Juliet Cook's Blog, page 147

Blood Pudding Press is not currently accepting submissions, but the Myna Birds flock always is…

Hello there. As many poets who are also small press editors/publishers are aware of, it seems like as soon as your press publishes a new chapbook, you receive many more handfuls of people asking you if you’re accepting submissions, rather than handfuls of people buying your presses chapbook.

Even though that sometimes bums me out a bit, I’m not really complaining, because I’ve done it a few times too (although if I’m querying a press I’ve never actually purchased anything from, I do at least research the press, to find out if I think we might be a good fit stylistically – but sometimes the people who ask me if my press is accepting submissions, not only have not purchased anything from my press, but also seem to have no idea about my press’s style, even though I try my best to have that information available online, via various sources – the Blood Pudding Press blog, my personal blog, and the Blood Pudding Press shop, where even if you can’t afford to purchase something, you could at least take a peek at what I publish).

Here’s a short version for you about Blood Pudding Press and its style.

Blood Pudding Press is an itty bitty indie poetry press handled by one woman (poet/publisher/artsy dingbat Juliet Cook) and although the press is open to lots of different styles, its primary interests involve pussy-centric, oddly emotional, sweet/sour, dark/light hybrids. Contempo horror alterations, kink amalgamations, grotesque treats. Flirty, volatile, contradictory. Railroad track debris and purring pussies.

Blood Pudding Press does not usually accept submissions on an ongoing basis. Its most recent series of submissions were accepted through a contest from this past September/October – and then the two contest winners were announced in November – and then the first contest winner’s poetry chapbook was published/went live on New Year’s Eve – and the second contest winning chapbook is currently in progress and will likely be published next month, February 2013.

You can partake of and/or purchase that first recent contest winning chapbook – Renegade//Heart by Lisa M. Cole at the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop (as well as taking a peek and/or purchasing previous chapbooks and other stuff there too). Here’s the link - http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

Stay tuned for the second recent contest winning chapbook, coming soon - Poking Through The Fabric of the Light that Formed Us: Songs and Stories to Read in the Mirror by Lora Bloom

Blood Pudding Press is not anti-query, BUT due to the fact that I’m currently working on the chapbook noted above AND have already planned to look at/consider the work of several other poets in the next few months, I do not wish for any more queries until September 2013, at which point I might (or might not) launch another chapbook contest, depending on various things.

In any case, when I AM accepting submissions for Blood Pudding Press, I will post about that on the Blood Pudding Press blog and elsewhere.

Also, if you’re going to query it's okay if you have not purchased a Blood Pudding Press offering, but AT LEAST investigate Blood Pudding Press offerings and style a bit to attempt a vibe as to whether or not you think we might stylistically/artistically mesh. 

***

Again, as many other poets and small press editors/publishers understand, it’s not easy managing to alternate your creative focus between other people’s creative work AND your own creative work – but I try my best to do what I can in terms of writing and submitting my own work – reading and occasionally publishing other’s work – plus poetry readings and art and more more more – and don’t even get me started on the promoting (I’m not sure how to decide if I’m under-promoting or over-promoting or where/how best to promote, but I try my best). 

We all have our own creative stylistics, right? I do what I can with mine.

***

Since time wise and energy wise and mentality wise, I cannot afford to publish a lot of print chapbooks for Blood Pudding Press, I also have an online blog style lit mag called Thirteen Myna Birds that is updated almost every month – and is almost always accepting submissions. You can take a peek at that page (which was just updated a few days ago with new poems) AND it’s guidelines here -http://13myna.blogspot.com/

New Thirteen Myna Birds - Powerful Foursome of Women!

The Thirteen Myna Birds flock has now been updated for the new year and its first 2013 offering features a strong and powerful assortment of work by four women. Six pieces by Risa Denenberg - Three by Misti Rainwater-Lites - Two by Emily Jern-Miller - Two by Rachel Bunting. 

All of them here - http://13myna.blogspot.com/

"tired of being invisible-a trickle of chokecherry wine-the sky seedy with furious twists-what it feels like to have blue muscles-eyelashes lace my heart’s membrane"

Personal Style

For the record, I think there is a substantial difference between me finding my leg photos appealing and fun and perhaps a bit goofball semi-kink creative (and perhaps having a delicious little spurt of appeal for some others) - and trying to lure in potential sex partners. A male friend of mine asked me last night if I was trying to lure in men with the sock photos I sometimes post, and I’m not trying to lure in anyone as a sex hook up, for f. sake. Creative allure maybe; poetic hook up maybe; sex hook up – no. If my socks appeal to/interest/ turn on some men and some women, then cool, I like that. I’m not going to lie. I can sometimes be a bit flirty and I sometimes quite like attention, but not because I’m some sort of fishing lure. Flirty attention is not my primary focus in life; more in depth expression is. BUT if some people get the wrong impression of me, that’s there impression. Everyone’s entitled to their own impressions and expressions, right?  

