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... Steamposium Convention 2016 ...

9/27/2016

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Normally, I like to announce in advance that I'll be attending and signing my books at an event, but this time it got away from me.  There were issues with my latest books which needed my attention. 

Timing is almost everything when preparing for such an event, and my timing was way off.  When I discovered that they had not been properly edited, said books were already on their way to my door.

Thanks to my good friend, Heatherly Takeuchi, we shored up both Echoes lll and A Compilation of Echoes ... and then came the mad dash to republish, reorder, and receive them in a reasonable time.

To be honest, I am totally blind to my own typos, no matter how many times I scan a page looking for mistakes.  Since, it was crunch time, I hurriedly ordered my books, thinking, "they'll be fine ..."

At first, as Heatherly's edits came rolling in, I figured they were miner enough to let them pass on the first run, (a comma here, a period there), but I was terribly,  inextricably mistaken.  /(O_O)\
 
It felt like the time when a police officer pulls you over for driving a bit fast and tells you that you would have made your appointment on time if you hadn't been speeding.  Aarrrrggghhh!!! 
      
Alas, those reordered books languished for a week before they were finally shipped, and then they dawdled at the local delivery site while someone tried to determine my well established street address.

Suffice to say, I was galvanized ...

Now, that's an interesting word: galvanized.  It is the namesake of Luigi Galvin, (1737-1798) who observed that muscles contracted on contact with dissimilar metals.  This led to the Galvanic Cell and the electrical theory of muscle control by nerves, (Bioelectromagnetics.)

In any case, my focus was fixed on my inbox awaiting news of their impending arrival, while I spent my energy on the phone, calling the shipper, then the delivery service, and back again.  Where were they?
​
I was told that delivery was being delayed by a storm.  "What storm? Where is this storm on such lovely sunny day?" I asked.  Then, "I'm sorry, but there's only one sorter in the building, and it's going slow."

All at once, late in the afternoon, the day before we were set to leave for the venue, I was told that my books had been sorted, and that I could go down to the delivery warehouse to retrieve them.  Yay!

All in all, the Steamposium Convention was fun and successful.  I reconnected with old friends, met many awesome attendees, makers, and artists ... and I sold all but one copy of A Compilation of Echoes!

On the face of it all, I realized too late that I had followed a page out of John Madden's book, and ran with it: "Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon."  Sorry, John.  Never again.






Image: http://seattle-steamposium.com


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Dancing my way through life ...

9/21/2016

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In 2002, Miki Durnell Dauwe coined the phrase, "When you stumble, make it part of the dance."  She uses this idiom to, "put a positive spin on my misfortune, which has caused me many struggles"

Miki suffers from Arnold Chiari Malformation, a 
neurological defect of the Cerebellum which affects the part of the brain that controls balance.  "I have stumbled in my walk for years," said Miki.

​Years ago, I heard about a pianist who lost track of what he was playing during a public performance.  He just kept playing until he found his way again.  The audience loved his "
improvisation!"

The Reverend William Archibald Spooner, who lectured at New College, Oxford,  for sixty years had a habit of switching words.  For instance, he would say, "Go shake a tower"  for, "Go take a shower."

Apparently, the Reverend's tongue could not keep up with his thoughts.  He is famously known for his Spoonerisms, which are a genuine delight to those who are acquainted with his verbal mishaps.  
I've watched a poem veer off on some wild tangent mid process, as if it had some purpose all its own.  My Piratess poem did this, and it actually ended up a far better poem once I went with it, so to speak.

Miki's succinct phrase lends a healthy and rewarding approach to many of our maladies and misfortunes in life.  Since we all stumble upon occasion, perhaps we just need to dust off our own Fred Astair.




     






Image: www.pinterest.com
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Too many Echoes?  Compile them ... !

9/7/2016

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When my third book of verse needed a title, and I had chose to call it Echoes lll, Even More Neo-Victorian Poetry, I put my foot down. "That's it!  This is the final echoes.  They're becoming superfluous."
(Oh, I do so love irony: superfluous = excessive = echoes.) 

But, once I stopped laughing at my little inside joke, I realized that there was still one more book yet to print; a compilation comprising all three of my books.  Hence, the title: A Compilation of Echoes.

This is not, by any means, the last book of verse that I plan to write. There are still plenty of poems patiently waiting in my Poetry Box, while my muse continues to softly whisper new ideas into my ear.

In the meantime, I am very excited and pleased to present to you:

​A Compilation of Echoes. 




​



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    About the author:

    I've written many poems over the years.  This blog is a preview of my books: Echoes, Neo-Victorian Poetry (April 2013), Echoes ll, More Neo-Victorian Poetry (May 2014), Echoes lll, Even More Neo-Victorian Poetry, (August 2016), A Compilation of Echoes. (September 2016), and When None Command (April 13, 2019)

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