May 1, 2013

[Sorry about the format.  Have to stay as is for now.]

April was the cruelest NaPoMo ever here in Massachusetts for some obvious reasons, some personal ones.   But poetry always adds some bright spots to my life.  So I’m just going with two poems, kinda Best of Times/Worst of times instead of an entry.  The first is here; the second is published in a special Boston Marathon 2013 tribute issue of my online journal of city narrativesU.M.Ph.! Prose.  God Bless Us, Everyone!

A Love Song for Moby

I’ve tried so hard to share the ambiance,
revealing why your tail’s transfixed so long.
It’s lulled me, like a babe, into a trance,
and I alone must sing the white whale’s song.
I want to lure you too up from the deep
- so you can write a line or two for me!
And dreaming of your tale (when I need sleep),
I write pelagic tableaux that I see.
I’ve read your book four decades in the past
and never felt a need to log critique.
But now I must synopsize what I grasp
- my memory is growing so oblique.
Land’s sake, I’ll have to finish all alone, for
yellowed pages don’t list your hydraphone.

[April 23: My annual Shakespearean sonnet]

April 1, 2013

Nothing to report here.  Slowly but surely plugging away at getting all 5 parts of my autobiography published.  So, I won’t do it before I’m 50, but by golly I’m taking a stab at coming very close – maybe “while I’m 50″   3 down, 2 to go.  More info to come on who’s publishing “__: poems of tribute, volume two.”  Woo hoo!   The memoir is done in terms of revising.  I’m dragging my feet trying to figure out how to format and upload the dang thing myself.  It makes my brain hurt.

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!  Back to Moby poems!

Gotta go hang up my laundry.  No, not a glamorous writer’s life, but at least I wear clean socks.

I’ll be back….

 

 

 

 

March 1, 2013

Well, it’s really only Feb. 27 at 3:30am, but close enough.  So my back and neck are still protesting having to sit still for 3 hours Monday night, and the cold I refused to let get the best of me until Tuesday is wiping me out…BUT it was totally worth it.

The launch of Hidden Charm Press with its first title Extra MoJo! at the Stone Soup Poetry reading in Central Square, Cambridge, MA on Monday night was fantastic!  The open mic was great.  My sisters-writers were an outstanding feature, making poems from the anthology leap off the page.  It was truly enthralling!  I couldn’t be prouder.

Hidden Charm Press (HCP) was created in July, 2011.  It took until July, 2012 to put together a first draft of the Extra MoJo! anthology. By Winter, 2012 I had a cover artist and layout artist on board to make the manuscript into the book that the 20 writers deserve.

Hurrah to my co-features Toni Bee and Robin White; kudos to Denise Washington whose poem is on the back of the book; woo hoo to cover artist Jessica Grundy and to my football buddy, layout artist Steve Glines, for making a pile of papers into a gorgeous book!

The Press’s inventory for the evening sold out, so now I can afford a new computer battery, the HCP website purchase, and incidentals like food all at the same time

photo of Robin White, Mignon Ariel King, and Toni Bee by chad parenteau

February 1, 2013

Yay!  the first book of my new press Hidden Charm Press is finished. CLICK HERE: Extra MoJo!

..and I’m writing my second novella…even though the first one has now been rejected 3 times.  “The joy of victory…and the agony of defeat!”

January 1, 2013

In December, I:

sent out a chapbook of poems.

wrote 5 Moby poems–far short of the halfway mark,  Phooey!

finished editing the final draft of the HCP anthology.

was sick with anti-flu, then pseudo-pneumonia…you name it for maybe 21 days.  Would probably be dead by now if not for flu shot and pneumonia vaccine   .  And my knee is revolting.

finally sent out Ch. 1 of my second novella.  I wrote it in Summer 2010.  Haven’t finished a chapter since.  But, hey, baby steps are better than none.

celebrated the Patriots finishing the regular season on a high note.  Yeah!

made a New Year’s resolution to eat what I please and write when my noodle feels like it.  Cuz last year I gave up eating a package of cookies per week, added some yoga to PT–and ended up 15 pounds over my “normal.”  I had no idea until my annual exam.  I don’t own a scale.  –But, really, so what’s the point of cookie deprivation?  Raspberry finger cookies, here I come.

 

 

December 1

Having sucked thus far at both daily and weekly blogging, I’m trying for month-at-a-glance updates.

