Jesus H. Kerist, was dead again. Am relieved to say that the current reincarnation of TPM is looking as blue-violet as ever and not the least bit zombified.

The new issue features fabulous work by Elizabeth Bruno, Anne Agnes Colwell, Michelle Kyoko Crowson, William Doreski, Stewart Florsheim, Matthew Gavin Frank, James Grabill, Sarah Law, James Midgley, Tayve Neese, Gailmarie Pahmeier, David A. Pitcher, Frances Ruiz, Hannah Silva, and Joshua Michael Stewart.

Secondly, the May 2008 issue of Press 1 is also up — featuring the fantastic photography of Metin Demiralay, with exciting poetry by L. Ward Abel, CL Bledsoe, Barry Denny, John Grey, Sarah Kolbasowski, David Mills, Susan Smith Nash, Maurice Oliver, Tom Savage, Melissa Shook, and Davide Trame.

With my mental grasp of arithmetic, I think that after putting together two issues I'm supposed to celebrate with two bottles of wine and drink both simultaneously from my pint-size beer glass until it (the glass) appears to double before my eyes. Hee.

Recent publications:

• A poem, Laguna Palace, Mestre is up in the Winter 2008 issue of Convergence. Was thrilled to see that Davide has a got a poem in this issue, too. Yay!

• Another poem, Time with Frieda is up in the 3rd issue of 34th Parallel, plus two photos of (ewwww!) A (though am rather fond of this one, photography-wise).

Recent acceptance:

• Iodine Poetry Journal, an NC-based print journal, accepted my (hehe) lascivious Petrarchan sonnet, Artichoke for their Fall/Winter 2008/2009 issue. All this iodine reminds me of that time my sis passed out in the bathroom and woke up with an apple-sized bruise (sans skin) on her knee — a sure warning against over-imbibing... but after two bottles — of wine, of iodine — who's keeping tabs?

Anyway, overseas writers may send submissions via e-mail — which is always a treat. They have really good response times, too. Very nice professional manners.

Submission sent: 18 March 2008
Reply date: 30 April 2008

Talking of Petrarchan sonnets —

This little bunny lasted five days in 30:30 while attempting to write 24 Petrarchan sonnets based on Chopin's Preludes. After the 5th sonnet, the whole idea began to reek of serial murder... and I just had to re-install Civ 4 in my laptop so that I could go on a killing rampage. Ooooh, bliss.

Swatting at swarms of bees

2008-04-18T13:06:00.004+02:00

Just when I thought this month would be spent in leisure, things change. For one, have finally decided to concretize my October visit to the US — will spend some time with the sister in CA (drinking in Napa Valley at the topmost of our to-do list) and some time with Valerie in PA to promote our book (she mentioned bar readings being more fun since we could drink). There's some kind of single-mindedness about this trip, but I can't put my finger on it while holding an empty glass.

The bees that A has been killing lately —

• Finalized Bundles book cover. Ain't it gorgeous?!! The painting, Kindred Spirits is used with the kind permission of Pamela Hill/dzaet. The mss, on the other hand, is still in the process of preparation — the 8 x 5 page size rather messed up with our longish lines, so we're editing a bit to give the aesthetics more bite. Who said men are the only ones who've got length problems?

• Spent an evening, drink in hand, recording two poems for Dirty Napkin (see below).

• Answered interview questions for E-Learning Queen in an orderly and concise manner that shouldn't betray the percentage of alcohol in my blood.

• Exercised the right to vote for the first time in my life and as Italian citizen. Yay!

• Finally updated my site, Valerie's and Leonard's.

• E-mailed around to request permission from people whose works I quoted in my other book (see below again).

• Buzzed noisily around TPM April 2008 issue and Press 1 May 2008 issue.

• And before all the bees broke loose, finished modding Guild 2 to suit my evil deeds — like beguiling the opposite sex so they vote for me in elections or not going to prison after murdering someone in cold blood.

Recent acceptances:

• Cinnamon Press accepted my book-length manuscript, Seeing Birds in Church is a Kind of Adieu. Wheeeeee!

After accepting my poems for Envoi, the editor hinted that she'd like to look at a full-length manuscript for possible publication under Cinnamon Press. It was really good timing because I had the ex-Lean Season mss in my Outbox just waiting for revision and for me to decide where to send it.

Publication date is scheduled for March 2010. Hee. Just thinking about it gives me Alzheimer's. But it does leave me ample time to track down people whose work I've quoted in the book... people like Robert Frost and Tolkien who —erm— happen to be dead, but whose estate might want us to pay a fee for the usage. Good grief. This rather cures me of wanting to quote anyone dead or famous in my poems ever again.

However, the husband put it another way to me: Since we will be selling the book, and theoretically, aiming to earn from the sales, it seems only ethically correct to pay for the usage of someone else's line on the basis that we are getting leverage from it and the famous person's name. Kind of sounds better and more logical in Italian, but there it is.

     Manuscript e-mailed: 4 March 2008
     Reply date: 31 March 2008

• Dirty Napkin accepted two poems, The 37th Secret Love Poem and (hehe) This dirty napkin for their Summer issue, due out on 21 June 2008.

Really adore this 'zine — very nice professional manners and terrific poetry. They've also got a cool online submission system where you can track your work and also withdraw them (if needed). On acceptance, they request a recording of your work — if you're not equipped, they'll do it with you over the phone.

     Submission sent: 14 March 2008
     Reply date: 14 April 2008

Recent publications:

• Have three poems — Self-Portrait with Umbrella, A Warning about Attachments and Wu Jin Contemplates the Tattoo on a Soft Cheek — in the third issue of Mascara.

• My copies (2) of Georgetown Review arrived this morning. Because the FedEx guy woke me up, at first I thought I was dreaming. They accepted my work two years ago, after all.

One of my poems, The 4th Secret Love Poem may be read online. I can't believe they've got my name wrong on the webpage after getting it right four times in the print journal. It's like a rock waiting to fall. Some days ago a TPM contributor addressed me as Dear Ariene. I tell you, it's a conspiracy. Either that or my name's a finger-twister for typists.

Recently received:

• Craig Kirchner's Roomful of Navels. Wrote one of the blurbs at the back, so I'm rather biased about loving this book. Sample poems in this terrific collection may be found at Lily, Mannequin Envy, No Tell Motel and SNR Review.

Writing poetry may be hazardous to your health

2008-03-31T18:37:00.004+02:00

It's been proven, according to this Guardian article by Marc Abrahams (courtesy of the Normalcy Count Department who shared the good news to her fellow 30:30ers).

It's one of the reasons I was so freakin' happy to finish my 11th round in 30:30 yesterday.

Am taking a break now for a week or two because (1) primal energies need to focus on selecting poems for the April TPM, (2) Press 1 requires all four eyes to get its ass into HTML, (3) I have video games to play [stated in the tone of I have mouths to feed] and (4) it seems a good idea to live longer... if only for the simple pleasure of watching my face — in the mirror, in the toilet bowl, in the dentist's eyes — turn green with drink.

Recent publications:

• Just got word that Carousel 22 is "f-i-n-a-l-l-y competed [sic] and in-hand and will be appearing in stores starting this week!" Hee. Couldn't resist quoting that. I get all ticklish when it comes to typos and grammatical errors as long as they aren't mine.

Anyway, this is one stunning print journal — with no-holds-barred full-color cover and pages. The poetry, fiction and artwork are delish, too. Very eclectic tastes — they seem to like mainstream and experimental in equal parts.

• My poem, twenty-four : sawdust is now up in Sidebrow. There's only one smiley for that —>

Recently received:

• PN Review 180. Yep, in a moment of weakness, I actually subscribed. It's a UK-based print journal, A4-sized and flat-spined, which publishes poetry, reports, reviews and articles in more or less equal portions. I was particularly bowled over by Robin Maconie's article, The Way of Music: Aural Training for the Internet Generation. It's ticklish, weird, thought-provoking and... well, it's got a dog in it. Here's an excerpt:

From Book Two: Walking the Dog

1
A dog barks: Woof! Woof!
When a dog barks, there are usually two parts, a Bow and a Wow. A repeated action such as this is a basic indicator that the source of the sound is a living creature and not a random natural event. Here is a proverb: 'A tree falls only once.' Some natural sounds repeat, like a bouncing table-tennis ball or a dripping faucet. In that event we hear the sounds not as a random event, but as an organised process.

4
If you can hear it, then you can hear.
The world of sound is a picture in constant renewal. Sounds come and go. Our eyes tell us that the environment stays in place and is always complete; but for those who cannot see, the real world is a constantly-changing mosaic of momentary impressions. The more dependent we are on the sense of hearing, the more appreciative we are of what we hear.

5
In a bark, a dog exists.
In identifying a disturbance as a dog barking, the listener in effect 'calls the dog into existence'. The notion of a revealed reality is the underlying meaning of the bible creation myth.

• Sogyal Rinpoche's The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I'm still in the initial pages — it arrived last Saturday — but I'm loving it. I rather wish I'd read it before my parents passed away because, apart from teaching one how to understand death, it also gives advice on how to help/accompany the dying in the passage between life and death.

Thank you for this book, Liz!!

And more importantly [hee], thanks to the Amazon.com box, I've finally kicked away my old-sneakers-faux-nightstand. Due to the weight of my books, they've gotten all squashed and unbalanced, and it was more difficult by the night to keep everything from sliding to the filthy floor. I was seriously thinking about putting some back to their shelves. However, with Liz's box, I now get to clear the matrimonial bed and pile up to 30 books nightly in the box in less than a minute — which means less time spent watching the husband at the corner of my eyes roll his eyes and make lurid signs that have to do with one foot tapping.

HAPPY EASTER!!

2008-03-23T11:54:00.009+01:00

Hope everyone has a great time today. Because of an outbreak of flu in my sis-in-law's family and a morbid fear of contagion from the husband's parents, we've decided to skip celebrating Easter this year. Instead we'll be spending some time with friends in the country for Easterette (the day after Easter) — which is still a holiday... probably based on the Italian tradition to stuff oneself so much with food and drink that one requires a whole day-after to recover from one's excesses.

After catching up on my sleeping yesterday, my right tonsil has returned to its normal size. Like any day laborer, it goes on strike when it works overtime. It particularly favors acting up during festivities — to provoke the worst bother possible. Nasty bit of goods.

A couple of Easter quizzes:

What does your
Chocolate Easter Bunny Eating Habits
say about you?

My Easter Bunny Personality

You are friendly, optimistic, and kind hearted.
You don't have a harsh word for anyone. [You reserve that for your body parts.]

You cheerfully live your life with little complaining or suffering.
You are creative and artistic. You live in your own inner world.

You live your life freely, without guilt or restrictions.
And you would never feel bad about eating too much chocolate!

And where there's the Easter Bunny, there's also Liquor Sunday!!

What Alcoholic Drink Are You?

I am Whiskey
You're a tough drinker, and you take it like a man.
That means no girly drinks for you - even if you are a girl.
You prefer a cold, hard drink at the end of the day.
Every day, in fact. And make that a few.

Recent whatabouts of A — for the curious

2008-03-19T14:01:00.010+01:00

Apart from doing a schizophrenic marathon called 30:30 and my TPM/Press 1 duties, I am also guilty of such oddities:

• The mercy-killing (through viral infection) and eventual resuscitation of my laptop. Because it got rid of programs and files I wanted to get rid off but didn't have the heart to remove.

• On my way to yoga class, I allowed myself to be picked up by a strange man, and later, gave him a full-body massage. Teehee.

It's actually a lot less interesting than that, but it's way too ticklish not to write about in public. The guy's actually someone I know (not biblically, sorry to disappoint) in yoga class. The ayurveda massage was part of the yoga class — which involved a lot of kicking on the fella's arms and legs, who took it lying down. All very boring. Of course, afterwards I made it a point to ask how it was for him.

• Have discovered a new use for old sneakers: When positioned correctly, they act as a second night stand and can safely balance up to 20 poetry books. When performed every night for three years in order to allow bed space for a spouse, it may actually lead to enlightenment.

• Yoganidrasana, or the Yogic Sleep Pose (see pic below) seems to be part of my default setup. The keyword no doubt is sleep. Program anything with the word "sleep" in it and my body will see it to completion.

• Revised a collection of 70 poems in one day. Tentative title moved from Lean Season to Seeing Birds in Church is a Kind of Adieu. Probably the result of reading too much spam mail that say I've got length problems.

• Took pictures of myself as requested by the 34th Parallel editors. Nothing topless — sorry to disappoint again. And even if, you'd still need a magnifying lens to see what I've got... only on a cloudy day, too — or you'd end up with stuff that look like dead ants.

Recent acceptances:

• Was thrilled to receive an acceptance note from Envoi that they're accepting three poems: Fallen, Glass and Hush for Issue 150.

This is one of the most gorgeous print journals I've ever had the pleasure of stroking... uh, I meant reading. If you non-aliens out there send stuff now, we can be in the same issue together — the response time remains quick and easy.

Submission sent: 4 March 2008
Reply date: 11 March 2008

• Also received an acceptance form letter from the 34th Parallel editors who are interested in publishing my poem, Time with Frieda in their next issue.

Submission sent: 12 February 2008
Reply date: 16 March 2008

My multiple selves are currently on their hands and knees for —

Ilya Kaminsky's Dancing in Odessa. This is such a gorgeous collection — one of those books that make you stare at the ceiling all night thinking if there's a god, there's my god.

Here's an excerpt from his longish poem, Praise:

A woman asks at night for a story with a happy ending.
I have none. A refugee,

I go home and become a ghost
searching houses I lived in. They say —

the father of my father of his father of his father was a prince
who married a Jewish girl

against the Church's will and his father's will and
the father of this father. Losing all,

eager to lose: the estate, ships,
hiding this ring (his wedding ring), a ring

my father handed to my brother, then took. Handed,
then took, hastily. In a family album

we sit like the mannequins
of school children

whose destruction,
like a lecture is postponed.

Then my mother begins to dance, re-arranging
this dream. Her love

is difficult; loving her is simple as putting raspberries
in my mouth.

On my brother's head: not a single
gray hair, he is singing to his twelve-month-old son.

And my father is singing
to his six-year-old silence.

This is how we live on earth, a flock of sparrows.
The darkness, a magician, finds quarters

behind our ears. We don't know what life is,
who makes it, the reality is thick

with longing. We put it up to our lips
and drink.

7 Going to Day 8

2008-03-08T13:09:00.002+01:00

Only 21 more poems/days to go through.

I'd be having more fun in 30:30 if it weren't for the need to come up with a poem daily — which is getting more morbid by the hour. I've always had an unhealthy interest in death, but something tells me I'm way past that. Catching up on Pushing Daisies every day doesn't help either. It tickles really well though.

