Today I played with an Alligator in the Sewer. Since we are aiming for 30-40 pages each, this may cut down my section a bit, but in an appropriately deviant way.

Marge shared with Charlee, Linda, and me a bit of flash fiction for her section, which is fantastic. Gritty. Dirty. Dark.

I've added a 500 word story as well, and we're waiting on the feedback from the other gals.

While I can't say I've ever had a difficult collaboration--not ever--this one seems to be flowing very easily.

S'posed to be very hot in the city this week...and the urge to play hookie to surf on Thursday in 100 degree heat is definately strong, but I'm traveling to Virginia at the end of the month for Waterwookie's wedding reception (they are getting married at Yellowstone Park this month but having the reception in Maryland), and can't spare the PTO.

I saw Sephera Giron's wedding pictures, and they are absolutely beautiful. I sure wish I could have been there. :)

Labels: elements, poetry, writing

posted by Rain at 3:24 PM

One For EarthDay

Green?

the reclamation of beached sand dollars
counted in the thousands,
so much treasure for a child
looking for one and only one
on the shore;

I can’t blame this one on the sewer
Can’t blame it on defecation debris
Or the mud of dirty dredgers
Polluting my beach, my sea
And the shore;

My green’s gone black with tar
And that ink’s in the money promised
To clean it all up, those dead
Tarred and feathered, bunkered--
Oiled to the shore;

Four big spills in a summer
Fifty new birds endangered
Zero federal hazmat help
And my ocean’s still
Unclean.
Unclean.

Labels: earthday, oil spill, poetry, san francisco

posted by Rain at 9:32 AM

B-day, WHC, New Book, Horrorworld, Finis, and Dry Creek Notes.

Happy Birthday Amacker

It’s Amacker’s birthday week…and we are celebrating tonight under the Master Chef ’s creations. Happy Birthday, Amacker!

Belated WHC Thank-Yous

I apologize for not doing this sooner, but I’ve been under the weather and on deadlines since I got back from WHC. To all the folks I met along the way at WHC – thank you. To the organizers – excellent job! To the HWA – Best. Stokers. Ever. Special thank-you to Del Howison who came through on TGE copies (which happen to be out of print and impossible to get), and to those of you who bought them—thank you as well. Thanks to everyone who came to my readings, and to everyone who came, enjoyed, and participated in the Gross Out Contest. I’ve gotten a lot of emails great emails from folks on this one, and had a blast planning it.

The New Book-o-Meter

What happens when four Stoker Award winning poets get together in email? A book, that’s what. This new book-o-meter is for a yet-to-be-titled collaboration by Linda Addison, Marge Simon, Charlee Jacob, and myself. My goal is about 40 pages of Poetry, which is why the meter reads 10,000 words.



HorrorWorld Interview

Have a look at Steve Wedel's interview with me over at Horrorworld. Go for the interview; stay for the rest!

Finished Stuff

I finished the Introduction for Mark McLaughlin and Mike McCarty's new book, Attack of the Two-Headed Poetry Monster. It's off to the publisher now.

Notes from the Weekend in Healdsburg with Muppet Man, Lily_Dove, and Mot.

Five things you need to know about the Dry Creek growing region:

1). Make an appointment at Michel-Schlumberger for their wine and cheese pairing. Seriously. You will not be sorry. My two favorite things taken away from that is that they make a desert wine that tastes exactly like mead – which is something I can’t ever have because I can’t digest honey. I have only ever had mead once – specially home-made mead, and at the time my ignorance of the honey as an ingredient was my total and utter intestinal downfall within the hour of drinking it. M-S's Semillion Silk Purse is not going to do that, however. Ever. Muwahahahaha! You can only get it at the winery, however. But Sophie's Cellars has it for $27...

The second thing is they paired the cheese with the appellation of the wines served – and there is this little known farm that a Portuguese family owns and operates that makes St. George cheese. The family’s name is Matos, and their farm is in Santa Rosa.

