Writers' Website Links and GH O TI

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

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

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

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]

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

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...

... 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.