This Saturday you’re invited to come to the Mythos/Hilgard Gallery to hear Mary Mackey read new poems, plus poems from Travelers With No Ticket Home and Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Mary will be reading with Native American poet Luke Warm Water. DATE: Saturday March 14, 2015. TIME: 2:30 pm. PLACE: 2725 Hilgard Street at La Vereda Road, Berkeley, CA.
Hot New Books at the Spice Monkey!
Co
me to the Spice Monkey Restaurant in Oakland this Wednesday, March 4th, and hear Mary Mackey read her poems in the Pandemonium Press Reading Series “Hot! New Books!.” Mary will be reading with poets Indigo Moor, Jon Sindell, and Wayne Goodman. There will also be a musical performance by guitarist Hao C. Tran. Curated by Leila Rae, publisher/editor Pandemonium Press. TIME: 6:45 pm to 9:00 pm. PLACE: The Loft at the Spice Monkey Restaurant and Bar, 1628 Webster Street, Oakland (at 17th St, 2 1/2 blocks from the 19th Street BART). This event is free and open to the public. Sign up for the open mic at pandemoniumpress@gmail.com.
Fabulist Fiction, A New Literary Genre Explained
Omnidawn Publishing Senior Editors Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan discuss Fabulist Fiction
Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan
Mary: Rusty and Ken, welcome to my People Who Make Books Happen interview series. Could you please begin our conversation by telling us why you decided to to call the work that Omnidawn is publishing “Fabulist Fiction,” and why you thought it was necessary to create this new genre? I’m particularly interested in the history of your decision, since you’ve recognized at least five of my novels, including The Year The Horses Came, as fabulist fiction.
Ken: At present, there are basically three major categories of fiction: genre fiction, literary fiction, and a third type which has had no commonly accepted name. This third type has cultural meaning and artistic value, which means it does not fit well into the escapist formula genres, yet it also has non-realistic elements and settings which exclude it from the category of literary fiction. We knew from the start that we wanted to publish this third type of fiction, but what would we call it?
When we began to consider publishing our first ParaSpheres anthology and were seeking a name for the kind of work we wanted to include in it, we remembered that in the fall of 2002 the literary journal Conjunctions (from Bard College, edited by Brad Morrow) devoted issue number 39 (guest edited by Peter Straub) to what they described as “new wave fabulist writers.” The announcements for Conjunctions: 39 described the issue as including stores from a “small group of innovative writers rooted in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror [who] have been simultaneously exploring and erasing the boundaries of those genres by creating fiction of remarkable depth and power.” To honor Brad Morrow and Peter Straub’s work in bringing attention to this type of fiction, I discussed the value of Conjunctions: 39 in both an editor’s note and a longer essay included in ParaSpheres; and we decided to call the stories in ParaSpheres “Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist.”
After ParaSpheres, as we’ve continued to publish this kind of fiction, we’ve decided to use the simpler term “Fabulist Fiction,” which in our minds we think of as embracing all the kinds of stories that might erase as well extend the boundaries of “non-realistic artistic fiction.” Although we consider this kind of fiction to meet the broad definition of the term “literary,” we recognize that it does not meet the established narrative realist definition of literary fiction. By presenting this fiction as neither literary fiction nor genre fiction, but rather as something else altogether, we are hoping to redefine it as a new category.
Mary: Why does this new genre need to exist?
Rusty: To put it simply, literary critics serve as defenders of intellectual and artistic values that are relatively free of the profit motivations. There is definite merit in this. But the conventional standards of literary fiction that are applied in order to eliminate escapist fiction also eliminate much serious, thought-provoking fiction that has artistic value. By establishing Fabulist Fiction as a recognized form, which contains both non-realistic elements and artistic and cultural meaning, we hope to bring the serious works in this genre to the attention of readers and critics and to garner writers of Fabulist Fiction the respect they deserve.
Mary: Could you please give us some examples of works that are Fabulist Fiction?