Anyway, the whole girl wagon is there: Annie, Brenda, Liz, Sarah, Sharon... and guess what the squid inked in: Mary-Nicole!! Depending on the kind of nuts you eat and/or the quality of your weed, we're either the Seven Virtues or the Seven Deadly Sins. Maybe 50/50 of the Seven-Year-Itch.

Recent and not-so-recent publications:

• My copy of Painted Bride Quarterly has arrived!! I'm a pirate! I'm a pirate! More on that in a while.

• Am so bunny-thrilled to announce that the ticklish story Valerie and I wrote ages ago, I have names for the ways they twitch their ears: The story of one man's flight from his wife's rabbits is now up in the March 2008 issue of Admit2.

This is actually a kind of continuation of our first published story in Edifice Wrecked, Nature Hates a Vacuum. Have gotten Richard-obsessed after that.

• Ooops, kept forgetting to note that I've got three poems in the January 2008 issue of SUB-LIT: So What If You Love Your Migraine Like a Second Coming, Eve and A Night in the Suburbs (a Richard poem).

Various links which might or might not be of interest:

• I was asked to help spread the word about KUDOS, a newsletter run by Carole Baldock (editor of Orbis) which publishes "current UK writing competitions plus an increasing number of Overseas contests. Also includes news items and information about markets, outlets and opportunities for all kinds of writing."

• If you're having trouble sticking to 30 poems for 30 days, APW Project may be your thing! The deal here is to write 100 poems within 365 days — you're allowed to play hooky for a few days. After that... I think it's in John's default setup to let you have it. Hee.

• If you like writing prompts, you might like to subscribe to the Red Morning Press newsletter. This free newsletter is bi-weekly and states — get this: "If this newsletter doesn't inspire you to become a better writer after twelve months, then I'll send you a free copy of any book from Red Morning Press' catalog."

• And a small note about Blueline forum — because that's where I've declared an all-out war against spammers. Registration is possible only by means of a code word requested from either me or HA. It's a really neat phpBB mod... and 100% spam proof. I'm feeling particularly smug about the secret handshake. Here's to me and HA not receiving any more fake user registrations.

Currently enjoying:

• Jonah Winter's Amnesia. First discovered his mind-blowing poetry in Tarpaulin Sky and just love it. Here's a favorite excerpt from his longish poem, Postcards from Paradise:

I remember being alone
like an ocean, each day
a wave, greenish-gray,
each night black with fish
and flotsam
from other people's lives.

• Jayne Pupek's Forms of Intercession. Have actually read this before it went to the press, but getting the real thing and re-reading it still gives me the thrills. It's a spanking good debut collection of poetry. There's a wonderful review by LouAnn Shepard Muhm at Jayne's blog.

• Andrea Barrett's Ship Fever. This is an amazing short story collection — I just love how she weaves science and history into her stories. It's pure magic.

A special thank-you-you-made-my-week goes out to Valerie for sending me this surprise package.

• Anne Carson's Decreation. I'm a huge fan of anything she writes and would probably kill termites for her fridge notes, so I'm heavily biased already. Here's one of the essays included in the book: How Women Like Sappho, Marguerite Porete, and Simone Weil Tell God.

• Painted Bride Quarterly — the Print Annual 4 — is getting dirtier by the minute in my hands. The black-and-white photo cover is a riot... the front shows a classroom half-filled with bored-looking old geezers. I turned it around, and saw [gaaawk!] a totally naked woman at the back, apparently in the same room with them because it's got one old geezer there, too. It's a picture that simply babbles a million interpretations. Teehee.

Anyway, it's a HUGE book. Really thick. As in, if I throw it between the eyes of a burglar — ski-mask or none — it's the kind of book that kills on contact. That's the kind of book it is.

Here's a delicious excerpt from the Pirate issue (#78) — The Poem that Fell from Grace with the Sea by Donald Dunbar:

... the salt wind anchors
in my throat and the peach lights
above the sidewalks moan as we leave the bar,
hum, I mean, like the day janitor
tomorrow who'll mop the drinks
you've spilled; who'll nuzzle the lipstick
you've smeared all over the payphone.

I want...

2008-02-28T20:02:00.003+01:00

... to do everything. Instead, I do nothing.

Normandy said it, not me — but it nicely sums up what I've been up to these past few weeks.

However, I'm cleaning up my act. Because (1) The Pedestal Magazine has just reopened its doors to submissions and I'm the editor on duty, (2) have re-scheduled myself to return to 30:30 tomorrow, (3) a rumor's been flying around that I've been abducted by aliens [i.e. myself and more of myself] and (4) there's something not quite healthy about watching all 13 episodes of Touching Evil in a single day — in bed, with popcorn.

Recent acceptances:

Mascara Poetry accepted three poems, Self-Portrait with Umbrella, A Warning about Attachments, Wu Jin Contemplates the Tattoo on a Soft Cheek for publication in their 3rd issue.

This is a neat journal with very eclectic tastes. While they're particularly drawn to the work of contemporary Australasian and Indigenous poets, they also consider works typed in English from other carbon-based lifeforms. And hey, they've just become a paying market (Aussie dollars). Check 'em out.

     Submission sent: 7 November 2007
     Reply date: 15 February 2008

• Chiron Review accepted three poems, Driving Home, Snow Globe and Sunday Morning Mass for a future issue. According to my —erm— Poet's Market 2000, it is "a quarterly tabloid using photographs of featured writers" (why am I suddenly thinking of the Rocky Horror Picture Show?) with a print run of "about 1000".

They accept e-mails submissions only from overseas writers.

     Submission sent: 15 February 2008
     Reply date: 25 February 2008

Recent publications:

• Have three poems, Black Tar Girl, Night, with Owls on Witch Trees and Commute under L. Ward Abel, who is the Featured Poet for February 2008 in Contemporary American Voices. So thrilled to be sharing space with Collin Kelley and Beverly Jackson!

• Was delighted to receive three copies of the Fall 2007 issue (Volume 3.2) of Marginalia and find Carol Frith, Paul Sohar and Dana Sonnenschein — whose works I came across and loved while doing TPM duty. This is one gorgeous magazine: flat-spined, full-color glossy card cover with around 160 pages of poetry, fiction and art. A tiny, tiny prose poem, My SimCity Llama Has a Cold makes its debut sneezes on page 15.

• While Valerie and I were preparing the final draft of our Bundles mss for Texture Press, I summed up enough courage to query about the publication of my poem, further adventures into private parts in Painted Bride Quarterly — I signed the contract two years ago, didn't hear about their Pirates issue anymore, and didn't know what to write under the Acknowledgments page (finally opted to pull it out of the mss).

Anyway, I asked and found out that their print annual is just hot off the press and heading my way as soon as I provide them with a "brick/mortar" address. I know. I'm a woman of little faith.

Talking of faith —

There's a... **whispering** ... priest who's been after me since my mom's funeral. He got my e-mail address. He is concerned about the salvation of my soul. He wants me to confess my sins. To him.

All my nightmares about stalkers and Satan have come true.

It's the Year of the Rat!

2008-02-07T08:53:00.001+01:00

Here's to wishing everyone a wonderful Lunar Year ahead — with lots of great surprises, charm and luck.

Sliding slowly back to normality:

Got back last Saturday. Didn't really feel much like blogging or doing social work (what I've come to call my mailbox and phone book). Not really sad or even brooding, just all very Mark Ehling's I Seem to be Dead Inside.

My mom passed away on January 11th.

She was practically only waiting for me. When she heard that I'd already arrived, she stopped eating and just let go. It was, I think, a good death. We had some nuns come over who "lifted her to the light" with their prayers and mass songs while she was dying. It was agonizing to watch her slow slide into death, but we (including my mom) agreed that death was preferable to the pain which had become excruciating and almost impossible to manage in the last few weeks.

Here we were clowning around a few hours before my wedding (2001).

She was buried — wearing that dress in the photo — on the 17th after a 6-day wake. I was practically living (and sleeping) at the funeral parlor since my brother and his wife had to go home at night to be with their kids. My job was to entertain the guests during the day because tradition makes them expect to be entertained, offered food and drink, etc. Rather draining. Afterwards, we all decided NOT to have a wake once we're dead. Just cremation within 24-hours. Spare our loved ones, puh-lease.

Finally attended yoga class again last Tuesday. And glad I did. It gave me a bit of pep — enough to go back to blogging, answering my e-mail and limit my daily staple of PC games. Eventually, I'll get back to writing and submitting — haven't done either in like two months.

Not-so-recent acceptance:

Parameter Magazine, a UK-based print journal accepted three poems, A Driving Student Conceptualizes Rain, My Gorilla Suit Was Outfitted With Two-Thousand Christmas Lights and Luckily, Near Memphis in a future issue (probably issue 7) due out in Fall 2008.

Submission sent: 25 September 2007
Reply date: 15 January 2008

Recent publications:

• My poem, Agoraphobia is in the January 2008 issue of The Chimaera. It's kind of creepy how it foresaw my mom's death prior to it happening.

• Have got a kinky poem, Please Meet My Breasts in Issue 45 of Rising — a UK-based print journal edited by Tim Wells, who was so kind as to invite me to send work. Fellow blogger, Rob's got stuff here, too entitled Hangover Hotel. A poem after my own heart. Hee.

• With much gratitude to the same Tim Wells who submitted on my behalf, have also got my Driving Instructor’s First Gastrointestinal Cramp finding its page in Pen Pusher (#8) — a terrific flat-spined, UK-based print journal.

So, what else is new —

A decided to bring home some fresh kefir grains again. In a sealed plastic container. Saran-wrapped. In her checked-in luggage.

NEVER AGAIN.

A has learned her lesson. A hasn't yet finished hand-washing her soiled underwear. A hasn't yet scrubbed down the interior of her luggage in the shower like a dog. But she knows. No more traveling with kefir or other micro-organisms. The husband has put his foot down — on the stench in the hallway, on the kefir in his duty-free cigarettes.

3rd issue of Press 1

2008-01-08T22:20:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to announce that the 3rd issue of Press 1 is now officially up and running — with fantabulous poetry and prose by Ruth Altmann, CL Bledsoe, Michaela Gabriel, Louisa Howerow, Miriam Kotzin, Jayne Pupek, Renato Rosaldo, Paul Siegell, J Michael Wahlgren and Tim Wells. The stunning surreal visuals are provided by Paul Bleiweis.

Departure time again:

Am leaving in a few hours to go home again. My mom's been having a lot of breakthrough-pain days and keeps asking for me. She wants to discuss her funeral. It's creepy and distressing, yet surreally mundane. She has already chosen what to wear. WOMEN, huh?

Not sure when I'll return to Italy. This will probably be my last post for January. When I get back, I always get stuck with the night shift... which doesn't necessarily mean I can sleep during the day since there's some kind of crisis every day — like that time when my sis-in-law locked the gate keys in the bedroom and couldn't let her husband (my brother) in, or when my mom gets her breakthrough pains and someone has to run to the pharmacist. In-between I play hide-and-seek with Niece #1... she's absolutely tireless, unlike my aging pooches.

A ten-wheeler load of hugs and thanks to everyone who have offered prayers and support. You are the GREATEST!!

A kind of rest cure, with major update

2007-12-30T11:49:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.

Am back in Spinea and taking my herbal meds like the good ol' goat that I am, plus some homeopathic thingees for my pustule-eyed tonsils (yes, they've got eyes!) Had decided to come home for a week before things get any worse — as in abscessive and/or gangreenish.

At any rate, have already infected majority of the people in the house (pooch included — unbelievable, but true!) and figured it was time to spread what I've come to call the Amsterdam virus in Italy. Hee. When I went away Niece #1 still had a fever and one of the caregivers called in sick.

The four weeks I had been in Manila were quite hectic and nerve-wracking:

Week 1 had me in bed with tonsillitis. My mom was still doing fine.

Week 2 was spent in the hospital where we had to admit my mom — she started vomiting nonstop due to one of the NSAIDs (painkillers) she was taking. It was a good thing we decided to because she started throwing up blood in the ambulance.

Week 3 had us dialing again for the ambulance at 2AM because she had fever convulsions for over an hour. By the time, the paramedics arrived her fever had broken and so my mom preferred to stay at home despite their insistence in taking her to the hospital for some tests. This week she started losing hand and leg function, too. The family doctor told us to prepare ourselves spiritually because it's the body slowly shutting itself down.

Week 4, my mom had some terrible "breakthrough pains" — a particularly bad one on Christmas day — and we were in such a panic because we couldn't contact the pain management doc. The husband always says that we idealize hell so much that we don't realize we're actually living in IT. After helplessly watching my mom scream and weep from the pain, I know this to be true.

Just to end on a positive note, my mom was pretty stable when I left home — we've upped her opiate intake and dermal patch. As long as she's not in pain, she's quite loquacious and has a good appetite — which means a world of difference when you've got stage IV breast cancer. When I say, "Ice cream?" she gives me the toothiest smile that has ever brightened any room.

Recent acceptances:

More for my records than anything. The theory is if it's on my blog, I won't lose track of it or start a fire with it.

• Carousel, a flat-spined Canadian print journal accepted an old-ish poem, Counterglow for their 23rd issue, due sometime out in 2008.

They accept hard-copy (no charge) and e-mail (with payment) submissions — but they respond via e-mail. Response times are rather long, but worth it, I think. They reply to rejections sooner — with a request to keep a poem or two longer for consideration. Very professional manners.

     Submission mailed: 29 June 2007
     E-mail reply (return of work): 12 October 2007
     E-mail acceptance: 7 December 2007

• Eclectica accepted my poems, Drying the Neighbor's Dog (word poem), Ladder and Afternoon Stroll for their Jan/Feb 2008 issue. It will mark my 14th appearance there. Their word poem challenge is just too addicting.

     Submission sent: 29 November 2007
     Reply date: 9 December 2007

• Sidebrow accepted my poem, twenty-four : sawdust (from the hopelessly unfinished "approximative translations" manuscript) as part of their Page 24 Project.

Have to admit I did a little bunny dance when I read their e-mail. It's my second attempt with them — and the work they publish just blows me away. If I have to be honest with myself, I never thought I'd have ever made it in.

     Submission sent: 19 June 2007
     Reply date: 10 December 2007

• The poetry editor of SUB-LIT was so kind to invite me to send them some work. This is such a neat 'zine — based on what they publish, they seem to go for the edgy and surreal. Will be having three poems: So What If You Love Your Migraine Like a Second Coming, Eve and A Night in the Suburbs in Issue 3.

     Submission sent: 26 November 2007
     Reply date: 12 December 2007

• Was so thrilled to receive Susan Denning's (Caffeine Destiny) e-mail on 22 December, telling me that my poem, Possessions has been selected for the Best of the Web 2008 Dzanc Books print anthology. It was such a wonderful surprise because I didn't even know she nominated the poem!

