d. ellis phelps's Blog, page 22
August 1, 2016
Readings! Two in August & Poets Needed
image: courtesy of the artist, marcel van den berg via creative commons. Rights reserved.
save the date!: August 11, 2016, 7PM
I’ll be reading at Malvern Books in Austin again! This time, I’m reading for their monthly event, Novel Night from my novel, Making Room for George, Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2016 alongside Marcia Feldt Bates, the author of The Oys and Joys.
Earlier this year, I read at Malvern’s during an event they hosted featuring Tupleo Press 30/30 Project Alumni (a fundraiser for the press during which poets wrote 30 poems in 30 days). Here’s a link to the July, 2016 30/30 poems. If you’re a poet, consider volunteering for a month coming soon!
save the date!: August 10, 2016, 6PM
I’ll be reading for the Voices de la luna poets in San Antonio from a chapbook of poems written during the 30/30 Project last March. The reading is free and open to the public: Lynn Belisle Studio. To tease you into coming, here is the April 17, 2016 poetry reading at Malvern’s:
April 13, 2016
catch & release…reviewers alert!
Change is good!
I’ve just released the second edition of my novel, Making Room for George (Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2016). TADA!
This love story, based on real events, was first released in 2013 by Balboa Press & has 22 five star reviews on Amazon which you can read here. That edition will soon be out of print.
The second edition is improved because (this is a secret), I have removed many song lyrics used in the first edition (without permission; mistake of ignorance) and gained permission for the use of the few lyrics still in print in this edition. It was this Book Baby Blog post by Chris Robley that helped me understand how to use song lyrics in my novel legally.
In short, song lyrics (written after 1923) are NOT in public domain and do not fall under the fair usage policy. YIKES!
So, I got to work doing research I should have done before releasing the first edition of the book, but honestly, I thought lyrics, as long as I didn’t claim them as mine, could just be quoted. Wrong.
I’ve changed the font. The cover has been redesigned. But otherwise, the book is the same. So why did I change from Balboa Press to Create Space?
image: used with permission of the artist Tax Credits via Creative Commons some rights reserved.
Money.
Indie authors have to pay. For everything. Themselves. And we have to do it all: write, market, read, network, & run a business. I’m TERRIBLE at running my writing career like a business. I’m getting better at networking. Mostly, I tend to hole up and slink back to my studio where I’m friendly with all the paper & pens and color, and this slinking usually takes place after too much effort at “marketing,” or too much time at the PC.
I need my swing and the palpable sweetness of natural things.
image: used with permission of the artist, Chaim Zvi via creative commons
I’ll let you do your own research if you are considering becoming an indie author. For me, knowing what I know now, Create Space makes more sense. I can choose the price of my book. I’ll make more of the money I have spent on the book back (as long as readers buy directly from my e-store). There will be no additional pressure disguised as “marketing help” to spend any more money for anything. I can conduct a book giveaway at an affordable price.
Which brings me to my point! I’M DOING A BOOK GIVEAWAY! As soon as the Kindle version is ready which should be in about ten days, I’ll be gifting an e-version of the book to the first thirty people who follow this blog and opt-in to my email list starting now! Whoohoo! There is no obligation, but I’d sure love a fair and honest review. I’ll send that info along with your copy.
For your chance to win, scroll down to the bottom of my About Me page, click “follow” on the right sidebar and add your name to my email list on the contact form (be sure to click “I want to subscribe to your email list.” Go here now!
please share…& thanks with Big Love!
April 12, 2016
National Poetry Month: 30 poems in 30 days
What to do first?
Once, a writer friend, visiting my studio, viewing a bronze sculpture of mine (still sitting on my hearth today) said, “It must be hard for you to decide what to do first when you get up in the morning!” She said this because I paint, I’ve done some sculpture, I write (poetry, a novel, a blog…sometimes) and I do body & soul work with private clients. She was thinking all that doing and going in so many directions might be causing me some conflict. She’s right. But I don’t seem to be able to stop.
I’ve been working in this circular way as an artist for twenty-five years, each media delightfully informing the other.
However, last month (March, 2016), I agreed to write 30 poems in 30 days for Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project. This very creative way of raising funds for the small press was a wonderful challenge that, as you can imagine, kept me quite focused!
It was a thrilled to see my DAILY work “published” on the Tupelo 30/30 blog pages alongside the other six accomplished poets who also wrote during March. The poems are still “up” through the end of April, National Poetry Month & you can read them here.
Pick up the pen…
This coming Friday, April 15, 2016 from 7-9PM, I will be very happily reading in Austin at Malvern Books, with other awesome Tupelo 30/30 alumni from previous months and/or years: Robert Okaji, Christine Beck, Pamela Paek, Katy Chrisler, D.G. Geis, & Ronnie K. Stephens.
Yesterday, I re-blogged a post by Rober Okaji: How to Write a Poem. The reason I like the poem he posted so much is because it beautifully describes how poetry happens for me as well. I do just what he says to do: live and let the words come. But during March, I picked up my pen. Every day.
image: used with permission via Creative Commons by Antonio Litteri0
The pen is the difference between simply living a life and living a writer’s life, the pen, the art of listening, and a strange penchant for recording everything!