Ken: There is a long and illustrious tradition of serious works that can be defined as Fabulist Fiction. Some of the most important include: Gulliver’s Travels, Candide, Tristam Shandy, Jacques the Fatalist and His Master, Alice in Wonderland, Gershenzon and Ivanov’s Correspondence from Two Corners, Kafka’s The Castle, Hesse’s Steppenwolf, Woolf’s The Waves, Olaf Stapledon’s Odd John, Gombowicz’s Ferdydurke, and Calvino’s Invisible Cities.
Rusty: Outside the United States, non-realistic work has generally received more recognition. Many non-realistic authors first achieved success outside the U.S. and were later published here. As you may have noticed, all the authors Ken cited above are European, as are Huxley and Orwell. Latin American authors have also received recognition for such work. For example: Gabriel García Márquez who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 and Jorge Luis Borges who won the French Legion of Honor in 1983. More recently, Yann Martel won England’s Man Booker Prize for Life of Pi. Non-western countries, particularly Japan, also have a long tradition of honoring non-realistic stories.
Outside academia, a number of small presses and journals have published such fiction for decades, including City Lights, Coffee House, FC2, Dalkey Archive, New Directions, and Sun and Moon (now Green Integer). And within the larger commercial publishing world in the United States, established literary authors like Philip Roth can always get their non-realistic works (e.g. The Plot Against America) published successfully.
Ken: In the United States, writers almost always stay in the classification in which their work first succeeds. It is simply easier for book buyers to find all the books by a particular author in one section of the bookstore, and for bookstore clerks to know where a particular author’s work can be found; and work that is an attempt to break out will almost always stay in the section with the author’s original books. Because this creates genre “ghettos,” writers who want to be taken seriously generally avoid starting out in genre fiction, and successful literary writers who write genre fiction are often described as “slumming it.” So writers who want to write artistic work are discouraged from starting out with and later experimenting with a style that will be incorrectly classified as genre fiction.
Rusty: Fortunately, we believe there is increasing interest in what we call “Fabulist Fiction” or fiction that engages the issues we’ve discussed above. We’ve had a Fabulist Fiction Chapbook Contest for a few years (it runs from August 1 to September 30 each year), and we are thrilled by the submissions we receive. There are more universities where such texts are studied and more presses bringing out this kind of work without classifying it as genre fiction. We remain excited by what is possible.
Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan are senior editors and publishers of Omnidawn Publishing. Rusty Morrison’s “After Urgency” (Tupelo) won The Dorset Prize. “the true keeps calm biding its story” (Ahsahta) won The Sawtooth Prize, the Academy of American Poet’s James Laughlin Award, the Northern California Book Award, and the DiCastagnola Award from Poetry Society of America. “Whethering” (The Center for Literary Publishing, 2004), won the Colorado Prize for Poetry. “Book of the Given” was published by Noemi Press in 2012. She has received the Bogin, Hemley, Winner, and DiCastagnola Awards from PSA. Her poems and/or essays have appeared, or will appear in A Pubic Space, American Poetry Review, Aufgabe, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Lana Turner, Pleiades, Spoon River, The Volta’s Evening Will Come, VOLT and elsewhere. Her poems have been anthologized in the Norton Postmodern American Poetry 2nd Edition, The Arcadia Project: Postmodern Pastoral, Beauty is a Verb, and The Sonnets: Translating and Rewriting Shakespeare and elsewhere. She has been co-publisher of Omnidawn since 2001. Her most recent collection “Beyond the Chainlink” was published by Ahsahta in January 2014. Ken Keegan has a background in theater, graphic design, desktop publishing, and the founding, management of, and consultation for, non-profit organizations.
Dear Readers: Join this conversation about People Who Make Books Happen. You are warmly invited to ask Keen Keegan or Rusty Morrison questions or leave a comment. This is where the experts hang out.