• It's a little too soon to say if it will push through, but just the idea/acceptance lifted my spirits when Valerie wrote me saying the editor of Texture Press is interested in publishing our Bundles of Letters, Including A, V and Epsilon manuscript. I've had to pinch myself twice when I read her e-mail.

Recent publications:

• My poem, Supermarket Tabloid Sestina was included in the year-end print anthology of Feathertale. I get a high every time I sniff the glossy full-color pages.

• Have two poems, Open House (sonnenizio on a line from Jarman) and Col San Martino, Late Winter in the Winter 2007-2008 issue of Umbrella. Am delighted to see so many familiar names in this issue, namely Carol Frith, James A. Midgley, Jayne Pupek, S. Thomas Summers and Ann Walters. Love your poems!!

Overheard between A and the husband:

A: You know what I want for Christmas? A gorilla suit.

Husband: But honey, you don't need one. You're the authentic thing. Don't ruin the effect.

A: Let's hear you say that again without your teeth.

• • • • • • • •

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great time tomorrow. Don't drink too much... because, well, that's my job. Hee.

The village idiot missed her flight

2007-11-30T00:51:00.000+01:00

It is a sad and shameful fact, but there it is. What still continues to escape A's logic is HOW she could have booked, printed her itinerary (three times), checked-in online and STILL got her flight hour wrong. Stooooooopid, stoooooooopid!!!

To make it brief, she COULD'VE SWORN (remember Zurich?) the departure was at 6:40, when it was in reality 6:20. She and the husband got to the airport just as the plane was about to depart. She was given the choice of taking the flight, but leaving her luggage behind or re-booking.

Because the contents of her luggage are of greater interest to her brother and his wife than she is, A decided not to risk appearing in Manila without (1) four boxes of Christmas "bread" with chocolate filling, (2) three packs of cookies with chocolate filling, (3) three instant mixtures to make pudding with chocolate filling and (4) two bottles of mandarincino (orange-flavored liquor) that her family nagged her to bring them. There's a kind of pattern here that doesn't seem normal, but it is not A's place to question things that are family.

It is true that A had been acting strange prior to departure. She appeared to have gotten into some kind of time warp and got stuck in Wednesday, the 28th for a whole week. She kept calling home every day since Monday, the 26th and telling whoever answered the phone that she was coming home "tomorrow". A realizes all these things now. Early this morning, during sleep, she snapped her jaws and woke up biting her goosedown pillow. She's had to pay a huge fine, after all.

At any rate, A has been rescheduled to leave on the 30th. Which is today. She thinks.

Looking at the positive side —

• The ground stewardess who re-booked her flight complimented A on how well she was taking it because "others" usually take out their frustration on her. She didn't know she was talking to an alien. Anyway, some plane jokes were exchanged. Another ground stewardess joined the party and everyone had a good laugh. However, when they said, "Arriverderci!" the husband butted in, "Well, we certainly hope never to see you again!"

• At being told the news, A's family and the husband's family laughed themselves silly over the phone. They thought it was better than reality tv.

• A managed to reduce the pile of unwashed clothes to waist-height (hers). She hated leaving the husband to do all the housework she never did. His smug declaration was: Now I can clean up the house without having you dirty it immediately. Really. Talk about delusions of orderliness.

• A got to finish her bottle of Marzemino. She has no qualms about bad-mouthing her brother's wine in public because it's so bad that she actually prefers to remain sober. During the holidays, too.

• A received Only Connect, a gorgeous 128-paged anthology recently published by Cinnamon Press.

• A has wrapped up her 10th round at 30:30 and is slumping into 100% vacation mode. And, because of this, A can watch as many in-flight movies as she can stick into the twelve-hour flight from Amsterdam to Manila without once going, "What to write, what to write."

• And last, but not the least, A managed to mail her chapbook to the people who requested a signed copy. YAY!

The package arrived on the 27th — it was the COD package because the publisher made the mistake of declaring the retail price of the goods (CAN$70). Even though it was marked it as a gift, the customs people still considered it taxable.

So, a word of advice to people who are sending stuff overseas: Just declare the sentimental value of gifts you send through the post and not their retail value.

Recent acceptance:

• Agenda, a UK-based 'zine accepted three poems, Under a wide flounced skirt, Sunday Bath and We are rarely prepared for various issues online.

They accept only hard-copy submissions — but they respond via e-mail.

Submission mailed: 25 September 2007
E-mail reply: 27 November 2007

Recent photography:

• Have got eight images in the new issue (#5) of Siren. Was so thrilled to find three poems by Valerie Fox here!

• • • • • •

Well, that's it. I'm outta here. Really. I can do it. I'm off to catch that plane today. I've an extra-large fly swatter.

In pre-departure panic

2007-11-26T17:50:00.000+01:00

Gaaaaak. Have decided to go home at the last minute and spend Christmas there. Am leaving on Wednesday. My mom still hasn't gotten better. She's in quite a lot of bone pain... which isn't a good sign.

Have been trying to wrap things up here, laundry- and email-wise, but seriously doubt I can get everything done before I leave. At some point, I think I'd have to start packing.

Need to be at five different places tomorrow: yoga class, the jeweler's, the supermarket, the pet shop and the post office — got a strange note today that a C.O.D. package arrived for me. If it's about my chapbook copies and they're taxing me, I'll scream and start eating my winter coat (from collar downwards).

Recent acceptances:

• Seam, a UK-based print magazine accepted two fresh-from-30:30 poems, The Plagiarist and Outdoors for their Spring 2008 issue.

They accept only hard-copy submissions — but they will respond via e-mail. They've got an admirably fast response time, too!

     Submission mailed: 29 October 2007
     E-mail reply: 12 November 2007

• The Chimaera accepted my poem, Agoraphobia for their January 2008 issue. This is one slick 'zine. And they're including mp3 recordings, too. Did mine this morning — with sound effects. Heheh. An alien can't be heard in public without fancy storms and some glass breaking, can it?

     Submission date: 28 October 2007
     Reply date: 23 November 2007

Recent publications:

• Issue #17 of Right Hand Pointing is now up with very ticklish poetry by Molly Schoemann, Ken Jones, Joe Balaz,Christopher Major, David Jordan, Doug Draime, Michael Frissore, Helen R. Peterson, Michael Ogletree, Ron Singer, Victoria Clayton Munn, Howard Good and a person who addresses her navel as Antoine.

• The Commonline Project #11 has works by Wayne Mason, Gail Kelley, MK Butler, Jennifer Best, Zoe Alexandra, Bryan Chabrow, Zachary C. Bush, Luis Cauuhtemoc Berriozabal, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Alex Gallo-Brown, Bryon D. Howell, Joseph Veronneau, Kayleigh Hindricks, Doug Draime and Uncle Pete's neck (deceased).

Am so thrilled to see Non-other-than-X in this issue. It makes it easier for an alien to abduct her when she's surrounded by other people. Where I come from, Nachos are served with jalapeno sauce.

Over and out —

John Vick was such a darling to send me this picture of him while he was reading my 30:30 poem, I'm not supposed to wear this gorilla costume. The gorilla's face is shaped like a mutant potato, and something about that just makes my day every time I see it. If you want to get a huge laugh and see John in action, click here.
Well, this other gorilla is outta here!

Somebody we know raided...

2007-11-11T12:05:00.000+01:00

... the PlayFirst site two weeks ago and has been at it ever since. It is all very shameful and shameless, like that lascivious not-so-handsome prince in Fairy Godmother Tycoon. A's official reason is she's just scouting for good computer games to present her niece as soon as she comes of age (not for another 10 years).

So, what else has A been up to — apart from metamorphosing more and more into Lex, that bookworm with orange glasses, helium-packed voice, green pallor and too many tongues in one cheek?

• On October 29th, A gave in to her baser instincts and fell off the 30:30 wagon. In three days she played Chocolatier, Plant Tycoon, Wedding Dash, Build-a-Lot, Cake Mania and Burger Rush. All rather silly games, but she managed to scratch that itch until it bled and stopped itching.

• A picked her scabs off the floor and returned to arranging them on paper (called poetry). Today is day 11 of Round X. Again.

• After a brief vacation, A is back in the novel-writing sandbox with her favorite playmate, Valerie. We have, more or less, reached the milestone of 20,000 words. There's been a lot of conjecture about God and wine. At some point, A made the hero write: I'm not sure I don't believe in God. After all, I believe in wine.

• Because she fancies herself a fiction writer now, A is trying to inject dialogue into her everyday life. The trick is to pretend it's just God wanting more wine or the wine wanting more of God.

• A had to operate on her laptop because its internal fan was making all sorts of indecent helicopter noises. Inside, she found tons of fluff.

Fantastic, A muttered, a computer who gets hairballs.

What did you expect? Your laptop fan is the closest thing we've got to a vacuum working around here, the husband quipped.

It was a good thing that after the operation, the laptop has had the good sense to keep silent. The husband has been silenced as well. Like God or wine, dialog may have deleterious side effects where a spouse is involved.

• A spent a couple of days photoshopping more pictures for the upcoming issue of Siren. In the process, she realized she's an awful photographer. If there's any straight line in the picture, she's bound to get it crooked. Her eyes were so disgusted after the first day that they gave her a migraine. Pure spite.

• Even though A hasn't driven in over a year, her reputation remains alive in everyone's hearts. Because of the tighter alcohol control on Saturday night drivers, her sister-in-law's husband proposed to make A drive them home sober — this to prove to the authorities that it is actually dangerous to be sober while driving.

• Not a peep out of A's Secret Love Poems chapbook copies yet. She suspects it's become a post office love secret.

• The husband emerged victorious from a smit fraud virus battle (his third). It's a really scary beast because it gets through despite all the anti-virus programs we've got on and once it's in, it deactivates them. A was cheering him on through it all — because she knows it's just a matter of time before her laptop catches it, too.

I'll charge you heavy for the house call, you know, the husband snickered.

You can't, A replied sweetly. We live in the same house together. Plus, you're the husband. I get to use your services for free. It's in the constitution.

• What else? A has decided to do the laundry today... before the pile of dirty clothes topples over, buries her alive and takes over the house and her recently opened Restaurant Empire.

Recent publication:

• The first issue of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal is now up with poetry by Bryan Thao Worra, Russell C. Leong, Reid Mitchell, Heng Siok Tian, Cyril Wong, Bob Bradshaw, Kavita Jindal, Leung Ping Kwan, Christopher Kelen, Mani Rao, Nicholas Wong, Elbert S.P. Lee and someone with a morbid fear of geckoes (especially copulating ones).

An interesting blog and three new 'zines:

• Came across Poet Hound while fooling around with my submissions. It's a blog dedicated to connecting people to poetry whether it be for the first time or attracting seasoned veterans. Some really fab market reviews. If, like me, you wake up some days and don't know where to send your stuff, let the pooch lead you to it!

• Mascara Poetry is a neat 'zine which publishes a wide range of styles and voices. They're particularly interested in the work of contemporary Australasian poets, but consider work from around the globe. The keyword with them seems to be innovation.

• For people who haiku and senryu their hours away — Roadrunner Journal may just make the Wile E. Coyote in you howl.

• Taiga is a print journal scheduled to go to press in the Summer of 2008 and are accepting submissions for the their first issue until February 29, 2008. Based on what I've gleaned, they seem to like poems that are crisp, clean and eerie — humor is seen as a plus.

In pre-Halloween mode

2007-10-28T18:29:00.000+01:00

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]

So, tell me,
What Kind of Monster Are You?

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.

[apwn] and alice blue

2007-10-14T00:41:00.000+02:00

Finished my 9th round at 30:30 on October 9th and have just started on my 10th.

In-between, more or less in this order —

• A wrote an essay for a charity project, wherein she likened her writing process to playing with Mrs Potato Head.

• A clapped her hands real hard for a total of 33 minutes because the husband finally decided to get a new cheap tv. At last count, their old one only had two channels — the rest was tv snow. A wasn't very pleased. But A doesn't nag, A writes fiction. She made one hero quote his wife: You need to do something about that f**king tv, you said, because the channels are going out one by one like f**king birthday candles.

• A got some kind of UTI and bled for some hours into the toilet bowl (certainly better than outside it) — which is why A is using the third person: pain is more tolerable to write about when you pretend it is someone else's.

• A tried to get a better grip on the novel-writing situation: taking apart mss then putting it together again.

• A spent two whole afternoons talking with her family [via Yahoo messenger] — the mother wasn't feeling so good and had to be put on IV. Things, however, have improved and stabilized.

• A played Emperor until it crashed on her — probably due to an overload of cheat codes. Ahem.

Recent acceptance:

• Marginalia — an annual literary review published and edited by the English Department of Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado — accepted my ticklish poem: My SimCity Llama Has a Cold.

I really ought to play SimCity more — it's so, erm, educational and inspiring.

Submission date: 28 June 2007
Reply date: 13 October 2007

Recent publications:

• [apwn] has published two oldish poems, Bali in Retrospect and Washing of the Feet in their Auto Biography Edition (edited by Ivy Alvarez).

• Issue 7 of alice blue is now online with poetry by Sarah Bartlett, Mark Cunningham, Betsy Fagin, Emily Kendal Frey, Matt McBride, Anne Marie Rooney, Zachary Schomburg, Joshua A Ware and IT (as in, Cousin).

Amusing myself on the 26th day (round IX)

2007-10-05T22:38:00.000+02:00

Since I'm not much use at concentrating on anything today, thought I'd amuse myself by blogging. Haven't really got anything interesting to say about my life. But in case anyone suspects that I've been torturing cats with a pepper spray, I haven't. I've got nothing to be guilty about. Really. Here's a short rundown of what I've been doing with myself:

• Slaving over a novel (in verse) with Valerie — and doing it under the 30:30 shelter.

• Have waged a four-day war with maggots that came out of a huge fruit fly when I swatted it down in the kitchen.

• Looking up at the bathroom wall and waiting for a tile to fall on my head [four have come out... so far not one on my head yet.]

• Bribing Caesar with trinkets to blind him into believing I'm an efficient governor.

• Drinking.

• In bed with the laptop, doing things I can't admit in public. I'll let your filthy minds wonder about that. **snicker sesame oil**

Recent acceptance and call for subs:

• Right Hand Pointing accepted three poems: Please Meet My Navel, Bob-and-Anne's Seafood Carbonara and Fridge Note for their humor issue (#17).

They're still considering submissions for that issue. Getting the length just right is a bit tricky and quite a challenge. Make sure to check out the guidelines first — it's quite ticklish, especially the note about not wanting poems about pets (dead or alive)... but being attracted to natural objects that are embedded in someone’s head. So, think:

Submission date: 9 September 2007
Reply date: 4 October 2007

Publications received:

Was so surprised and delighted today to find a package of books Ellaraine Lockie was so kind to send to me.

