Tuesday, 10.04:
In haste
Managed to schedule the day off so I could attend Tony Hoagland’s reading at Bucknell tonight. It starts in an hour–ack!–and we haven’t had dinner yet.
Met with my friend Paula H to talk about a possible logo design for Seven Kitchens Press. I’ve already seen some good designs from someone who responded to my FB post last week. Paula’s going to try a different angle. Looking forward to seeing what she comes up with.
Assembled 20 chapbooks today, mostly copies of Mary Meriam’s The Poet’s Zodiac, which catches me up with those orders (assuming I can get them into the mail tomorrow). A steady, busy day, punctuated now and then by sunshine. I hear tomorrow’s going to be beautiful.
Thursday, 10.06:
Fair days
The fair days of fall are here–no rain forecast for the next few days at least–and I’m stuck this week with a split shift, 12-8, that lets me enjoy neither morning nor evening outside. I’m ready to get back to my 7-3: as much as I hate getting up at 5 (okay, more like 5:30 after I hit the snooze button once or twice), I love coming home in mid-afternoon and feeling like there’s something left of the day.
The Hoagland reading was as expected: good, but nothing to take away and ponder, no lines ringing in my head, no images that rang with sudden recognition. I’m not being completely fair. It was a good reading. He brought race into the conversation, which is admirable. I’m pretty familiar with several of his books, so wasn’t expecting to be too surprised. He’s a lovely person. I hear his Q&A went very well. In the end, I just didn’t feel that the poems went far enough. Maybe that’s an unfair expectation. I’m just sayin’.
Must rush to shower and stop at the post office to mail four chapbooks. I have about a dozen more of Catherine Staples’ chapbook ready to mail and hope I can get those out tomorrow. Tonight, assembling more covers of Daniel Terry’s Days of Dark Miracles and thinking about the cover design of Louis McKee’s forthcoming chap.
This is all I do.
Karen J. Weyant said… [10.10.2011]
I missed the small press festival too! Sigh. I live four hours away (or maybe three — never googled the exact directions), but please let me know what I can do to help!
Sunday, 10.09:
Printing & folding & mailing & designing but mostly I’m at work
And so go the days. I’m past the midpoint of an eight-day workweek and yes, I’m tired. Tired, tired. Not in the sense of the mental exhaustion that accompanied teaching, but in the rubber-to-the-road sense, the don’t-cross-the-store-without-something-in-hand-because-there’s-always-more-to-do-than-anyone-can-accomplish sense, the yes-I’m-happy-to-discuss-your-business-card-design-setup-while-your-screaming-child-throws-saliva-sodden-Fruit-Loops-at-me-and-knocks-everything-from-the-counter sense. And thank you for letting us serve your copy and print needs. And do come again.
Meanwhile, I have a micropress to run. My god, I’m so grateful for the huge response we’ve had over the past year. It may not be huge by anyone else’s standards, but it definitely set me months behind. I’m used to doing all this by myself, but now there’s so much more of it to do. Was it a mistake to take on so many titles and commit to keeping 90% of them in print? I still don’t think so, but I’ve realized that these delays have probably left more than a few folks bewildered or even pissed off. I’m trying, I’m really trying, to catch up.
I think I have the design figured out for Lou’s chapbook–sending a mock-up to the author tonight. And printing out more page sets of Ava’s chapbook, in hopes of getting copies I owe out by mid-week. And working on assembling Daniel’s copies, also to send out mid-week. And trying to get this fresh batch of Catherine’s chap packaged up to go into the mail by Tuesday. And I need to buy paper to finish a fresh set of copies for Boyer. And Pedro’s page sets need to be tied.
And my feet hurt. And I’m sorry to have missed the Small Press Festival in Pittsburgh this year. Sigh.
Reads in the Trees 