Lawrence Schimel

I finally managed to get through to the client who owes me quite a bit for the enormous job I did over December and January. They still haven't processed internally the invoice I sent them in January. Can we say ARGH?

In happier translation news, THE RAVEN CHRONICLES has accepted my translation into English of Sofia Rhei's interstitial fairy tale retelling "Bluebeard Possibilities". :-)

My one contribution to the recent Great Doom Cultural Appropriation Doom Of Doom Miasma Doom in SF circles is this link to "How to Write About Africa" by Binyavanga Wainaina from GRANTA.

via Alison Bechdel:
Attention Octavia Butler fans: Beacon Press wants to publish a graphic adaptation of Butler’s novel “Kindred.” They’re currently “inviting proposals from cartoonists who appreciate Octavia Butler’s legacy, and reflect her commitment to social justice in their own work. Those interested in discussing a proposal should email the editor of the Graphic Books list, Allison Trzop, at atrzop@beacon.org.” The deadline is March 16!

Pamela's Products organic spicy ginger cookies. Yummy.

Most gluten free cookies or sweets have a sort of dry, crumbly taste, so this was a very pleasant discovery.

Not sure if those of you in the UK (waves fjm) can find them. Although according to their website (http://pamelasproducts.com/Purchasing.html) they can be bought from Amazon, so maybe avail from amazon.co.uk...

While not appropriate for Hanukah (when the oil is the whole point), for year-round enjoyment, my father uses an electric waffle iron to make greaseless latkes.

I realized the same technique could no doubt be used for any veggie burger mixture, really. But when I went to buy a waffle iron today they didn't have one, and I came home instead with a sandwichmaker.

The problem is that the middle of the sandwich space is too thick for the mixture to cook through properly. So I wound up with tofu-zucchini-latke mush.

I tried frying some of the mixture, but it wasn't quite holding together enough. (I'd used both some cooked whole grain rice and mashed potato flakes as binders, plus an egg.)

Oh well.

If I do find a waffle iron, I may buy it and try again. I think it'll work better to cook through...

This afternoon, at last, I fly home to Madrid. Now I'm in that weird idle moment of waiting for things. Need to have a flyby doctor's visit since I was supposed to see him on Monday but it was a holiday and etc. Waiting for it to be time to head to the airport, where I'll be waiting for the flight and etc.

Was up late last night dealing with paperwork, but I think that's mostly done.

Haven't actually packed yet, but I did make piles of things-to-pack, which is the important first step.

And at first glance, everything should fit with no problem. (For one thing, I've been too busy to actually BUY much of anything.)

But it'll be nice to be home again. These long trips--especially multi-leg ones--really exhaust me more and more as I get older.

I'm not exactly BETTER at the waiting part, but I know it's part of the package so it doesn't drive me batty with impatience like it used to. Or at least, not as much. :-)

(Maybe it's experience with waiting in the publishing world? Waiting to her back from an editor, waiting for a book to be published if it is bought, waiting to hear what readers or critics think of it, etc. So much waiting!)

The last day of AWP was exhausting but good. Sales were lower than Friday, but still decent.

Of course, Tachyon had already sold through most of their stock, so they didn't have as much left available; this also happened for some of the backlist titles I'd brought by A Midsummer Night's Press authors, especially some of my own other books people had been interested in.

We did sell out of BEST GAY POETRY 2008, which was nice, and people seem to be very pleased with the anthology.

Made a lot of good contacts for the next volumes of both BEST GAY POETRY and BEST LESBIAN POETRY.

Met lots of nice and interesting people in general, which is always, for me, the highlight of these type of fairs, and got to catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in ages (although, alas, I managed not to find, or vice versa, some others I'd been hoping to see, oh well).

I am not sure I'll be able to make next year, which is in Colorado--an expensive schlepp from Madrid. But the three after that are all in reachable destinations, where I know people with whom I can crash (always helps when it comes to promoting poetry without losing one's shirt in the process!).

Flying back to New York yesterday took longer than expected due to the plane being delayed by snow and then we took longer to get clearance to take off due to same. But I ran into two friends, and we managed to sit together, so that made the trip go smoothly.

Some things I got in Chicago include a few issues of POCKET MYTHS (http://pocketmyths.blogspot.com/), Randall Mann's new book BREAKFAST WITH THOM GUNN, James Cilhar's first poetry collection UNDOING, a bunch of old mysteries I bought at a second-hand shop near Achy, etc. Haven't finished unpacking yet, so offhand am forgetting what else I picked up. Which will just mean more pleasant surprises in store for me. :-)

Today's plans, though, are all discombobulated by it being President's Day so most things I needed to do are closed. So am in that pre-return-trip panic of trying to get everything done in an even shorter amount of time left. But am taking deep breaths and tackling as much as I can as I can...