• Mules of Love by Ellen Bass. Have only peeked briefly, but I've already got a soft spot for:

The Thing Is

to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.

* * * * *

Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.

Ain't that gorgeous?

• Thin Air Magazine (Summer 2007) is neat magazine, flat-spined with a glossy photo cover, containing an eclectic range of poetry, fiction and b/w artwork. They're also accepting work (only by snailmail though) until 30 November 2007.

• SLAB (Sound and Literary Art Book) is a lovely anthology — around 230+ pages with a matte card cover . Ellaraine received 1st place in their Elizabeth R. Curry Poetry Contest. Results and poems may be read here. They are currently accepting submissions via e-mail and snailmail. Check out the guidelines.

I was really tickled pink by the bios at the end — the editors had some really fun questions which I thought might be fun to share with fellow bloggers. Which is why I'm....

Playing this SLAB tag:

Anyone reading this, consider yourself tagged — unless I get you first.

1. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
Skipping yoga class.

2. How do you take your coffee?
I don't take coffee. I partake of the husband's coffee — with sugar and a drop of milk. What they call macchiato in Italian. As opposed to caffe latte, which is milk with a drop of coffee. Don't get me started on the many decadent ways Italians take their coffee.

3. Who were you in a previous life?
In the worst possible scenario, Jack the Ripper. In the best, Freud.

4. Who or what is your greatest influence?
It's cheesy, but I'd say, good ol' dad.

5. What is the worst film you ever paid to see?
Hannibal. And that was the last time I went to the cinema.

6. What is the best thing you can buy for a dollar?
A 90-cent stamp for one SASE. And hey, I've still got 10 cents! Isn't that a prime sample of my good budgeting skills? Hee.

7. What is the worst present you ever received?
Probably a lacy red underwear from the husband's niece. The bra was several sizes too small — I didn't know whether to feel smug (because my breasts are bigger that *that*) or insulted (because everyone thinks they're smaller than they look).

8. What is your favorite word?
Bucket. I'm practically married to it by now.

Eclectica poems and Umbrella acceptance

2007-10-03T22:55:00.000+02:00

The October-November issue of Eclectica is now online. With poetry by Michaela A. Gabriel/Nathan McClain, Daniel Barbiero, Scott Urban, Ellen Kombiyil, Jayne Pupek, Oliver Rice, Les Kay, Ray Templeton, Theresa White, Kimberly L. Becker, Bob Bradshaw, Lafayette Wattles, Dorothee Lang, Jason Kelly Richards, Barbara De Franceschi, Paul Hostovsky, Jennifer Finstrom and mumblemumble [Aftermath and The heart stops momentarily].

Recent acceptance:

• Umbrella accepted a poem, Col San Martino and a sonnenizio on a line from Jarman, Open House.

Submission date: 29 August 2007
Reply date: 25 September 2007

Just for fun:

Discovered this ticklish Sims 2 video at YouTube — ticklish because I know the actual commands that were used to make the Sims do what they had to do on film. The melding of the two versions (English and Simlish) of Charlotte Martin's Beautiful Life is rather cool, too!

Secret Love Poems chapbook

2007-09-24T02:19:00.000+02:00

Yay!
I was so thrilled when one of the Rubicon Press editors told me over the weekend that my chapbook, Secret Love Poems is ready to go to print this week. The cover art is by Oana Cambrea — who's been so kind to give us permission to use her image. Her works are simply divine!

Recent acceptances:

• Am scheduled to make my 13th appearance in Eclectica with a word challenge poem, The heart stops momentarily — and a sonnenizio on a line from Ros Barber, Aftermath.

     Submission date: 1 September 2007
     Reply date: 13 September 2007

• CommonLine Project accepted a rather ticklish fetish poem, Necks for Issue 011 (due out on November 1st).

     Submission date: 9 September 2007
     Reply date: 13 September 2007

• Will also have two poems, Liu Song Warms Himself By the Fire and Six Reasons I Never Write About Home in the debut issue (Fall/Winter 207) of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. It's new, but has nice professional manners. Quickish response times, too. They're considering work from or about Asia, check them out.

     Submission mailed: 14 September 2007
     Reply received: 15 September 2007

And on the 3rd day...

2007-09-12T00:02:00.000+02:00

... after her birthday, A had a bit too much wine in the country and fell off the 30:30 wagon. A crawled out of her hangover and has gone back to square one (Round 9). A has sworn to anyone who would listen that she is never going to touch another drop of liquor. Ever again.

That said, A is pleased to finally announce that Issue 2 of Press 1 is now up and running — with works by FJ Bergmann, CL Bledsoe, Benjamin Buchholz, Leonard Gontarek, Janna Layton, Dennis Moritz, Andrew Mossin, Mark Sutz, John Vick and Ann Walters. All photography in this issue is courtesy of Jill Burhans.

Recent acceptances:

• Convergence accepted my poem, Laguna Palace, Mestre for their Fall/Winter issue. This is a neat little 'zine that started out in 2003 — discovered it while jumping from link to link and had a great time going through their archives. Fairly quick response times, too. It sure helped light up my cake!

     Submission date: 5 September 2007
     Reply date: 7 September 2007

• Cahoots Magazine accepted an oldish and previously published poem, After the Affair for an upcoming issue. Their response time (see below) is rather long. However, they seem to be moving towards getting out of print and going solely on-line — which might lessen the waiting period.

     Submission date: 21 February 2007
     Reply date: 8 September 2007

• UR-VOX sent one of best form acceptances I've ever received:

Thank you for your submission. Although we can't comment on each manuscript, we can at least spare you the platitudes (your writing is impressive) and salesmanship (have you seen the magazine?) of the condescendi. So.

Please don't be shocked. We accept your work entitled: air : lift, body : water and Divergences of the Sixth Sense to be published in URxVOX #5 in 2008....

Isn't that wonderfully cheeky? I had to blink three times (quite shocked, of course) before I believed it and did some witchy jumps of joy in the kitchen.

     Submission mailed: 2 April 2007
     Reply received: 9 September 2007

• Mimesis, another print journal, accepted four poems, A Driving Student Enters the Roundabout, Battery Park City, Locusts and Cordon Bleu for their 3rd issue. Yay! I'm doubly thrilled because this is such a gorgeous-looking journal.

Contrary to UR-VOX, they seem to accept submissions only via e-mail. Quick-ish response times, too!

     Submission date: 25 August 2007
     Reply date: 11 September 2007

6th Pushcart Prize nomination:

Just received word from the editor of Radiant Turnstile that he has submitted my poem, Mrs. D's Last Letter to Her Son (July 2007 issue) to the Pushcart Committee. WOWZA. I'm so honored... I feel I should hide behind the sofa until chased out by the dust bunnies and spiders.

Thieves and zygotes

2007-09-05T23:01:00.000+02:00

I'm floating happily enough to say that Thieves Jargon has been resurrected. Issue 152 has now gone up, with my poem, Fishing dead bodies in water. You've got to be dead not to love this artwork by Stephen Elvidge featured there.

Have got a ticklish poem, Please Meet My Table up in the ever tickling 'zine, Zygote in my Coffee (Issue #93).

What else? Today is Day 5 of 30. I am in pain. In another two days, I won't only be in greater pain — I'd be older, too.

Back in 30:30

2007-09-01T18:20:00.000+02:00

It's official. Have written my first poem in two months and posted it in 30:30. Its birthing was quite comparable to a tooth abscess.

Am running ever so late with correspondence and blog lives, but I do want to say thanks and a huge HI!! to those who left messages in my previous posts. I will catch up with everyone's blog. Eventually.

New website at Leafscape:

Am delighted to announce that I've finished Jayne Pupek's website. She's a brilliant poet/writer... but more importantly, she knows her drinks. At some point during the construction, we lost quite a bit of attachments and e-mails between us while drinking to each other's health. What else? The original photographer whose work we were supposed to use at the site stopped communicating with us. One of us suffered from double vision caused, in part, by looking at naked mannequins while the other began seeing ketchup on the back of fallen angels. Er. Um. Hic. Yes.

Acceptances and anthologies:

• alice blue accepted three poems — one: placebo, two: union and four: totem — from my approximative translations manuscript (unfinished). Yay!! Am so thrilled because (1) I adore this 'zine, (2) it publishes innovative, experimental work — not my "genre" at all, and (3) it's my third try with them. Persistence pays!

     Submission date: 12 May 2007
     Reply date: 28 August 2007

• Am likely to have my sonnenizio, Breakage in the Summer 2008 issue of Orbis. I say "likely" because the editor offered to read more of mine for the Winter issue. Because publised poets are required to wait at least a year before submitting again, acceptance in the Winter issue will probably wipe out my appearance in the Summer issue. Sounds rather long-winded put that way, but there it is.

Response time is a bit long, but the editor is considering work for the Winter issue (mailed in January 2008). If there's a season featured in your poem, make sure it's winter. Breakage is more of a summer poem, hence the wait. I didn't know about this before I submitted. Thought it might be useful and interesting for others to know.

     Submission date: 22 February 2007
     Reply date (after querying on the 22nd): 25 August 2007

• Was very honored and thrilled to receive an e-mail from Snow*Vigate Press saying that my poem, In the Woods—A Shot—Fraught with Barking Dogs which was published in Blue Fifth Review will be included in their anthology, Online Writing: the Best of the First Ten Years (edited by Kim Chinquee and Doug Martin). They're shooting for 100 writers to include and hope to have the book out by Christmas. WOWZA.

• Am thrilled to know that the anthology edited by Holly Hughes, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease (Kent State University Press) is pushing through with publication in late 2008. Have signed another contract for the reprint of my poem, Five Minutes of Silence.

Publications received:

• Really thrilled to received my copy of ANON (#5). This is one of the most beautiful print journals I've seen — with a terrific array of poetry and prose inside.

• Was ecstatic to receive my copy of Staple Magazine. It's absolutely gorgeous! I was expecting it to be saddle-stitched with a card cover... so it was quite a surprise. The £10 check is a cool sight, too — not that I can cash it in Italy. Anyway, the table of contents, with some of my fave poets, is viewable here.

I'm not dead, you know.

2007-08-21T22:26:00.000+02:00

Maybe a bit tipsy. Still breathing. Heaving, more likely. But can someone explain to me why am I wearing this party hat?
What? Oh. Yeah. It's because I have to toot the horn.

A is very pleased to announce that Issue 41 of The Pedestal Magazine is now online — with fantabulous poetry by Ros Barber, Ken Champion, Margaret Clark, Sarah J. Den Boer, Arun Gaur, Robert Gregory, Sandra Kohler, Mary Miller, Jarrod Minto, Andrew Mossin, Allan Peterson, Allison Shoemaker, Lynn Strongin, James Tipton and Yun Wang.

Have to admit it's one of the best issues I've put together... if not the best. Very strong poems, and the variety makes me think I've got a hundred eyes: the works range from formal to more experimental work, from minimalist to narrative poetry. Just rereading everything puts me on cloud nine. Hope it's a high for others, too.

Recent acceptances:

• THE SHop accepted my poem, The Day She Was Called to Identify the Body for a future issue. The note states: Poems are normally published within twelve months of acceptance. And I'll —uh— drink to that.

This Ireland-based print magazine accepts submissions only via snailmail. However, the good news is that they reply via e-mail — no need to worry about Irish stamps or IRCs.

Special thanks goes to Davide Trame for telling me about this wonderful journal.

     Submission mailed: 6 July 2007
     E-mail reply: 7 August 2007

• Poet Lore accepted a salvaged poem from the dead-and-obsolete-Scrying-Sand mss, To sweat in their Fall 2007 issue.

Have to admit that I did a happy dance while reading their acceptance letter on the way to one of the —uh— many parties we've had to attend this August.

     Submission mailed: 30 May 2007
     Reply received: 10 August 2007

Recent publications:

• My poem, Heritage and the Gorilla Suit is now up in the Summer 2007 issue (#6) of Tipton Poetry Journal. Really pleased to see so many familiar names, particularly that of fellow bloggers, Cheryl Snell, James Owens and Sandy Sue Benitez.

• Three poems: A Driving Instructor's First Copy of Jane Eyre, A Daughter Named Cialis and Portrait of What's-Her-Name's Husband as Loose Change — are also up in Issue 11 of Ghoti Magazine.

What has kept A from blogging:

• Laughing exhaustion due to watching too many reruns of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

• Sleep.

• Drink.

• Parties.

• Getting over hangover(s).

• Eating and cursing unseeded watermelons.

• Listening to Charlotte Martin while doing housework. A is tickled pink at discovering the Simlish version of Beautiful Life (University EP).

• Morbid dread of having to go back to 30:30. [A is so rusty she fears catching tetanus from herself.]

• Limping from a skinned-and-bruised knee (left) because of a fall caused by a %#&@*?$!!! sudden depression on a sidewalk in Tambre, Italy. Not due to drunkenness, of course... according to the official report.

• And recently, putting together the September issue of Press 1.

The new fridge, Defenestration and Caffeine Destiny

2007-07-30T10:38:00.000+02:00

What did A have to do to acquire of a new fridge? Because she didn't want the fridge-delivery guys to think she's a slob — for two weeks, she scrubbed floors, she sponged muck off window screens, she vacuumed dust bunnies and yes, she sniffed grease remover fumes until her sinuses opened up — she sniffled all the time — and made her see funny lights. She hasn't been the same since. She's been cleaning up after herself, for one. Her husband suspects that she spilled olive oil on the table just to have a reason to sniff some more toxic fumes. He doesn't know what's it like to live without grease removers.

Anyway, the new fridge will arrive on Wednesday. At last. The one we have came with the house when we moved in 7 years ago. Even then it was already old. It grows a slab of ice in the fridge compartment every summer and part of its rubber seal hangs like dried twig from under the door. We suspect it's the reason our electric bill has been so high this year.

Recent publications:

• A picture I took at the Vienna Central Cemetery is now up in the July 20th issue of Defenestration. Behold the man. Or should I say, the stiff.

• My poems, Possessions and Ceremonial Spoon are now up in the Fall 2007 issue of Caffeine Destiny. Really thrilled to be sharing space with Mary Biddinger, Ryan Collins, John Gallaher, Anne Heide, David Lehman, Reb Livingston, Rebecca Loudon, John Morrison and Susan Stewart. Did I mention this is one of my favorite 'zines?

Recent acceptance and a half:

• Blood Orange Review accepted my poem, And God said let there be economy class passengers— for an upcoming issue.

