the self-publishing diaries: dark country

Today, I was awake very early on one of those mild, sunny and breezy days this close to the lake.  Since I wasn't apparently going back to sleep, I started my dedicated writing day early and instead worked some final edits on the DARK COUNTRY manuscript and began to prepare a final galley.  I am hoping to have it to the printers after the beginning of July and available by month's end.  While the poems span at least few years work, it's always a little surreal how the self-publishing timeline varies from the traditional publisher route. The time involved in the process of compiling the manuscript, sending it out to publishers and contests, all that waiting that may only gather sparks of interest, and if you're lucky, a "yes." and then maybe up to couple more years before it sees the light of day.  (and that's if you're publisher doesn't shut down mid-process, which happened to me twice. ) While I wouldn't advise writing a book in a week and publishing it in the span of a few weeks, you probably could do it if you were doing it yourself. 

In the grand scheme of things, I'm in no rush, but I do feel an urgency to get these three books--this one, FEED, and ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MONSTER out this year, only because there are other full-lengths steadily queuing up behind them. If covid-year taught me anything, just grab it if you want it.  Is it too fast and too much?  Probably..but so is everything.  The work of all three goes back several years, during which I was rotating between the three different projects. Two of them, I sent out to my regular publisher who gracefully declined.  DARK COUNTRY is the only one that hasn't been out of the house, but it is actually the one with the oldest material. the beautiful, sinister poems, written between 2010-2012 and published as a chap in 2013 make up one section, the rest written somewhere between 2016-2021 (including the very recent conspiracy theories project, not initially intended, but when all was said and done, fit perfectly and now open the collection.  

While it has all along had a more narrative and story-like feel to all the bits, one thing I've noticed that I didn't plan for was the mixing of greek mythology with a contemporary spin.  Like many young poets that don't quite yet know what the hell to write about, much of my first work was mythologically based--Calypso, Daphne, Ariadne. I moved away from it eventually, but it still cropped up.  A poem called "Cassandra" in my first collection and the poem "Beneath" about mythological women in peril. While I tried to move away from the Greeks and subject matter that was too awkwardly "poetic" I still dallied in the worlds of folklore, and urban legends most of the time, if only the sort of personal mythologies we impose upon the world.  THE SHARED PROPERTIES OF WATER AND STARS, was after all, a retelling of the three bears set in suburbia. I used to write a lot of poems about Red Riding hood, and more recently, Hansel & Gretel.  And of course, mermaids, which make their way into almost every book somehow (if only by way of Plath in SEX & VIOLENCE)

DARK COUNTRY is definitely more contemporary, but so much of it's backbone is some sort of myth or folklore--urban legends, Slender Man, the minotaur retelling, the sisters in beautiful, sinister named after the muses.  And then of course, horror and late 20th century gothic in the context of suburban america.  The myths and stories are framed by our love of the haunted, the violent, the blood-soaked ground of parking lots and shopping malls. Of Illinois and Wisconsin, where everything takes place. Combustible prom queens and creepy little girls. You could probably say I've written this book in other books--especially certain poems in previous collections. And maybe, as I often fear, I am just writing the same book over and over til I get it right. But sometimes, the focus shifts and you get a more nuanced view, which is what I hope is happening here.