Today I Wore My Printer Out!

I decided to push through and copy and paste over the poems I plan to turn in for my final residency at Queens into my thesis file.  Then I printed all 102 pages of the poems I have turned in from January 2007 until May 2008.  I still have poems to turn in 4 times from August till November of this year but I don’t plan to workshop anything that will be in the thesis unless I turn in one or two revisions that are really troubling me.

Now should I just let the stack of paper lie or should I start looking through it for what I want to keep?  How long should I try to make the thesis?  All the little questions that flutter through my little head which may be why I forgot to pick up the chair cushion from the dry cleaner while I was out.  Or it could be because I’ve never used a dry cleaner before and I didn’t take my To Do list with me when I went out.  Which in someways defeats the purpose of a To Do list.  But I digress.

Anyway I was really proud of my little printer.  Hubby got it for my birthday in February of 2007 and during the thesis print out is when it finally started showing a toner light.  I had recently purchased a toner cartridge so I was prepared.  Good printer. Now rest.

Sent out one of my chapbooks today and submitted poems to an inexpensive contest as well as to a lit mag.  I typed up my first edits on my poems for the final residency and I think these are going to be tough edits.  I only have a week to work on them, but hopefully they won’t be so horrible that the people in my group, including my new workshop leader, won’t go–Now how did she get in the program?

Not a bad Friday all around, but I still need to vacuum and work on a very un-me but very craft project involving an old window seat that is now going to be a coffee table. Maybe I’ll show you pictures. 

Have a good weekend Everyone!

Bits and Baubles

I am up to 4 rejection notices of my poems this week.  I should go back and see if this is come kind of record.  14 still out there and I plan to send 2 out tomorrow as well as entering one of my chapbooks in another contest.

The last rejection I received was the last one pending for 2007.  In 2006 I had 3% of what I sent out accepted.  In 2007 I had 6% accepted.  Granted, I also sent out a buttload (I know such a poetic word) more items out in 2007 but that is why I am functioning on precentages.

Finished Macnolia by A. Van Jordan.  Really good poems and an excellent way to look at structuring a book which is, of course, of much importance to me as I work on my thesis.

In webfriends news today is Emma Bolden’s birthday so give her a shout out!

It has looked like rain all day here in Charlotte, NC, but as is typical for Charlotte it will wait to rain until it is as hot as it possible can be and during whatever show I most want to watch tonight–Lost in this case. *sigh*

Today was my offical weigh-in today for myself. Down 11.4 in 5 weeks but if I go back to the heaviest I was I have lost about 25 but that first 13.6 fluctuated from 2005 till late in 2007 when I wasn’t keeping good track.  2 years to lose 13.6 isn’t anything to cheer about anyway!  But I should promote more what my brother and his wife have done by losing like 70 pounds EACH and one of my sister’s (the one who recently visited) is at a weight I haven’t been since I was like 22 which (you of the good side of the genes sister dear!) was still something high for her. *double sigh*

All in all though today I feel pretty happy.  Starting some new books tomorrow and still plugging away at my last book for residency.  Even did my first edits on the 11 poems I need for workshops at residency.  They are different from what I am working on for my thesis so it is like trying to crawl inside two different brains.

Man, what I could do with two different brains.

I could so play cards against myself and not be disappointed who won.

Reading Through My NaPoems is DONE!

This morning I finished reading through my NaPoems.  Out of the 30 days I have kept 7 that I think I will revise.  Since I use steno pads for my “poem thoughts/first drafts” the other awful poems will still be somewhere in the house; they will tragically be found one day after I’m gone and everyone will have confirmation at how bad some poetry can be!

I am definitely back into the swing of my regular schedule now, but I am actually glad I got up earlier this morning.  I might start doing that on a regular basis because I managed to get all my writing work done before lunch which only left chores and reading to do in the afternoon and evening.  But now if my body will just continue to wake up earlier….hmmm

Considering registering my own domain site.  Don’t know if it is worth it yet fore me but just considering.  I also have the idea still gnawing at me about a lit mag I’d like to start.  Like there aren’t enough already!

Oh My Thesis

I swore to myself that I would wait until June 1st to start my thesis.  Why June 1st?  Well for starters that is the day after my final residency as a non-graduating student. yah! and wah but also because we do not submit poems during June and July for workshop so there is the time factor.  But, I couldn’t wait.  I have compiled up to January 2008 residency now in a document and it is already a little frustrating.  I went into compiling the thesis with this grand idea of how it was going to be obvious which poems to use because they would be so many on my certain obsessions.  Hmm…doesn’t seem to be so or if there are many poems on certain “topics” I’m not fond of the poems themselves.

*sigh*

I just want to get the poems grouped together and printed so I can start considering them.  Not just because this will be my thesis and first manuscript, but because I feel that urge to move on.  I have new material from the first of the year and from NaPoWriMo that is just so different and ultimately feels more like the poet I want to be.  So the items that I am putting together for the thesis/manuscript feel almost false.  You know how it is going back to read your old work right?  I don’t, however, feel I should just abandon all the work I put in to revise these poems–some as old as 1996 because a few of them have been published and others are just on that cusp.  But there is that part of me that just wants to tackle the new stuff.  I need restraint!

Oh, and there is the issue with my two chapbooks I am sending out to contests right now.  A few of those poems have been workshopped but I don’t plan on including them in the thesis because both chapbooks are somewhat themed.  That makes my core of poems to include in the thesis/manuscript smaller and smaller.

That’s just me venting.  Received another e-jection today (that term from a fellow Queenie ) but it didn’t bother me.  Still have 16 sets of poems out there.  I just want them back and the thesis poems typed up so I can decide what poems are worth continuing to revise and which ones need to be tucked away.

Oh and can someone tell my husband what he should do when he grows up?

Starting to Get Back to My Normal Life

I carted my sister and her kids off to the airport on Friday and the house was suddenly very, very quiet.  After a relaxing weekend of TV (missed a lot of shows), sandwiches and an eh ok Speed Racer viewing, I was ready to get back into the swing of things today.

So I’m back.  I’ve worked on a submit for this week since I didn’t get one out last week as well as selected another place to send each of my chapbooks later this week.  My work on my NaPoems from April is slow.  I went thru Day 15-22 and didn’t find anything I wanted to keep. Oh well.

I did get some good news about placing 2nd in a contest I entered so I’ll post more about that after I get the official award, etc.  Which is fun because I also received notice of not placing, being a finalist etc in another contest I had entered.  C’est la vie.

Feel pretty good about this week.  I have a lot to take care of and a lot I could say about the crazy adventures with the kids, but I’ll leave it at Exhausting but Entertaining.

Have a good week everyone!