I got some 'splainin to do

Except there's no explaining a summer hiatus from one's blog, is there? Us blogger people don't like that. Either blog regularly or don't, but no excuses!

Instead, I'll give a little run-down of what I've been up to.


Since May, I've been promoted at the York Daily Record. Full-time, Living (features) department, copyediting and writing, although our term for those in my position is "multiplatform journalist," because we do so much with blogs and social media and niche publications outside of the actual print newspaper. It's nice to work for a publication that embraces digital instead of bemoaning change like so many do.

Poetry-wise, I'll work backwards. I just got nominated for Best of the Net for poems from my Anti-Memories series! No, I'm not stuck in 2011. It happened in 2011, too. That was decomp's nomination (and I got in!); this year, the nom comes from Mud Luscious Press. Tickled. Also, I have a chapbook review in the latest issue of Poemeleon. Last month, Blood Lotus published its 25th issue (24th and 25th, since it's a killer double issue)! In June, I went to a kickass local poetry event called the Jawstruck! festival, hosted by York's Poet Laureate, Carla Christopher, and heard some amazing and eclectic local performers, then reviewed the event on the poetry-centric blog I started through YDR, Versify. I started a new writing project that's going to be hybrid prose and poetry--so right at the time that my poetry veers from traditional narrative into more lyric and surreal territory, I decide to work on prose narrative. Go figure. Still, it's a departure, a fun but quickly-becoming-serious project, and also one that's allowing me to slow down on the poems that I hope will comprise my third full-length collection. Because I need to write more. And more. And more often. And when I'm constantly thinking about putting a book together and publishing it, I'm not really writing much. So that's what I'm concentrating on now.

What else? Oh, I help my fave guy out at the coolest market in town on Saturdays. Central Market York is my favorite place in the city. Indoors year-round, lots of stands promoting area crafters and artists, not to mention local and seasonal food. Where else can you get fresh sushi, a lamp made out of a Skyy vodka bottle, Amish fudge, and organic peaches picked 3 hours earlier, all at one stop?

Let's see, I know there's something I'm forgetting. Something new and big and life-changing and exciting that I've been up to...

Oh yeah. Incubating. :)