Surprise yourself

I'm facilitating a writer's workshop next Sunday. By accident. Some people argue there are no accidents but if that is the case then this was happenstance. No doubt about it. Judge for yourself. Ash Canyon was planning to host a workshop/book signing for a UNR professor/poet sometime this month so I called Comma Coffee to see if the 22nd was available. As it turned out, the workshop was cancelled but a writer's workshop was added to the calendar anyway. The cafe print calendar went out with my name on it so what the hell? I'll do it. Come if you can.

Mid night ramblings

Couldn't sleep. Too many ideas running around my head. So I got up, made a cup of cinnamon tea and dinked around on the synthesizer for a while. That was comforting. Now it's just me, the keyboard and candle and, beyond the window, black night . . . edge of the starry, lapping sea. Listen closely. Words cannot go past this point.

Minerva in the rain

Minerva is one suet loving crow. She's been back every day since she discovered it last week.

I know it's her because of the pale feathers on her right wing. And now, of course, a couple of other big birds have caught on to the goodies and she is pissed. There was a brief but interesting mid-air battle which M. won.

She has been keeping me amused today as I worked on the Ash Canyon Review. It's coming along nicely. I've got all the poems formatted and pasted-up. It looks good.

Oregon Lit Fellowships

Here's something for my Oregon writer friends. Do yourself a favor and apply for one or both of these literary fellowships. The deadline is June 24th. There's no entry fee so what the hell? Leap before you look. After all, they want to give money to some Oregon writers. Why not one of you? At the very least you'll get a little more focused. This is an annual event so remember what the spider said, if at first you don't succeed, keep at it.
Touch
Fellowships ranging from $500 to $3,000 each are given annually to Oregon writers to initiate, develop, or complete literary projects in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. In addition, a Women Writers Fellowship of $1,000 will be given annually to an Oregon woman writer of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction whose work explores experiences of race, class, physical disability, or sexual orientation. Submit 15 pages of poetry or 25 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction with an application by June 24. There is no entry fee. Send an SASE or visit the Web site for an application and complete guidelines.

Literary Arts, Literary Fellowships, 224 N.W. 13th Avenue, Suite 306, Portland, OR 97209. (503) 227-2583. Kristy Athens, Program Coordinator. www.literary-arts.org

Deadlines

What's the most important thing for a writer? Gary Short had a two word answer for that question recently. A deadline. That's certainly true at around here. Today is the submissions deadline for the first issue of Ash Canyon Review and we've got a fine magazine lined up. Gary and Bill (Cowee) reviewed the final picks yesterday. They are the editors. I did a mock up of the issue and gave it to Cowee last night at the Brewery. He's ecstatic. My god, he's fun to work with. His enthusiasm for this project is boundless. Everyone's excited. And he's right. It's going to be a great issue!

Bush hides from cloud

Poetic Justice by Joey T.

The following was reported by Julian Borger of The Guardian today:

"President George Bush was bundled into an underground bunker, Dick Cheney was evacuated to an "undisclosed location" and heavily armed secret servicemen took up defensive positions when a fast-moving cloud scudded towards the White House, it was reported yesterday. Such false alarms are common, triggered by clouds, flocks of birds or private aircraft wandering off course, but the White House confirmed yesterday that this was not the first time since September 11, 2001 that the president has taken refuge in the hi-tech bunker beneath the building, the Presidential Emergency Operations Centre. It was not clear yesterday what it was about Wednesday morning's cloud that created such havoc. It was moving at about the speed of a helicopter, disappearing and then appearing again on the radar screen, but the same could be said of many clouds."

Ya gotta love it. President Bush, the arm chair psychopath who fancies himself God's Personal Warlord, and Vice-President Cheney, the brains of the smarmy operation, scuttled to their bunkers today to protect themselves from what proved to be a cloud. There is poetic justice in that.