Kelli Russell Agodon's Blog, page 65

My Favorite Things: Christmas Ideas for Readers, Book Lovers, Poets, & Writers

Since tomorrow is the first day of December, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things for this holiday season.



My Favorite Things:



Terry's Chocolate Oranges (dark or milk)  $4-5 in grocery stores

**Our yearly tradition.  Chocolate & poetry go together well.





Old School Wooden Lap Desk  $59

***Note, I also saw these on Amazon for $30, but they had some bad reviews, so I'm linking to this one as it's the one I purchased about eight years ago and love.  You can store all your notecards & pencils 

under the desktop.  Plus it helps stop my laptop from overheating when I write in bed.





DogBones Chiropractic Pillow $8.81

***I just bought one of these in a Hawaiian print and I love it.  I use it every night and I take it with me on long car rides and trips.  One of the reviews said it was "too soft" but I would lean the other way saying it could be just a tad softer and smaller, but for the price, it's been an absolute win for me. It's actually saved me a lot of neckaches.  They have better colors (than the one I've linked to), but they're a few dollars more.






The Frugal Book Promoter: Second Edition: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher  $12.88

***I just received a review copy of this book and I'm already quite impressed with it.  It gives a lot of ideas on marketing one's book and offers a lot of info for someone who is just publishing their first book.  I like how the author, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, writes in easy-to-read style.  It's a pretty big book that you can pick and choose what you need help on.




Poetry Books! Under $20

***Kristin Berkey-Abbott did this incredible list of poetry books AND included a short summary of EACH book!  Definitely a resource for you or any other readers in your life.





Smart Wool Socks $14-$16

***Just the best socks ever!  You can't write with cold feet!





On Writing: A Memoir on Craft by Stephen King

***Fantastic book.  Read it in one sitting.





SkullCandy EarBuds $9-$14

***A great way to shut out the world.  I have an orange and green pair.  I like the brighter colors as they are easier to find.  I only use these when I listen to audio books.  Comfy & perfect.









Il Postino (DVD)  $24 & up!

***This is one of my very favorite movies and perfect for poets and those who love Pablo Neruda. Absolutely beautiful and incredible music too.  I'm thrilled I own this DVD as I see they aren't available from Amazon, but from indie sellers.  You can probably rent this on Netflix-- please do if you haven't seen it.  (Oh and in case you hate reading your movies, it is subtitled.)





Il Postino Soundtrack $14.99

**I have the music on my laptop and when I listen to it, I feel as if I leave this world.





Midnight in Paris DVD (Woody Allen Movie with Owen Wilson) $17.99

***Incredible movie for the literary types.  I loved this movie and its soundtrack as well.  Best Woody Allen movie in a very long time.  Available on Dec. 20th.









2012 BusyBodyBook Organizer  $12.88

***This is my second year with the BusyBodyBook.  They are dated (1 page each week) & created in columns to help track your family members (i.e. column 1: dad, column 2: mom, column 3: daughter, etc.) however, I use each column to track my projects and list off what I need to do for them each day  (Column 1: Poetry, Column 2: Crab Creek Review, Column 3: Fire On Her Tongue Anthology, Column 4: Home Projects, etc.)  There are 5 columns and as a list maker, I love seeing what I need to do each day and cross it off.





Sea Salt Caramels sold in the Nordstrom Cafe $20 (sorry, couldn't find a link for these!)

***Yummers!





Chore Chart $38 (Etsy)

**Okay, this may seem weird, but I purchased one of these for our family (& my daughter) and I realized, this might also be a great way to give yourself goals or projects as the creator of this board will make your chore magnets, whatever you like.  So where I have "wash dishes," the writer can have "submit poem" or "write 500 pages," or "do writing exercises."   





Okay, I'm a Mac gal and actually kind of anti-Kindle (I worry about how Amazon is creating its own little empire and I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with them), but Collin Kelley recently got a Kindle Fire and did a great review of it you can watch here if you're considering buying one.



They are currently $199 and available at Amazon--











I have an iPad that I love, but for $199, I can see why these are such a hit.





Let me know what your favorite things are this year!






Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,



It's been one week of leftovers and a fire in the oven since my last confession. The turkey was fine (as was my sister's kitchen!), just a little grease fire to start the holiday the way we like to-- with a good story where no one gets (got) hurt.



I'm a little under the weather, but still it's time.  To the confessional--





I confess I love the holiday season and already have my tree up and the living room decorated.  I know.  Nutty.  And yes, I've already been to The Nutcracker this year and am buying tickets for a local production of It's a Wonderful Life.