This cheese goes with anything, I swear, and is the most amazing cheese… We got directions to the farm to buy some, but didn’t get around to it with all the other running we did. It’s worth the drive to Santa Rosa, I’m telling you. Cowgirl Creamery sells the Matos St. George for $15.50/lb, and the Cheese Shop on Polk and Pacific sells it for a whopping $23/lb. I picked up a cut-to-order wedge yesterday but am still smarting from the price. You can get it straight from the farm for about $5.99/lb. (who ever knew cheese was such a mark-up…and local cheese at that). Tip – if they wrap it for you in paper, rewrap it in plastic wrap. The cheese does go hard fast in the paper. You’ll want to keep it moist.

2) Mounts. MOUNTS MOUNTS MOUNTS! This is also a family owned and operated vineyard, and has been for 40 years. They typically only taste by appointment only, but we got a hot tip that their tasting room was open (ok, ok…we saw the sign out on the side of the road, and the nice lady at Michel-Schlumberger told us if the sign was out…run, do not walk…to Mounts). Being a family farm…it looks like a family farm. You drive through dirt and gravel, find yourself at a little farm house with a big red farm barn, and a tiny four year old girl peeps around the corner at you, just as you walk around to the back of the barn…where her beautiful (and very pregnant) mother greets you with a smile and a glass. You notice the four year old climbing amongst the barrels a bit, but this is no distraction compared to the amazing flavors of their Syrahs and Zins. Oh. My. God. We bought a case. Make no mistake, this is a family farm experience, not your hoidy-toidy Napa/Somona we’re-so-rich-we-can-buy-your-soul type of tasting room. It’s part of the charm, too.

3) Ferrari-Carano has a tulip hotline for when all the tulips in their amazing gardens are in bloom. Truthfully, this was the only reason we were stopping at the (somewhat Disney Theme Parkish) large volume winery…but they also had this new tasting room tucked away from the usual tourists (at $5, most people prefer to stay upstairs), with gold flecked granite topped tables and bar, and these giant curly obsidian glass chandeliers that just were amazing to look at.

They reminded me of a cluster of myriad vampires disguised as bats, clawing and cloying to one another like some entangled body-art, hanging in disguise. Anyway…the wines were nothing of note down there (a $15 tasting fee), except…one. Oh glorious Baccus, you have hidden a treasure there in there Elderado Noir Muscat. Its black. A Black Muscat! And oh…so….goooooooooooooooooood! (insert homer drooling sounds here). Not the best price point, but I bought a bottle.

4) I forced everyone to go (kitsch-factor understood) to Longboard Vinyards, because as a surf geek, I really, really had a hard time not being out in the waves when we left at 10am on Saturday morning, with the clear blue skies, warm weather, no offshore winds, and minus tides going off around the Bay Area. They have a lot of restored old 60’s and 70’s longboards hanging, along with a few shortboards, and play some good surf movies on the plasma screen while you taste. The owner is a surfer, of course…and while not the cheapest wine, it’s good young wine, so you can sit on it for a while and it will turn into great wine. We picked up some of their Syrah and one bottle of their 2005 Merlot which we tasted there (and is excellent to drink now), but they only had three bottles left of. The tasting room is very small, but it wasn’t crowded. Probably because any surfer would have been out in the waves…(cringe).

5). Simi whites. And that’s all I have to say about it, though some of you wine-o’s would say their reds are even better. Oh! And they have this chardonnay/olive oil marinade stuff for $5.99 (or at least they did – we bought the last two bottles of it). Another thing you can only get at the winery.

Well, that's all for now, folks.

Labels: interviews, poetry, wine, writing

posted by Rain at 11:17 AM

Interview in the Daily Herald

A bunch of us were interviewed in the Daily Herald's article by Cody Clark, which appeared last friday.

Take a look.

Signing off now...for my Salt Lake City adventure.