And the truth is, I'm drained from the conference and the getting-home (travel these days is even more exhausting than ever), so having a low key day is actually not such a Bad Thing.

Brain dead and exhausted, so won't do more than a drive by post.

But it was a nice day. Good to see some old friends, and to meet in person some online friends, and to meet some new people, sometimes introduced by someone, sometimes through the most random situations. But that's what's so wonderful about throwing 7000 people passionate about books and writing in the same space for a few days: these sort of conversations and connections can happen.

There really is a great sense of community.

And people seem to like the little A Midsummer Night's Press bookses, which is also nice.
:-)

I'm sharing a table with Tachyon, so people come by for them, too, and there's often some good synergy between the two presses.

And as usual I have backlist titles by many of A Midsummer Night's Press' authors, and people seem to appreciate that as well.

But it's a LONG day working the bookfair from 8:30am-5:30pm.

And tomorrow again.

No energy for the after-fair socializing and all. I am going to collapse now.

I can't believe I need to pack again already, this time for Chicago tomorrow, for the Associated Writing Program Conference. A Midsummer Night's Press has a table in the bookfair, so I'm not going to be able to attend programming, but on the other hand, I'm easy to track down for anyone who's attending and wants to see/meet me. :-)

Some people think it's crazy to be running a small poetry publishing house during a recession, but it's exactly the kind of thing that motivates and stimulates me, now more than ever. There are plenty of things I do to earn money, so doing something which is not (one hopes) money-losing, but which is done simply for the love of it, is very necessary for me. And I do love making the little bookses. Thanks to my designer, Diego (who is available for other commissions, see www.quintatinta.com), they turn out so lovely. And the new printer and the new paper stock, which is a creamy color instead of just white, turned out... lovely.

I think I'm fanboying my own press.

Which is a bit redundant, perhaps, but a sign that I'm doing something worthwhile--on a personal level, if nothing else...

Although, gratifyingly, other people seem to share my appreciation for the books. After all, we had to go back to press already on Achy Obejas' THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR OTHER LIFE, and we're almost out of stock on FAIRY TALES FOR WRITERS as well. It's rare enough these days for any books to go into second printings, and for poetry it's perhaps even more surprising.

Anyway, packing is sort of easy: I'm schlepping lots of books, as well as some warm clothes.

I guess most of the "minutia" of my daily life winds up on my facebook these days, instead of here. Apologies to those of you who follow this instead of that. Hopefully this results in more "solid" posts here on the blog, when I do post something.

The trip so far has mostly been spending time with family and dealing with various doctors (my own and for family). Today I did manage to buy a few books on the way home from the gastroenterologist, a very mixed bag: PLOT IT YOURSELF by Rex Stout (which I may have already read but wasn't sure), THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER by Eudora Welty, I TAKE THIS WOMAN by Georges Simenon, TWO CHEERS FOR DEMOCRACY by E. M. Forster, SHE WHO by Judy Grahn, a Lawrence Block mystery, a sci-fi novel by C.J. Cherryh and THE WRITER'S QUOTATION BOOK. All of which came to $14.09.

Not as good as last night's purchases, where I got 41 books for $51.19.

And last week, I was running late to see my father, but got sidetracked at a thrift store where I bought seven cashmere sweaters at $5 each. (I gave them all already to my sister and father; the only one I might've kept my sister liked, so...)

Haven't had the energy or time to do much writing-related work, aside from some promotion of the new A Midsummer Nights Press titles.

The new realistic me is still in effect, where I can manage perhaps one social event per day while on the road (which may be family).

Today that was a pleasant lunch with ellen_kushner and deliasherman, a nice moment of calm among the running around.

Anyway, should get back to packing for tomorrow.

Maybe see some of y'all in Chicago at AWP...

In between familial obligations, I managed to swing by my dad's office where my copies of BEST GAY POETRY 2008 were waiting. It's lovely to see the book as a real physical object, and I think it came out very handsomely.

Contributor copies have been going out from Lethe Press directly, so contributors should hopefully have already gotten their copies (or they're en route).

I'll be bringing some copies with me to Chicago for AWP.

I need to put a page up on the A Midsummer Night's Press website for people to order copies directly... (If you're interested in one, you can email me directly at amidsummernightspress @ gmail.com)

It's nice to still get a thrill from seeing a new book like this.
:-)