How To Take A Great Author Photo
Photographer Irene Young Reveals Her Author Photo Secrets
Mary: Welcome to People Who Make Books Happen, Irene. I’m particularly glad to have an opportunity to interview you because, among other things, you specialize in taking photos of authors which seem to capture their essence. In addition, you’ve photographed musicians for more than 600 CD covers and had four years of training at The Academy of Intuitive Arts.
This photo you took of me two years ago is my favorite author photo ever. I freeze up in front of cameras, so usually when someone takes a photo of me, the result looks as if I’m sitting for a mug shot. How do you get your subject to relax? What’s your secret?
Irene: The short answer is that I know everyone has a beauty about them, and I feel confident that together we will get to the place of its discovery. It’s a process that must be handled lovingly and with great respect. The minute someone enters my studio, (or in your case, the minute you opened your door to me), I know the person can feel my confidence and care. Perhaps, that is what sets people at ease more than anything. There is no judgment or blame in this process. I would never say someone is not photogenic. If I felt I were failing I would say (to myself) “it is more me than them,” and I would find a way to succeed. It is the portrait photographer’s responsibility to guide her subjects to a safe, familiar place within themselves. The author may then exude a confidence in his or her own their identity as an artist – and in what they are offering the viewer at the moment contact with the image is made.
Mary: How do you pose your subjects in ways that will make them look good?
Irene: Every person is different. I have to get into the composition and the comfort of the subject to find their place of power. The best scenario is when you find your spot and I find mine. That is where the magic is found. However, it is my job to bring you to the place of your power.
Mary: You seem to capture the essence of writers’ personalities. How do you do this? Do you read their work beforehand?
Irene: I research the author prior to the shoot. If they are a poet, I will read a few poems. On occasion I will read a bit of fiction or nonfiction, but timing more often than not does not allow for this luxury. I do read people well fairly instantly upon meeting them, perhaps due to my training in the intuitive arts.
Mary: On a more practical note: what’s the best way to present yourself when you’re being photographed? Sitting? Standing up? In profile? Are there colors you should or shouldn’t wear? Make up you should or shouldn’t put on? Ways you should do your hair so you don’t come out looking like a mad scientist?
Irene: One person may find power in standing while another may find it sitting. I try it all. Sometimes people feel less vulnerable if they are sitting first. I ask people to stay away from distracting patterns. You want the eye of the viewer to meet you, not your clothing, though there are power colors such as red, teal, black, and deep grey. It really depends on the person. Everyone has some piece of clothing they feel strength in wearing. I try and start there. In regards to makeup, I caution people about wearing too much, especially for older women. Base can get into the lines in our face and actually make us look older. Then, I have to spend digital darkroom time undoing the makeup. And HAIR! I have learned over these 40 years that I can take the greatest photo in the world, but if you do not like your hair – it’s all over. So, during the shoot, I do ask people to check their hair a few times.
Mary: What are the technical decisions you make as you are taking a photo?
Irene: Lighting, and background. And if we are “on location” rather than in the studio, depth of field places a major role.
Mary: What role does intuition play in your photography?
Irene: Intuition is everything. I feel my way through the entire shoot. There is intention behind everything I do or say, even though it is not obvious. I read every muscle in a person’s face. What is their face saying to the viewer? Will they like what their face is saying at this moment? Shall I click the shutter or guide them to another place? All this is done in a split second with 40 years of practice. I also choose my assistants very carefully. Before each photo session I ask myself if it would be better for me to be alone with the person, or if it is better to have others in the room. Some people need activity. Others need intimacy. If I choose to use an assistant (or if the requirements of the shoot simply dictate one), it is essential that the energy of the assistant and client are compatible. Even better, is if they “click.” The assistant, though, is there to help, and they must do so while understanding the boundaries. I am the skipper, and they are the crew.
Mary: You’ve said that “the key to photographing people is to do so with a wide open aperture of the heart, with no judgment, and with a true belief that everyone is beautiful.” Could you elaborate on this for us. How do you not judge the person you’re photographing? How do you see everyone as beautiful?