One of the most interesting things that occurred to me during this writing exercise is that as Naomi Shihab Nye says, poems are everywhere! But you have to be listening.
I didn’t want to “cheat” myself out of the chance to learn this (again!), so I decided that I would wait, each day, for the prompt life would provide. Life did not disappoint.
image: used with permission via Creative Commons photographer, Kezee
Have you ever prayed for rain?
Close to the end of day #24, I still had not written anything, but on my way home from the grocery store, I stopped at the intersection, turning left to go home. Here is the poem that stop prompted:
stopping
at the intersection
i nod
allow
the cement truck
to cross
—huge tumbler
rolling
i think about
ingredients:
shells
shale
limestone
too much
or
too little
causes
—disintegration
~
the day you
announced:
i’ve joined the army
how i thought
this might
harden you
how it did:
pills for rage
pills for sleep
pills for pain
~
too much
for years
you wouldn’t
look up
your back
to every wall
~
have you ever
prayed
for rain
for a job
for a soul
~
today you call
full
overflow
of the old you
the one i knew
mama
i want
to tell you
i have
so many
ideas
~
i think about
intersections:
of faith
of mistakes
how i
came to
call you
my son
by making one
~
i think about
the time you
& i prayed
for our lives
—perpendicular
roads
in front of
the cement plant
that day
the tornado
turned up
trucks
only yards
from us
~
how we shook
how the deluge
(almost) overtook
how we bow
to a god
neither of us
understand
d. ellis phelps is the author of Making Room for George, A Love Story (Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, forthcoming 2016.)
April 11, 2016
How to Write a Poem
“do it all again.” meet #poet, Robert Okaji, one of the poets reading with me this Friday night. I love this one. It is right on.
How to Write a Poem
Learn to curse in three languages. When midday
yawns stack high and your eyelids flutter, fire up
the chain saw; there’s always something to dismember.
Make it new. Fear no bridges. Accelerate through
curves, and look twice before leaping over fires,
much less into them. Read bones, read leaves, read
the dust on shelves and commit to memory a thousand
discarded lines. Next, torch them. Take more than you
need, buy books, scratch notes in the dirt and watch
them scatter down nameless alleys at the evening’s first
gusts. Gather words and courtesies. Guard them carefully.
Play with others, observe birds, insects and neighbors,
but covet your minutes alone and handle with bare hands
only those snakes you know. Mourn the kindling you create
and toast each new moon as if it might be the last one
to tug your personal tides. When driving, sing…
View original post 97 more words
April 15 Tupelo Press Poetry Reading
I’m delighted to be included in this reading alongside six other accomplished poets. Come join us this Friday, April 15, 2016. 7PM
TUPELO PRESS POETRY READING
MALVERN BOOKS
FRIDAY, APRIL 15
7:00 – 8:30
Join Tupelo Press 30-30 and Conference Alums for an evening of poetry. Featured readers include Christine Beck, Katy Chrisler, D.G. Geis, Robert Okaji, Pamela Paek, D. Ellis Phelps and Ronnie K. Stephens.
March 28, 2016
30/30 Project Contributors
I’m one of these #poets! So proud. So proud. Read poems here. Send a book of poems to your mom, to your lover. Read poems to laugh, to think, to live.
Support this work: #penniesforpoems #donate now. Every $ helps. Please say I sent you…
March 2016 30/30 Tupelo Press Poets: Claire Acerno Claire Acerno’s poetry comes from the day to day. She’s house frau, mom, grandmother, dreamer. Invisiable– a nobody’s nobody. Sh…
Source: 30/30 Project Contributors
The Studios at MASS MoCA
* Take your work to a new level with a week-long residency and workshop, during The Studios at MASS MoCA. You’ll be inspired by the art and architecture of the country’s largest contemporary arts c…
Source: The Studios at MASS MoCA
February 11, 2016
January 24, 2016
tulips #mixedmedia #collage
This teeny-tiny art fits beautifully in small spaces like between cabinets and counter tops, for example. Spice up space that’s usually ignored. Poor space. It hates to be so naked and neglected! Makes an affordable, one-of-a-kind gift of fine art for the art-lover in your life.
8.5 X 7.5″ mixed media on paper collage with India ink, thread, straight pins, beads, wire, and re-purposed jewelry. Ships bubble wrapped in appropriate box to protect integrity of the piece. Ready to hang with attached thread or can be professionally framed for a more elegant look. But that will take up more space!
$$45 Click here to BUY NOW
December 31, 2015
blue woods #painting #mixedmedia
I’m having big fun making teeny-tiny art for teeny-tiny spaces! This 6X6″ mm on paper painting (acrylic, India Ink and oil pastel) is mounted on green card stock and hung with blue thread and straight pins. Its new owner can hang it this way, float-mount it as is, or have the framer trim it and remount it on mat board in a more traditional frame.
Ships in a bubble wrap envelope with acid free board stiffener to prevent damage.
Click here to BUY NOW!
