Shaking the bushes

I decided to try and drum up some readings in the fall. The poems are so much fun to read! Oct we have the Blackbird First Wednesday spot but I'm hoping to get  more. To this end, I entered two competitions because of publicity and reading opportunities if you're a finalist.

In fact, I have very mixed feelings about competitions, especially since reaching the age where I've judged a few myself. The best awards, of course, are those that you do not apply for or enter. I've been lucky to have a few of these in my career. But most, of course, are competitions with entry fees, which keep going higher and higher. In the screenwriting universe, this has become absurd with 100s of contests, damn few of which actually can help a screenwriting career. But all these affairs, I learned, and more about judges than about writers. They are about individual taste. It's absurd to call the winners "the best" of anything but the best of an individual's or committee's taste. And I've told several horror stories here before about how that can work out.

The book of poems, nonetheless, is being sent to:

• Oregon Book Award. Being a finalist means you can tour the state.
• Pacific NW Booksellers Assoc award. A biggie because it is regional and sponsored by book stores.
• Wordstock, the fall festival, where I hope to read (though I'm a tad late on the preferred deadline).

So these are three major opportunities in these parts -- and we'll just see what happens.

I am struggling big time with the novella. However, I completely believe in it and I'm just showing up to continue the process. I know it will come together. I'm trying something more complicated than in previous stories.

We signed up to take a six week course at the opera about how operas are developed. We already know but thought it would be fun to be in a small class exploring this at the opera itself. Starts in a couple weeks.

I'm in a great mood for a gray day!