Kelli Russell Agodon's Blog, page 66

Early Thankful Thursday (or Wednesday)-- TED Talk with Charlie Todd

I love people who do these kind of things.  The subway signs were my favorite of all...





Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Why I Love Writers & Readers...

Happy Wednesday



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Thankful Thursday-- TED Talk with Charlie Todd

I love people who do these kind of things.  The subway signs were my favorite of all...



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Confession Tuesday

[image error] Dear Reader,



I confess I've been away.  I confess I've been away and so busy I forgot to blog.  I forgot to blog and people thought I was kidnapped.  Or falling apart.



But no, it's not that interesting...  Just very away and very busy.





To the confessional--



I confess I spent the weekend at a reunion for my MFA program (PLU's Rainier Writers Workshop).  It was pretty wonderful being around others who love to write and talk about writing and the writing life and projects and books and nerdy stuff.  Not once did I hear about Kim Kardashian or her wedding.  No one talked gossiped about anyone else.  No one tried to put anyone down or their ideas.  It's pretty much my utopia being around these types of people.



~



I confess I realize the lesson I'm still working on learning is that life is too short to spend time with people you don't really like.  It's also too short to fold fitted sheets properly, but that's another topic.



~



I confess I've spent many hours this last week working on Fire On Her Tongue anthology (almost ready!) and the new issue of Crab Creek Review (also almost ready).  Two deadlines smacking me in the face at once.  Or not that painful.  Let's try again-- Two deadlines forcing me to eat cake... okay, that's more like it.  I'm busy, but it's good work.



~



I confess my overwork caused me to flip out in the car tonight because my second least favorite song of all time came on the radio-- Cat's in the Cradle.  (Um, my family thinks this type of flip-out is hilarious.)



But I so hate that song.  When I hear it I scream and start pressing buttons (yes, I am a twelve year old girl.)  The only song I think is worse that Cat's in the Cradle is Mr. Bo Jangles; a song which is so bad is can almost make me cry I hate it so much.  (I am typing this at night and am in my overly-dramatic mood, obviously.)



~



I confess since I said I hate that song--here are some I love:  Beast of Burden (Rolling Stones-- though I've been told some people don't like this song), Boys of Summer (Don Henley), & most anything by the Beatles or John Lennon.



Recently (um, tonight) you could have seen me dancing above the waist in the car when "Moves Like Jagger" came on the radio.  (It's by Maroon 5.)  Actually, you can pretty much see me doing this whenever I hear the song.



I confess if you saw me dancing in my car, you would probably drive by fast and try not to make eye contact.



And speaking of music, my daughter introduced me to this clever song-- Canadian, Please (Song & video produced by Julia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie)  which I send out with love to my Canadian friends, or anyone who wants to be Canadian (apparently there are three rules, 1) get rid of your gun 2) buy a canoe  3) live multi-culturally -- Anyway, we've been enjoying it.  But we're odd like that.



And we've got the moves like Jagger.



Amen.



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Fire On Her Tongue Anthology... Almost ready & already amazing -->

I'm proofing the last proof of Fire On Her Tongue: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry (Two Sylvias Press).





And I'm not just proofing it on paper, but I'm proofing it as a eBook on my iPad.



Yes, I just downloaded the VERY FIRST copy!



Here's the bookshelf on my iPad and here's FIRE ON HER TONGUE!  It looks absolutely amazing.  The final product should be available for download in coming weeks.  Holy Electronic Publication, are we getting close, Batman!  Er, Batwoman!




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Our cover (collage image by poet Nance Van Winckel)--




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Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Confession Tuesday - The DIY Writing Retreat Day Edition (and why you need to keep good friends in your life)

Top row: Ronda Broatch as Cyrano de Bergerac, Annette Spaulding-Convy as Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ann Hursey as W.S. Merwin, Lana Ayers as Chu Shu-chen , Holly Hughes as Virginia Woolf, My Mum as Jackie CollinsBottom row: Nancy Canyon also as Virginia Woolf, Jennifer Culkin as Dorothy Parker, Kelli Agodon as Sylvia Plath, Martha Silano as Gertrude Stein, Susan Rich as Anna Akhmatova, Kathleen Flenniken without her cape as Marianne Moore




Dear Reader,



It's been a poem-a-day since I last confessed.  I've been incredible busy these days but in all good ways, so let's get going.



To the confessional--





I confess I spent 5 1/2 straight hours yesterday writing poetry.