     Submission date: 2 May 2007
     Reply date: 26 July 2007

• Was happy to finally hear from the editor of Anemone Sidecar — thought they'd closed down and had quite given up on it. They're interested in taking my poem, fortitude: a reportage — thing is I've already sent it to Counterpath Press and, according to the guidelines, if submitters don't hear from them in three months (August 25th for me), then we can consider our work rejected. The AS editor said she'd wait and keep her fingers crossed. Here's to hoping for a rejection.

Anyway, if you're still waiting to hear from Anemone Sidecar — you ought to hear from them soon. They're busy catching up with the submissions.

     Submission date: 10 October 2006
     Reply date: 22 July 2007

It's alive!!

2007-07-14T18:10:00.001+02:00

And it has even cut its hair today! Five inches off. And the hairdresser begged it not to wait for another year to pass before coming back to them.

Won't bother confessing what I've been up to these past few weeks... apart from frying my brain in front of the television and watching a chicken bone in a solution of water and laundry detergent — research for the novel Valerie and I have been plotting together.

Recent publications/recording:

• My poem, Say Goodbye to Baked Alaska is up in the July/August 2007 issue of Eclectica.

• Have two poems up in the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of DMQ Review: (fear) of being watched and Tessa Fishes in Her Backpack for a Banana.

• A recording of my poem, A Driving Student Adjusts the Seat is up in the Rattle Audio Archive. I really love this idea of asking contributors to send audio files of their poetry!

Recent acceptances:

• Defenestration said AYE to a visual —erm— aid I sent them. Am tickled pinkish because I teeheed the whole time I was photoshopping it. It's due to be revealed on the 20th for their July 2007 issue.

     Submission date: 18 May 2007
     Reply date: 30 June 2007

• Zygote In My Coffee, another ticklish 'zine, accepted three poems: The Gorilla Suit Turned Up For Its Close-Up Today and Portrait of Anselma and Marianne as Minor Saints (inspired, if I remember correctly, by Sarah's In the Voice of a Minor Saint ) for their 4th Print Edition (due out late August 2007) plus Please Meet My Table for issue #93 of their ONLINE edition (due out 8/6/07).

     Submission date: 5 June 2007
     Reply date: 3 July 2007

Smileys of A's brain:

Haven't done much writing these days, but hope to haul my ass back to 30:30 sometime next week. Even the husband has noticed how oddly I act when I'm not writing. Funny how writing keeps my feet on the ground — makes me wonder if this is the same of others?
Here's the smiley of A's brain when she writes poetry:
And here's the smiley of A's brain at rest:

However, to make writing less interesting, the wineshop across the street seems to have closed for vacation — am going crazy from lack of draft wine or whatever they call vino sfuso in English. I desire some Sparkling Rabosé!

DMQ Review, apwn and 8 things about A

2007-06-28T22:47:00.000+02:00

TPM has officially re-opened to submissions today — I'm the monitor on duty (as in, tropical lizard) for the August issue.

The current issue (#40), edited by Michael Spring, has exquisite poetry by Sara Backer, Jéanpaul Ferro, Alex Grant, Ona Gritz, klipschutz, Judy Kronenfeld, Dorianne Laux, Glenna Luschei, Linda Pastan, Elisha Porat, Eric Paul Shaffer, Susan Varnot, Ross White, and Gerald Yelle. Check it out if you haven't already.

Recent acceptance and a half:

• DMQ Review accepted two poems, (fear) of being watched and Tessa Fishes in Her Backpack for a Banana for their next issue. Am doing a particularly happy dance because it's a sure sign that persistence pays — have been sending them work for so long that thinking about it already gives me Alzheimer's.

Submission date: 3 May 2007
Reply date: 24 June 2007

• Two oldish poems, Washing of the Feet and Bali in Retrospect have been accepted in the Auto/Biography issue of Asia and Pacific Writers Writers Network [apwn]. The site is still down, but it should get back up soon. Special thanks go to Ivy for the invitation.

8 things about A:

Liz tagged the battery charge (as in, assault) into denying some things about herself —

1. A isn't always late. She actually arrives early for dental appointments, 14-hour plane trips, business lunches and other painful operations.

2. A isn't wearing a wig. It's her real hair — which she has neglected to cut in more than a year.

3. Despite what he says, A isn't obsessed in stealing food and drink from the husband. It's only natural to covet edibles that are on other people's plates/pizzas or in their mugs/wine glasses.

4. A isn't going to stop sleeping with her goosedown pillow just because it stinks of geese and sometimes finds a way of pricking her neck with one of its many quills.

5. A isn't about to trample silly earthworms when they come out during rains. She would rather starve inside her house than find earthworm gut and glory under her shoes.

6. Because A isn't right-handed, she can make it painful for righties to watch her wield a can opener.

7. A isn't serious about wanting to be a librarian or postal worker anymore. Ever since they abolished the use of rubber stamps, these are dreams that have passed on with that era.

8. A isn't going to admit in public how much she spent some nights ago buying organic biscuits and other treats online for her pooches. She is, however, willing to admit that her mother made her do it.

And A hereby tags Kate, Old Nick, Ivy, Sharon and Jude.

New Six Little Things issue & Contemporary American Voices

2007-06-21T10:32:00.001+02:00

The Summer 2007 issue of Six Little Things is now up with terrific line drawings by Brian Pera (you gotta love that huge fly!) and prose poems by Tania Casselle, Mary DeNardo, Philip Huang, Dan Piepenbring, Sarah Fran Wisby and —erm—

Recent acceptance-that-isn't-really-an-acceptance:

Will be appearing in the February 2008 issue of Contemporary American Voices — under L. Ward Abel, who was kind enough to invite me to appear with him. Thanks also goes to the editor, Lisa Zaran for waiving the rules — since I'm hardly USDA-approved prime beef.

Even though guidelines say the Features are by invitation only, they're also open to unsolicited work. Check 'em out

Six Little Things, Eclectica and Ware Poets Commendation

2007-06-13T16:57:00.000+02:00

Gosh. With the heat, a lot of stuff have been coming up like flies. Am in the process of trying to swat everything down to ground. I still owe a blog call to tons of people — in the meantime, a thousand apologies. Am throttling the muse or whatever it is that's supposed to help me write daily. Day 13 of Round VII today at 30:30. Pure hell. But I did get some reading bliss from the new stuff up at sidebrow. They sent me a rejection some months before... what they publish is like way out of my league, but it never hurts to try.

Recent acceptances:

• Six Little Things has accepted my VII.13 poem with the opening line: Menstruation is clean again for their "X Is the New Y" issue, online on June 21. Really thrilled by this since it is one of my favorite 'zines.

     Submission date: 18 May 2007
     Reply date: 10 June 2007

• My June 1st poem, Say Good-bye to Baked Alaska has been accepted for publication in Eclectica. This will mark my (yikes) 12th appearance there. Have already admitted to the poetry editor that their quarterly word challenge has become an addiction for me. She was quite amiable about it. She doesn't know I drink, too.

     Submission date: 1 June 2007
     Reply date: 11 June 2007

Recent publication:

Received my copy of Other Poetry (Series II, No. 32) this morning. It's a glossy UK-based magazine filled with 60+ pages of fab poetry and 20+ pages of poetry book reviews. Finding the €15 inside was such a treat... though, because it was for one of my driving poems, I'm not sure if it's meant to get me off the streets by paying for my bus fare. Hee.

Am doubly thrilled to discover that Sharon's got a poem here, too. Yay, a drinking buddy!

A Ware Poets Competition commendation:

Also got my copy of the Ware Poets Open Poetry Competition 2007 results today — stating that my sonnenizio, In Memoriam has been Commended and will be included in the anthology. Will give them another try next year... I have a feeling that their competition secretary brings me luck. It was her £10 check that made me win the 2006 Frogmore Prize, after all — she had to issue me one when my entries arrived something like a month late. Did some mental fist-shaking at Italian postal service, but it seemed to have been for the best. And she's never forgotten me because of it.

And one of the nicest book mss rejection:

Two Ravens Press did say no, but I thought it's worth sharing because (1) they have such quick response times for a book publisher and (2) they actually send personal rejections explaining why and why not. A lot of small presses wouldn't even bother, I think. Check them out!

     Proposal snailmailed: 5 May 2007
     Show of interest e-mail: 10 May 2007
     Decision e-mail: 11 June 2007

Caffeine Destiny and Radiant Turnstile

2007-06-10T12:55:00.000+02:00

Just a quickee update. Am sooooooo behind everything. Have got a brick wall of stuff to do and a hard time getting through it.

• Caffeine Destiny is indeed back to life and is interested in publishing my two recently 30:30-ied poems, Possessions and Ceremonial Spoon in their next issue (July 2007). Thanks to Sarah who blogged about them — she's got a poem in the current one, too.

Submission date: 16 May 2007
Reply date: 7 June 2007

Recent publication:

The first issue of Radiant Turnstile is out, out, out!!! It has poetry by John Grey, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Jeff Walt, R.T. Castleberry, A.D. Winans, Steve Davenport, Lyn Lifshin, Larry D. Thomas, Bryce Milligan, Dale Wisely and Stella Brice. The editor was so kind to invite me along.

Cheeky guidelines page, too. This just tickled me pink: For contributors more comfortable with a 9 month response time, contact your local obstetrician.

And a reminder —

for the women out there: Mslexia has a call for poetry/prose on the Mirror Mirror theme. Deadline is on 15 June 2007. Overseas contributors get to send via e-mail. Response is something like 4 months.

It never pains but it roars...

2007-05-30T23:19:00.000+02:00

... or something like that anyway. Four acceptances in less than 36 hours. It's rather Twilight Zone to me.

• Thieves Jargon said aye to my poem, Fishing dead bodies in water. You gotta love this 'zine — beautiful layout and the poems are 100% weird meat (my cuppa blood). The current cartoon is a riot, too. Even though it's quite self-explanatory, the Italian caption adds so much more Paf! to the whole thing: "Premetto che non mi ha fatto male ma mi ha incuriosito" = "Before anything, I have to say that I wasn't hurt, just intrigued." I thought initially that the editor was referring in some way to that when he wrote that my poems intrigued him pleasantly. He admitted not knowing Italian and I seriously doubt my stuff could ever pack such a kick.

     Submission date: 8 May 2007
     Reply date: 29 May 2007

• After some negotiation, Smiths Knoll has accepted my poem, And Why Shouldn't I Cry Over Seinfeld? for their Autumn 2007 issue (#41)... which means I get another one-year subscription — which is the whole point I've been pestering them for one whole year and taking the rejections like a donkey. My multiple selves are going wheeee!

They've got a quick turnaround rate, too. A fortnight tops. After years of sending them work, I confirm this with zeal.

     Submission date: 7 May 2007
     Reply date: 18 May 2007
     Confirmation e-mail: 30 May 2007

• Tipton Poetry Journal has accepted my poem, Heritage and the Gorilla Suit for their Summer 2007 issue (#6). I really enjoyed my print copy of the 'zine and thought I'd try with them again. Hope to see a lot of fellow bloggers in this issue!

     Submission date: 27 May 2007
     Reply date: 30 May 2007

• And last but not the least, I sent some photos to Siren on a gamble and... wooohooo! They'll be using some in their 5th issue (due out in September 2007). Am quite electrified!

To top it all —

as Agatha Christie said: "I'm a sausage machine, a perfect sausage machine."
Which means I've finished my 7th round in 30:30 today.
Won't bother posting the whole list of poems... just the idea makes my eyes drop dead. Will go for another round on June 1st, but for now I'm putting up my feet. Maybe. The husband has just offered me a data-entry job to do tomorrow, saying: "Darling, it's so boring that I know you're going to love it." How can I refuse?

In Posse Review and 10 Ars Poetica quotes

2007-05-28T10:05:00.000+02:00

Wheeeeee!! Issue 23 of In Posse Review is now online with body poems by Kelli Russell Agodon, Kevin Minh Allen, Ivy Alvarez, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Brendan Babish, Stephanie Berger, Edward Byrne, Jeff Crandall, Jehanne Dubrow, Justin Evans, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Bob Guter, Kathryn Hunt, Donald Illich, Wayne Johns, Collin Kelley, Jared Leising, James Lineberger, Michael Lynch, CR Manley, Gary L. McDowell, Amy NewmanMartha Silano, Sarah Sloat, David Trame, Gary Winans and the AA battery. Quite excited to see a lot of familiar names on the roster and just plain delighted to be part of this issue — it's simply exquisite.

10 Ars Poetica quotes tag:

Kate tagged me into listing 10 favorite quotes pertaining to poetry and the writing of it. These ones, I find, reflect my experience —

The solitude of writing is also quite frightening. It's quite close to madness, one just disappears for a day and loses touch.
             — Nadine Gordimer

                         • • • • • •

I am trying to invent a new way of moving under my dress....
             — C.D. Wright, "Crescent" (from Tremble)

                         • • • • • •

Poetry is not the most important thing in life... I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.
             — Dylan Thomas

                         • • • • • •

I want many hands, hands that have come and gone,
hands that no longer exist except in cutting short a life line.

I would like to say I just want one hand — to name it my own.

But it's so dark in this doorway and so full of infinity.

             — Ada Limon, "Thirteen Feral Cats" (from Lucky Wreck)

                         • • • • • •

Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins commited in previous lives.
             — James Joyce, in a letter (5 September 1918)

                         • • • • • •

Failure concentrates the mind wonderfully. If you don't make mistakes you're not trying hard enough.
             — Jasper Fforde, The Well of Lost Plots

                         • • • • • •

Writing is a lot like sex. At first you do it because you like it. Then you find yourself doing it with a few close friends and people you like. But if you're any good at all... you end up doing it for money.
             — Anonymous, from the internet

                         • • • • • •

I must hurry or I will lose these poems.
Why did I make such a mess of my life?

I am Robinson Crusoe saving things
From the wreck,

Except there isn't any wreck
Nor any island,

Only my unhappiness with all the words
That have to do with 'thinking'.

             — Robert Rehder, "The Symphony" (from The Compromises Will Be Different)

                         • • • • • •

I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.
             — Irwin Shaw, The Paris Review (1979)

And last, probably nonsensical, but which tickles the hell out of me is:

Some men love ruled paper, because they can write athwart the lines, and some take the fly-leaves of their friends' books. But whosoever writes on cheap sermon paper full of hairs should write far away from the woman he loves....
— H.G. Wells, Certain Personal Matters

I'm tagging Old Nick, Sharon, Ivy, Rachel and Jude.

The unofficial Press 1 mascot and ANON

2007-05-24T10:07:00.000+02:00

On behalf of the Press 1 staff, I want to thank everyone for their great support (and wooooohooooo, button pressing). We're quite thrilled that a lot of people have taken a healthy liking to it. Mwuaaaaaaaah!

