Too Hot to Move

Okay, I think the dog days of summer have hit real early this year. Everyone I know is dragging; they have energy, no desires, no interests. Emails are almost non-existent or statements of no news to write, phone calls are only political recordings, and even the birds find the water too hot to bathe in during the afternoon. The flowers are wilting; the soil in pots won’t dry out but only steams under the humid sun. Reading and drinking are our only events here. Then we can’t sleep because we have had so much iced tea we are tanked up on caffeine! Still, it is a good life because being lost in a stack of books is always a fine endeavor.



My mind had a shot of spark the other day, and I wrote all afternoon. I polished a poem, submitted it, and resubmitted five other old things rather than let them life dormant in a file. The last was a real long shot, an autumn poem that I figured was too late this year. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that. It must have been my shortest rejection time ever. I emailed it at 6:00, got rejection at 9:00. As I figured, the poem was too late for the October issue and a little too long as well. But the editor gave me a cheery rejection and encouraged me to keep going. Hey, kind words are always welcome and make me feel like I’m a member of a great writing camaraderie. Then today I got another rejection from a new editor at an old publication. The old editor has rejected the story once, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to run it by the new gal. No dice.


The latest Wooden Horse Magazine News reports the following mix of news:


Bad news/good news: 90 magazines launched in the first half of this year, down from 187 new titles that launched in 2009 for the same period, according to media directory MediaFinder. On an up-note: “Only” 87 magazines folded this 1H compared to 279 in 2009; and 16 print magazines converted to online-only formats compared to 43 in 2009…


In a publishing world that is changing much too fast for me, I will think on the good news here and ignore the negatives for a while longer.


Lena Roy has launched her website in anticipation of her new book Edges coming out soon. Lena is the granddaughter of fantasy and memoir writer Madeleine L’Engle. She is obviously following in her grandmother’s footsteps. A picture on the site shows that Lena looks a great deal like her late grandmother who never thought of herself as a beauty but who was one of those people who shined a beautiful beacon on the world from deep inside. www.lenaroybooks.com


Today I learned from Christian fiction writer Debra Vogts that a reading category has been added to the 4-H events at the county fair in my home state. Kids enter posters or design book marks that promote reading; they make scrapbooks of their own reading, or maybe even write a review of a book they read. Now how great is that? Reading at the fair!

Right now I am glad I don’t have to haul anything to the fair because it is just too hot to move. Ah, so I had better get back to what I do best right now and that is turning pages and jiggling ice cubes!