Irene: I have often pondered this, and I am not sure I have an answer. I have asked myself “who” decided “what” is beautiful in our culture, and I find it all intriguing. Being magnetic is a real key to beauty – having what I call “an energetic swagger.” Knowing well who we are with a quiet confidence and graceful humility can be quite sexy, don’t you think? So, I guess the answer to your question is that I expand the concept of beauty to be energetic. And I guess I just love exploring people and finding their spark.
Mary: What’s the single most important thing an author must consider when having an author photo taken?
Irene: The photographer! Being photographed is a process. It is not about letting someone take your picture. It is a process where you come to “give it.” Once in a while someone will ask me how long it will take me to take their picture. I answer: “It won’t take me long at all, but the real question is how long will it take for you to give it to me.” And everyone is different. That process must be honored.
Mary: What’s the single most important thing the photographer must consider?
Irene: The photographer must honor the person who is trusting them with their public image. It is not about the ego of the photographer, although I know there will be disagreement here among portrait photographers. I probably would be richer and more famous if I had a bigger ego, and thought it was more about “my work” than the care of the person’s spirit. However, I like the way I work, and think I will stick with it. It works for me.
Mary: You’ve sometimes have donated your work for charitable purposes. Could you please tell us what charities you’ve donated to and what inspired you to do this?
Irene: Two things come to mind: Years ago, when I was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, I produced a CD called Glass Half Full. The musicians are all clients of mine with wonderful songs of comfort and hope. It is currently still selling with $4 per CD being donated to the Breast Cancer Fund. The work of BCF is solely dedicated to “prevention,” and that is where the power of the work lies. “Awareness” is one thing, but the pink ribbon has been commercialized to a point of shame in my estimation, so I prefer to support the work of the Breast Cancer Fund, a national organization based here in the Bay Area.
Secondly, I find myself with a soft spot for older authors and poets trying to stay afloat on a fixed income in this modern technological world. I am fortunate to also be a web designer, thus, tech savvy to a decent degree. My long-time design partner, Carol Ehrlich, and I both love empowering older writers and artists with tools to help support their genius in the modern world. That is definitely worthy of attention. There is a blog post on my website called, If a Tree Falls in a Forest, and No One Is Around to Post it on Facebook, Does it Make a Sound? I think it is important to remember the invaluable contributions of the “more experienced generation.”
Mary: Before you go, please give us some examples of your favorite author photos and tell us why you like them.
Irene: This is tough. Forty years makes for a lot of photos. I have a bit of the shoemaker’s children syndrome. I am so busy creating for others that I do not attend to my own portfolio and/or retrospectives of my work.
I love the work I have done with Susan Griffin because I hold her genius in high esteem. Ann Jones because I can’t believe she has had the guts to live so much of her life in conflict zones.I love the shots of Nan Geffen and Sandy Boucher, Daniel Polikoff. And what fun with Jewelle Gomez! And imagine Caroline Casey! The genius of Judy Grahn. I love the writing of Alexis Masters. Chana Wilson was beautiful to photograph. And, of course, the magic of Mary Mackey! The important work of Joan Lester. And playwright, Heather Raffo is quite stunning to photograph. And a fave poet, Ellen Bass! This week I had the pleasure of working with two authors: Sandra Butler and Patricia Garfield. And soon I will get out images from the early years of Geneen Roth, Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, Neal Barnard, etc. I am better known for photographing musicians, but I do truly love photographing authors. This week Ireland’s Queen of Music, Mary Black, released her autobiography and I am thrilled she used a photo of mine on the cover. That is a nice blend of genres.
I love this new photo of NYC writer Virginia Bell. She has been a columnist for The Huffington Post for many years writing about The Second Half of Life and also Astrology.
