Jeannine Hall Gailey's Blog, page 61

Poems in Redactions, Clementine Poetry Journal, and The Great Gatsby Anthology, plus a 21-year anniversary!

Welcome to summertime in Seattle. The lavender is blooming to beat the band. I had Gerbera daisies bloom in my garden! A rare occurrence in the normally gloomy Northwest.

It’s about time to celebrate my 21-year wedding anniversary tomorrow. We are sneaking away for a single night (because the hotel rooms all around Seattle are booked and/or crazy expensive summer weekends) but we hope to make a duck-in-fresh-cherry sauce dinner and maybe some home-made blueberry-cherry ice cream to go with it. (We are inundated with blueberries and cherries right now!) It’s also about to be my husband’s birthday, and we will have to figure out some way to celebrate that too! We usually try to go downtown, but the heat has been making us less outdoor-adventurous than usual, I fear. I’m hoping we get some rain and a break in the heat soon.

I also wanted to bring some attention to a couple of poem publications, in the new issues of Redactions (“Introduction to Dream Interpretation”,) The Clementine Poetry Journal(“Introduction to Husbandry,”) and the Great Gatsby Anthology (“Daisy, at 40.”) I recommend going out and reading them all, of course!

FreezeRay, Rejections, and the upcoming PNWA Conference

First of all, thanks to FreezeRay for including my poem “Introduction to Ruby Slippers, Hot Air Balloons” in their new issue! It’s a really fun issue, so check it out!

In the last three days, starting on the 4th of July, I’ve received three rejections. They were all from good journals who had held onto the poems for nine months plus. I understand it taking that long, but a little personal note or SOMETHING would be nice after all that time. Right? Sigh. Also, three rejections means I need to find three more places to send poems out, something not so easy in the July/August time frame.

On the plus side, something new to look forward to – my first attendance of local writer’s PNWA Conference. I’ll be reading with friends Kelly Davio and Carolyne Wright Thursday night the 16th at 9 PM at the Writer’s Cafe, an event that’s open to the public even if you’re not at the conference, so that will be fun!  Then I’m doing a talk on Saturday on “PR for Poets” at 2 PM.

I’ve never been before, so I’m not sure what to expect! I hear there are exotic things such as “agents” that you meet. I hope we poets won’t be out of our element! I know the organizers have worked to build poetry back into the schedule this year, so I’m looking forward to it!

Happy Fourth Weekend, heat-based insomnia, and a few appearances by The Robot Scientist’s Daughter

Happy 4th of July Weekend, everyone! Stay safe! I know here in Seattle, it has been in the searing nineties and dry as a bone, so hopefully people leave the fireworks to the professionals and prevent unnecessary fires!

After a lack of sleep last night – heat-based insomnia, is that a thing? full moon fever? – I didn’t get to sleep til 7 AM, and I was woken up by my alarm at 8:05. Yay! Things have been a little stressful with family health stuff, the house selling/buying stress, and work, so it may have to do with that. I guess I am in need of a summer break!

In good news though, I came home yesterday to some mail appearances of The Robot Scientist’s Daughter – get your own Americana-history-themed robot poems here now! – one in the Pacific University Magazine, and the other in the form of an ad in Poets & Writers.

Here’s Pacific’s little write-up – thanks, Alma mater!

 

 

 

 

And here’s the Mayapple Press ad in this month’s Poets & Writers:

Summer Postcards and Podcasts

Thanks to J.P. Dancing Bear for interviewing me on his NoCal radio show, “Out of Our Minds.” The podcast is now available here! I read some poems from The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, we get into a digression about Bladerunner, and I talk a little about my experience with California libraries.

And thanks to Kelli Russell Agodon for making a little summer postcard of one of my poems from Unexplained Fevers, “Sleeping Beauty Loves the Needle.” If you like it, you can order the book from me here or from Amazon.

It has been too hot to be very productive, like, nineties every day, no chance of rain hot. We’ll be crispy by July 4 at this rate! Doesn’t Seattle know I moved here for the cloudy cool June days? But I did get one review written, a new poem written, and I’m working on a handout for the PNWA conference coming up! It’s just been a tough June personally, and I’m hoping July will be a little kinder. On the plus side, we’ve seen a ton of wildlife lately: deer, a beaver (!) chewing leaves, little grebe-lings taking diving lessons from their mom, a plethora of the usual herons, eagles, ducklings, and baby bunnies. I’ll leave you with this recent picture of dusk on Mt. Rainier…

Crazy June, Poets in the Park Recap, Seattle Becoming California

Happy summer, everyone! Readers, I apologize for not posting. Since last posting, I’ve 1. been in the hospital 2. had a close family member in the hospital 3. shown my house (even before listing it for sale) and 4. just been generally having a crazy June, and not the good kind of crazy, with lots of parties, the other kind of crazy, with stress and worries of all sorts.