There is a part of me that wishes I bottle this feeling and keep it for the times I'm mopey and down.



But I can't.  So I live it up now and deal with other emotions when I have to.



~



I confess stuffing is my favorite.  And mashed potatoes.  And I like my cranberry from a can (in the shape of a can).



We also have the Russell Green Jello salad, a tradition in my family.  Mine is made special without walnuts.  Okay, without walnuts, celery, and cabbage (all things that should be in Jello).  It's a crazy salad that only could have been created in the 1960's or 1970's and every year there it is on the table.



It's also tradition to have (read: force) everyone try/taste/eat it.



Oh and don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about vintage Americans, I know you eat some similar odd "traditional" food at your Thanksgiving.

~



I confess I did not shop on Black Friday. I didn't leave the house.  I decorated our tree and listened to Christmas music.  I dislike shopping anyway.  Shopping in crowds just lowers my tolerance to "let's-get-out-of-here-now!"



~



I confess I wish I had more stuffing.



Happy Almost December!



Amen.



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Plaid Friday! Shop INDIE this Season & Support your local indie merchants & artists! -->

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Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Keep Calm & Cranberry On...

Happy Thanksgiving!



Hoping you each have many blessings and many servings of pumpkin pie in your life.





~ Kells



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Snoopy Balloon in the Macy's Day Parade - Don't miss out on Amazing...

Photo by Elliott Erwitt -  http://www.elliotterwitt.com


Incredible image of Snoopy through the window of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1988.



Learn more about the photographer Elliott Erwitt, and see more of his images here.





Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Beat Poets not beat poets #Occupy

Inspired by a sign students at UC Berkeley made and hung in a window of the English Department.



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,



I confess I can't believe it's Tuesday again-- it's as if they pile up on each other like pairless socks.  My laptop is telling me that pairless isn't a word.  It should be.



I have a busy day planned, but for now, let's get to the what we're hear for, confessing...though I'm not sure I have anything too interesting to share.





I confess my poetry group met last night and half of us (4 poets) had poems about drowning.  Maybe it's the rain.  Maybe it's the feeling of going under, but I was surprised to see this.



It's happened before on different topics.  I sometimes wonder if certain themes or creative ideas flow through people who continually meet up.



What's cool is though, even though we each wrote about drowning, it was so different in each poem.  Connected but separate.



~



I confess I still like stamps and postal mail and collecting coins and rocks.  These are four  things I did as a child (I know, you're thinking, "Wow, she must have been very cool and popular as a kid").   I also collected dachshund figurines, and you know popularity begins with a good small dog collection.



But here's the thing-- as I became older, I was kind of embarrassed for my nerdy/geeky/dorkiness.   I know, stamps and postal mail *are* cool, I see that now.  But back then, well, no one was interested in my wheat pennies, oddly enough.



Middle school can rob girls (and maybe boys) of who they really are.  (Note: I'm not sure about the boys, I never was one, don't have one as a child, and never understood them in middle school, so I'll leave that open to discussion for all the boypeople of the world.)



But girls, nothing good happens in middle school for girls.  It's where everyone pretends to be a zebra (whether they are or aren't) so they aren't attacked by the tigers.  The thing is, middle school passes and there are all these zebras hanging around who aren't exactly sure where they got their stripes.



I guess what I'm saying is embrace your inner self.  And I confess, these days, I'm much more likely to talk to you about Owney the Postal Dog and with no apologies.



We cannot all be trendy and like what's cool, and luckily, there are enough people in this country to do that for us, so thankfully, there's room for you to be yourself.



~



I confess I would be terrible on Family Feud because my answers are never anything that the "survey says..."



For example, when they say, Name something you can't have too much of -- my first response was "slippers."



And maybe the people on Family Feud are not artist or poets because they have to say what the majority says.  And maybe the joy in life is not repeating or being like others, but knowing in your life, slippers are important.





Amen.



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Robert Hass, Occupy Berkeley & It's "Beat Poets" not "beat poets"

While at my MFA@PLU reunion, I had a few moments to browse blogs and saw on January O'Neil's blog  that Robert Hass, our Poet Laureate from 1995-1997 was hit with a baton by a police officer:





You can read the full article about this on the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog here.



When I saw the video of this, it truly saddened me.  Here is a 71 year old man, a grandfather, an ex-Poet Laureate who ends up being hit basically for standing.  (I learn later his wife Brenda Hillman was knocked to the ground by police while trying to talk to them about peaceful protests.)