When I began my career in The West Village in New York City, I knew Tom Victor who was widely known for his work with well known authors. We each had our specialties, but I always admired the simplicity of Tom’s amazing photography. He was working with one person at a time, while I was living the night life, meeting and photographing one to six people at a time! One person and a simple beautiful concept is so lovely compared to the production of a CD cover! I love them both for different reasons. I love it all. I have a license to stare, admire, appreciate, direct, and in the end – make people happy with their own image. All in all, not a bad way to go through life.
You are warmly invited to join this conversation about People Who Make Books Happen, ask Irene Young questions, or leave a comment. See the other interviews in this series for information about How To Get An Agent, How To Design A Book Cover That Sells Books, Helping Independent Bookstores Survive and Thrive, Three Great Reasons To Still Print On Paper, Designing Websites For Writers, Best-selling author Ellen Sussman on Surviving Rejection, and more. This is where the experts hang out.
And remember to come back next month to read the another great interview in the People Who Make Books Happen series.
Great Weather for MEDIA Press Does More For Authors
An Interview With Great Weather for MEDIA Editor Jane Ormerod
Jane Ormerod is a founding editor at great weather for MEDIA, an independent press focusing on edgy and experimental poetry and prose. She is the author of Welcome to the Museum of Cattle (Three Rooms Press, 2012), Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/EXOT Books, 2008), and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan.
Jane’s work also appears in numerous US and international anthologies and journals including Have a Nice NYC (Three Rooms Press, 2012), Maintenant, AND / OR, Marsh Hawk Press Review, The Nervous Breakdown, Ambush Review, and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts. Born on the south coast of England, Jane now lives in New York City and performs extensively across the United States and beyond.
Mary: Welcome to People Who Make Books Happen, Jane. Great Weather for MEDIA does more for its authors than any independent press I’ve encountered—including maintaining an online blog, running a reading series, publishing collections of poetry, putting out a print-on-paper anthology each year, and arranging a nation-wide reading tour for the writers included the yearly anthologies. Please give us some background. Why did you decide to found Great Weather for MEDIA? When and where was the press founded? Was this a collective effort, or was one person the driving force?
Jane: Great weather for MEDIA was formed in January 2012, so we’re approaching our third birthday! Thomas Fucaloro, Brant Lyon, and myself were editors at another small press and wanted to start something on a larger scale that involved prose as well as poetry, arranging more mixed-media events, and also to include international submissions for our anthologies. Shortly after, George Wallace joined the editorial team. We also have the very hardworking Peter Darrell behind the scenes in charge of non-editorial work.
Mary: Tell us about those early days. What difficulties did you encounter?
Jane: Well, the huge shock was Brant passing away in May 2012. That was a deeply distressing time. Brant read the majority of submissions for our first anthology, It’s Animal but Merciful, and the book is dedicated to him. (The title is taken from one of his poems too.) After we chose the cover photograph, we realized it showed graffiti outside one of his favorite restaurants.
Mary: How have things changed since then?
Jane: Russ Green and David Lawton joined the team so we now have five poetry editors. After the first year, we decided on a guest prose editor for each anthology—this year it’s Chavisa Woods. Also we have started publishing single poet collections. 2014 heralded the arrival of Puma Perl’s Retrograde and Aimee Herman’s meant to wake up feeling. What else? Well, great weather for MEDIA continues to arrange events everywhere. We are based in New York City but we organize shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, New Orleans, to name just a few. In October this year we hosted a musical evening with the legendary jazz poet and activist John Sinclair. Book fairs too—find us at the Brooklyn Book Festival, NYC’s Rainbow Book Fair, and PHILALALIA in Philadelphia.
Mary: You open submissions once a year for your anthologies. How many submissions do you receive? Who submits work to you? Where do these writers come from?