Sometimes others give me the impression that if I don’t want to give some men the wrong impression, then I should just stop acting/talking/dressing/posting the least bit sexy – but I don’t want to zone myself out of my own expressive mode, just so I don’t give other people the wrong impression. What’s the right impression anyway?  That differs from individual to individual, right?  I would like to continue being myself and expressing myself however I see fit at a given time.Anyone who knows me well or interacts with me frequently will know that I’m not mainly into sock posting; I’m mainly into poetry. Poetry turns me on so much, primarily in a mentally stimulating way – but sometimes mind fuses with bodily based pleasures and I feel compelled to masturbate while working on my poetry (was that too much personal information to share?  Oh well; too late now; anyway I’ve shared it many times before). That doesn’t mean I want to have phone sex while working on my poetry though.  It means if I’m feeling creatively revved up enough to play with words AND take a body based pleasure stimulation break, than why not do it?

If someone is turned on by my sock photos (or just thinks they’re fun and creative), cool.  If someone is turned on by my poetry (or finds it is oddly interesting), even cooler. If someone is turned on by both and more, awesome.  If hardly anybody was turned on by anything about me, that would be a bit of a bummer, but my socks and mostly my poetry (and other people’s poetry and art too) would still turn ME on - and I will sure stick to that.

PAINTED HYBRIDS

Although poetry is & always has been my primary passion, I also create visual art, such as paintings and collage art and hybrids of the two.

One of them was used for the cover art of the latest Blood Pudding Press chapbook (Renegade//Heart by Lisa M. Cole - scroll down a few posts if you'd like to see that cover image) - and several of them have recently been placed for sale within my Blood Pudding Press etsy shop.

Here's some imagery (and titles) for you to peruse, if so inclined:

1. -SOCKET MAUL (SOLD but part of the cover art of Renegade//Heart)

2. -GHOST INSINUATIONS
(available here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/117694871/ghost-insinuations-one-of-a-kind)

3. -FRIGHT WIGS HANG (available here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/118723047/fright-wigs-hang-one-of-a-kind-original)
4. -GLITTER WITCH PURGATORY
(available here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/120946558/glitter-witch-purgatory-one-of-a-kind)
 5. -OLIVE OCTOPUS DREAMLAND(available here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/120947977/olive-octopus-dreamland-one-of-a-kind?ref=v1_other_1)

NEW Strange Girl Press

"My squirmy heart star-lets are about to explode from outer space like a strange photo booth tainted with biohazards."

from Volatility by Juliet Cook
Check out more poetic offerings by Juliet Cook, Mary Coleman, Jill Khoury, Nadra Mabrouk, J.S. MacLean, Andrea Quinlan, and Martin Willitts, Jr...
within the new Strange Girl Press here - 
http://strangegirlp.blogspot.com/

RENEGADE//HEART by Lisa M. Cole - first Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook of 2013!

HAPPY POETIC NEW YEAR 2013!

"I am tied//hold me open//rip me//I am poised//silver glint of fear"

(from Renegade//Heart by Lisa M. Cole).

RENEGADE//HEART by Lisa M. Cole was a contest winner from my latest Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook contest - and is the very first new Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook of 2013!

It contains 18 different unique, multi-faceted contempo poems.

The cover design offers pieces of a scan of a painting of mine called SOCKET MAUL.

The chapbook is being printed & designed in several different colored covers and innard stocks.

If you would like to choose a particular color cover, please feel free to do so. If not, a delightful color choice will be made for you.

Get your very own Renegade//Heart from the Blood Pudding Press shop here: 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

Happy Creative Xmas/Artmas from Thirteen Myna Birds and Blood Pudding Press!

