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Today, my guest from the Couplets blog tour is Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith):

Revision in Science Fiction Poetry


I've been writing science fiction poetry for many years. You can read some of it in my book Prismatica: Science Fiction Poetry Spanning the Spectrum. One effect of that much practice is that I've come to compose poetry very fast -- so fast that most revisions happen before I even write out the poem. Slowing down the process so that I can show the changes will roughly triple the time it takes to write. Once in a while, though, I make revisions after a poem has been written down, usually based on outside input. I'll share a few examples of these.

( Resolutions... )

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You can read more about and by Elizabeth Barrette at her website, PenUltimate Productions, including about her two other books (From Nature's Patient Hands and Composing Magic and Plunge Magazine, a new publication dedicated to queer women genre literature.


Couplets: A multi-author poetry blog tour

It has been a week of dropped eggs, burnt beans, buggered-up code, scorched towels, hurt feelings, feet in mouth, and other damage, but there has also been plenty in the way of good tidings.

The book:

It's back on a couple of Top 100 lists in the US and the UK. \o/

Heather Kamins reviews it.

Renee Emerson liked the sharpshooter poems in particular.

The copyediting:

Sarah Suiter's Magdalene House: A Place about Mercy is now available.

I have resumed reading The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (1999 ed.). I love this line from the foreword:

As the previous edition of this book noted, there is little difference between a Martini and a martini, but a rule can shield against untidiness in detail that might make readers doubt large facts.

And this:

The 1923 booklet cautioned printers that in following copy, they must make allowance "for the intelligence (or lack of intelligence)" of the advertiser. It listed pasha, pigmy and seraglio among "Words Frequently Misspelled" (raising a question: What were they doing in the Times at all, not to mention frequently?).

More on poetry:

Joanne posted a haiga by me (warning: photograph of human ashes). (On a related note: Jen Hoffman's Your daughter's grief: An open letter to moms.)

Signal boost: poetree is looking for hosts.

Reb Livingston holds forth on being boring (and consequently "sort of happier").

Also: showed a high school pal and his wife around a bit of Nashville, dived into a croque-madame at my monthly meetup at Sky Blue with a neighbor, and talked marketing with my publisher over tempura and a "Pacific Queen" roll (mango, tuna, macadamia, cukes, and avocado).



As I told James Monday night, I never had a prayer of being hip -- I despise waiting in lines too much even to try -- but I do love this city so.

Also: Go White Sox! (home opener in 2.5 hours) :-D

Carol Berg interviews me about my book at her blog.



Check out the other posts this month from Couplets: a multi-author poetry blog tour.

From misc

[Subject line from Barbara Jordan's "Tutelary Poems: III," which also has these lines: "Every year we say we think that spring / will never come, / Then the hyacinth pours out its fragrances...."]

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I will be participating in Upper Rubber Boot's poetry blog tour next month. Among other things, there will be a number of guests at this here blog, and I will be a guest at other sites. The calendar currently looks something like this:

April 1: Kristine Ong Muslim reviews Measured Extravagance

April 4: Carol Berg interviews me about my book

April 10: Guest post here by Christina Nguyen

April 15: I will be guest-posting at Heather Kamins's site

April 20: Guest post here by Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith)

April 25: Guest post here by Mary Rose Betten

April 30: Guest post here by Linda Cronin

ETA: Joanne Merriam published a haiga by me on April 13.