To encourage more button pressing, I have crowned the niece as Press 1's unofficial mascot. Giggle garbanzo diet. She, too likes pressing buttons — irrelevantly whether you say not that or don't.

Recent acceptance:

ANON accepted two poems, Where the hourglass and My Real Intention Was To Take The Bucket for an upcoming issue.

Absolutely delighted over this — ANON is such a classy print journal teeming with great poetry (with a preference for the surreal and dark). Really love their anonymous submission protocol, too.

Rather longish response times, but I think it's worth it —

Submission posted: 29 January 2007
E-mail reply: 22 May 2007

Recent publication:

Just when I was wondering if it was going to push through, I received my copy of Obsessed with Pipework (Issue 38, Spring 2007). Really thrilled with it! The poems make my mental hamster go round and round — wonderful mixture of minimalist stuff, narratives and the weirdly convoluted.

Old copies may be read online at the Poetry Library.

Their response time is something like 3 weeks via e-mail. Based on my record (1), time between acceptance and publication is one year and two months. That surprised me as well. Time flies and all that and I never noticed. In the meantime, the niece has learned to pronounce shark and my hair hasn't stopped growing.

And now that I've put my hair in the spotlight —

Thanks to Ivy, here's what it would love to wake up to in the morning. Or even this.

Press 1 launch and Rattle poem

2007-05-20T12:04:00.000+02:00

Am pleased to announce that the first issue of Press 1 is now up — featuring the fantabulous photography of Marisa Dorna-Livet and the mind-blowing poetry/prose of Lydia Cortes, Carol Frith, Stephanie Gray, Bill Kushner, Maurice Oliver, Sean Lovelace, Allan Peterson and Lewis Warsh.

Have to add that I'm particularly proud of the way I got fancy with the Press 1 menu. Probably because it took quite a bit of head-on-the-keyboard banging. It's fancier when you use Explorer (which I —erm— don't). Some DHTML scripts don't work for Firefox. Boo.

And yes, feel free to press that button all you want. Valerie's idea. She mentioned that looking at the button and not being able to press it left her with that dissatisfied sensation of the third kind. Teehee.

We're now accepting submissions for the next issue. Valerie and the others will be the ones reading and making most of the decisions — so, don't be shy.

My first driving poem —

is now up in Rattle 26 online: A Driving Student Adjusts the Seat.

Now that we talk of driving. It seems that some new Italian law actually forbids A to drive her husband's BMW. Something to do with horsepower and A being a newbie driver. This is her excuse, anyway. A would rather dig her own grave with a ratty spoon than drive ever again.

A on cloud 9 on a Saturday morning:

Why? Because she has fulfilled one of her lifetime wants: A was allowed to paint walls with rollers. A now plans to convince the sis-in-law to make her paint the niece's room during her next stay in Manila.

Writers' Website Links and GH O TI

2007-05-17T20:28:00.000+02:00

Just rushing this out. Am sooooooooooo way behind everything.
But I did say I'd pass that word along about —

Writers' Website Links:

Dee Rimbaud is putting together a comprehensive list of writers' websites. If you have a website, all you have to do is email him the URL plus a JPEG photograph of yourself (preferably no bigger than 200kb). His e-mail is dee.rimbaud at googlemail dot com.

If you don't know how to do this, or don't have a friend who could help you the alternative would be to send him one by regular mail to: Dee Rimbaud, c/o Fligel, 35 Falkland Street (Flat 0/1), Glasgow, G12 9QZ, Scotland, United Kingdom. (NB: only send a disposable photograph as he won't be able to return it).

GH O TI acceptance and review:

GH O TI accepted three poems for their Summer 2007 issue:

• A Driving Instructor's First Copy of Jane Eyre
• Portrait of What's-Her-Name's Husband as Loose Change
• A Daughter Named Cialis

Submission date: 26 February 2007
Acceptance date: 16 May 2007

A kind review by Jillian Bledsoe of my book is also up in the current issue (#10).

Day 11 of Round VII

2007-05-11T19:16:00.000+02:00

Day 11. More than once I wanted to stop, but didn't. An extra back-pat for that.

    Poems to date —

    1. What Happens Next
    2. Fly
    3. The Lazarus
    4. Wet Paint
    5. Ferguson in the Bookshop, Sweating
    6. Ferguson's Sunday
    7. one : placebo
    8. two : union
    9. three : eclipse
    10. four : totem
    11. Letter from Miss de Bourgh

What else A has been up to:

• Setting up a new 'zine, Press 1 together with Valerie and other people

• Preparing book manuscript — tentatively titled, On Mirrors, Fractured — for submission

• Falling asleep in front of the laptop and being rudely awakened by the fire alarm when some Sim sets the kitchen on fire or when lightning strikes a tree during a sim-storm

• Growing light years further away from her mail

• Getting insensibly lost in Venice twice in less than two weeks

To cherry-top everything, A had coffee and lunch with Ellaraine Lockie — she was so excited by the tons of things they had in common, namely: paper-making, having relatives in the Philippines, a belief herbal medicine and yes, writing poetry!

Question:

Why is A talking in the third person?

Back in 30:30

2007-05-01T14:52:00.000+02:00

Have hauled my sorry ass back to 30:30 for my seventh round. And no, of course I'm not happy. I was quite happy reading in bed, thank you. Quite happy downloading clothes for my Sims. Quite happy drinking from the husband's coffee cup. But writing? No. I don't think it's called writing anymore. Looked it up in my Angelican dictionary. It's called painful tooth extraction program.

The Pedestal Magazine:

Issue 39 is now live — with the fab poetry of Dana Sonnenschein, Christine Potter, Sonya Taaffe, Pat Daneman, Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, David Troupes, Sherre Vernon, John Hazard, Elizabeth P. Glixman, Michele Lesko, George Wallace, K. R. Copeland, Jay Udall, Amy Watkins, and Malaika King Albrecht.

And yes, I'm preening again. What can I say? Love my job... and anything else that keeps me from cleaning the house.

Though I mentioned not sending personal rejection slips anymore, I couldn't resist. There were around thirty more poets whose work I really loved but couldn't offer publication. Heck, since they write better than I do, I figured they deserve more than a form letter from the caveperson on duty.

Recent fiction with Valerie Fox:

Our short story, Beyond the Voice is now up in the April 2007 issue of Defenestration. Giggle goulash.

Incidentally, this was one of the stories we did for the Fake Memoir Contest that Wild River Review was supposed to run last year. They never replied. Eventually, the contest page was removed and nothing more was heard of that. Anyway, one of the contest rules stated that we had to base the story on something that really happened. Teehee. The Kodaikanal escape is Valerie's truth while mine is —erm— Miss Moyle, the swimming-instructress-turned-speech-teacher and her stopwatch of terror (name changed to protect the guilty). Snicker saucepan and seesaws.

Gone crazy over Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Trilogy:

Can't wait for the third book to come out... and I hope it's soon! Spent a whole weekend in bed with Eragon and Eldest. I feel all very Annie Wilkes with impatience.

Saw the film while I was in Manila and really enjoyed it. It's halfway between LOTR and Harry Potter, but the story's nicely plotted. It's a bit bloody in some parts, but it's a really good — educational and entertaining — read for kids, I think. A lot of wisdom thrown in with reflections on war and one's values. Was impressed to learn later that Paolini was not even out of his teens when he first published the first book and that it was his parents who published it in the beginning before it came to the attention Alfred A. Knopf. Wowza.

Only Connect anthology and The Strix Varia

2007-04-19T19:09:00.000+02:00

Haven't started writing yet. Mainly because am convinced that I'm Gengivite Khan, ruler of the Moribondi Empire. One of the things I love about Civ 4 is the cheat commands. Teehee. And you just gotta love my beard.

Recent acceptance:

Cinnamon Press accepted three poems: Desert, For things she doesn't know and chopping board for the Only Connect Anthology edited by Gail Ashton and Jan Fortune-Wood. Really excited about this — I saw so many familiar names in the contents list.

Submission date: 9 February 2007
Acceptance date: 18 April 2007

A new poetry-reading magazine:

Just discovered The Strix Varia today. Was touched and honored when the editor wrote me saying that they're running a close-reading by Lia Lynch of my poem, The 23rd Secret Love Poem — the one that won the Frogmore Prize last year. Wowza.

Simply love the idea of publishing — instead of poetry — essays, close readings, reflections and reviews on the work of living, published poets. Have always wanted to do a line-by-line reading/interpretation of some favorite poems and I know some of you do that blog-wise — so check it out. Even authors themselves can send a "reflection" on a published work (preferably online for the linking to work).

Miranda Lit, juked and the BlazeVOX experience [updated]

2007-04-17T10:14:00.000+02:00

Haven't been doing any writing at all... but I can feel it, like PMS, coming any day now. For one, ever since I installed Sims 2 Seasons in the laptop, the game has been crashing every 5 minutes. Which is just as well. Should get out more. Should call home more. Should blog more. Should, should, should. Here's a mental picture of myself these days:

Recent publications:

• Have 4 poems up in the current issue of Miranda Literary Magazine — namely:

The 34th Secret Love Poem
it has nothing to do with apples (for aunt knicknack)
"Be silent," answered the dervish. —Voltaire
Self-Portrait with Stolen Wristwatch

This is a really classy 'zine. The only catch (or not) is that they don't keep archives. They do request First Serial Rights/first publication credit. I read the fine print for the first time. Heh!

      Submission date: 27 February 2007
      Acceptance date: 14 April 2007

• His Creepy Gorilla Suit is now up in juked! It's thrilled to be exchanging hairs with fellow bloggers, like Sarah's pitcher and Sharon's face full of gravel.

The BlazeVOX experience [updated from today]:

Well, it's quite a relief. They finally pulled my poems from the Spring 2007 issue. Though rather remiss of them not to pull out my name from the table of contents. But that's their problem. Hee.

Am really displeased with this 'zine. Just got an e-mail from the editor, who's equally displeased with me, saying he was going to pull out my poems as I requested yesterday and, I quote: "You gave me permission to publish some of your poems, and I agreed even after your cool surprise in our continuance."

DUH. After saying in his e-mail last March: "I'll remove your listing and thank you again for your submitting. Congrats on the other publications."

I took it that "remove your listing" has something to do with removing, not publishing.

Maybe it's just me. But I've been sending work to magazines for more than 10 years and this is the first time I've had a problem with an editor. What an eye-opening experience, to say the least.

If you're still interested, here are some things to know before submitting to BlazeVOX:

1. Don't do simultaneous subs with them because they'll simply ignore your e-mail when you write them to withdraw a poem.

2. Because it's biannual, they have a long response time, so be prepared to wait. Have no idea if they send rejection notes, now that I think of it. Don't send queries because they don't reply (as least didn't to me). Response time below:

      Submission date: 15 August 2007
      Acceptance date: 15 March 2007

3. My rant (and no, I haven't been drinking): They sent me an acceptance note stating that I may now view my work online and to check if everything is in order. I wrote back saying that, since 6 months had passed and I didn't get a reply to my query, I figured they had folded and am afraid I'll have to withdraw some of the poems since they're already under consideration elsewhere. The editor was very nice about it and told me he was going to remove my listing — which I took it meant he won't include me in the issue or at least include only the poem that was still available. I really breathed a sigh of relief there. Then, yesterday I get an e-mail stating that the Spring issue is now up and what do I see? ALL five poems.

Reading and reading

2007-04-12T12:46:00.000+02:00

That's basically what A4 (like the paper) has been up to. Am catching up on TPM submissions and doing not much of anything else. I don't think I'll be sending out personalized replies this time around... apart from the inundation, it does seem more professional that way.

Also reading and re-reading this sudoku page about x-wings, swordfish, jellyfish and squirmbags. Waaaah. Can someone translate it to me in plain English?

One more thing about Reading. It's been eradicated from the face of the sim world. Booo. I didn't bother to save it prior to installing Seasons... based on the belief that seasons have nothing to do with my sims. I did get a warning, of course, which I ignored because of my faith. But I am Catholic. Hee. Which means I'm re-downloading custom objects, clothes and faces from every fan site I can find.

Recent acceptance:

Valerie and I were so thrilled when Defenestration extended an invitation for our story, Beyond the Voice to appear in their upcoming April 20th issue. It will mark our second publication as co-fiction writers. Wheeeee!

Submission date: 7 February 2007
Reply date: 9 April 2007

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Physically back in Italy...

2007-04-02T10:55:00.000+02:00

... but sims²petting around with the laptop in bed ALL day and night. One of the things I hate about vacations is that, with age, I need another vacation to get over my vacation. Hee.

The husband came home last Saturday from his dinner out and snickered, "You haven't even moved from there since I left." For a moment, I got this mental picture of that geek in a CSI episode who was found dead in front of the computer because he couldn't make himself leave the game. He stopped eating and guzzled beer until his liver conked out on him. Not that I drink beer, but I got the picture.

Hopefully, this time I can glue myself back on my squeaky chair in front of the G4 and get some serious stuff done — like replying to fe-males, bogging, writ(h)ing pottery, whatever.

Recent publications:

• Three poems up in the special winter 2007 issue of Blue Fifth Review. This issue, themed as "the world of cinema", has fab poetry by Michael Boettcher, Bob Bradshaw, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Christine Hamm, Edward Higgins, Collin Kelley (special wheeeee!!), Leslie Marcus, Joan Mazza, Christopher Mulrooney, James Owens, Marge Piercy, Barbara Jane Reyes, Susan Terris — and features the breathtaking photography by Gerhardt Thompson.

• Concelebratory Shoehorn Review has featured some old-ish poems in Issue 4 (April 2007).

• My word poem, The Woman in Teal Pyjamas is now up in the April/May issue of Eclectica.

Niece One/Niece Two:

Since the family has got a hang-up on A names, she is A5. And what does A5 like? Sharks, vegetables, make-believe preparation of burnt meals, referring to herself in the third person, playing blocks with her favorite aunt (A4), posing for pictures, and bathing her rubber cockroach (obviously A4's gift). She's weird enough to be adorable.

The two-week old A6, fed and burped, in deep meditation.

Quick-ish update from Manila

2007-03-15T16:27:00.000+01:00

• In Posse Review has accepted my poems, Study of an Object at Rest and The Macro Lens Feeds, in Part, On Human Skin in their forthcoming “Poetry and the Body” issue.

      Submission date: 8 January 2007
      Acceptance date: 4 March 2007

Really thrilled to be sharing space with Sarah in this classy 'zine, too!

• Stand Magazine has also accepted 4 poems: Frog Oral Cavity: A Random Dissection of Wednesday, He drafted, Rehearsal and Falling into a Manhole is Considered Lucky in a future issue, sometime in 2007. I'm quite ecstatic. I used to read copies of Stand at the British Council back then... never imagined I could get in!

