Rock 'n' Rolling in Tattoo Highway

Wheeee! I'm drinking hard and fast in the "Rocky Road: Rock 'n' Roll" issue of Tattoo Highway with my poem, At King's in Jesolo, 2004.

Recent Acceptance:

Obsessed with Pipework accepted three poems for their 2007 issue (#38):

• Sunday Picking
• In That Time Called Erstwhile
• In order to begin this poem

Quite fast response times, too. And the editor, ever so nice, even apologized for the delay.

   Submission date: 24 February 2006
   Reply date: 14 March 2006

Books Ordered and Received:

• The Key by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
• Cascade Experiment: Selected Poems by Alice Fulton
• The Tip of My Tongue by Robert Crawford
• Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson [because Sarah said it raaaawks ]

And, of course, this means I got my copy of The Sims 2: Open for Business Expansion, too. Played it the whole afternoon until three this morning. My personal view on writing today -- which is more or less on the same level with cleaning the artichokes:

The funniest quiz...

tells me that had I been a classic novel, I'd have been --



Virginia Woolf: Orlando.

You are a challenge, for outer events, the outside world, the time etc. play no importance to you. Your focus is in writing, in gender issues, and inside your own head. Self-analysis and exploration of yourself as well as the outer world hold great importance to you.


Which literature classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Something of a mass e-mail...

since many friends know about this blog -- I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm running VERY late with my e-mail replies. Husband is sick and has been prescribed a liquid diet for at least a week. I'm spending most of my time in waiting rooms, answering phone calls and cleaning the juicer rather than juicing itself.

And, as if things couldn't get any worse, my plantarium is doomed and overrun with molds. Booohooooo!! I will snap a pic as soon as I have a bit of time. It's one of those things, like the Frog Prince, that everyone (especially Michi) has *got* to see.

Recent Acceptances:

• Eclectica accepted my word poem, Weather-wise for their April 1st issue. Very nice and professional online journal -- with some fabulous poetry -- which makes it always a thrill to be part of the bunch.

   Submission date: 19 January 2006
   Reply date: 6 March 2006

• Noo Journal accepted my poem, Swirling calling it "a wonderfully meditative anecdote with some great language." The editor is simply terrific -- gave me some great suggestions on some cuts to make on the poem... so if it's looking good, I owe it to Mike Young.

   Submission date: 18 February 2006
   Reply date: 7 March 2006

Amusing Fact:

Annette Marie Hyder asked me some weeks ago to make a "photoem" for her project Facing Feminism: Feminists I Know.

The photoem is now available here. As I told Annette, the dog looks much better than me in the picture, but she does own more than my share of the room -- and so, has all the right to look her best. Hee.

A day off from writing

Wheeee!! Finished my first round of 30 poems at ITWS yesterday!

Have taken the day off from writing. Energy-wise, I'm just depleted. Hubby still sick after two weeks; it's such a worry not knowing what's wrong. The medical exams are taking ages.

It's also my dad's first birthday since... and my mood is rather darkish with a tendency to "brood over broken broomsticks" like the witches in my favorite primer.

Recent Acceptances/ Rejection:

The Potomac accepted two poems for their next issue:

• Coroner Kui Pours Wine in the Dark
• Single Hung Window

and another wheeeee!!
DIAGRAM accepted my poem: first, there was chloroform -- for their upcoming issue. After years and years for submitting and stalking, I've made it past the front door.

A rejection from Unpleasant Event Schedule:

   Submission date: 23 January 2006
   Reply date: 25 February 2006
   Compulsive-obsessive thought: Submit again, submit again, submit again.

The Pedestal and Crescent Moon Journal

Yay. We've finally got a bit of sun today... after days of fog and rain. As my vampire sims would say: Bleh!



Recently Published Poems:

• Marshal Song Enters the Servants' Quarters
after a Night of Gambling, His Pockets Empty

is now online in the current issue of The Pedestal Magazine (Issue #32, February 21 - April 21, 2006) -- which features poetry by Kristin Berger, Sam Byfield, Charles Fishman, Michael Homolka, Jennifer Jerome, Ellen Kombiyil, Peter Krok, Kristine Ong Muslim, Martina Newberry, Marina Lee Sable, Toni E. Scales, Jan Steckel, and Catherynne M. Valente; and fiction by J. Brundage, Antonios Maltezos, Eric Stoveken, and Jesse Waters.