Anyway, I thought I’d post a quick recap of Saturday’s Poets in the Park festival in Redmond, with pictures! It was a beautiful sunny day, I got to see lots of friends read and catch up with friends I haven’t seen in a while, and got to do a reading myself with some fun folks from Jack Straw I hadn’t had a chance to meet before, so that was fun. Even sold some books! A good time was had by all, I think.

 

In other news, we didn’t sell our house yet, and we are still on the lookout for a new one-story place ourselves, so the real estate gladiator wars continue. And as long as I (and my immediate family members) can stay out of the hospital, I promise I will be thankful. I am trying to get back into the swing of things, writing, editing, judging a poetry contest and writing reviews.

We are looking at an upcoming week of 90+ degree weather – here, in Seattle. What does this place think it is with its hot summers and real estate monstrosities, California? I’ll keep you posted, but if we start having wildfires and earthquakes…

Poets in the Park, Summer Poetry Ideas, and the Seattle Real Estate Roller Derby

First of all, this weekend on Saturday June 20th is the Poets in the Park, a big festival from 11 AM to 6 PM in Redmond’s Anderson Park. I will be reading at 2 PM with the Jack Straw poets, but lots of my friends will be reading as well, and there’s a fun poetry mini-bookfair as well. The weather’s supposed to be beautiful. I hope we see you there!

I’ve been a bit out of it (I think I caught someone’s stomach flu bug at my last reading and watched the very messy and depressing Game of Thrones finale with the stomach flu – something I don’t recommend) and so I’ve missed out on a few days of having enough mental power to read, write, and send out work. The summer, with its long days, always seems like such a nice time to catch up on “fun” reading we’ve been meaning to do, plus I have a few reviews that I’m behind on, plus I really do miss writing when I don’t do it for a little bit!

The good thing about summer is it forces us to go out and look at new literary magazines, research new presses, and best of all, write new poems! Getting into the summer swing now that I’m getting better from first the lung infection and then the stomach bug is going to be an uphill climb, but I’m ready! This is a great resource for presses and lit mags reading during June and July: http://entropymag.org/where-to-submit-june-july/

We’re also getting ready to buy and sell a house, which will require a bit more effort and energy into the mundane (how much money is in our bank accounts? How clean are our kitchen countertops? how much work does that 1968 roof really need?) than usual. The real estate market in Seattle right now – well, imagine a really mean roller derby where everyone is prepared to play rougher than you AND is twice your size, and that’s how it feels bidding on a house in the Seattle area right now. We’ve missed out twice already, and today’s our third bid. We’re crossing our fingers. If any of you guys have advice for me, go for it!

UPDATED: We lost the house, not to someone who offered more money, but to someone who waived all contingencies. People are so crazy right now! No financing contingency, no inspection contingency. This is no way to run the real estate business. Boo.

A Poem up at Verse Daily today, a Reading Tonight, and How To Up Your Writer’s Game This Summer

Woke up to a nice surprise – a poem from The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, “Advice from The Robot Scientist’s Daughter” up on Verse Daily today. Thanks, Verse Daily!

Also, if you’re out and about today, consider stopping by Parkplace Books in Kirkland tonight about 7 PM, because I’ll be reading from the new book there, along with Keith Moul. There’s also an open mike. It’s usually a pretty small reading series, and the bookstore is very cute, so I’d love to see you there!

And, if you’re wondering how to up your writer’s game over the summer, I’ve got a post over at the Gailey and Davio Writers’ Services blog on five ways to do just that!

Upcoming Kirkland Reading, Waterfalls, and More

Wednesday night in Kirkland, Washington, I’ll be reading with Keith Moul at the charming Parkplace Books at 7 PM. There’s an open mike as well. I’d love to see some of my eastside friends there since it’s my first East side reading for The Robot Scientist’s Daughter!

Yesterday it was nearly 90 degrees – crazy hot – so we decided to head north to see the waterfalls at Snoqualmie Falls and Ollalie State Park, and drive around Sammamish Lake and Issaquah, as it has really built up since we lived there in 2000. It was lovely to be outside after a long-enforced rest with a lung infection. This is Glenn and I in the forest at Ollalie State Park:



Then me with the little waterfall there at Ollalie, and then the big Snoqualmie Falls with a bit of the Salish Lodge in the background.