Jane: In our first year great weather received about 500 submissions and they have ridden rapidly ever since. Our submission period runs October 15 to January 15 every year. 2014-15 is the first time we’ve used Submittable which is proving to be very efficient for editors and writers. We get submissions from unpublished writers and those whose bios contain every big name journal over a fifty-year career. All submissions are treated the same. During the past three years, we’ve published writers from Botswana, the Philippines, Barbados, Canada, and several European countries. Discovering new voices is a real thrill. Click here if you’d like to submit something to us.
Mary: Your motto is “out of the mainstream and away from the tributaries.” You’ve said that you focus on “the unpredictable, the fearless, the bright, the dark, and the innovative.” How does this influence your choices? In other words, what are you looking for?
Jane: Like most editors, we love receiving work that surprises us whether it’s language, narrative, subject, or imagery. We love the experimental and ambitious. Obviously some work is immediate, other pieces are more subtle. All the great weather editors are writers themselves and we differ in styles and in our personal author and poet favorites. Sometimes it is easier to say what we don’t like. In general we avoid haikus, archaic “poetic” language, limericks… It really is best for writers to check out what we do before submitting. We don’t publish themed collections—we love a mix. We understand the odd typo but please review your work well before sending. And remember, a thirty page epic poem is unlikely to be accepted for an anthology!
Mary: Why did you decide to publish the anthologies as print-on-paper instead of in digital form?
Jane: Our anthologies are a generously-sized 9.25 x 7.5. This provides plenty of room for visually experimental work and plenty of beautiful white space to show off more traditional formats. We really do pay a lot of attention to design and graphics. Each anthology has over sixty contributors, plus an interview – too much for an online anthology. Paper allows the reader to dip in and out and to appreciate the anthology as a single and intriguing identity.
Mary: Tell us about your latest anthology I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand.
Jane: I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand is a dynamic collection of contemporary poetry and short fiction by established and emerging writers from all across the United States, Denmark, Sweden, England, and France—all taken from open submission. We are very proud to include an interview between David Lawton and John Sinclair, plus an unpublished poem of John’s. Although our anthologies are never themed, the feel of this book is a strange mix of tenderness, fear, and worlds beyond our own.
Mary: What’s the significance of the title?
Jane: We love using unusual title for our collections. It’s Animal but Merciful was followed by The Understanding between Foxes and Light. I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand is the title of an artwork/poem by one of our contributors, Janne Karlsson from Sweden. The cover is an adapted close-up of his work inside the book.
Mary: What has inspired you to arrange a nation-wide reading tour for all the authors who appear in your anthologies? It must take a huge amount of work to set up these readings.
Jane: Ha! Yes, it is a lot of work coordinating a tour, getting the dates to fit together and the cities in a logical order e.g. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle. To be clear, we book events in the areas where we have several contributors so not everyone in the book can get to participate in the reading. And of course writers often have friends or family in certain cities and ask if they can perform there. It’s terrific hearing and meeting poets after looking at their words so long on the page. Great weather for MEDIA is really about building community. Introducing writers from the same city who were unaware of each other’s work. Some of contributors run their own reading series and so discover new writers to feature.
Mary: Every Sunday (4-6 ) you host a reading at the Parkside Lounge in New York City. Who curates these reading? How do you select your featured readers?
Jane: Thomas Fucaloro, David Lawton, George Wallace, and Russ Green curate and host the reading series. With a different host each week, we get a wonderful mix of local and visiting poets. Sometimes we give a poet their first ever feature, other times we have established writers and performers such as Ellen Bass, Luis Bernard, and Jesús Papoleto Meléndez. Recently we’ve showcased Rich Ferguson (Los Angeles), Joan Gelfand (San Francisco), Christine Tierney (Boston), and Todd Anderson, Jeanann Verlee, and Corinna Bain from NYC. With two features each week, it’s nice to mix things up and find performers to contrast or complement one other.
Mary: As I recall, there’s always an open mic at the Parkside. What surprises has it offered?
