PR Campaign!

PR Campaign!
Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

So, here's the thing about these postcards . . . you get one and there's a 25% discount on the direct order. Still sure you don't want one, Justin?

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Facebook = time filler during lonely office hours. I've been busy turning people into zombies, though Nick Carbo is still the master zombie.

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My lovely bride brought me a turkey sandwich for lunch. I'll go enjoy it now.

Creative Writing Advisor extraordinaire

So advising has begun and I've been tapped as the guru. Beware.

Mostly, I just tap a few keys on a keyboard and tell students what classes to take so they can graduate. It's not so bad. I actually enjoy the job--it satisfies my organizational itch.

Discovered a really good handbook for students. It's by Tom Kealey. I like the tone and I like the simplicity of the organization. He lists a few programs--mostly the ones picked by the US News way back in the mid 90's, but he's fair about it, acknowledging the limitations of the guide. It's a decent tool to supplement the more statistical AWP guide.

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Also, been sending out postcards for my book. Want one?

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Finally, school's just around the corner and I've been working on a syllabus for a multi-genre class topics class. Have you ever taught one? How did you conduct your workshop if you have? In the past, I segregated the semester according to genre (poetry first, then fiction, then playwriting). But I'm not sure such a format would work for this particular class. Any ideas for workshop alternatives?

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By the way . . . we've remodeled ANOTHER room. Actually, this one was mostly Meredith. I just scrapped the popcorn ceiling and rolled paint on the walls. She did all the decorating and refurbishing of furniture.

Helmet. Go.

I'm glad the NFL season has started. That is all.

Fall Submissions

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

So, I'm getting off my butt and sending poems out. It's been some time since I sent such a large quantity of work out into the world.

Here's a little snapshot of my submissions tracker spreadsheet if you're curious. A few of us were talking over e-mail about the do's and don'ts of submitting work--namely we talked about simultaneous submissions.

A while back, I never simsubbed. I was too scared to. Now . . . I do simsub, but ONLY to the journals who say it's okay. What's more, I keep very anal notes about where I'm sending things.

If you look at the picture, you'll see I've got color-coded bars.

Black means a poem's been taken, so it's out (note that there are very few black bars).

Gray and white tones signify batches of poems sent to journals that do not accept simultaneous submissions.

The flourescent colored bars indicate batches of poems that are being simultaneously submitted. So, if I'm sending a batch of five poems to three different journals, all the journals and poems will be highlighted in turquoise. I generally try to keep the number of sim-subbed batches down to 2-3 journals per batch. It's too hard to track anything greater.

Yes, it's cumbersome and tedious, but I know far too many editors who get pissed about folks pulling their poems at the last minute and I don't like pissing people off, namely people who take the time to read my work.

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The other thing I noticed--more and more journals are accepting online submissions. Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review are taking submissions online.

If you're sending your stuff via that route, have two sets of copies for your batches: the individual poems, and a batch of your poems saved to one document. Sometimes the uploading software only allows one file at a time, so you'll need to consolidate your pieces.

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I'm feeling good. I'm feeling like I've gotten some things accomplished. We'll see what happens when the rejections start rolling in! All told, I sent poems to lots of journals. Quite a feat for me.

Imago

Imago
Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

It's a strange thing when you know someone for a long time and they write a deeply personal book. I mean, I've known Joseph for . . . seventeen years. Sheesh! Has it really been that long?

We met at Loyola Marymount, our undergraduate alma mater. He was an English major and I was still a Biology major (I'd later decide to declare a double major). He was always the artist and writer, from what I remember in our classes together. My very first poetry workshop was a 500 level class . . . a grad class . . . and Joseph was there, supportive as ever. He wrote an amazing Icarus poem and I remember how awestruck (and jealous) I was. When he went on to NYU, he was giving me advice when I was applying to MFA programs. He's basically been like my brother for many years.

Now I'm realizing how little I knew Joseph--how honest and naked he has rendered himself with the publication of his first book, Imago. The book is seeringly violent, beautiful, and melancholy. I was quite surprised by the tone of it, knowing Joseph as the man who's always laughing, teasing, and smiling.

Anyway, pick up this book. You must.

August poem-a-day

(POOF!)

The poem writing extravaganza is over. Thanks to all those poets who joined in. Having peers really helped the process along, especially on the tough days.

I'll be sending out some of these drafts during the fall. Hopefully they'll find homes. I'll definitely fiddle with them before that, though.

To you blog readers, thanks for your patience and for reading along.

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Today, cookout.

New Book Inspiration!

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

How about, the "Practical poet's guide to homeownership"?

Roof repair's one of the many things they don't teach you in MFA programs. Maybe I need to teach classes.

Homeowner's Blues

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Yes, that's me on top of the garage roof. The seam between the plastic panels and the flashing had gaps that needed to be filled with silicon sealer. So . . . there you go.

Really, though, I didn't want to be inside writing poems. Not on a gorgeous day.

Hmph!

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Rick shrugged off my advances . . .