Anyway, a little time in the woods with waterfalls on a hot day is always a good idea. Hard to be down around giant trees and rainbow-misted falls, right?

Next soul-helping outing, Seattle’s Asian Art Museum for the Chiho Aoshima exhibit – maybe Thursday? Remember to do something good for your soul this week! It helps you write, it helps you be thankful, and it’s probably good for your immune system, too, right?

Can a Writer Use a Career and Creativity Coach?

Sorry I’ve been missing, I’ve been pretty sick – like, a partially-collapsed lung, a sinus/lung infection that required daily inhalers, steroids, and antibiotics sick, narrowly escaping being admitted to the hospital sick – but I think I’m on the road to recovery finally, after a couple of weeks. Whew!!

I did something interesting with a little of this downtime – I signed up for a creativity coaching session with Andrea Clark (andrea.clark@aya.yale.edu),  a creativity coach working towards her coaching certification, with a Master’s Degree in Counseling and fifteen years experience as a professional writer, so she seemed ideal. She was recommended by another poet I trust, so I was excited about the opportunity.

Then I thought: when could a writer use a coach?

1. Right after graduating from your MA, MFA, or Phd program, and want to get a handle on living a “real writer’s life” and how to approach the job market. (In fact, a career coaching session would be a great add on for so many graduating from MFA programs, don’t you think, to help them with that “what do I do next” feeling?)

2. Writers who feel “stuck” for whatever reason.

3. Writers who are at any kind of changing point – changing directions in what they write, how they write, or trying to figure out where to go next.

I fall into the third category, I think. I was really interested at first in writing down what I wanted to get out of the session – this made me realize what I felt frustrated with in my writing career/life right now, and that I’ve felt a little confused about where I’m heading for a while. It seemed odd to me that I felt so much ennui about writing right after releasing a book, but I was also thinking that maybe I’ve achieved a lot of the goals I had as a younger writer, and now need to shape some new ones. I also had to let go of some earlier goals (like a full-time, tenure track teaching job, which may never happen due to the changes in the university system) and kind of mourn that loss a little bit.

When I talked to Andrea, she asked me lots of questions (we did a Google hangout,) did some mind-body exercises, she reflected back to me my own confusion, and made some good specific suggestions about ways to look at where I am and what I can do to bring joy and purpose back to what I do.

One of her suggestions was to feel all right being in a “still” point, another was a suggestion that I am afraid of boredom and uncomfortable when I don’t have a very clear goal-reward system set up (true!) and another was thinking about a way to get more mental, emotional, and spiritual stimulation – that is, things that I actually enjoy and make me feel alive. Huh. I’ve been doing a lot of the things that I used to feel engaged with and enjoyed – things that have worked for me in the past – but I’m not sure that’s the case now, so I’m sort of looking at my priorities and values and reassessing what I actually want to be doing. Another interesting realization is that though my brain is anxious that I’m not doing more, my body and heart felt fairly peaceful about the downtime. This probably means I worry/have anxiety when I’m not super busy, but sometimes everyone needs downtime, in-between space, stillness, etc. I value money and being rewarded financially for my work, but not enough to go back to tech writing, even part-time, for instance. I liked teaching, but not enough to do it at an adjunct’s salary. I enjoyed engaging with the community as Redmond’s Poet Laureate, but the job took a lot of energy out of me as well. So getting a little clarity about what I really want to do next wasn’t as simple as I thought. Something rewarding financially, engaged with a local community, and mentally and emotionally stimulating, apparently (does such a thing exist?)

Anyway, I would recommend this coaching exercise to anyone who feels they’re in a bit of an in-between space, unsure of what to do or where to go next, who feels like they’ve lost a little bit of their enthusiasm for what they’re doing. Sometimes it’s really helpful to sit down with someone else to try to figure out your goals, worries, and values.

The Seattle Times and The San Francisco Book Review The Robot Scientist’s Daughter

Can’t feel too down today – woke up to these!

A mention of The Robot Scientist’s Daughter in my big local paper, The Seattle Times! (PS Seattle folks – head to Open Books in Wallingford to get a copy of my book! Or I can send you a signed copy!)

And a very nice review of The Robot Scientist’s Daughter in The San Francisco Book Review. They say that “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter is a treasure trove of insight and personal reflection.”

Thank you, Seattle Times and San Francisco Book Review! Plus, I wrote six poems in the last two days. So, it may be that feeling sick and discouraged (see my previous post) makes me write more poetry? Weird, right?

Speaking of discouraged, if you got a rejection letter from Breadloaf this week, don’t feel bad – read this blog post by Kelly Davio! She will make you feel better and give you a plan to move ahead!