Jane: We have surprises every week! That’s the joy of open mics, you never know who is coming through the door. One of regulars travels up by bus from Philadelphia—that’s a real thumbs up to what we are doing. Poets who have never read on stage before and come out with something beautiful. Slam artists mixing with storytellers. We’ve had cats and dogs make an appearance. And of course the odd drunk or crazy just to keep it real. Any style of poetry is welcome on the open mic and we’re a friendly bunch.
Mary: Recently you’ve begun to publish collections of work by individual writers? Who have you published so far? What plans do you have for future publications?
Jane: 2014 marked the publication of Retrograde by Puma Perl and meant to wake up feeling by Aimee Herman. All of us are incredibly proud of these books. Corrina Bain’s collection is due spring 2015, and stay tuned to what else is coming up next year.
Mary: Before you go, please tell us about your own poetry. How did you become a poet? What are you trying to do in your poems?
Jane: I began as a painter. I went to art school in London, left, and had a studio. My work increasingly contained words and phrases so it was a natural progression to switch from canvas to paper. It’s a long story but the final jump came a result of a bet. I could never paint as well as I wanted to in order to express my ideas. Poetry is equally as frustrating – as it should be – but I feel my visual eye is a better fit to words, and the shape and sound of words, than pigment. Live performance is a vital aspect too.
Mary: Please leave us with one of your poems.
Jane: Here is “Witness for the Prosecution”:
JANE ORMEROD
Witness for the Prosecution
I see power leaning. An international success. Sunshine appreciating the mouth. The mouth touching the after-hours. The blabber. This room wretched.
Excellent deprive excellent reprieve excellent deprive.
No, no. Vole. I see power broken into able recommendation. I see motor servicing, out-of-action toys, tantrums and tambourines, electric drifts, a birthday spent window shopping, a daring and extravagant hat, ha ha ha ribbon frippery. An egg beating. Play canasta, munch a sandwich. Lonely, alive, bad it looked. It, it. Deceiving to believe it was Moriarty. Handsome Moriarty. Walking a dog named fortitude. “Before” is precise. Rubble is tiring. I know, or want to know, too much protection. Fortitude is not lost or misplaced. Fortitude is here among us, among us all, is a toe stub against what we thought was a shaft of sun and instead was a cylinder containing pots of simple apple jelly.
Is getting better. Is getting better. Is a field. Is buying marmalade on installment. Finding a legal document in a jack-in-a-box. The room is brave. Cocoa is brandy. Body temperature is instantaneous. The room is surprised. Is much better. It has appearance. Has clasp. O is O. There is no wiggle. The O is a jacket. Is withdrawn. Is patterned. Is absent-minded and stopped often by the military and those thrusting lucky heather. The other is arranged, is near. This candor, this leap?
This leap is finished. The voices are oak. Able to comment on rubble now. Able to speak what is worth. The lack of only a name to withstand. Blue skies are facts of words only. Boat is open-sided. Boat is slut. Blues skies a fact of warning only. The last is life inside a pill. Trains commence. I am good for another. The letter is guilt. Is cash. Is hearing. Is hearing the now and again back to back rather than to and fro.
You are warmly invited to join this conversation about People Who Make Books Happen, ask Jane Ormerod questions, or leave a comment. See the other interviews in this series for information about How To Get An Agent, How To Design A Book Cover That Sells Books, Helping Independent Bookstores Survive and Thrive, Three Great Reasons To Still Print On Paper, Designing Websites For Writers, Best-selling author Ellen Sussman on Surviving Rejection, and more. People Who Make Books Happen is where the experts hang out.
Mutiny Radio and Beatnick Ghosts
Turn your radios on this Friday and Mutiny with Pirate Cat! Mary Mackey and 7 other Sparring With Beatnick Ghosts poets will be reading on Diamond Dave’s show on 
Pirate Cat Mutiny Radio at 3:00 pm on December Friday 12th. You can catch it live or later at mutinyradio.org. Remember “Mutiny Radio is Pirate Cat Radio’s nonstop punk rock radio station!“