The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any lawrespecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.



If I have to follow the second amendment ("the right to bear arms") - and "bear" is a verb and not a noun, as I would agree to this without question--





Bear Arms would be great in the winter!


Then I'd like our First Amendment rights upheld.



Seeing the video of the students being pepper-sprayed at Berkeley on Friday, I kept thinking, "Those are people's children...those are our children."



Today, an editorial by Robert Hass was published in NY Times "Poet-Bashing Police" about what he saw.



And then the Occupy Berkeley students make me proud with this--





Yes, since they couldn't pitch tent, they put them on helium balloons and floated them above their space (I love creativity!)



But here's the thing--I'm not interested in anyone's opinion on the Occupy movement. I don't want to debate if it's working, if it's right, etc. etc.   I'm interested in how we are responding to these peaceful protests, whether you agree with the movement or not, every time force is used on an American citizen (whether you agree with their opinion or not), you lose too.



We each lose our rights to speak our opinions, to stand up for what we believe in.  Whatever that is.



______________________________________

______________________________________





Note:

By the way, I haven't been blogging much about this, but posting links on Facebook and Twitter because it's easier with articles.



So if you want to follow me for further updates--



on Twitter find me at:  kelliagodon



And on Facebook here:  www.facebook.com/agodon

And here: www.facebook.com/kellia (you don't have to "friend" me, you can follow by way of subscribing (as the kids are doing these days...) )





Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

The Art of Procrastination -->

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Recently a friend told me she loved how I got so much done and didn't procrastinate.



Um, do not assume, young grasshopper. . . as I too can actively and voluntarily participate in this activity called procrastination.



So I started to think about the things I procrastinate on and here is my list--



1)  Any activity that involves calling someone or talking on the phone.



I so dislike talking on the phone.  I have a few friends who are my exceptions, but mostly, I dread the phone.  I dislike a) making appts.  b) having to call someone to give or get information  c) answering the phone.  



I'm not sure why this is because as a teenage girl, I was a professional phone conversationalist.  Now, I hate it.  In fact, I'm writing this blog post instead of making two appts I need to make today.





2)  Submitting my work --



This is another area that I put off and put off and put off.  Once I had a "submission party" with my writer friends where we all brought our laptops and printed off copies of poems and sent them out.  There was good food and wine.  Submitting with wine give one a weird courage.



But mostly, I neglect this aspect of my life until 180 days have gone by or I feel bad that no one is accepting my work---it's kind of hard to accept work that isn't being submitted -- duh.  Still.  I put this task off all the time.





3)  Laundry-- hate it.



I believe the architects who build homes have never done laundry in their lives because if they did, the laundry room would actually be a dressing room/clothes storage room/linen closet/etc instead of having to fold the laundry then bring it various places in the house.



If you come to my house on any day there will be:

a) laundry to do

b) unfolded clean clothes



When I am Oprah-rich, I will hire someone and his/her one job will be keeping up on the laundry and putting things away.  I will pay them nicely and give them chocolate as a reward.





4)  Reviews of books



This is a funny thing because I read a ton and write a ton and in fact will mention books I've read here on my blog.  But call them a "review" or ask me to write one for Crab Creek Review twice a year, and I will put it off until the last minute.



I *know* how good I feel when I finish a review and cross it off my list, but it one area in writing I put off and put off and put off.





As I look over this list, I think why my friend believed I didn't procrastinate was because I tend not to procrastinate my writing.  In fact, I'll write before I do laundry or make the appointment or submit my work.



My passion is not laundry, or phone calls--these are things I do because I need to.



My passion is not submitting and writing reviews--I do these two things because I believe they are part of the writer's job;  sending your work out into the world and helping others get attention for their work are two things I truly believe are important and I try to do them, though not always in a timely manner.



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So it made me think of this-- what do we do that gives us fulfillment?   When we're spending our time on "other things" that give us pleasure and we're passionate about, what are they and how can this become our life's work?



And I don't think this quote means that kind of "wasted" time--because honestly, if this sign is deeply true, then some of you might be thinking, "I should get a job with Facebook?"  Note: "wasted" in quotes because I don't think you can "waste time" just use it in ways your future-self might not be too pleased with.



But what is it that when you're doing it, you never feel you should be doing something else, you find yourself lost in "flow," which is that timelessness I love to fall into.



