Yaddith Times

This week's Montage from The Haiku Foundation, entitled "Three Women," is a bit different. In addition to featuring the work of three notable or emergent female writers of English-language haiku -- Virginia Brady Young, Sandra Simpson, & Eve Luckring -- it offers a headnote about the International Day For the Elimination of Violence Against Women

I like to think that I pay attention to such things, but I had no idea that this day (Nov. 25th) existed -- let alone why the General Assembly of the U.N. designated it in 1999.

Anyone interested in recent women's history (as well as an excellent group of haiku) should really take a short break from holiday preparations and check this out! For a bit more information about the day & its inspiration, go here.

Ever wondered where your favorite dead poet is now? Well, there' s a helpful Web site just for you! Seriously. Poets' Graves has been helping people locate dead poets since August 2003.

It apparently started with British poets, but now offers quite an assortment to be searched by surname or location. The site also includes maps and an amazing amount of other information on poetry and poets (lists of Poets Laureate both US & UK, for starters).

There are also a limited number of listings for other graves: writers, musicians, & artists.

(Thanks to bookslut for pointing out this remarkable combination of the poetic & the morbid.)

I'm happy -- and astonished -- to report that all the black & white interior art for my poetry collection Wild Hunt of the Stars has been completed and sent to the publisher. Since the color cover work has been done for some time, this completes the art portion of this project.

Marge Simon was even kind enough to do two more pieces of interior illustration than she had originally agreed to. With her express permission, here's one of them to whet the appetite:




(Watercolor wash illo for the haibun "How Green Was its Valley")

My dark flash fiction, "Rehab," is up today on Everyday Weirdness.

This is the only piece of fiction I have ever written -- or may ever write -- in this particular (and all too popular) sub-genre, so enjoy it while you can!

Just found out over the weekend that my dark fantasy / mythological haibun "Mount Pacho" has been accepted by guest editor time_shark for the next issue of Goblin Fruit.

I'm particularly happy with this sale, because "Mount Pacho" is one of the longest (4 haiku included) and most heavily researched speculative haibun I've ever done.

Thanks also to Archaeology Magazine, and the Nov./Dec. 2008 article which inspired this whole thing.

This week's Montage from The Haiku Foundation is entitled "With a Smile," and offers 21 poems by Yu Chang, George Swede, and Jörgen Johansson.  Whether these poems are haiku or senryu, however, is often a matter of the reader's opinion.

For those seeking to improve the quality of their opinions (on this subject, at least!) editor Allan Burns includes a brief, insightful essay.    I was unaware of the formal Japanese distinction between haiku and senryu, and found this paragraph well worth my time.

As usual, the poems themselves pack an amazing amount of imagery -- and humor! -- into few words.

Houston, we have art . . . already, which amazes me.  Marge Simon, the highly talented illustrator of my forthcoming poetry collection, has been working like a demon for the past week.

So far, I've seen six detailed black & white images, in a very atmospheric watercolor wash style.  There is also a full-color cover still in progress, which depicts the title poem.

As time and technology permit, I hope to share some of these images in the near future!

I'm having a good week for good news, it seems.  Just found out last night that my dark flash fiction "Rehab" has been accepted by Everyday Weirdness. 

This particular bit of weirdness is scheduled to appear on their site on November 18th. 

I am absolutely delighted to announce that I will be having a new poetry collection, entitled Wild Hunt of the Stars, coming out from Sam's Dot Publishing in February 2010. 

Wild Hunt of the Stars consists of fifty science fiction, science, and fantasy poems, one-third previously unpublished.  The overall tone is dark (big surprise, right?), and the majority of the poems are formal. 

I am equally delighted to announce that Marge Simon will be doing the color cover and several black & white interior illos.  I've already seen one version of the cover, and it's impressive.  Marge has illustrated many of my poems in the past, so I've got high hopes for this project.  

More details / progress reports / sales pitches to follow . . .  

Yes, friends, there is indeed a whole book of 5/7/5 zombie haiku.  Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum.  I wish I were making this up (and heaven knows my imagination is morbid enough), but I'm not.

Go here to see all the details, including a YouTube video which defies description.  If you're eating Halloween candy, you might want to stop before you start watching. 

This item discovered courtesy of Blogging Along Tobacco Road , an excellent and usually mainstream haiku blog.

Today's update from Innsmouth Free Press features a micro-interview with me, regarding my flash fiction "Scream Saver" in their Fall Fiction Issue.

It's really short -- three questions -- but I do reveal which Cthulhu Mythos monster or character I would most like to be.

I was unaware that such things even existed, but apparently you can still get a genuine antique vampire killing kit.   The write-up on this object is as fascinating as the set itself.  Bram Stoker fans, check it out!

