Where Everything Lost is Mutating

The good thing about being in charge of one’s own publications is I have only myself to report to if I don’t meet a deadline… then again, otolaryngologist that is also the bad thing.

Where Everything Lost is Found was intended to be finished and on paper around this time of the year.

From angsty anthology, it’s mutated into illustrated poetry book. From a considerably thick book, it is now short and, hopefully, sweet (perhaps more bittersweet that sweet…) The process has been one of elimination… elimination… and more elimination.

They say one is one’s own toughest critic.

In all honesty, I have chosen not to have any critics for this project (as I did with SLF). I don’t mean to say this is productive or smart, but for both books, I knew exactly what I wanted to produce and rather have not had any input, positive or negative. That and, being irremediably stubborn and hoarder of secrets.

WELIF, I had mentioned once before, is a flowering graveyard of adolescent texts. I’ve decided to include only poems (not prose, as originally intended).

The task at hand was to draw some ballpoint doodles to compliment some of the poems. Now, I want to fill it with ballpoint art in between each poem, and to illustrate some of them (since some drawings only allude to specific images in the poetry).

These are some finished and in progress drawings:

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So it turns out, WELIF has mutated into an art project. (You can choose whether you want to call this “art” or not, I personally don’t know what else to call it. )

Until a voice in my head says “enough!WELIF is a work in progress. But I intend to have it done by this Fall. At most. Maybe.

Stars Like Fish – literally!

A follow-up of sorts to my last post… I need to show this off one more time.

This watercolor is by a student from the course I was invited to:

I didn’t get to ask her questions about it because we had so little time (only an hour!) but it’s perfect in every way. Even with the bleeding rings around the planets – this is plain white paper! So it’s understandable. I can only assume she was inspired by the title, and though the astronauts and mermaids in my book are only implicit, it is fitting. So you might understand my excitement.

I was invited by this lovely lady, professor Carmen Torres:

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She wrote a nice review at the Library Committee’s blog summing it all up.

I was so excited to see that students had brought in pieces of art! It was a surprise, since I was expecting reading only. Prof. Torres has poets, story writers, painters, photographers, performance and visual artists in her literature class. It had to end just when it was getting good! But we’ve got some more cooking up, probably soon.

There’s a few more photos at le facebook.

SLF goes to Humacao

Well… this event is at 11:30 am tomorrow, and though seemingly exclusive, it isn’t.

Flyer featuring a photo from -you guessed it- Humacao.

If you’re around and want to drop in, do it.

There’s a Power Point presentation and everything.

And free bookmarks.

Where some things found are announced…

If any of you follow my livejournal, rx you might already know I’ve been cooking something up for the last couple of months…

It’s Where Everything Lost is Found, sildenafil and it’s scheduled to be published in… well, when it’s finished. Approximate date is May 2013.

This one contains a bonus… art! A handful of doodles in between poetry and bits and pieces of prose and, possibly, short stories. However (as it happens), the chronology is all backwards. Most of it contains a healthy dose of teenage angst and existential desperation, because it only contains pieces written more than a decade ago.

welif

This is a teaser of some of the drawings (all in black ballpoint pen), many of which will be recent (because all my “art” worth sharing has already been seen online).

So keep an eye out! There’s actually more than one announcement to be made, but only when the time is right!

Swap it!

Ideally, generic I would like to sell Stars Like Fish, clinic but trading is the next best option.

Last week Gato Malo (Miguel Pruné and Daniel Pommers) and I shared a spot at this event:

It was a book fair for local writers and artists with less traditional, independent publications (like ours, naturally) with the option to trade instead of buying. Though I sold NO COPIES, I did trade a handful for a BAGful of beautiful books and artwork from writers I admire and couldn’t be happier!

Though a cybernetic experience doesn’t compare, I’ve been trading books for a few years on PaperBackSwap. I recommend it to everyone, it’s a book hoarder’s best option.

The way it works is you post books you no longer want and send them in the mail when a user requests one from you. When they mark it received, you get a credit that you can use to request books for yourself. However, you get free credits once you sign up and post a few books, and you can also get credits when you refer a friend.

After some hesitation, I added Stars Like Fish because really, why not?

Today I sent out a copy of SLF to a stranger in the mail. If you’d like to try PaperBackSwap out (or are already a member), click the link below!

If you register by clicking THIS LINK (or the banner) I get a book credit! And you get SLF.

Trade Books for Free - PaperBack Swap.