Another weekend on the horizon, and mostly I am hoping to catch up on press work I've been lagging on. I am still finishing off the sale orders from a couple weeks ago, assembling some author copies, and working on a big library order I'd like to wrap up before I leave for my usual August sojourn next weekend. I am hoping also to work a bit more on a new collage series and perhaps some ghost landscape poems. (I'm sort of flailing in terms of direction on this one, it's a few disjointed pieces but I'm waffling over form.) This is all provided I can finesse my way through the Lollapalooza crowds, which are building outside in the park as we speak.
Had some good news yesterday that our panel, Power and Page Count: Publishing the Other Gender, is a go at AWP, and already the stars are aligning for some offsite events in conjunction with other presses. I'm still considering a train voyage (though whether or not I will spend two days in coach or a in a roomette depends on how much money I'm willing to fork over for comfort vs. basic utility. I can sleep anywhere, but there is a limit..) I'm excited about the landscape, though, and will probably go the more northern route to Seattle and then come back down through California and back across on a more southerly route. As someone who has been on some very long and cramped car trips with little trouble, I'm thinking the train ride will actually be quite pleasant.
I'm still pretty anxious about planes and flying, it was bad when I was in my twenties and got worse in my thirties. Somehow hurdling through the air in a tin can propelled only by its own speed freaks the living hell out of me. I flew a couple times without incident when I was in college and oddly it didn't bother me. And besides If I'm going out west, and since I rarely get to travel, I kind want to actually see things at ground level, even if it takes me longer on the journey. As someone cursed by growing up in the boring Midwest flatness, landscape variations are oddly exciting..mountains, forests, ocean. I was even excited by the swampland down south. I could probably use a couple days to clear my mind and just stare out the window before I get out there and down to business.
