Poems for Morpheus

Over the last few months, I have been writing a cycle of poems about the Greek goddess Nyx, Night, who was considered the mother of Dream and Death and a multitude of other deities (not made fewer by the fact that I often mix Greek and Roman names or use them interchangeably), and about her divine offspring. So far, there are about twenty of these poems, some already accepted for publication (The Tally Of Forgotten Dreams Kept By Morpheus, forthcoming in Dreams & Nightmares and Sister Night, forthcoming in Bull Spec), some still in the submission queue, and others waiting to be polished. And of course, there are still those Dream Cycle poems that haven't been written yet.

At any rate, I like the idea of treating night, darkness, and dream in poetry, it's something that seems to appeal to me personally and I consider this one an ongoing project...

...just like the poems inspired by Tarot, difficult to write if you just like the idea of Tarot but haven't the first clue about what the individual cards represent. Inspiration through research! Research! That thing that always makes me wish I had several heads and a few more hands to go with them, for writing simultaneously, you understand. The first Tarot poem I successfully completed is the Major Arcana (forgot number): Death.

Halloween Is Coming Soon!

And to really celebrate the occasion--I mean more than just any other year--Reaven Electrick Ink will release a jittery creepy anthology this year: Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy, edited by Karen A. Romanko.

Why should I mention this, you ask? Well, for one thing, I have two poems in there, for another, a whole bunch of other people have even more awesome/creepy jittery stuff in there. Also, it's Halloween, and you need to start giving people treats that actually broaden their horizons (Halloween really will be taken off your normal map of the usual here, on to other places where even strange is stranger) and lower their blood sugar. And creep them out:

"Reading Jack-o'-Spec is like stepping into a Halloween party that's

been going on for 2,000 years. There's something delightfully pagan about these stories and poems, something that captures Halloween's dark,autumn atmosphere. Whether it's a mad scientist invoking Halloween ghosts on Mars, boys trapped in not one but two haunted houses, or a rich evocation of poetic seasonal spirits, Jack-o'-Spec has somethingfor all Halloween lovers." -- Lisa Morton, Author, The HalloweenEncyclopedia

More Fae! And Romantics! (But don't worry, no opiates...!)

Fae Awareness Month is great. Super fun so far and important. My latest article is a little scholarly though, you'll find Goethe's poem Der Erlkönig (translated by yours truly) and a superficial interpretation thereof. Yeats is mentioned more than once, but it's okay, this is a piece for all the heart throbbing romantics out there. By now they should know where it gets them.

Cucumbers!

A little while back, an amazing project came to life, the Fae Awareness Month. When I heard that I immediately thought 'Fae...they are so much like...youkai!' and soon after I had signed up for one article, a little while later, for a second piece, but more of that later. For now, you can find out about Fae Awareness (for it is a serious issue, except for Yeats) and learn what the heck youkai are. Go here.

Alice In China

What would Alice in Wonderland have looked like in China?  First off, I think Chinese lifestyle is much more suited to the tone of the novel.  In China, people live their lives with less predetermination than we do (so, at least it seems to me. In case I'm offending anyone, sure wasn't intended).  It starts with buying stuff.  You haggle.  There are no fixed prices for anything, and agreeing on a price can take long.  Then, there are meetings and appointments.  All much more loosely than in the West, I can tell you.  Any plans you try to make in China had better come with a Plan B in case things don't work out quite the way you expect them to (because they usually won't).

So, no straight lines, at least not such as a Westerner could easily follow.  Oh yeah, and although people generally act friendly, they don't always mean it.  Like that one lady who kept charging Westerners more for water, especially if they didn't know any Chinese.  (I could call her the evil Water Witch and write a story containing wells, but that is for another time.)

So, a Chinese Alice, probably would have been less astounded by what one finds Down the Rabbit Hole, dressed in more silk, heavily embroidered.  The Caterpillar might have been a dragon, unhatched as of yet, and the endearing Cheshire Cat would have been a tiger of course.

I explored this different Wonderland that is, for all its differences, no less wondrous than what we already know, in this little poem.  Brew some tea, read, enjoy, and do not forget to take a close look at those tea leaves!

We Want Poooetry!

Happy news for poets! Niteblade has recently increased the pay rate for all accepted poems to 5$ per poem. In the world of poetry, I'd call that a grand thing indeed, and the Beloved Editor (aka Rhonda Parrish) cannot be praised enough for it.

At the moment, we are reading for the September issue. We would like to see more poems of high quality in the slush. Baffle us. Dazzle us. Sneak up behind us and shout BOO! Make us go all swoony with delight. Seriously, we can handle it. If you have something awesome, please read the guidelines here and send us the best you got. Get to it!

May: My Very Own Personal Poetry Month

So the last couple of days, I have been wow-ed on a regular basis. Hypothetically, I might have even shed some tears of joy. I think I'm still high from the sheer adrenaline.

Basically what happened is that I find myself poetry editor of Fantastique Unfettered and poetry co-editor (with Rhonda Parrish) of Niteblade.

Wow. WOW.

I don't really know why that happened, it just did and I am very much grateful and already feeling the weight of responsibility. Good then that I'm an ambitious gal. I mean, I just lost two markets I can sell my poems to, so I have to compensate in ambition, right?

A note about FU: I am very much tempted to spout out all the things I'd like in my poetry editor's inbox, the market is still quite new and there are possibilities. But I won't give in. Just this much, spec poetry loosely defined, genre-bending is acceptable. The quality of the work counts. I like my slush (submitting early in the reading period seems prudent): poetry-editor@fantastique-unfettered.com
(Please know that every poem is read twice at least, unless it is very obviously not a good fit for FU.)

I should also mention that you can find this review of Stone Telling #3 on FU's site. Please keep checking back (or follow me on Twitter or whatever) for there is more to come

For Niteblade, so far things look easier (from my end; and perhaps I should say clearer). The zine isn't quite so new, the tastes, at least genre-wise are established: horror and fantasy. All that's left for me to do is apply my pickiest, most critical self to the submissions, but since Rhonda and me will be co-editing the poetry...wait, no, we still want the best. Guidelines here.

Please send us things with their own heart...