Weekend Update: Poetry, fiction, Haiti

Made my first poetry submissions of 2010 this afternoon to two literary journals. It would be a treat to be in either...or both. I have a few other poems that are nearly ready for submission, so I'm turning my attention to those this afternoon as well.

Work on the second book in the Conquering Venus trilogy continues, but I'm in a research phase right now. Several chapters take place in Calais and in Provence, so I'm familiarizing myself with these locales, as well as some additional history about Paris during World War II and the riots in 1968.

The devastation in Haiti following the earthquake has been hard to watch. I've made a couple of small donations this week -- to Yele Haiti and Médecins Sans Frontières. You can see a complete list of aid organizations at CNN that are in desperate need of monetary donations. Many are making it easy to donate online and by texting via cell phone.