We all procrastinate in good and bad areas.  For me, a bad procrastination is not submitting (because it hurts my writer's life).  A good procrastination is laundry (because not doing that helps my writer's life).   Having a big pile of laundry doesn't make me look like homemaker of the year, but honestly, that is not really a title I'm going for.



So yes, I do procrastinate very much.  And some days I'm right on tasking and go down my to-do list like my Capricorn self appreciates, but other days, I'm quite happy reading a book with the fire going and well, that's okay too.





Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Editor's Life: 6 Suggestions When Submitting Your Work for Publication

And apparently, are also boys with spiky orange hair.


I have been living much more as an editor recently than as a writer.



This is okay because I realize life is never perfectly balanced--there are times when you are heavy on one thing, light on another.  I try to look at my life's balance over a year and not a month.



This month has been all about Crab Creek Review & the upcoming Fire On Her Tongue anthology.  Both publications had deadlines on Monday, it was nutty.  Now there's a little rest period while others proof and do corrections. Ahhh...



Before becoming an editor, I thought there was a lot of mystery behind literary journals.  There's not.  There's a lot of work, (unpaid work), loose ends, reading, following up, decision making, and dealing with finances.



Here are some things I've learned and might help you as you submit--



1)  Professional over quirky is better.  



I know we're writers/artists, but I prefer a cover letter that is easy to read and to the point, not anything on purple-scented paper or with weird images embedded in the email submissions.



I am more likely to take a writer seriously if they can take themselves seriously.



Personal Faux-Pas as Young Writer (part 1)-- Handwriting a giant "Enjoy these poems!" and making a unique drawing on a cover letter to the Paris Review (age 23).





2) Read the journal or learn about the journal before you submit.  If you're awesome, subscribe or buy a sample copy.



This little thing will save you time and money in the long run and may introduce you to a new poet or writer, or a journal you'll want to receive at your house.



Personal Faux-Pas as Young Writer (part 2)-- Submitted poems to Parnassus: Poetry in Review without *getting* that it publishes REVIEWS and critical writing, not poems.  Duh.





3)  Read the submissions guidelines and follow them.



While it might feel like jumping through hoops, all the guidelines were put into place for a reason. I know ours were and they help us when we read your work.



Personal Faux-Pas as a Young Writer (part 3): Too many mistakes to name.  I've sent too many poems, sent them to the wrong address, sent them the wrong time of the year, yadda, yadda, yadda.





4)  Try not to take things personally.



If they don't get back to you on a timely basis, most likely they are overworked, stressing out and behind.  They most likely aren't inconsiderate, just busy and overwhelmed.  I would guess the majority of literary journals the editors are unpaid (or paid little) and that they have another job, commitment, or are raising a family.



The editors at Crab Creek Review have full-time jobs, part-time jobs, little kids at home, big kids at home or in college, are authors/writers themselves, other commitments, AND are all working to publish this journal on a volunteer basis.



Realizing how much there is to do at a literary journal has allowed me to submit without being annoyed at how long it took to hear from a journal, etc. because I realize how much there is to do AND read.



Personal Faux-Pas as Young Editor (part 1): Thinking I would never get behind in reading submissions, then did.  More than once.



5)  In you simultaneously submit, let journals know asap if your poem or story is accepted elsewhere.





This was my surprise as an editor.  Not knowing I'd fall in love with poems and stories, then when accepting them, learn they are not available.  I hadn't realized how attached I'd get to someone's work, how disappointed I'd feel when we couldn't publish it.



When this happens, I don't hold a grudge against the writer. I know we're doing the best we can and sometimes we forgot, make mistakes, and cannot be perfectly organized.  I have sim-subbed and haven't meant to, but it just came down to bad record keeping on my part (Personal Faux-Pas part 4), so I tend to be easy on writers.  Other editors may not be so easy, just be aware of that.





6)  If the journal takes 4 poems, submit 3 poems you think they'd publish and one poem you think they wouldn't. 



This sounds like bizarre advice, but my friend (and poet/editor/publisher) Lana Ayers gave me this and it's made a huge difference.  Oddly, it seems the one poem I think a journal won't like, is the one they take.



I'm not sure why this is?  Maybe we read a journal and see lots of poems on herons and think, "Oh, they'd love my heron poem" and the editor is in her office saying, "Geez, enough with the heron poems, people!"  So the 4th poems, which has nothing do with herons or anything else the magazine has published recently, is accepted.



I'm not sure.  Just it's a good mentality as a writer, it's not your job to try to read the editor's mind, it's your job to do good work and submit the best of it.



Good luck!









Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com