I am so low energy today. Rough night and you know, lately I’ve been pushing hard physically and am tired from that too. 

I’ve also been trying to think about what might be a worthy blog post and just don’t have it. 

I know, I know. When has that ever stopped me before??! 🙃

What’s new? I ran out of shows to watch from my elliptical machine and thinking I should not start another because it’s better for me to use that time in more productive ways… like this. But when I feel I don’t have much to write about, then I’m stuck thinking about everything and nothing. Then I end up with a post like this. 🤷‍♀️

I think it was about two weeks ago that I posted about the houseguest I had last week and also new news about the next book deal. In that post I said… More to come on both of those things.

They actually got mixed together during Kate’s visit. Since she’s a publisher, I had the opportunity to ask her opinion and she convinced me to pass on the “deal.” 

What’s the deal? A hybrid publisher offering to publish my book for a fee. I did some research and knew it was kind of sketch but hearing her talk about it was even more enlightening. 

Now I could get down in the weeds with why, but mostly it comes down to reputation. If you publish a book that way, it’s more likely to be considered “vanity” and that’s no bueno. There’s also the cost. $4200. Not a small amount of money by any stretch. 

I was not ready to give up on a “legit” press yet anyway because I believe in the book and feel like I just need to find the right publisher. Kate also advised I not try for the same publisher as the chapbook. I agree with that too. 

I’ve still got subs out at several other legit places anyhow so at the very least, I’ll wait for those to get rejected before I figure out how best to proceed. 

In related news I’ve let go of the full court press on getting individual poems published lately too. The count goes down with rejections weekly and I’ve barely looked at Submittable other than to check the count. 

I’m in a holding pattern waiting for rejections to come back from those big name places (that don’t take simultaneous subs) before I dive back in to submit more. And I have only a few new poems that I’ve written in the last month and not revisiting them yet. 

I guess you could say I’m putting my existing work on the back burner and just trying to stay open for inspiration on new work. At least I have the lit mag to attend to… not that that satisfies my creative desires, because it doesn’t. It just makes me feel as though I’m being productive in some good way and I need that. 

Anyhow… that’s probably enough fluff for one day. At least it’s not nothing. Also happy St. Patty’s Day!!

Cheers to being 5% Irish. 🍀🍀🍀

~Miss SugarCookie