NaPoWriMo

I'm posting my NaPoWriMo poems everyday on my tumblr here.

If you haven't already, enter my big poetry giveaway here.

That is all.

For now.

Big Poetry Giveaway

I have some extra awesomesauce poetry books, so I'll be participating in the Big Poetry Giveaway.


I'll be giving away the demented, The Moon's Jaw by Rauan Klassnik (Black Ocean) and a copy of my most recent collection, God Damsel (No Tell Books).




How to Enter:

Leave a comment on this blog post with your name and email between now and April 30th, 2013 at midnight (PST).

I will pick an entry at random the week of May 1. The winner will receive a copy of both books.

Anyone, except NaPoMo Scrooge Rauan Klassnik, may enter.

speaking of oracles

Astrologer Jessica Adams put together a list of the best free oracles and included the Bibliomancy Oracle.

At the end, she tests each oracle by asking what was Princess Diana's life about. As usual, the Bibliomancy Oracle responded like a psychic champ:

shopping for hats that convey a spirit

of adventure? You are a pizza party laughing

at toppings. You fill up this map with tiny

blips of awe.

from ‘I WAS NOT EVEN BORN WHEN YOU WERE LOUD AND CLEAR’ by Nick Sturn and Wendy Xu

tumblrs

Since last year I’ve been using my Psychic Memoir tumblr as scratch paper for ideas/drafts for my novel-in-progress, Bombyonder. From here on out, I’ll be shifting Psychic Memoir to a more general/personal blog. During April, I’ll be posting poems for NaPoWriMo. After that, we’ll see.

I started a tumblr specific to Bombyonder here. There I’m posting a selection of reconstructed memory and historical fragments that appear in and/or influence the novel. In in some ways it’s a never ending project.

Also, the Bibliomancy Oracle is on tumblr. As of this writing, there are over 1400 prophecies. I add new ones each week. If you’re interested in following the new prophecies as I add them, you can follow that too. Or you can just go straight to the oracle and ask away.

I don't post too frequently on this blog anymore, but if you wish, you can keep up with my various online incarnations at the above tumblrs and on Twitter, Pinterest and Goodreads.

When I went on "sabbatical" last year, I decided not be on the radar as much as before. Not disappearing, just blending into the wall. The new perspective has been helpful in allowing me to better refocus my own work and personal interests. I haven't had an AWP nightmare in a very long time.


p.s. If you haven't migrated your Google Reader subscriptions yet, I've been using and recommend Feedly. After a day of getting used to it, I find that I prefer it to Reader.

next big thing

Trevor Calvert tagged me for The Next Big Thing. Here's my self-interview:

What is the working title of the book?

Bombyonder


Where did the idea come from for the book?

The concept is that it's a "psychic memoir" meaning that it reads as a personal record of a mental/supernatural phenomena. Since it's a "memoir" the memories recovered are treated as truth, there's no question as to whether or not something "really" happened. The protagonist doesn't wake up and go "oh, it was just a dream" and it's not a hallucination. The book works under the belief that the mental/supernatural spaces we move in and out of are indeed quite "real." The veracity of the events is not what's in question, but the perspectives/motivations of the characters and what the protagonist extracts and concludes from these recovered truths. These psychic events expand, overlap and evolve as their own spaces. It's these events and experiences that are accounted for by the protagonist.

The influences for this idea come from everywhere: bibliomancy, Tarot, books, films, memories and fragments, physical experiences, dreams, fantasies, the news, religious and mythological texts and on and on.


What genre does your book fall under?

Fiction. I read somewhere that people like to read novels, so I thought I'd give that a try since I'd like for people to read it. Also, even though it IS a memoir, I don't want to be in the position where I have to PROVE something REALLY HAPPENED.


What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Lena Headey, Cate Blanchett or (in 15 years from now) Jennifer Lawrence for the protagonist. Amy Sedaris as Lily, the straight-texting friend who lives in a box inside a box. For Rauan, the unconceived brother, maybe Patton Oswalt.


What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Lady swallows a bomb in pill form (invented by her father), barfs up a dead bird and embarks on an excavation layered with murder, sexual politics, patriarchy, matricide and ancestral torment along with a parrot-faced cat girl, a boy on a donkey, a terrifyingly handsome lover, an unconceived brother, a straight-texting friend who lives in a box inside a box and Medusa.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I'm still writing it, so 14 months and counting.



Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My unflinching desire to set the record STRAIGHT and then blow it to SMITHEREENS to see what's inside.



Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I haven't thought too much on that yet. Right now I'm focusing on finishing the manuscript. I'm open to both possibilities, but there's probably a slightly higher chance that I'll publish it myself because I tend to want to be the one who makes the decisions. Sometimes I have trust issues.



