Happy Fourth! But this post isn't about our national celebration of Independence -- unless I can conflate America's with my own independence as a writer. There. Done that. I'm celebrating today and in general because 2018 will see TWO OF MY BOOKS PUBLISHED! Both my fourth book of poetry and my novel The Renaissance Club (forthcoming from Fiery Seas Publishing, 2018) will appear next year on Amazon and other places you can buy books, in formats for bookshelves and ereaders.
In rocketry, they call it lighting the candle -- when they fire up the missile for launch. I feel my launch as a writer will truly be 2018, with my fourth poetry collection and first novel on the launch pad and ready to light both candles. Maybe it's the fault of my stars to have two come out in one year -- or maybe it's because I've been busy writing these two books for seven years. Interestingly, both books have taken that long.
But with further drumrolls or sky rockets, I'm extremely pleased to announce that FutureCycle Press will publish my poetry collection Arabesque in August 2018. Thanks to Editor in Chief Diane Kistner and the editorial team for selecting my manuscript. I don't yet have a cover, but here's a poem from the book -- for all who are celebrating the holiday and summer at the beach -- with thanks to Editor Richard Peabody and Gargoyle for first publishing this:
A View of
Life from the Beach
On
a stretch of powdered shells
where
the surf flops and the horizon sways,
I
wrestle my towel and nap, counting
each
wave’s smack and long dreaming
myself
more awake to each
sand
grain’s crystal splendor.
After
a race into the sea
and
a tussle with a towel,
I
plan a long slide into the deep water.
Gusts
of evening halfway-arc
my
life’s bridge. I am old but the sea
sighs
softly all night in my pillow,
like
the sounds of lovers
who
keep reaching for each other
and
the tides of years roll me
over
onto my back. I otter
on
each wave’s foamy tip
and
again slip beneath.
Every morning, half-drowned,
I
open a mango under a local palm
and
read the news like a seaweed tangle,
then
pop the pods
as
a child does, merely for
the
pleasurable whoosh
as
they release salt water.
Labels: #amwriting, #poetry, announcement, beach, Fiery Seas Publishing, FutureCycle Press, Gargoyle, ocean poem, publishing poetry