“Queen of the Night” copyright Josephine Wall

IN NOVEMBER I…

made it past the 5oth chapter of Moby-Dick poems and am writing away.

managed to spend 6 months not finding a boyfriend the first time I’ve ever actually made a full-steam-ahead attempt to find one.  I have no problem attracting 30 year olds.  50 year olds, not so much.

subbed a chapbook, finished an anthology mss., and subbed to a journal.  Yet I managed to publish nothing in November.

had back pain, grinding knee, and neck pain have trashed my ability to sleep before, say, 2am 5 nights per week or so.  And I’m so stressed out over…everything …that I have at least 1 migraine per week.

slacked off old physical therapy routine and intro yoga for my back because of stupid knee.  Will begin physical therapy for knee this month.

,following two text-less months, finally got my text service fixed.  Yay!

saved all my pennies for months to buy a semi-warm winter coat and boots.  I love them!  And my 10-year-old (queen) sheets finally disintegrated so I got to makeover my (full) bed in earth tones that fit.  Bought polka-dotted pajamas too

still couldn’t get through a whole novel.  I read three non-poetry books the entire year.  That bites.

ran into, had coffee with, my sister.

had a solitary Thanksgiving that made me feel happy just remembering when my parents and nine siblings sat around the table together for 16 years.

Blast Ye, Moby-Dick

Having lost 20/50 typed drafts of my Moby-Dick poetry manuscript, I finally forced myself to sit down to begin re-typing them at 8__am.  I had two pots of coffee and  a couple of pieces of baklava to ward off taking a break til lunch.

Suddenly ravenous after finishing maybe 12 poems, I looked up to see that it was 5pm.  It’s crazy, but it’s also good.  I haven’t been that focused on any of my individual writing projects in a very long time.  Eight more to go, then maybe I can finally get back to work on the series…if I don’t keel over from protein deprivation first.

Woo Hoo, It’s Autumn!

…and I’m writing poetry again as well as working on my new small press, two online journals, and an arts newsletter:

HCP                                    mojo_hcp@outlook.com

MoJo!                                mojo_hcp@outlook.com       

U.M.Ph.!                         umphsubmits@yahoo.com          

**Words Happening?!          making2@outlook.com

** The 2nd EDITION (Nov-Feb) of  this “New England arts “pub.” is online now.  Rolling submissions, so check the site and submit your own poetry/arts news.

Un-be-liev!-able Techno Updates

Finding out that Hotmail is changing so I’ll need to switch to Outlook eventually, I decided to be proactive and make the change now.  What the hell, I’m already re-organizing my entire creative life anyhow during these underemployment/writer’s block/August stinks doldrums.

What a hassle!  The goal of merging 6 e-mails into 4 was apparently overly ambitious, so for now I’m down to 5.  My three professional e-mails and sites are for now:

MoJo!    mojo_hcp@outlook.com         http://mojowriters.com

HCP    mojo_hcp@outlook.com       http://hiddencharmpress.wordpress.com

U.M.Ph.! Prose   umphsubmits@yahoo.com           http://umph-prose.weebly.com

Frankly, that’s all you need to know!

Mignon and Friends, Brockton 2010

Summer Vacation?

Although my poetry seems to be taking a vacation, with nary a white whale in sight and even prompts in writing groups failing to kickstart the juices, I’m not exactly napping between meagre proofreading gigs.  Starting a small press with no money or staff ain’t for sissies.  I managed to churn out MoJo! Issue 11 for July 4th; now the busy writers are proofing their work for the first book of Hidden Charm Press.

Editing together the first ten issues of MoJo! to create a book is fantastic fun, but it’s also hard work, aided by miscommunications with the bookmaking crew and the heartbreaking and frustrating realization that I can’t run this Press alone, edit two online journals, and organize an annual poetry reading with 10 readers and a growing audience unless I want to neglect my individual work, which I distinctly do not.  Publish or perish is not just a reality for academics.  I have 4 books waiting to be published and am writing 3 others.  I have to finish them soon or they will get bored waiting for me to catch up and simply vanish.  I’m not sure how other writers’ “processes” work, but that’s how my brain works.

I write for publication, not for filing cabinets.  Something had to give.  I will miss hosting my own event, but I don’t have time to actually plan the event or build the site and run HCP.  They thumb wrestled and the Press won.  And I win the pleasue of watching a small workshop group from November 2008 turn into a book we Black women writers can be proud of in November 2012.

Well, into the hailstorm I go.  My library books are due.  Books wait for no one.

Serious poet at work