• Accepting the Loss of Winter Boots

has been included in the winter 2006 issue Crescent Moon Journal since I co-judged their Winter Contest. This is a beaut of a journal -- elegant layout and warm winter colors. A lot of Blueliners here, too now that I look at it.

Some Reasons Why I'm in Such a Good Mood:

Went to my favorite Sims supermarket last night at mod the sims 2 and came home loaded with groceries. Now we have fish to fry:


Steak to grill:


And wheeeeee!! A pie for dessert:


Life just gets better and better... for my Sims, that is.

And acceptances come in twos

Incredible but true!

Recent Acceptances:

• poeticdiversity has accepted three poems: "Fish", "Love and Benny Hill" (previously published in Iota) and "Allhallows Noon" for their August 2006 edition. They've got pretty long response times, but they *do* reply.

   Submission date: 6 October 2005
   Reply date: 20 February 2006

• Forklift, Ohio are, in their own words, "quite taken with" my instructions on How to Give Your Poem a Masterpiece Body Odor, and plan to include it in an upcoming issue.

   Submission date: 1 February 2006
   Reply date: 20 February 2006

Publications Received:

• Poetry Ireland (issue 85) which included three of my poems and, doing the banana dance here a nice 32-euro check -- the hefty part will, of course, go to fund EA Games because the Sims 2: Open for Business expansion pack will be released on March 3rd. The remains will be used to purchase fresh milk for my husband's coffee (half of which I drink, of course, being his other half).

• Orbis (#135, Winter 2005) with my poem, Franklin in the Garden -- first drafted in Blueline's House of 30. Really thrilled by this copy which has terrific poems, magazine reviews and many calls for submissions. Off to do the mutton jump of joy!

Rejections come in threes

Hah. And they really do -- inspired by the precision of Jude's blog, thought I'd offer more detailed information on the places I've submitted.

Recent Rejections:

• Thieves Jargon

   Submission date: 30 January 2006
   Reply date: 17 February 2006

   Editorial Comments: I think you have some good stuff in there, but our submissions are really high right now, and I don't think I'm going to be able to find the room to fit any of them into an upcoming issue. I'd like to hope that wouldn't discourage you from hitting us up again at some point in the future...

   But I'd Say: It's still worth a try though. Maybe it's just the editor's nice way of saying no, which could be a yes to others.

• H_NGM_N

   Submission date: 18 January 2006
   Reply date: 18 February 2006

   Editorial Comments: Thanks for trying us with these. It was a tough call on some of these but we'll pass on this batch. Try us again sometime.

   And I'd Say: Yes, yes. This is one kewl 'zine!

• 10th Muse

   Submission date: 17 February 2006
   Reply date: 18 February 2006

   Editorial Comments: I have read them and have decided not to use them in the magazine. Sorry to disappoint...

   But I'd Say: I'd still give this print journal another try... because with a response time this fast it's worth it!

What I've been up to (apart from writing):

• Mailed poems to jubilat, Conduit, Backwards City Review and Georgetown Review. This is something of a record for me to be sending stuff by post to print journals, but I've recently inherited tons of unwanted foreign stamps from my dad's collection and licking these on my SASEs gives me a ticklish pleasure. Hee. Well, the truth is since we've gotten a laser printer, I'm looking for any excuse to use it -- hearing the zing-zing noises it makes sort of pulls me into a chirpy disposition for the rest of the week. It's subliminal, I think.

• Have added a weatherpixie to my blog. Teehee. And am spending part of my computer time checking out the girlie to see if she's taken off her coat -- because she does! And when it rains she carries the cutest umbrella. I say it's the coolest thing since... uh, the invention of shower curtains.

• On Friday, I fried the computer's hard disk. When my husband came home, virally infected and flu-ish, and pushed the "on" button it emitted a plink that said: I'd rather die in peace now, please. My good man has managed to revive it during the weekend and warned me to puh-lease close all programs first before turning it off... and threatened to cut off my fingers if I start plinking all sorts of keys every time it goes into deep thought while exiting from the Sims game.

• Have also updated the Leonard Gontarek site.

Plantarium update:

Have noticed a second leaf growing (1 centimeter) at the base of the first leaf. Yay! Otherwise...

   Major leaves (2) growth: 0 millimeters.
   Color: greenish brown.
   Prognosis: not good, but not bad either.