Labels: interviews, poetry, writing

posted by Rain at 9:23 AM

My WHC Schedule – Readings, Panels, Gross Out, and the Stoker Awards

This will be a busy convention! I’ve been interviewed twice in the past week; once by the Daily Herald and the second by Horror World. I’ll post links to those interviews when they actually go live. In the mean time, here is where I will be at WHC 2008 next week in Salt Lake City:

Thursday
8:00pm – Poetry Reading (with various other poets including myself)

Friday
4:30pm – Fiction Reading ("Wild Card" from the forth coming IN LAYMON'S TERMS)
7:00pm – Panel: The Fine Art of the Gross-Out
8:00pm – Mass Autograph Signing (I will have copies of The Gossamer Eye and Excitable Boys on hand, plus post cards with the cover art from BARFODDER)
10:30pm – Annual Gross-Out Contest (Hostess)

Saturday
7:30pm – Stokers Banquet
9:00pm – Stoker Awards (co-presenting poetry)

Here is an announcement from WHC and HWA concerning the live broadcast of the Bram Stoker Awards for 2007, of which, I will be co-presenting the poetry award with Sarah Langan.

(begin quote):
The Horror Writers Association (HWA), World Horror Convention, and
iSCIFI.tv announce that the 2007 Bram Stoker Awards ceremony will be
broadcast live on the Internet on Saturday, March 29, 2008.

This is the first time that the Stokers have been broadcast as they
happen.

The awards ceremony is being held at the 2008 World Horror Convention
in Salt Lake City. Following a banquet, the awards ceremony will
begin at approximately 9:00 p.m. local time (11:00 p.m. eastern time).

To watch the awards, please click to http://www.iscifi.tv/live/ where
the podcast will be displayed in the center of your screen.

The Master of Ceremonies this year is Jeff Strand, and a series of
esteemed horror authors will present the Stokers in the categories of:

-Novel
-First Novel
-Long Fiction
-Short Fiction
-Collection
-Anthology
-Nonfiction
-Poetry

As well, several non-Stoker awards will be presented:

-The 2008 Grandmaster Award (presented by the World Horror
Society)
-The co-winners of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award
-The Richard Laymon Award (HWA President’s Award)

This is the 21st annual Stoker ceremony. The HWA is pleased to be
working with the World Horror Conference and iSCIFI.tv to broadcast
the event.

To view the live video, you will need to have Flash installed for
your web browser and your Internet speed needs to be at least 300
kbps (downstream / download). If your stream is slower, you may have
pausing in the video, or the audio will be out of sync. iSCIFI.tv
will be offering audio only and still images that are captured during
the podcast. Please visit the live stream page at http://
www.iscifi.tv/live for further information, troubleshooting, and
links to the audio and/or image captures.

(end quote)

For a full list of programming head over to the WHC2008 Website.

Labels: poetry, whc, writing

posted by Rain at 2:54 PM

Daniele Serra has done an amazing job on the cover art for BARFODDER. Don't you agree? I'm so glad Cemetery Dance let me choose the artist.

Labels: barfodder, books, poetry, writing

posted by Rain at 1:26 PM

Flatline

In crossing the nubile grey and white and malochite
The dunes of hidden glass and discarded candy
All hazards around the fire pits, and the wind veils them
As it veils blankets scattered in the sand, and the bone cold
Settling in with the fog and the mist of sea spray
That I can only hear, and not touch, in lion roars.
Old man pacific is yawning today, and his waves
Are slow wrinkles, upon the face of hidden rips, and death.

Labels: poetry

posted by Rain at 12:23 PM

One Day the Wiser

How patient were the wolves of Carpathian Mountain roads
How patient were the lions in the bleeding breast of Rome
How does the Eagle know when to pass a Turkey Vulture
And take the tiny mouse from the sweet grass field below

Where does all that time in waiting go
How does Libitina wane her funerals slow

How does the hurry up and wait flow
Where can a hungry soul in learning know

That crumb, that inkling, that moment in silence
When the time is right to consume all that you are,

Or now knowing; one foot moves the other; then moves on.

Labels: poetry

posted by Rain at 1:00 PM

Three Days after A Full Moon

The wolves are howling and the moon is broken
No light to guide their way in an ink forest
And those hunters hide beneath blackened ferns
To grab their ankles and take them to death—

My ideals are more simple than a walk on a path
And when they break like so much blown glass
Blown too hard, to risky, too deeply
My feet are ragged stumps in jaws of cold metal--

I thought it was alright and all wonderful before
As everyone does, under bewitching moons.

Labels: poetry

posted by Rain at 4:15 PM