Stalking the wild rejection slip

I've had a steady supply for the cat's fun.

Swaths of color

Last Saturday, we drove up to the Skagit Valley to see the tulips, and the last of the daffodils.

Reading tonight in the Cabaret!

Rose Alley Press presents:

VICTORIA FORD, KRISTEN McHENRY, BELLE RANDALL
&
JOANNIE STANGELAND (me)

7:30 at Richard Hugo House
1634 Eleventh Avenue, Seattle
Tel.: 206-322-7030

I couldn't decide what to read, so I have three separate lists, ready to select one on a dime. David will have trivia questions and gift certificates.

Join us for the fun!

P.S. The photo is from Lummi Island. I was going with the rose theme.

Poet's narcisssus

(I think.)

Happy Spring

Mail merge and an Iron Hand press...

...what more could you want?

The new Writer's Guide video is now really, truly live, with a step-by-step guide to completing a mail merge in Microsoft Publisher.



Take a look, and let me know what you think.

Hot on the web--

The Smoking Poet has a new issue online! I guest-edited the poetry section of this Spring issue, and I've now signed on to edit the poetry section permanently.

Take a look to see poems by Ronda Broatch, James Cihlar, Judith Skillman, Changming Yuan, and more.

Come on in

I really appreciate what Kelli has to say about feeling important and included.

My Tuesday confession: I've spent decades feeling not included (high school wasn't even the beginning). Finally, realize not only how important it is to include people, but also how including others and respecting them and supporting them also makes it easier to feel included and respected and supported.

Let's all join the club.

A place for everything?

I'm always fascinated by type boxes and toolboxes, like that amazing toolbox in Toy Story 2. Such organization—everything needed is in its place and easy to find—a mastery of gadgets.

I need a toolbox like that for ideas—a place to stow all the little sayings I try to say to myself when I'm about to make a bad choice or slip into depression or self-pity or general whining, and a place to stow all the good writing tips I've heard or read—like the image of the rooms in a house from Mark Doty's workshop last Saturday or the idea that creating a poem can be like playing a game of concentration—and a place to store all the things that I want to write about.

Sure, I can put all these ideas on my computer, and most of them are here (and some are in spiral-bound notebooks, to be found in the future or not). But I love the idea of a box that I can open, shelves and compartments, and a way to pick up each thought, hold it for a while, turn it over until it becomes something new or goes back into the box—where I’ll be able to find it again when I’m ready.

Photo and box by Jane Chang.