New Poems at La Fovea

Boy oh boy.  Am I late?   I just discovered the genius and merry-making that is La Fovea, in which a bunch of awesome poets ask other poets to submit 2 poems and then those poets ask poets to submit poems, ad infinitum.  In other words: I was asked by Brant Goble who was asked by Sandra Simond. Our nerve isn't very long yet, but we are still young.

Basically, it's a rabbit hole of reading,  kind of like the novel 253 by Geoff Ryman which obsessed me for a hot minute in college.  If you've never wandered around there, it's worth it.

New Issue of Stone's Throw

The third issue of Stone's Throw is live.  Check it out.  Check it out. Can you believe this? (I have been trying to figure out what song that's from for days?  Anyone? Anyone?) ANYWAYS,

new poetry from Changming Yuan, E. Louise Beach, Charles Springer, Dorothy DiRenzi, Carol Berg, Howard Good, Dan Ames, Jeff Bernstein, Steve Klepetar, Joe Wilkins, Jack Kristiansen, Sarah Ahmad, Shizue Seigel, Anne Bauer, Marilyn Kallet, BECCA, Barry Spacks, Malaika King Albrecht, Nancy Devine, Fide Erken and David Trame;

new fiction from Kristy Athens, Erin Gadd, Mary Carroll-Hackett, Laurie Ann Doyle, Rick Maloy, T. Burns Gunther, Andrea Jackson, Paul Silverman, Brook Streech, Emmanuel Siguake and moi;

nonfiction from Mary Bess Dunn, Kori Frazier, Natalie Smith, Margaret Rozga, Elaine Jordan and Madelyn Graham;

art by Jean Albus, Kimberly Ruth and Cedric Vanderlinden;

reviews and interviews by Danell Jones, Russell Rowland and Malia Burgess.

Believe it.

Rejection 182

Third Coast sent an anonymous rejection letter.  No love.

I wish I were on a third coast right now.  It sounds like an amazing imaginary place.

Oh. Wow.  I just learned that the Great Lakes Region is often referred to as the Third Coast of America.

Cool.

Residency Rejection?

I got a note from the Djerassi artist residency program saying I'm an alternate.  Maybe I will retract this rejection sometime in the future.  For the time being I am rejected.

Baltimore Is Reads

I've been a lazy lazy bones about posting on this here blog.  So.  Let's play some catch-up. Baltimore Is Reads is up and posted and documented and darn good-looking with work from:

Virgil Brower, Ryan Coffman, Brian Foley, Elizabeth Glixman, Joseph Goosey, Donora Hillard, Prathna Lor, Tom McDade, Viney Loretta Moore, David NeSmith, JA Tyler, Justin C. Witt, and myself.

Rejection 181

I don't even know if this counts, but I'm counting it because I'm bored.

Peter over at Keyhole sent me a note saying he wasn't even gonna read my story submission because he's only reading stories between 3K and 7K words.  He asked if I had something in that range I could send him, or if I wanted I could send more poetry.

I got this email and I thought, 'OH!  I think I have that one story that's pretty long.  Let's see how many words it is." And then I looked it up and it was like 1200 words.  Ha.  I am incapable of writing long stories right now.  So I sent him more poems instead, because it's okay if poems are short in print anthologies, but stories have to be long.

So, here is my plan to talk myself into writing longer shit:  When I am in Vermont, I'm gonna write 20 pages a day.  I'm gonna try and push out a first draft of a novel manuscript or I'm gonna write 14 crappy 20 page stories and then probably get home and whittle them down to the 2 pages I normally would have written.  Last night, between reminiscing about the tour in a series of bars with Mary, I told her about my plan and she said I couldn't do it, so now, I'm really gonna do it.  She knows how to motivate me.  Admittedly she had good reason to doubt me.  20 pages is more than I've written in the past 2 months. I am ridiculous.

What should I do tonight?  I am already tired of the heat.  It is the 2nd hot summer day in Chicago.  I hacked what little hair I had off of my head today.

Rejection 180

Almost a year ago, I got an email from Evan Lavender-Smith asking if I'd submit something to Puerto del Sol.  I did and after checking in several times, he let me know that that they couldn't come to a consensus on the story I sent.  He asked if I'd send something else and kindly offered to send me a copy of the newest issue if I sent him my address.  Very kind all around.

Rejection 179

SmokeLong doesn't want another story of mine.  That makes 6.  I wonder if they are secretly annoyed that every time I write a story less than a thousand words now, I send it to them.  Randall is the nicest and has been consistently commenting on weird details of the stories, so that's always a treat.

Maybe I should try to write a story with an actual story-line sometime and send that to them.  This seems impossible right now. 

I have a goal.

Story up at Juked

I have now identified that I really like, or am prone to, writing stories in which someone shows up unannounced at another person's home and how the involved people deal with this. Here's another one that just went up at Juked.

Rejection 178

While away on tour I set up a vacation email response because I knew my chances to respond would few and far between.

I got a rejection from Mac at Lady Jane's Miscellany. He got my vacation note which said this:

"I am in a van with a bunch of other writers right now.

Chances are I won't have the capacity to respond to this before July 17th.

Why don't you call me if it's so important?  I'd probably like to hear from you: 847-828-2366

-Jac"

Mac must have thought that was a personal email, because he sent an email saying this:

"Not a big deal, Jac, just update on things.

Mac"

It makes me laugh every time I think about Mac getting that vacation email and thinking, "Chill, bitch.  I was just rejecting you."