Iron Santa: who reigns supreme?

Astrologically speaking, I should be tucking myself away and scheming on 2011. I'm supposed to be quiet and not say a damn thing for the rest of 2010 which is how I'm already feeling inclined, so that shouldn't be too tough. Scheming I have been and I do have some major changes planned over the course of the year. I'll tell you how that all went down this time next year, but I will say making the new plans are energizing. People who are close to me won't be surprised, but some folks will be.

Last night I made a couple specific decisions and then I dreamed that I received the galleys to Bruce's (in waking life, already published) book. There were problems with the spine (there's aways problems with the spine), but the most shocking was that it was between 600-700 pages. How did I not notice that before? The book was too thick, it was falling apart. I wondered what I should do. Should I edit out poems? Shrink the font? And what would we do when it was time to publish his collected? Publish it in volumes? Then I questioned my decision to give his new book the same cover as PF's book, down to the same art and colors. And who should fix the spine, the cover designer of PF's book or Bruce's?

I wrote something on this blog about Bruce's book--to promote it, I guess. A nasty poet immediately posted a bunch of critical comments about my post on his own blog--about how I don't know how to market poetry books and how very annoying I am. He said he wanted my blog post out of his RSS Feed.

Then the dream switched again to Chris, Gideon and I going into a diner, us not getting the booth Chris wanted, my realizing I just got out of the shower and wasn't dressed, a water-shooting video game and a disagreement with some lady about whether or not I should have sent Chris off to do our laundry all by himself. I told her that Chris could handle our laundry on his own, in fact, it was his job.

* * *

Not sure what that all means. Sometimes my psyche is annoyingly cryptic.

review

Galatea Resurrects #15 is out and about with 72 new poetry reviews, including a review of my book, God Damsel:

Like all mothers, God Damsel has eyes in the back of her head and other places as well. This is a woman with power. This is a sexual, strong voice and believe me, you don't want to fuck with her.

—Rebecca Loudon

God Damsel is available here. Today's coupon code at Lulu is DEC8 and that gets you a free book with the purchase of two. There's a lot of great poetry available at Lulu--take a gander at Better Homes Through Poems and see for yourself.

and now for the me stuff

Elizabeth Hildreth interviewed me for the December issue of Bookslut. I talk about writing God Damsel, the gift community and bitterness and psychic plungers.

As I mentioned here before, I gave two readings in NYC last week. If you missed them, Steven Karl gives a run down up at Coldfront of my set-list at the KGB reading. I had a different set-list for the d.a. levy lives series, so you're just going to have to pull out your God Damsel and imagine which poems I read.

And if you don't have God Damsel yet, there's a really good deal at Lulu going on today, buy one book, get the second 50% off. Coupon Code: DEC6. You could buy Your Ten Favorite Words or another No Tell Books title or any poetry title.

Or you can save 10% off your entire order with Coupon Code: PEARTREE (valid all December)

All No Tell Books titles are already discounted 15% off of retail and many of the other poetry titles up at Better Homes Through Poems are discounted too. So it's cheaper for you to buy these books from Lulu AND it's more $$ for the presses. Don't be a grinch, man.

no telling

December is always a crunch time for me. I've already missed my self-imposed deadline (today) to respond to all No Tell Motel submissions. I've responded to roughly 5/6 of the submissions and, as of this writing, accepted 13, but still have 56 to consider for roughly 15-20 slots. When I get down to the final 100 or so submissions the process becomes a lot slower because they're all poems that I can find much to appreciate (even if in the end I don't take them). So if you're still waiting for a response, know that your work is being seriously considered and you should hear from me very soon. My new deadline is next Monday, but let's just say before Christmas.

I usually try to keep "No Tell" business off of this personal blog and post this kind of stuff up on No Tells--but I'm feeling quite jumbled and mixed at the moment. Probably because most of what I've been doing this past couple months has been No Tell related.

So let me take this opportunity to point you to the annual No Tells features in progress: Best Poetry Books of 2010 (a new list everyday) and the Poetry Shopping Holiday Guides by No Tell contributors. These are awesome lists and probably best considered as a collection, but individually they're interesting too.

dear santa

Dear Santa,

I want an iPad and an iPhone and a Google phone.

Love, Gideon


* * *

Yeah. Christmas morning has the potential to be very disappointing.

two readings next week in NYC

Monday, November 29, 2010; 7:00pm: Monday Night Poetry Season at KGB Bar, KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY
Readers: Reb Livingston & Ben Mirov

Tuesday, November 30, 2010; 6pm: Boog City presents d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press, ACA Galleries, 529 W.20th St., 5th Flr. New York, NY
Readers: No Tell Books authors - Bruce Covey, Lea Graham, Karl Parker and Reb Livingston
and music from Binary Marketing Show