I got together with two other poets in my neighborhood (I live in a town of less than 3000 people and 4 of us are published poets and editors-- it's kind of wild to have my neighbors also be fantastic poets)  and we wrote from 1 pm until 6:30 pm, then we had our poetry group from 7 - 9 pm.



From that writing stretch, I got the beginnings of at least 7 or 8 new poems.



We call this our "Do-it-Yourself Writing Retreat."  Basically, we show up in comfortable clothes, lots of snacks, our laptops and some writing exercises and we create.



Because we have done this together more than once, once we begin, we just go.



There's no chitchat, no bad energy, no attitude, no selfishness, just-- here's the exercise, see what happens.  We make decisions for our day based on what's good for the group, not one person.



If you're interested in doing one of these with your writer friends, here's an old post I've linked up to before with more on DIY Writing Retreats 



If you want photos of food, our beach walk, and me in a funny hat & pink socks, here's one more link.  (apparently, I dress as if I'm colorblind when we do our retreats because on both retreats, I had on my red clown shoes (okay, they aren't really clown shoes, but they look like it) AND a pink shirt/scarf.)  Nice.



I confess the secret to the success of these longer DIY writing retreats is who is involved.  



You have to do them with writers you trust, who would never hurt you, who are open and ready to try anything new, who will bring themselves to the day and commit fully (that means, no cellphones, no "I need to check email," etc etc.)



And you can do them with only one person and they work out great too.







I meet with Susan Rich about every 6 weeks and we write in her writing studio, House of Sky (here's a link to a writing day I had with Susan Rich.) 



And here are some photos from one of my favorite writing dates with her when we went to the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum.



This is a correspondence Susan and I wrote about our friendship.  It talks about writing dates.



Kelli & Marty with her horns of light...


I also meet to write with Martha Silano.  Next week, I'm taking the ferry to meet Marty at a coffeeshop where we will write for 4 hours.



Here's us from a past writing day in a coffee shop. 



Here's when she took the ferry to me and we wrote in my writing shed (aka House of Sea) -- this link has my favorite ridiculous photos of us...  And our most recent one where she bought me this cool hat for winning the Foreword Book of the Year Prize.



~



I confess I had a great time yesterday writing and laughing and eating.



~



I confess, just in general, I've been slowly ridding myself of the people I don't trust from my life.  It's a matter of life is too short to hang out with people who bring me down.



And it's not that these people are bad people, they just aren't right for my life.  I'm sure they make a perfectly good friend to someone else.  But for me, something just doesn't click.  Or it clicks at first, then more you get to know them, you realize that click, was actually a clunk.



I think it's something that happens the older you get.



As a teenager, I thought, "Yes, some of my friends are jerks, but they are my friends..."



In my twenties, I thought, "Hey, I don't need to be friends with jerks.  You are new and fun, I like you, let's spend hours upon hours together being fun and having fun and yes, let's stay out late and have more fun."  Then I got job, then moved from my hometown, then had a child.



My early thirties were "I only have time for my family, sorry friends..."



My mid-thirties were "Sorry I've been away. I'll be friends with anyone."

My late thirties were, "Well, that didn't work out so well..." and I dropped a few people from my life.



My forties?  I guess my motto is, "I only have time for my favorite quality people."



And really, that's how it should be.



We each know people who want the best for us.  These are the folks you should surround yourself with.



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I confess, about once every two-years, I have to check in with myself because I've made some bad choices.  I like friendships that are positive and easy--









 I confess, I didn't plan on this to be about friendship, but there we are.  Call this my Confession Tuesday / Early Thankful Thursday post.



Amen and Thanks.







Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Book Trailer for Kathleen Flenniken's Next Book of Poems: PLUME

My friend, Kathleen Flenniken's second book poems entitled PLUME will be published by the University of Washington Press this spring. I read many of the poems when we were in grad school together and they are truly incredible.



The collection is based on her history growing up in Hanford and working at the Hanford Nuclear Site.



Those in the Northwest are quite familiar with Hanford and she has done her research to produce a book of poems that well-written, well-crafted, and as Martha Collins says, "PLUME raises the bar for documentary poetry."



Kathleen's son made this book trailer for her. What I love about it is that they drove to Hanford to get the video to use. I love seeing Kathleen read in front of smoke rising into the air, and I love how this book trailers tells us what we will be getting in her book as well as gives us a sample of Kathleen's work.



If you haven't read Kathleen's first book, FAMOUS, I highly recommend it.  It won the Prairie Schooner prize a few years ago and is an incredible read.



