bits and stuff
Reading went well, so most of you missed a good one. Quality poetry and great coffee, and a coupla friends did turn up amongst the crowd (thanks Pete and Josie). Perhaps a tad cold (it was outside, tho' under cover) but very congenial. I sold books. I had to give out prizes. Went for a drink afterwards.
But I've got the vertigo back a bit and I notice that it's affecting the way I read or present myself. I feel not quite there or not quite balanced. This is the second time I've felt it to be so. A touch of a worry.
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Finally collected my TAB race winnings. A whole $11.60 from a layout of $24. Thank goodness I only do that once a year. I've had a reasonable track record of picking the Cup winner (ie I've gotten lucky) but this year just missed by a whisker.
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And now for a coincidence. Annette and I have been discussing the latest green card lottery business (why not, I say). And she told me that the US Department of Labor (not Labour) has a job code for poets and they seemed to be ranked quite highly, unlike photographers. I took all this with a grain of salt but then, lo and behold, tonight I received a parcel of two books (for free, gratis, truly) from the nice folks at Soft Skull Press - books written by Gary Mex Glazner - and he writes that the DOL number for poets is 131067042 (is this a fact known to your average USAmerican, I wonder). And, hey, I'll find out from this guy 'How to Make A Living As A Poet' and 'How to Make A Life As A Poet'. I'll tell you how I go.
They also included copies of some Soft Skull cattledogs so I open one up and there on the first page is mention of Delia Falconer's The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers which took me by surprise till I remembered that my day job funded Soft Skull to publish Delia's book in the US. That felt nice.
And, one last thing, I think I've got a bead on a way forward in my writing. Just a small light bulb, just enough to see by. Now, I need those two Glazner books to find out how I can live as a poet and get the time to write. That, or the million dollar lottery. The fact I never buy a lottery ticket possibly explains my lack of progress on that front. And I can't see me taking up the geegees, I'm not that tinny.
It's a bit cold in Sydney, by the way. A funny old spring, indeed.
But I've got the vertigo back a bit and I notice that it's affecting the way I read or present myself. I feel not quite there or not quite balanced. This is the second time I've felt it to be so. A touch of a worry.
---
Finally collected my TAB race winnings. A whole $11.60 from a layout of $24. Thank goodness I only do that once a year. I've had a reasonable track record of picking the Cup winner (ie I've gotten lucky) but this year just missed by a whisker.
---
And now for a coincidence. Annette and I have been discussing the latest green card lottery business (why not, I say). And she told me that the US Department of Labor (not Labour) has a job code for poets and they seemed to be ranked quite highly, unlike photographers. I took all this with a grain of salt but then, lo and behold, tonight I received a parcel of two books (for free, gratis, truly) from the nice folks at Soft Skull Press - books written by Gary Mex Glazner - and he writes that the DOL number for poets is 131067042 (is this a fact known to your average USAmerican, I wonder). And, hey, I'll find out from this guy 'How to Make A Living As A Poet' and 'How to Make A Life As A Poet'. I'll tell you how I go.
They also included copies of some Soft Skull cattledogs so I open one up and there on the first page is mention of Delia Falconer's The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers which took me by surprise till I remembered that my day job funded Soft Skull to publish Delia's book in the US. That felt nice.
And, one last thing, I think I've got a bead on a way forward in my writing. Just a small light bulb, just enough to see by. Now, I need those two Glazner books to find out how I can live as a poet and get the time to write. That, or the million dollar lottery. The fact I never buy a lottery ticket possibly explains my lack of progress on that front. And I can't see me taking up the geegees, I'm not that tinny.
It's a bit cold in Sydney, by the way. A funny old spring, indeed.
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