In fact, I'd already given up on them (see response time below):

      Submission mailed: 22 May 2006
      Acceptance received: 7 March 2007

• Eclectica has accepted my word poem, The Woman in Teal Pyjamas in their Spring 2007 issue. This will mark my 11th presence there.

      Submission date: 25 January 2007
      Acceptance date: 14 March 2007

• Boxcar Poetry Review is featuring two pictures I took at the Central Cemetery in Vienna in their March 2007 issue. Wheeeeee!! Here's a thought bubble:

• And last but not the least, I became a second-time aunt to the thirstiest baby girl in the East on March 5. She feeds almost every hour or two... breast milk and formula. Totally ravenous.

Five things I'm excited about

2007-03-03T17:06:00.000+01:00

• Having the picture I took in Vienna's Central Cemetery featured in the March 2007 issue of Stirring.

• Being part of Bob Marcacci's THE COUNTDOWN #20 at miPOradio.

• Placing 1st and 3rd in Tattoo Highway's "A Picture Worth 500 Words" contest.

• Having two oldish poems, Nothing Heavier Than Silence and Lessons in Scrying Sarcoma in the Spring 2007 issue of flashquake. Michi received 2nd place in the "fib" contest here — so that's a double yay!

• And last, but not the least, waiting for my sis-in-law to give birth to her baby anytime now.

Packed like luncheon meat...

2007-02-26T14:19:00.000+01:00

and ready to leave. More or less. Will have to get all my stuff in some CDs now. Not sure if I'll be able to blog when I'm in Manila — with the dial-up access there, a webpage can take up to 5 minutes to upload.

The exciting life of a poetry editor:

I simply have to share Tim Green's worst week ever. Seems like a sound argument against unsound driving. And he's got photos to prove it, too!

There's also a note there that the Rattle site was hacked and went down a week ago together with their e-mail addresses. It seems fine now. Thought I'd share the news in case anyone submitted around that time and had problems.

But what excites me most ...

is yesyesyes! Max Winter's book, The Pictures is OUT!! Can't wait to get my hands on it. I mean, I've been waiting ages for a collection of his poetry. Here's an excerpt from one of my favorites, The ant.

The ant spends some time in the grass,
a long time, for an ant.
Two minutes, three seconds.
It then begins to emerge from between the blades,
head still, antennae moving slightly.
It is looking directly, we think, at the pastry crumb.
Interestingly, by the time the ant remembers
its original destination,
that destination point has shifted inexorably.

Simply adore the sense of distance and also the close observation of details — without ever sounding trite or forced.

Recent acceptance:

juked accepted my poem, His Creepy Gorilla Suit for an upcoming issue. Really love this wacky, wild 'zine, so I'm quite delighted.

Submission date: 23 February 2007
Reply date: 25 February 2007

Boring holes in my head:

• Chantal Kreviazuk: Green Apples
• Vasco Rossi: Sally
• Snow Patrol: Chasing Cars (yeahyeahyeah, thanks Mutt)
• Gianna Nannini: Meravigliosa creatura

Website updated...

2007-02-25T14:57:00.000+01:00

with shots taken in Vienna... mainly the Central Cemetery and Schönbrunn Zoo. Am rather fond of this statue — the expression of grief is so raw and cutting. Makes me think of that biblical woman turning into salt:

Recent mail:

• My multiple selves went wooooo heeeee! when I received a fantabulous surprise mail from Valerie. She mailed me, for some inexplicable reason, a signed copy of Nathan Leslie's short fiction collection, Drivers. I'm continually amazed by how the literary world is so vast and so small at the same time — because, incidentally, Nathan is fiction editor for The Pedestal where I've become a hired hand and he went to do a reading at Drexel University where Valerie works.

Here's a ticklish first paragraph from his story, Errand — which, oh dear, expresses so well my driving hang-ups:

Shelley really can't bring herself to drive. Not only does her mother have heart arrythmia and need care and daughterly nurturing, but also there is the matter of fear and dread, or dread mixed with fear or ambivalence, or whatever it is that makes Shelley's stomach curdle and her skin tighten at the thought of sitting behind the wheel and stepping on the gas peddle. Who knows why? Thank God for Milton Glencoe — who lives in her neighborhood and agrees to drive Shelley for work every day in exchange for gas and a hand to hold his coffee. Sometimes he doesn't even make her pay for gas, does he? He either feels sorry for her or he forgets. One or the other. He is quite forgetful, which Shelley thinks must make him a superior accountant. That's the way accountants are supposed to be, isn't it?

• Have received my copy of Velvet Avalanche: a collection of erotic poetry. Oooooh and aaaaaaah. The poetry is a real beaut. That's all I can say.

Interestingly enough:

There's a list-your-favorite-porn-flick game of tag going on at Mad Carl's Brain Props. Well, it's true that I suggested it... but I never imagined he'd do the actual —erm— research. Teehee. And googling Shakespeare, I discovered that most of his plays have got their porn versions. If you scroll down to mid-page, you'll find some lists here and here (under the heading "William Shakespeare Retires from Gay Porn"). I mean, they've got King Leer, Horny V, Rich Hard III, etc. The wordplay just makes me go

Currently playing on loop:

• Tori Amos: China
• Bjork: Army of Me, All Is Full of Love and Bachelorette
• Gianna Nannini: Meravigliosa creatura

I'm baaaaaaack...

2007-02-20T11:47:00.000+01:00

... though not for long. Have got another week before I re-pack my luggage for Manila. Will be staying there till end of March. And then there's been family talk about going to California in May. Don't think I'll get much writing done this year... but hey, it is the Year of the Golden Pig (which comes only every 60 or 600 years, depending on how gullible you are) and I say indolence is a must. Hee.

Had a great time in Vienna with the udder spouse. We teeheeeeed and heehaaaaawed until late into the night — that you just have to thank god for deaf neighbors. Here's a pic called Shadows on Grass... which already hints on what we had been up to — which was really no good. I mean, we were standing there looking just like udder people.

And here's her Rude-Olf watching us from the television top. I guess the look on his face says it all. He's supposed to have a red nose... but I swear it was no longer there when I arrived. Mug-shot probably mistook it for a strawberry during one of her lush states. She likes strawberries.

On Sunday I had two huge cups of mulled wine. Wheeeeeeee! My mind did some cartwheels halfway down my first cup, but it sort of stilled afterwards and I didn't feel tipsy at all. When I boasted about it to the husband, he commented that it's probably because my liver had entered a state of paralysis. Tsk. Not that he should talk. He and his colleagues were already drunk from excessive wine-tasting at the Nuremberg trade fair by 10 a.m.

Recent acceptance:

flashquake accepted two oldish (revised and re-revised) poems, Lessons in Scrying Sarcoma and Nothing Heavier Than Silence for their Spring 2007 edition.

Submission date: 31 January 2007
Reply date: 16 February 2007
And Mental received 2nd (fore)plays in their tiny, tiny poem contest!

10 favorite films:

Sam tagged me into revealing my faves. By faves I mean films I like to watch again and again. Also love Orlando (from Collin's list), numbers 5, 6, 7 from Nicole's southern movies list and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest from Sarah's list.

1. The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973)
2. Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
3. All of Me (Carl Reiner, 1984)
4. Good Morning Vietnam (Barry Levinson, 1987)
5. Como agua para chocolate [Like Water For Chocolate] (Alfonso Arau, 1992)
6. The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
7. Léolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1992)
8. La Tregua [Truce] (Francesco Rosi, 1997)
9. Meet the Parents (Jay Roach, 2000)
10. Hero (Yimou Zhang, 2004)

Leaving for Vienna

2007-02-14T13:04:00.000+01:00

Okay, I'm skipping out of town... and seriously considering the prospect of skipping out on the 4-week course at the three candles workshop. Mind has gone shamelessly Patrician III and this little bunny is already on vacation mode. Wheeeeeeeeeee!

A note or two about PNG:

Some people have asked me what's going on with Poems Niederngasse... and I didn't know until a few days ago. Paco, the editor is finally wrapping up the next issue — which should be online in March. He's also looking for poetry book reviews and/or reviewers for the 'zine. If anyone's interested, feel free to e-mail him: editors(at)niederngasse.com (replace (at) with @).

Recent publication:

My poem, Dear Dog/God is now up in the latest issue of 21 Stars Review. Quite thrilled to be in the company of Nina Alvarez, F. J. Bergmann (gotta love her!), Michelle Bitting, C. L. Bledsoe, Mark DeCarteret, Jennifer Gravley, Len Joy, Amanda Laughtland, Duane Locke, Kyle Minor (probably just set the record for the loooooongest title in the history of poetry — hee), Alison Shaffer and Shellie Zacharia.

And that's it —

I'm outta here and... HAPPY VALENTINE'S everyone!

It's done. I've sworn allegiance...

2007-02-07T12:35:00.000+01:00

... to the Italian Republic yesterday. Hopefully, I don't burn in their debts of hell for this.

Was tickled pink to have shaken the mayor's hand — once as a foreigner and then as an Italian citizen. He even handed me a small book containing the constitution and a small flag. The flag just makes me go teehee all over. Have told the husband that, from now on, I will greet him by waving with my tiny, tiny Italian flag when he comes home from work. And that during the next World Cup, I will hang my tiny, tiny flag outside our window... though, since our neighbors use officially huge flags, I'll probably back out at the last minute for fear of being ridiculed for the size of my —erm— flag.

Photography fluke:

Was rather pleased when the instructor clapped his hands last night and said that this fluke happens to be a prime example of Rembrandt lighting — an effect that makes the shot appear as if natural light was coming from a window.

I took around 60 pics and only this one got the thumbs-up sign.

Currently wild about:

Lucky Wreck by Ada Limon. Her writing just makes me want to die because it sure feels like heaven (mine). Here's an excerpt from her longish poem, The Echo Sounder:

2
When she is eleven years old, she thinks
her body will be like that of a fish. She does
not want to decay before she uses it.
She is confused in the dark. She is never
scared. She is convinced that she can talk
to God and she asks him a question.
She does not get an answer, so
she makes one up. She believes the answer is:
everything stops, the food is in the mouth,
but the mouth is not there,
the water flows, but there is no creek.
She understands now that bodies can swing
from trees and whole families
can be locked up, that people die the way fish do
starving sometimes, gutted and tortured
by children who think they are being
scientific and responsible. She thinks God
must know this and therefore he is ugly.
She decides God is no good, but he must exist,
he must exist so she can hold him accountable.
She decides this and then forgets.

Woooooheeeee! Ain't she divine?! Love this interior monologue with its surprising twists and turns, plus mind-opening theistic-social observations.

Going to Vienna and Other Poetry

2007-02-03T18:01:00.000+01:00

Well. I've booked the flight. I'm spending Valentine's Day and more over at the wife's place. Since the husband is scheduled to attend the World Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg, I thought it was a good idea to take advantage of his absence and meet up with the other spouse.

If anyone of you will be around Vienna or are within a 2000-mile radius, do come over! You can stay at Mental's place with me while she works, does the cleaning and plays Emily Haines' The Maid Needs a Maid on loop. Well, she did (or was going to) say that her house is my house.

Recent acceptance:

Really thrilled to announce that Other Poetry, a UK-based print journal accepted my poem, A Driving Student Intrudes on Fallen Nuts. They talk of a six-week response time at their website, but it was much longer than that. They do reply though — which is the important thing. Very nice professional manners, too!

      Submission date: 17 October 2006
      Final-round notification: 24 January 2007
      Acceptance date: 31 January 2007

Currently reading:

Four Fires by Bryce Courtenay... and loving it! Borrowed it offhand from the library because it looked thick enough to last me a long time [oh, I know what you dirty-minders are thinking — be ashamed of yourselves]. It's rather Steinbeckish and Thorn-Birdish — but with a lot more humor, sass and ass:

      We'd be walking, my hand buried in his big, calloused fist, him shuffling with his bit of a limp and me hopping and skipping, the wind rustling high and fierce in the big old gum trees above us, making a sound like waves lapping on some distant seashore, when, without warning, my granpa would let go a rip-snorter! A real tearing sound that could last five seconds with a stuttering cluster of encores to follow.
      'Oh, my gawd, the hippobottomus is following us again!' he'd exclaim, turning to glance backwards and then waving his one hand furiously in front of his nose, 'Bugger's gorn again, but you can smell where he's been!' He'd point at the ground below his bum, 'He was right there before he escaped, did you see him, Mole?'
      I'd shake my head. 'What's a hippo-bottom-us look like, Granpa? I'd ask, the game begun for the hundredth time.
      'Smelly creature, big round bum like your grandmother's,' he'd confide, 'Don't want to meet him face to face, could blow a little fellow like you right off the mountain.'

Teehee. The reading gets scatological at times... but it is the saga of a family of garbage collectors. No kidding.

All has been quiet on the poetry front...

2007-01-31T20:26:00.000+01:00

... it's rather creepy. To fight the boredom of waiting, I submitted to 17 journals this month. Hah. Not really a record. I actually hit an all-time record of 23 subs last August. I know. I'm creepy. But I'm willing to bet that you people out there are creepier than I am. For one, I'm environmentally conscious enough to collect my nail clippings in the husband's ashtray instead of letting them loose around the house.

That's probably the reason why the authorities have granted me....

Italian citizenship:

Wheeee! I was so relieved when the letter from the government arrived yesterday. I applied almost two years ago... and come March they asked me to ring the immigration office and request a follow-up on my 'ship. Thing is I've lost the phone number of the person I was supposed to contact.

So, I'm doubly pleased since I don't have to call anyone anymore. Having an Italian passport would permit to go to many parts of the world without requesting a visa (and getting interrogated regarding my dubious intentions) every time. Incidentally, it'll be the second time I change my citizenship. I just found out last year that I was a Taiwanese citizen at birth. Gaaaak. Why am I always the last one to know about these things? It was around that same time last year when I found out Neil Young was still alive. Right. Whatever.

30:30 update:

I'm soooooooooo overjoyed that this round is over.
Taking a break! Wheeee! I'm so fizzled, I keep smelling my hair burn. Poems list to date —

21. My Real Intention Was To Steal The Bucket
22. At the Check Out
23. (fear) of being watched
24. (a fear) of rabbits
25. Laguna Palace, Mestre
26. A Night in the Suburbs
27. What My Elbows Say About The Afterlife
28. (a fear of) the man richard
29. On the 29th Day
30. This Much Is True

Teehee. There's a fear mania going on there. It's one of the things I love about 30:30... we tend to get rather obsessed over the same things. Really great interaction!

I've gone over the edge with the man Richard again. Must be a hang-up of some sort since Valerie and I never got to finish our story about him pinning tails on donkeys.