Here's the book trailer for PLUME... I think it's a wonderful job and I love that her son did for her, a great experience to have together--











Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

A Letter from Novelist Harper Lee:

From ArtDaily:



LOS ANGELES, CA.- A 1960 typed letter signed by Harper Lee elaborates about the fictional Maycomb County in "To Kill a Mockingbird" and includes a hand-drawn map of the state of Alabama with the words "Maycomb County." 



The letter will be auctioned at Nate D. Sanders' Tuesday November 8, 2011 auction. 



The famed novelist wrote the letter just two months after the publication of her landmark Civil Rights book. The letter reads in part, "You ask me where Maycomb County is, where the Landing is—the only answer I can give you is that Maycomb County is in my heart and the Landing is in my imagination. If, in "To Kill a Mockingbird," I persuaded you that those places are real, that means I have succeeded in my profession, which is writing fiction. 



Lee inscribes at the bottom of the letter, "Here is your map:" and scribbles an outline of the state of Alabama with the words 'Maycomb County' labeled in the northern/central part of the state. 





You can read the whole article at ArtDaily (which is a fantastic website to visit daily, btw)



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Best Complaint Letter Ever! Debra Jarvis takes on a Cookie Company--

My friend (and author of It's Not About the Hair: And Other Certainties of Life and Cancer -- an incredible memoir by the way) Debra Jarvis did not appreciate her Paterson Arran cookies were not exactly what the wrapper said they would be.



Now here's a way to write a complaint letter!   By the way, Debra *loves* chocolate, so you can imagine her disappointment when the cookie was not exactly satisfying...



Here's what she wrote:



Note: You will need to know that on the wrapper it reads, "Contains no palm oil, pork or alcohol."

______________________________________



Dear Paterson-Arran,



Just ate your Bronte doubly choc chip biscuits which you describe as "bursting with choc chips." Let's discuss your definition of "bursting." 



Mine: Dolly Parton in a 34B bikini top, Barack Obama on knowing Osama Bin Laden was dead, but having to keep quiet for a while; King Henry VIII (RIP) in thong underwear. 



Yours as evidenced by your "doubly choc chip biscuit:" rocks scattered on a concrete driveway; fingernail clippings on the bathroom floor; hair pins on the floor of a car after a heavy make-out session. 



In other words I'm afraid you use "bursting" when you really mean "scattered." After a meal of chicken w/risotto, half cup salad, dinner roll, butter, Jacob's cracker, cheese, every one of which seemed to live up to it's hype—meaning none—we have your final biscuit as dessert and it was such a let down. 



Perhaps it was the eight hour flight from Entebbe to Amsterdam. Perhaps it is the false hope I carry for abundance on the flight from Amsterdam to Seattle that makes your biscuit such a crushing disappointment to me. 



It is crispy. It is crunchy. "Bursting" it is not. 



My suggestion: add more chocolate chips! A biscuit such as yours should be nothing but a vehicle for chocolate chips. And I'm sure you can do this without bringing in any palm oil, pork or alcohol. 



If this suggestion is not agreeable to you, perhaps you would consider a name change that is a bit more straight forward and to the point: Super Crunchy Crispy Chocolately Biscuit! Just the facts, ma'am. 



Thank you for your time and attention. 



Best regards, 



Debra Jarvis 

KLM/Delta flight #233

___________________________



Dear Debra,

You are right. Thank you so much for taking the time to write so thoughtfully and wittily. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm so sorry our biscuits disappointed you so, reading your email would have been more of a joy.

After a little reflection I see your point exactly and we'll address this immediately. For this particular product line I can't heap more choc chips in I'm afraid, but the text on the pack will change as you suggest - maybe not in time for your next flight on Delta #233 but it will change. 

We do offer a wide range of other products and, by way of thank you, I'd be happy to send you some if you wish - just let me have a postal address. Maybe you could let me know if I've got some other stuff wrong!

Thanks once more.

Kind Regards,

Allan.

Allan Miller

Sales and Marketing Director

__________________________



*******



I love that Allan Miller of their sales department wrote back with such a nice (and not form-letter email).  Personally, I think Debra should work in someone's marketing department as the wrappers of cookies would be MUCH more interesting!



Check out Debra Jarvis's blog here.  She's a fantastic woman and a fantastic writer, as you can see!



Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com

Just do it-->

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Kelli Russell Agodon
www.agodon.com