Girl on a Motorcycle

Marianne Faithful's character rides a motorcycle in a black leather jumpsuit! She loves masochist sex! She dies!

Faithful has lovely sepia tea teeth, royal blood and a kind of falling off a bridge energy-arrogance! The woman is bad-ass, even if the movie played into too many sexist fantasies. (Strange fact, her great great uncle wrote Venus in Furs, the book that birthed the word masochist, after the uncle's last name. )

AWP, whoa

The only AWP event I attended was the free book fair on Saturday. It was huge-- room after packed room of tables representing schools and journals. The energy was palpable, even though it was the last day of the three day event and it looked like more than a few people had hangovers.

I visited a ton of booths, talked to a lot of strangers, got to say thank you to a few editors who had published me, talked to others that I want to publish me (without saying that, of course)and bought Brian Evenson's Baby Leg.New York Tyrant put it out as a handmade book, complete with Evenson's red hand prints all over the cover. It retails for $35.00, but I picked it up for $20.00-- an awesome deal for such an incredible work of love for all involved. I also got a galley of Kimbell's new book, also by NYT, titled US. I have those two books to look forward to and about eight free journals, including Hotel Amerika and Poet Lore.

It was pretty incredible. I can't imagine being there for the whole conference, though-- one day exhausted me! But, I do want to try to go next year-- plan better, etc. Maybe the economy will be better. Maybe I'll get a raise. Hmmmm, anyway-- it was a good time.

Unscroll and Short, Fast and Deadly

Unscroll Five has work by Tyler Flynn Dorholt, Kat Dixon, Howie Good, Zachary C. Bush, Micheal Sean Bolton, Kyle Hemmings & Erin Elizabeth Smith. And me. I particularly like Kat Dixon's poem-- a story of a party(?)with fresh line breaks and word couples.

Also, got my one day turn around response from Short, Fast and Deadly-- they are taking a piece I titled "3:30." It was a lot of fun to make the three pieces I submitted work for the strict guidelines-- no more than 420 characters per piece, not including the titles. That's characters, not words. So, spaces and punctuation count. It was exciting to cut, cut, cut. The stories started at around 560 characters. I had to decide that was essential and what (even if I really liked it) wasn't. I think it was a good exercise for looking at my stories in a different way.

Maud found a home! She is going to be a family dog. I'm so happy. So, so, happy.

Maud and Gary are lovers

So, they are named. I learned that no self-respecting pitbull owner calls the dog a pitbull-- and anyway, she actually isn't an American bull terrier, the official name for those clown-faced dogs. She is a Staffordshire bull terrier-- a smaller version with a longer, more rectangular snout. She takes to training very easily and gives lots of love to all creatures and humans she encounters. A true beauty.

Gary is a schnauzer! After we took him to the groomers to wash away all the filth and knots, he emerged with a smart beard and handsome eyebrows. He didn't look like the same dog. He seemed relieved to be able to see...

They are both characters. I would love to know their story and know how they started to pal around together. One thing that we (rather naively) didn't consider is that they are both not neutered... Their puppies, and we hope they aren't starting to form in her belly already, would be bizarre to say the least! Here's hoping that their love didn't get physical.

Introductions have not gone well because of the chihuahuas. Chihuahuas are very protective dogs and they form an extreme bond with their owners... and my boy's name is Machismo for a reason. He thinks he is the size of the bull terrier while Maud believes herself to be the size of the chihuahua...

That said, we might be fostering these two (after they are neutered). If you know anyone in need of a great dog or dogs, let me know.

New family members...

The other day my husband drove to a transmission shop. He got out of his truck and two scrappy dogs came running over to him. My husband asked the shop owner if he had gotten new shop dogs. The owner said no, that the dogs had just shown up and refused to leave. He said that he was going to call animal control. Clint tried to call me, but I was interviewing people in a state mental hospital and wasn't allowed to have my phone on me.

So, the guy called animal control and the dogs were sent to the pound. I called my husband back and then Clint called around to find the dogs. He found them, got their numbers. We went up to see them on Saturday. The little terrier mix was still available for adoption. He was filthy, matted, but very happy to see us. The young pitbull girl, however, was not up for adoption. Maryland doesn't allow you adopt pitbulls. They just don't. So, basically, she was going to be there the four days they give owners to claim their animals, and then be killed. The woman at the counter told us, well, since you did see her before she was picked up, I could write that you are going to "reclaim" her. We said yes. The little duo-- a terrier and a pitbull-- are going to become Wyers on Wednesday.

It is going to be a huge adjustment for my two Chihuahuas and my cat. I have faith, though, that everything is going to work out.

Pictures to follow!

Holiday photos, yes, that's the Turnpike, yes, that is South Jersey

Something pretty, for a change

I painted a present for my mom.