notes & things | 6/8/2025
Whether or not summer has officially arrives seems to be in dispute from day to day, with some milder days that barely rise above 60 and others that blaze in the high 80s. We are two weeks out from the wedding and the organizational panic, despite all my preparation, is inevitably settling in...nothing major, but a lot of tricky track things like transporting of things and people, the wedding license, a day-of insurance policy, etc. Also writing my vows, which I have been putting off. I admit a strange problem to have as ,ya know, a writer. But nevertheless...
Yesterday, my first big stack of WILD(ISH) copies arrived in the mail so I set about fulfilling a handful of early orders. This week I've worked on and posted some promotional bits, including some reels and audio readings that were fun to make. I didn't make a full trailer since I've been working on some other video poem content I wanted to submit to a couple of websites. There is also another bookish project--a special edition for my Patreon relaunch in September I excited about and will be sharing soon.
I've been going back and forth between scrabbling off a poem daily and larger chunks of work, mostly since my freelance work has been taking up so much time so my available attentions vary. The other day, I got up kind of early, and with a small break for coffee and muffin, rattled off seven new pieces in a series about the sea. I was convinced I would hate them the next day, but all but one were pretty sound on re-read. I've also been submitting some other work I've been sitting on for a minute from the sci-fi-ish series and the Iphigenia poems. Mostly small journals that publish speculative or horror writing, of which I've discovered a few new exciting gems.
I've just wrapped up a batch of chaps and am moving onto the next ones this week, but also still responding to the last round of submissions with 'yesses" now that I have a better eye toward what the rest of this year and early next year will look like. Already, there are quite a few new ones filtering in, but those are destined for September reading at the earliest I've been experimenting with doing a couple chaps that have unusual size needs through the printer I use for my books and the blank journals, and the most recent has turned out fabulously. The price is slightly higher since the cost is greater, but as I get better at layout, it gets easier to do this when I need to.
Today, I got a chance to work on more poetry pieces and press work free of other obligations after our D&D plans were unexpectedly pushed back to next week. Monday, we're headed to Chicago Shakespeare to see an 80s-inspired musical called 42 Balloons that I don't know much about, but often those are the ones that surprise (tell that to the Hadestown soundtrack I've been listening to daily on repeat.)
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