Amazon shopping:

Since "school" starts tomorrow at Steve's workshop, I bought some books we've been assigned to read plus other things I've been wanting to get for some time:

• Nine Gates by Jane Hirshfield
• The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Proofs and Theories by Louise Gluck
• The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
• Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies by Lee Varis
• Selected and New Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) by Denise Duhamel
• Amnesia by Jonah Winter
• The Fever Almanac by Kristy Bowen

Online poetry workshop/class

2007-01-27T12:25:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd share this tidbit — in case anyone's interested: Steve Mueske is holding a 4-week online poetry workshop at the Three Candles forum. More info can be found at his blog. He calls it "a creative exercise-driven adventure" — which is the reason I signed up. The classes start on February 1st... so if you'd like to join, hurry up!

Other news:

• Have finally updated and upgraded (to CSS layers) Valerie's website. Took me days to get a grasp of the —erm— situation, checking and rechecking with different browsers on both pc and mac... so if someone comes up to me and says it doesn't work on theirs, I think I'll go

• Well. Here's a rather big news. John asked and I said yes... which basically explains what I'm doing here. Because of this, my TPM schedule has been moved to the April issue (instead of the June one). I'll be reading subs between Feb 28 - April 14.

• TPM is presently looking for a reviewer who knows French. Or someone proficient in French who would like to review the translation. If you know anyone or are interested yourself, please e-mail me!

Thought for the Weekend:

Teehee. This is quite addictive —

My Fortune Cookie told me:
Take time today to pay more attention to your imaginary friends.
Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Creepy. How'd it know? How'd it know? That's what I want to know.

Nothing much happening...

2007-01-22T11:52:00.000+01:00

just work, work and work. Am banging my head on different kinds of keyboards to acquire enlightenment on CSS layers. The husband has finally gotten me a few programs that do them automatically. Yay and boo — because I've had to re-do all the hard work while he scratched his paunch in front of the tv.

Am involved in setting up a new 'zine (with possible chapbooks being published through it). It's very exciting! I do *love* getting my fingers into and all over everything. And no, dearies — I didn't mean any sexual innuendo there. Your minds are sooooo dirty!

30:30 update:

Day 20 finally came last night. Really struggling to get out a serious poem. I keep the gorilla suit for my bad muse days. Poems list to date —

11. Autumnal [sonnenizio on a line from Berryman]
12. Explosion
13. Fridge Note/First Secret Love Fib
14. Otherworld [sonnenizio on a line from Berryman]
15. body : water
16. air : lift
17. Backtracking To The Gorilla Suit
18. Heritage and the Gorilla Suit
19. A fear of falling
20. Anima Nera [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]

I'm Rather Ashamed of Myself:

Nicole's 100% bible savviness (shameful, isn't? I scored a more rational 82% — wheeeee!) awakened my blog quiz mania again.

Do You Have a Dirty Mind?
My Mind is PG-13 Rated

Your mind is definitely a little dirty. You're naughty, but not trashy.
You don't shy away from a dirty joke, and you're clearly not a prude.

Teehee. Unbelievable, isn't it? And this, aaaaaaaaargh guess, just sealed my driving days:

Are You a Good Driver?
I Failed My Driver's Test!

You only got 6/10 correct.
If you have a driver's license, it needs to be revoked!

And, jumping from Sharon's blog, I got this creepy note from my cookie:

My Fortune Cookie told me:
Better start drinking now.
Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Boxcar, Siren and Unpleasant Event Schedule

2007-01-16T14:29:00.000+01:00

Wheeeeee! Good things do come in threes —

• Issue 6 of Boxcar Poetry Review is now up with poetry by Aaron Anstett, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Brent Fisk, Ann Wood Fuller, Do Gentry, Jude Goodwin, Matthew Little, Marty McConnell, Heather Salus, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Florencia Varela and.... **mumblemumble**

They're holding a poetry contest between May and August — which really looks interesting — on the theme of Elegy and Loss. So, watch out for that.

• Issue 3 of Siren is also online, with poetry by Cait Rappel, Jason Fraley, Jehanne Dubrow, Kristy Bowen, Mark DeCarteret, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Sam Rasnake and.... **glugluglug**

Am tickled pinkish to see so many fellow bloggers in this issue. Congrats everyone!

• Lastly, I've become an Unpleasant Event — word-wise and camera-wise. This is one of my favorite 'zines, especially since the editor updates almost every week and there's a continuous flow of poetry. So... I know you'll understand why I just have to break into all-out belly-dancing (c/o www.HelloCrazy.com):

Bestest Lush Poem Ever:

So, This Is Drink by Sean Lovelace (Diagram 6.6)
My multiple selves have to bow out of respect... and also because they're too drunk to stand up on their own. Tsk.

Other Voices and ultimate driving update

2007-01-12T11:52:00.000+01:00

Blah. I'm running so late! Apologies to everyone whose blog I haven't yet visited and/or e-mail I haven't yet answered. Photography lessons restarted this week and I had remedial yoga class... plus: student questions to answer (they're actually studying my stuff — what's the world coming to?!! ), CSS layers to unravel for a couple of websites, submission deadlines to meet and bottles of wine to guzzle. Actually I can do that last one in-between everything and everywhere.

Driving update:

Since Carl expressed a rather unhealthy interest in my driving, I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I've stopped. I had an awful-driving day sometime before Christmas when I almost ran over two pedestrians in less than 20 minutes. I also nearly drove off a bridge (while shifting gears) — the husband grabbed the wheel and lengthened our life span. Since it was the holidays I thought I'd give everyone a break. I've had at least three recurring nightmares about driving slowly and dangerously since then... which haven't helped my driving inferiority complex.

Recent publication:

I have 6 poems up in the 23rd volume of The Other Voices International Project:

• I'm quite certain this isn't Beaujolais
• Something tells me I'm dying
• This is not the poem
• Autumnal
• White Window
• Tossed

30:30 update:

Hit Day 10 last night. This is worse than a tooth extraction program. Poems list to date —

1. A Portrait of God as Table Wine
2. A Shot, In the Woods and Fraught with Barking Dogs
3. Horizon And The Bodies We Wear [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]
4. The Car Thief, In Dying, Touches His Face
5. Rain and Window-Gazing [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]
6. Study of an Object at Rest
7. The Gorilla Suit Showed Up For Its Close-Up Today
8. Plate VII: Black Ink on White
9. Airborne [sonnenizio on a line from Ros Barber]
10. Please Meet My Table

Incidentally, poems 1, 2 and 4 were for Blue Fifth Review's Winter 2007 issue devoted to film. Thanks go to Sam for the invitation — and inspiration!

Cautionary Tale and Staple

2007-01-06T22:38:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Doro's call-for-food-subs tip, I have an old-ish sonnet, Finally Throwing the Sauce up at Cautionary Tale — as well as a pasta recipe.

Watched Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless yesterday. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to hit the guy there or laugh crazily when he said that women drivers were the epitome of cowardice because they never overtake other cars. I did get some vicious pleasure when he got slapped twice by his girlfriend for trying to look at her legs. Teehee. That was fun.

Here's my fave quote from the film — which, I think, speaks a lot about human nature... always wanting what it cannot have:

Patricia Franchini: What is your greatest ambition in life?
Parvulesco: To become immortal... and then die.

Recent acceptance:

staple, a UK-based print journal, sent a hand-written note accepting two poems, On Waking Up a Different Woman (written for Pris) and Drained for their next issue.

But what thrilled me out of my boots is the new editor: Wayne Burrows. Yesyesyes!! The author of Marginalia! I just idolize his poetry and am totally psyched that he finds my stuff publishable.

Let me drink a hefty cold glass of some good ol' Ramandolo to calm me down. Aaaaah. That feels better.

Here's the waiting period — probably made longer since I sent it to the old address:

Postmarked date: 3 October 2006
Reply received: 5 January 2006

The website info hasn't been updated yet. Submissions now go to:

Staple New Writing
c/o Wayne Burrows
114 - 116 St Stephen's Rd,
Sneinton,
Nottingham NG2 4FJ
U.K.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T18:41:00.000+01:00

Wheee! Hope everyone had a great time during the holidays. I'm a day late as usual in my greetings... but I've been —erm— indisposed.

We spent Christmas at the future in-laws' of the husband's niece... where I was coerced by her future dad-in-law to drink the anima nera (black soul) — a strongish liqueur made of licorice, alcohol and sugar — and I hadn't been the same ever since... especially since he made me do sudoku puzzles in such a sorry state while he watched. Afterwards he sent me home with an electronic sudoku gadget. I'm totally drugged on sudoku!!

Which, of course, leads me to say that I dropped out of my 6th round in 30:30 on the 26th day. As in, really rolled off the wagon, giggling my pants off while I ploinked away through sudoku puzzles. Have picked up my carcass and gone back to square six today.

Watched Robert Bresson's The Diary of a Country Priest yesterday for a poetry project. I was rather tickled green when the priest drowned his bread in wine. His constant drinking reminded me, naturally, of my thirst. Poor guy. Everyone thought he was a lush. He reminded me of someone but I haven't been able to put my finger on who that is. Yet.

Recent publications:

• Have two poems in the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Eclectica: Sonnenizio on a Line from Wendy Cope and Caregiver.

The wife has a poem here, too about... memememememe as the driving instructor's recurring nightmare. Isn't she the sweetest?!! I'm going to thank her with a bat, I think. Or is that a boot?

• The January 2007 issue of Vintage Poetry Journal is now online with poetry by Steve Bloom, Alan Britt, Clay Carpenter, Christine Ann Clatworthy, Cathy Delaleu, Howard Good, Maureen Hand, Beth Stolar Kehayes, Kristine Ong Muslim, Chris Never, Keith Nunes, Jared Wahlgren and the owner of this bog... I mean, log. Erm. Brogue. Whatever. As in, whatever it is I'll drink to it. Tee hee hic.

Christmas shopping

2006-12-21T18:01:00.000+01:00

Yay! The husband and I got it all done this morning — we were pretty desperate and everything looked good. At least, we insisted they were good. Like whosis when he/she created the world.

30:30 update:

Still there... though a lot of times I've considered dropping out and taking a nice looooooooong holiday. But, as the husband would say, I am perennially on vacation.

Poems list to date (round VI) —

11. Envy Made Me Shave Body Parts
12. Portrait of Anselma and Marianne as Minor Saints
13. Please Meet My Navel
14. Aftermath [sonnenizio on a line from Ros Barber]
15. Please Don't Put Dinosaurs in My Poem
16. My SimCity Llama Has a Cold
17. Taste
18. Plate VI: Black Ink on White
(re-titled: The Bomb Explodes and the Faces of People
I Know Are Blown Apart)
19. Breakage [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]
20. The Body at Rest

First night photo:

We attended the 20th wedding anniversary of some friends near Venice. This is a nightview of the Ponte della Libertà (Bridge of Liberty) taken with an exposure time of 6 seconds.

21 Stars, Flutter, and a Dead Horse

2006-12-17T17:06:00.000+01:00

Blah. I'm running shamelessly late — with e-mail and also blog-wise... haven't yet done my blog-rounds yet. Eek. Suffering some really bad muse days — which means I waste more than half the day bursting my poor brain, pustule-like, for ink.

The amount of mail has been rather —uh— overwhelming, too.

Recent publication:

• The December 2006 issue of Nthposition is now online with poems by Elizabeth Kirschner, Tim Liardet, Dave Lordan, Len Sousa, Rufo Quintavalle, Ryk Mcintyre, Wayne Smith, Marlene Rosen and Carol Jenkins. The weed has four poems here —

On tiles
All perfectly abandoned
About your parrot
A driving student restarts the car

So-called weed is particularly happy that the parrot it stole has found a home. A weed, as everyone knows, can love a parrot like its first drink of the day.

Recent rejection/acceptances:

• Since people might be interested in the response time, Poetry London sent a form letter apology. This is a market that's like way over my drinking experience and grocery list — but it never hurts to try.

      Postmarked date: 4 August 2006
      Date received: 16 December 2006

• Tickled pinkish that 21 Stars Review wants my Dear Dog/God— poem in their 4th issue. Just gotta love this 'zine! Delicious mix of the bizarre, quirky, raving mad and serious. I'm blissful that my letter has found its place with them.

      Submission date: 20 November 2006
      Reply date: 14 December 2006

• Flutter accepted three poems for the January 2007 issue: Two Days After Epiphany, Answers to questions and In The Underground. Neat 'zine this — lovely poetry and an announcements page where you can send news of your latest book/chapbook.

      Submission date: 5 December 2006
      Reply date: 14 December 2006

• A bit of mixed news here. Good news is that Dead Horse Review (don't you just *love* that name?) wants my poem, A Driving Student Reconstructs the Three-Point Turn for their third issue. Bad news is that it will be their last. Boooohooo! I just enjoy this 'zine like a swimming pool and am rather sad it's going on hiatus. Here's to hoping it won't be for a long time.

      Submission date: 25 October 2006
      Reply date: 17 December 2006

Based on their website, they seem to be still accepting work. I think it was this submission note that I found so irresistible:

Kindly title your email "submission" and the response e-mail will most probably be titled "dominance."

Magma, Eclectica, BluePrintReview, Feathertale et al.

2006-12-13T17:45:00.000+01:00

Yikes. Things seem to be moving fast... the winter issues of the following 'zines have gone online:

• Feathertale updated its poetry section yesterday which includes my Supermarket Tabloid Sestina Challenge poem, Headlines Sestina.

• BluePrintReview has published my poem, Probe in their 9th issue — I owe the line breaks to the wonderful editor, Doro.

      Submission date: 28 November 2006
      Reply date: 4 December 2006

• My review of Valerie Fox's book, The Rorschach Factory (Straw Gate Books, 2006) is now up in the Winter 2006-07 issue of Per Contra.

Recent acceptances:

• I'm delighted to share that Magma will be publishing my two poems: Tusk and A Day, Perhaps, Like No Other in their 37th issue, due out in March 2007.

It's my third attempt with this neat UK-based print journal, so I was quite thrilled to have finally gotten a thumbs up for a change. Their next issue theme is Isolation — deadline sometime around February. Do check them out!

      Submission date: 3 September 2006
      Reply date: 10 December 2006

• I'll be appearing for the —erm— 10th time in Eclectica (Jan-Feb 2007). The poetry editor has accepted two poems: Caregiver and Sonnenizio on a Line from Wendy Cope (yes, *that* one about the abusive myna bird called Sharon who drank like a sponge).

      Submission date: 26 November 2006
      Reply date: 12 December 2006

Morning light:

Woke up early this morning to take some pictures in the park some blocks down the road. Our teacher said between 8 - 10 am are the best possible hours for taking good shots. Then it's all downhill from then on. Like with my driving, I still have no idea what the hell I'm doing and what all those little numbers on my camera are for.