Lit Biz, mostly for Thunder

Gre-uph. No writing this week, just lots of lit business. I finished reading page proofs today, my last chance to catch typos before the book goes off to press this week. Page proofs are hard: the deadlines are tight, the stakes are high, and by this time I have the book pretty much memorized and I can't see what's there, only what I intend. But, in happy news, the book is nearly nearly real. Amazing.

Doing marketing stuff for Seal up the Thunder -- press releases, invitations, legwork. Tomorrow I'm going all over town with posters. Friday I get to meet with one of the Record's reporters for the Faith section. Neat!

I'm working up a small batch of submissions -- two of which are actually solicited. Makes me feel good, though to be honest the new, good, unpublished work is stretched a little thin. Tomorrow is the deadline for the Malahat Long Poem contest. I'm going to send either "Too Strong to Stop, Too Sweet to Lose," or my baby Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, or possibly both. (Probably not both -- there are $$$s involved.) "Too Strong" is a more obvious fit, but Sir G is probably the better poem.

I have a poem forthcoming in my favourite online journal, Slow Trains, and another in The New Quarterly. I'm waiting on two outstanding little grant applications, and one big one, and two fellowships. I'm looking for work. And I'm awfully tired.