Superwoman

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Despite her ailing right arm, JHG was in her full glory. Later, she would twist rebar into pretzels.

Live!

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Rick read from a third manuscript collection. Quite amazing.

After, he played the bongo drums and shook some maracas.

SoulFood!

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

The lovely and talented Jeannine Hall Gailey and the lovely and talented Rick Barot, both at tthe SoulFood Bookstore.

Ridiculous!

Yes, it's ridiculous to catch a cold in the middle of a summer heat wave. And yes, I caught a cold sometime during the past week. It started Sunday in my throat, then migrated down to my chest over the past few days.

The cold did, however, provide me with a good excuse to sit at home and do nothing but read Harry Potter books. I basically read books 6 and 7 straight through during these past few days. Quite satisfying, I must say. Yes,J.K. Rowling isn't the most gifted writer, but she knows how to move a plot along. It was especially interesting to see how far she must've planned in order to pull off the series. Also, the movies are so engrained in my brain that I was visualizing scenes with the actors as I was reading. Crazy bit.

Anyway, I'm glad I took the time to pour through the books.

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SIU Press somehow managed to get advanced copies of Furious Lullaby. Big grin. I thought it would've taken them a bit longer, but they're ahead of schedule.

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It's time to start planning my school year in earnest. Two classes coming up this fall: my usual intro to poetry and an advanced multi-genre workshop. For the advanced workshop, I'm looking at fiction, non-fiction, and poetry collections that are steeped heavily in research or are strongly associated with a historical time period. Should be interesting as a seminar, but tricky as a workshop . . .

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Quick thought on the poem-a-day thing I've been doing all this August--as I was telling Sue in the comments section of the post, I've been composing by ear lately, and the couplet's the best way for me to "hear" the language. I can't "hear" what I'm doing if I wrote in tercets, quatrains, or any longer stanzaic pattern.

This is a new development for me and I think it's pretty closely related to my attempts at purging the prose poem form from my head. I'll think on this more and perhaps come up with something more eloquent, but until then, I'll probably continue composing in couplets.

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Throwing a party here on Saturday. You're alll invited. BYOB.

SoulFood Books Reading

Edit: Thanks Jeannine, for hosting this wonderful event! Rick's new stuff is incredible. The crowd was lovely. I even had a heckler.

My next reading'll be on October 15th at Village Books. Details to come.

Postcard Poem from Soham Patel

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Blow man, blow. Good Job!

Man blows good job (?)

Good blow job . . . man.

white peacock

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

This image is for Cornshake.

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I've been having trouble sleeping lately. The past few nights I've lain in bed, glanced at the clock, and saw it was 2:40ish. Why that particular time, I have no idea. After waking, I've had a hell of a time getting back to sleep. Maybe it's my brain telling me to start writing poems.

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Speaking of poems and poetry, my summer class is finishing up this week. Great bunch of students . . . but I'll be glad to be done with teaching. I don't feel like I've had a sufficient summer. I finished up in mid-June, then went from teaching to the Kundiman retreat, and then as soon as I got back from the retreat, I was back in the classroom. So far this summer . . . one poem. Sandra's running a poem/draft a day marathon that I'm participating in for August. Hopefully it'll light a fire in my belly.

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I'm cancelling HBO. It's the same crap over and over. We got it in May to finish up the Sopranos. Now that it's over, I don't want to get sucked into any more of their shows. Don't talk to me about how good Rome is getting. I don't want to hear about the stellar writing in Big Love or Entourage. I need to limit my media intake which is already quite high.

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Spent all of Saturday chain-sawing. Now I can't bend my left pinky finger without having it lock into place. Bizarre. I'm getting old.

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The lovely James Hoch will be reading at Village Books on Wednesday. Go see him!

Warm spell coming

Swimming Cat
Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Now would be a good time to visit Silver Lake. The temperature's rising and at last we're getting the summer weather we had been waiting for. Last week was miserable. It rained for seven days straight. I'm looking forward to summer sun. The cat's optional.

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pug-vader.jpg
Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

You think you want to cuddle, but really, that's just the Dark Side controlling your mind. . .

Oliver Simpson

Oliver Simpson
Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Yet another Simpsonized version of me. You can tell I'm conducting office hours . . .

Blahs

I'm tremendously bored.

I finished all my grading. I then dipped into some poetry collections but wasn't in the mood. I think it's the rainy weather we've been having.

I did, however, manage to squeeze in a poem. It's not a great poem, but it's something.

I've also been listening to the new Ryan Adams CD. He's, at times, infuriating. Wonderful hooks in the songs . . . at times great writing . . . other times, flatter than a 2D cartoon's ass.

Also listening to Feist's Open Season. Still sort of shaky on the album. It's a collab/remix album, so there's some really messed up stuff on the disc. I do like the Postal Service version of Mushaboom. Outside of that, I need to listen closely.

Here's hoping that some of this'll kick me into some kind of writing mood. I dunno, I'm feeling weird as we exit July.

I am, however, getting quite good at this.