Confession Tuesday: The Working Summer Check-In Edition

Dear Reader,

I'm writing this from my deck.

It's July 9th and while most summers I'm on hiatus from writing and editing, this year my writing life has stretched itself into the blue sky of July.  Since we had an incredible hot sunny spring, I'm okay with this, but I feel as if that "letdown" I normally have in the summer hasn't happened.

This is not to say I'm complaining--  I'm actually excited for all the things I'm working on this summer.  This is one of the reasons I chose not to apply for a teaching job or writer-in-residence job for the upcoming year.  I have a lot of indie projects in the works that fulfill me in crazyhappy ways, anytime I can create, step outside the box, I feel a little better.

I confess I actually love to work.  To write.  To read.  To edit.

I love to organize tasks and have something I'm working on.  The only time I feel sad or resentful is if my poems get pushed so far on the backburner, that they fall off onto the linoleum.  Mostly, I'm just thankful for all these opportunities.

And while I am a Capricorn with a strong work ethic, I confess I also love to lollygag and woolgather.  I love to nap and sit on our deck with a glass of wine and watch the birds fly by.

I love to hang out at the beach and read magazines.  Sleep in the sun.

I confess normally in the summer, I'm pretty active.  But this summer, not so much. Well, I do have a HUGE bump and bruise on my leg for a mountain biking crash I was in last week, so I have done a few things this summer.  And Sunday I went out SUPing (stand-up paddleboarding), which I love.  But more than usual, many of my days have been on my laptop working.

I've done a lot of proofing on my book and trying to catch up on a few things that have stretched into summer.

I confess two of my blurbs came in (from Nin Andrews & Wyn Cooper, two of my all-time favorite poets) and I was completely in poet-heaven with what they wrote.

I mentioned in a past post here how asking for blurbs is SO uncomfortable for me.  But these two wonderful poets made it easy and enjoyable.  And I never put those two words (easy & enjoyable) together with blurbs!  

But I have some projects I'm excited about--

1)   Hourglass Museum:  My 3rd full collection will come out in February (right before Seattle AWP) by White Pine Press.

I'm excited and nervous about this collection.  I do some new things. I have a whole section without capital letters (though I do capitalize "I") and no punctuation.  The whole book is put together to be a paper museum with each section as a different exhibit.  But I'm sure if the poems will connect and engage.  And some leave me feeling vulnerable.

With a new book there are things you need to do--get blurbs, proof, proof again, proof again, proof the cover, get an author photo, write a bio, set up readings.  So I sit at the beach and instead of reading More magazine, Oprah, or Poets & Writers, I proof my manuscript.


2)  The Daily Poet:  I haven't talked much about this, but Martha Silano and I have put together a book that should come in fall called The Daily Poet: A Day-by-Day Guide to Creativity (currently title, the subtitle may change). 

The book will give you 366 poetry writing exercises, one for each day of the year (including Leap Year).  We've been working on it for a while, revising it, and tomorrow it moves into production and formatting.  Anyway, I'm excited to get that out into the world.


3)  Crab Creek Review's 30th Anniversary Issue:  Yes, the literary journal I edit will turn thirty this year, right in time for Seattle's AWP, so we're having a special issue of just Northwest Poets. And Annette Spaulding-Convy & I are putting it together ourselves.  I'm really excited about this issue.  Annette & I have been editing Crab Creek Review for 5 years and really wanted to do something special for our 5 year anniversary and CCR's 30 year anniversary.

So that's me this summer.  Doing some graphic art on the side, some photography, and little laziness too.

I hope you're finding some time this summer for your art and your heart, as well as time to sleep in the sun.

Amen.


~ Kells

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