Playing catch-up

Cecilia Woloch reading at Voices Carry

It was a long week filled with deadlines of all sorts, not to mention getting ready for yesterday's Voices Carry reading.

I mentioned in a previous post that I'm taking part in a big blog tour over the holidays with 15 other mystery writers. That has meant writing 15 different posts, which I thought would be a snap, but has taken up more hours than I expected. I have three left to do and I plan to knock them out this afternoon.   I'll have more on the Mysteries We Write Blog Tour, which begins Nov. 26, soon.

My poetry collection, Render, now has a cover design and some very fine poets are currently reading the manuscript for blurbs. In November, I'm going to turn my attention to setting up readings next year along with continuing to plan my two months abroad in London.

Brilliant poet Cecilia Woloch flew in to Atlanta late Wednesday night for Voices Carry and we went for martinis at Manuel's Tavern and wound up closing the place down at 2 a.m. We always have so much to catch up on since she's out of the country half the year or teaching in LA.

The Voices Carry reading yesterday was fantastic, although Jericho Brown could not attend because of a death in the family. I read a poem from his collection, Please, to get his energy into the auditorium at the Decatur Library. I read a few poems from Render and then introduced Alice Lovelace, Sandra Meek and Cecilia – who were all just tremendous. We also had an attentive audience, which is always the key ingredient to any reading. Many, many thanks to Georgia Center for the Book (especially the indispensable Joe Davich) and Eagle Eye Books for being our bookseller.

Poet and novelist Kate Evans asked me to write a guest post on self-publishing for her blog since I've had success with my ebook of short stories, Kiss Shot. You can read it at this link.

My next Five Questions interview posts this week with the fantastic poet LuAnn Keener-Mikenas. Her collection,  Homeland, is one of the best I've read this year.

The weather in Atlanta has finally taken a turn toward autumn with chilly, windy weather settling in for the week. Keeping everyone in the mid-Atlantic and New England states in my thoughts as Hurricane Sandy approaches.