Wonder how much this life-saving essential will bring at auction on Halloween?

For those who crave a more scientific approach to Halloween, Archaeology Magazine is now offering a special online feature page: Uncanny Archaeology. 

Divided into sections for Halloween, Vampires, Witches, Zombies, and Magic & Curses, this page contains links to several previously-published articles -- some surprisingly morbid (Celtic human sacrifice?), one a spoof.  Great inspiration for dark poetry, art, or other flights of fancy.

Montage, the Haiku Foundation's weekly exercise in comparative haiku, is offering a special Halloween Masque this week. Allan Burns, Montage's editor, describes the selections as "Gothic-themed but stylistically diverse."

Poets this week include Clement Hoyt, the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer (in translation), and Yours Truly, checking in with seven raven-themed haiku.

Lovecraftians take note: rather than preface this selection with his usual notes on the poets, the editor has chosen to open with a quote from HPL's "The Shunned House" (1924).   My dark heart rejoices.

For those who have been reading my posts about penguinkeggard's excellent Living Poe Girl series at Tor.com, Part 4 (the finale) is up now. Find it here.

"The Young Girl of the Valley" deals with the ultimate Poe Girl, his wife Virginia.  There's a great deal of biographical information about this neglected figure, plus more than you really want to know about consumption in 19th century America.  And footnotes!

Before you read "The Raven" this Halloween -- and you will be reading it, right? -- treat yourself to this look at Poe's inspiration for the angelic Lenore.

People interested in contemporary young adult dystopian fiction -- whether as readers, teachers, librarians, parents, or some combination of these -- might want to check out StarShipSofa's Aural Delights # 104 podcast with its excellent "fact talk" by eldritchhobbit.  This thirty minute discussion of young adult "dark future" lit offers a thorough examination of several current works.  It also makes a few mind-bending observations regarding what this fiction says (or does not say) about  the Millennials who read it. 

And the, um, more mature people who write it. 

The helpful academic Hobbit has also posted a bibliography of primary and secondary sources used to prepare this talk (or a longer version of it) on her LJ.  I'm no expert, but it looks very comprehensive.

It's been a while since I mentioned The Haiku Foundation's comparative haiku feature, Montage.  And that's too bad, because this weekly offering of 21 haiku by three English-language haiku poets (or, occasionally, poets in translation) is always worth a visit. 

This week's Montage, "Three Poets of the U.K.," features work by John Crook, Caroline Gourlay, and John Barlow.  I'm an incurable Anglophile, so I reveled in these brief glimpses into the English countryside . . . and a creative spirit distinct from anything on this side of the Pond. 

Last week's feature, "Looking With the Universe," offers work by three editors of the venerable haiku journal Modern Haiku: Robert Spiess, Lee Gurga, and Charles Trumbull.   This assortment might be particularly helpful for anyone thinking of trying this market,  or just looking for a snapshot of the current state of American mainstream haiku.

SFPA's popular On-Line Halloween Poetry Reading site continues to grow as the season moves on toward the 31st.   At the time of this posting, I've counted 16 audio files of creepy poems -- both reprint and written especially for this project -- plus lots of atmospheric photography to accompany the readings.

One of the most recent poems to go up on the site is my Spenserian sonnet, "Ophelia's Moon."  This is definitely a Golden Oldie which first appeared in my mostly Lovecraftian collection The Worms Remember (Hive Press), back in 2001. 

Many thanks  to quietspaces for organizing this site again this year. 
 

I'm not sure how I missed StarShipSofa's Aural Delights podcast No. 86 back in May, but in doing so I missed Lavie Tidhar's WW II horror thriller tale  "Transylvania Mission" -- and that's a sanguinary shame.

However, I finally caught up with it in time for Halloween .  So should you, if you're a fan of quality vampire (and werewolf) audio fiction with a warped historical twist, or simply can't get enough of the sort of Nazis Indiana Jones met up with.  The accompanying cover art is a pulpy delight all its own!

Find it here, for streaming or download -- you will have to scroll down a bit -- or look it up on iTunes. 

It's been a good last few days for my mainstream haiku efforts. 

On Saturday, I found out that the online journal Notes From the Gean will be publishing five of my haiku in their third issue (due up in December, I think).  It's always nice to have a selection of one's poems appearing at once, and even nicer when these poems have been looking for their proper home for a while.  Most of these definitely had been!

This afternoon, I got an envelope from Modern Haiku containing two crisp dollar bills, one for each haiku they'll be publishing in their Winter-Spring 2010 issue.  I've only managed to sell two at once to this venerable print journal a couple of times before.

Also, for anyone else who is as confused as I was, a gean is a type of wild cherry tree.  Heart cherry, according to my unabridged dictionary.