Little Pleasures

I haven't blogged in a while, I haven't listened to NEW music in a while, I haven't invented a new recipe in a while - it's been that kind of year. I spent most of January and February in my editorial role for flipped eye publishing editing work for three of my favourite poets - Ainsley Burrows, Agnes Meadows, Charlotte Ansell - and ended the month of February with a celebration event called reaching the 10000, marking a slaes landmark for flipped eye.

But before the end of Feb I went to see Junot Diaz at the Royal Festival Hall and got my copy of the brilliant The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao signed. The book has now joined others on my shelf and it just hit me that about 20-30% of the books I've bought/received in the last year have been signed. Is this the real pleasure of being a writer - that you know/meet so many writers that you get a good chunk of your books signed - and free, even? I don't think so - what I get from those books, really, is inspriration, because I only get books signed by authors I admire - every one of those books is a reminder, a klaxon, a broken record stuck on the word write, write, write, write....

[Oh, started a new notepad for my teaching stuff...]

new publications

well, not altogether new publications, not all of them:
i have some new poetry in the online oregon literary review that you can read by clicking this link - i think this was in 2006, but I was busy so I forgot to share the good news
and i've also had my story scotch bonnets appear in another Canadian magazine - a nice homely magazine called Ottawa at Home (it doesn't really have its own site but the link will get you some information). my surname was misspelled as Parke in the issue but i'm not stressed - a bit of money in the bank; they got my important names right :)

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Roy Ayers - Perfection (OK, just 'cos I'm in a busy period and I'm not hotlinking the titles doesn't mean you shouldn't check them out. Roy is amazing!

reading:
Alice Munro - The Love of a Good Woman (First time I'm reading a full collection from AM - interesting stuff)