It's a special addition of the online Thirteen Myna Birds hooking up with Blood Pudding in honor of its recent poetry chapbook contest winners and three semi-finalists - http://13myna.blogspot.com/
The first winning chapbook, Renegade // Heart by Lisa M. Cole is on the brink of publication/creation and will be available starting on New Year’s Eve! The second winning chapbook, Poking Through The Fabric of the Light that Formed Us: Songs and Stories to Read in the Mirror by Lora Bloom will be published later in January or February.  One poem from each of those two collections appears among the Myna Birds.
Then the next ten poetic offerings (four poems by Paula Cary, three poems by Allie Marini Batts, & three poems by Paul David Adkins) are from among the three semi-finalist’s poetry manuscripts, which hopefully other lucky duck small presses will choose to publish soon.
Enjoy these offerings and feel free to visit the Blood Pudding Press shop, for other artsy arrangements, including the two coming soon new poetry chapbooks noted above.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

“Naming mounds in order to find ways to sustain them” (new mini poetry chapbook review)

One reader’s view of “performing Chod until post-natural indigenes” by j/j hastain
(Grey Book Press 2012)
This small, well-designed poetry chapbook, published by Grey Book Press, includes poetic content by j/j hastain, featuring unique portals of experimental mind/body fusion.
The word Chod as part of this chapbook’s title did not draw me in with extreme interest, because content wise, I’m not particularly interested in the transcendental, spiritual realm when it comes to poetry. Chod is a sort of spiritual practice known as “cutting through the ego”, but as is the case with much of the poetry I’ve read by hastain, the cuts seem largely body based and sexual – indicating that the mind from which such content derives might also be body based and sexual.
In this case, instead of being body based and sexual in a standard sort of way, the approach is more experimental and could be perceived as a sort of bodily transitioning.  
As noted in one poem –
“I have always pictured heavenly masses as porous darknesses. As relieffrom traditional light.”
As noted in another poem –
“Power exchange is what makes me into a sexuality. So never just one
preferred ignition. The bird wings are not attached to birds’ bodies”
This performing collection focuses on different sorts of bodily based approaches, but despite that, isn’t power exchange still sort of a sexual cliché, even if the power exchange is experimented with?  Maybe/maybe not. 
Even when experimenting with power exchange, why must the primary device to experiment with be body parts?  For example, the repeated use of words like “erotica” and “genitals” and “Genital charts” does not bother me as much if I perceive it as someone creating their own genitalia.  However it is pictured or perceived though, there is still a focus on body- based endeavors, genitals, and orgasms throughout this chapbook – and some will be interested in this approach and some will not.
For me personally, the collection is uniquely well written, but too bodily/sexually based to appeal to me on a multi-faceted mind-based level. I am not a non-sexual individual or a person who is unwilling to experiment in that realm, but even if genitals and other body parts and positions can be uniquely created and/or transformed by personal choice, that still does not cause my mind to compare genitals to cosmic forces – and sometimes I think that is how this collection is perceiving and attempting to explain sex, as some sort of self-created heaven.  I know some people do perceive body part pleasures and their reactions to be a heavenly cosmic force, but I seek more emotional alignment with the physical.
Similarly, much as the word Chod as part of the book’s title did not powerfully engage me , and there was too much of a genital influx for my liking, there were also times when part of a section would really appeal to me, but then be overtaken by the body base.  Even the very first line in the chapbook, “ I wanted to create a psychic halo” quite appeals  to and interests me, until the next half of the sentence, “from the pineal gland”, followed by pineal gland repeated five more times on that page, near “intimacies”, “erotic”, and “orgasms”.
Even though that approach does not suit my style, I imagine it might very deeply appeal to some.
Perhaps some of those who can relate to these lines -
“If, as a child, you were only able to read bible stories, your body becomes amotile, mythical location that always hurts. There is nothing that will relieve that
but devotion to divergent
formulae”
Maybe hastain is attempting to deviate and diverge away from standard sexual scriptures, standard genital behavior, and other standard expectations in that realm and create a whole new portal or devotional force field – for those who diverge from the norm, choose to create their own bodies, and desire to continually focus upon and experiment with those bodies.
~Juliet Cook~

Xmas/Artmas

Envy Inducing Stocking Stuffers for the Special Lady in Your Life:

http://voices.yahoo.com/envyinducing-stocking-stuffers-4609725.html?cat=46

Five Delightful Nontraditional Xmas Celebration Ideas:

http://voices.yahoo.com/five-delightful-nontraditional-xmas-4668423.html?cat=74

"muck and seaweed - shimmering beneath the surface"

The new Thirteen Myna Birds is up, offering new poetic pieces from Donavon Davidson, Cher Bibler, Emily Strauss, and featuring six poems by Amber Bromer with her bagpipe stomach and rainbow colored firecracker blood.
Fingers are fluttering spiders - through a knothole  - muck and seaweed - shimmering beneath the surface - severed hands that left a small offering - box where the flaps don’t quite come together - a howling wind - flesh or the stone inside?
http://13myna.blogspot.com/