I'm not sure who hasn't been tagged yet, but I don't think I've seen a selfie by: Rauan Klassnik or Hugh Behm-Steinberg. Anyone else want to be tagged who hasn't been?

guess the dream poet -- part 5 (2012)

Guess which poets listed (or possibly omitted) in the below dream anthology belongs in the blanks.

* * *

I walk into a classroom. __(Poet 1)__is the teacher. While I was away, s/he gave a very detailed pop quiz that asks all kinds questions about poets and poetry. I don't know why s/he expects everyone to know this, then I figure there was required reading that I didn't do. I sit down next to __(Poet 2)__ who lets me copy his/her answers. The text has many questions and is complicated. There are fill in the blank questions and columns of questions. It's confusing where to put the answers. I'm copying answers from __(Poet 2)__ at random, throughout the test, with little rhyme or reason. There seems to be an unending number of questions. Somebody comes by and checks to see how we're doing. I flip __(Poet 2)__'s test over so they can't tell I'm copying it. They tell me that I need to hurry up. Then they come back and take __(Poet 2)__'s test. There's still a lot of questions I need to answer.


* * *

__(Poet 1)__ and __(Poet 2)__ have space in their van for me to go to the Yancy concert with them. I ask if they have an extra ticket and they say they have plenty. I'm not really familiar with Yancy, I remember __(Poet 3)__ posting a Yancy video on Facebook that was so-so. I tell them I need a few minutes. I go inside a childhood home and pee for a very long time while considering changing my sneakers to my boots because it'll look better.


* * *

I'm in NYC with __(Poet 1)__. We're in a fancy hotel lobby but we have to cross the street to a cheap hotel because __(Poet 1)__ doesn't want to pay more than $50 a night. We walk past __(Poet 2)__ and __(Poet 3)__ lying down on the ground, doing some kind of ironic performance thing to get attention for their reading this evening. I'm not going to go to their reading. I'll sooner go to a random stranger's reading.


* * *


I'm in my long abandoned elementary school. Everything inside has been painted white. _____ is here teaching a class. I know s/he's supposed to be dead, but s/he's come back from the dead to teach. There's a concern (perhaps it's just mine) that perhaps his/her time is past and s/he shouldn't be coming back. But then again, now there's still an opportunity to study with _____.


* * *

I'm crossing the street to find an office to work on the 2012 Dream Poet Anthology. I think about how __(Poet 1)__ probably feels replaced by __(Poet 2)__. That's because __(Poet 1)__ has been replaced by __(Poet 2)__.

guess the dream poet -- part 4 (2012)

Guess which poets listed (or possibly omitted) in the below dream anthology belongs in the blanks.

* * *

I get a call from _____ asking for help regarding the confluence software. I say that I'm not a teacher and have never used it, but s/he can come by and I'll try to help. I go to confluence.com to try to figure it out.


* * *

I'm following _____ around. S/he's next to some kind of machinery. I tell him/her that I used to be really intimidated by him/her when s/he ran this machinery. Now I seem to be the one who's a bit intimidating or maybe s/he didn't think I was intimidated before. I put my face close to his/hers, like we're close. Someone sees this through a window. Things have really changed between us.


* * *

I walk into a crowded auditorium with __(Poet 1)__. We look for empty seats together. We find two seats together and there seems to be a third I can hold for __(Poet 2)__. It's empty so I try to take it but Jack Nicholson says he's using it. He says he needs two because his wife is pregnant. I don't think he needs two and try to take it. I argue with him. __(Poet 3)__ and __(Poet 4)__ in the rows behind think I'm being a bitch for arguing for this chair. Or the way I argue. It just seems unfair. If I stand up for myself, I'm asking for it. Poets in the back rows are throwing wads of paper at me. __(Poet 5)__ comes up to __(Poet 2)__ and says that Walton Goggins (a boy in one of my dream high school classes) is saying some really means things about me. He really can't stand me. I like him and this hurts my feelings. I want him to like me. I get up and walk around the auditorium, in front of the rows of other kids who don't like me. I try to keep my composure.


* * *

A woman briefly dated _____. She brings _____ to a building under construction because he has to pee on something. Then she's going to jump off a building to sacrifice herself for some greater cause. _____ is watching, but he's not real concerned that she's going to kill herself. He's sitting, doing something with his arms, like he's pretending to drive. As the woman stands on the edge she realizes that something is about to explode. She runs off, I assume to protect _____ and others. The explosion happens within seconds. I assume she dies. _____ is OK. I ask _____ what was the woman's name. He can't remember, they only dated for a few days.


* * *

_____ trims his/her eyebrows. I do exactly what s/he does, but it’s way too short and there’s a bald spot in my eyebrows. There’s a discussion about whether or not eyebrows should be trimmed at all.