Friday, January 28, 2011

It's a review!

Sort of. It's a paragraph, at least, by someone other than me telling you to pick up a copy! Check it out!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Beware the Podcasts, Pod-cats!

So I just finished my second podcast. The first is about Salvation (perhaps you've heard of it?) and the second about Malls (also known as shopping centers). They were pretty fun to do, and both turned out really well (though they were a lot of work, especially sandwiched between school, a book launch and an upcoming vacation before book launch! yipes.)

So why do a podcast? Well, the simple answer is because my book publicist asked me to. You know, to whet your appetite for more poetry and get you drooling over the delicious release of my new book, Zeus and the Giant Iced Tea this March. (I plan on writing more about the publishing process here later as well.) But I hope to continue doing them even after the book, because they are a great forum for reading poetry within a philosophical and entertaining context. Also, I bought this BAD-ASS microphone on Boxing Day and I was eager to use it! If you're a poet interested in doing recordings, podcasts or readings, I HIGHLY recommend you get it. It's easy and does amazing recordings, records straight to mp3 and so much more.

Anyway, I've put up a sample of podcast #2 for your entertainment. It's me reading a poem called On the Trail of Ibn Battuta about a mall in Dubai. That poem also appears in Zeus and the Giant Iced Tea.

I hope the first podcast (Salvation) will be up in the next couple of weeks, with Malls to be out in mid to late February.

Enjoy!

Next up, a new video involving my fridge!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Zeus copy

Things are ramping up for the March release of Zeus and the Giant Iced Tea (3rd and final proofs to be done today!) AU Press has even got a placeholder up for the book, where you can get a sneak preview of the cover and read some of the promo copy for the book.

http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120186

Even buy.com is excited about it!

I've seen the full cover of the book (just released the other day) and it looks FANTASTIC! But you're going to have to wait until the launch to see that.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

A Sequel to a Poem I Haven't Published

So, I was going through the proofs of my new book (Due March 2011!), which is a rather tedious (but also sometimes fun) process in which you hum and haw over each period and comma and syllable in your work. But as I was reading through the last poem in the book (We Heart Robot) and was inspired to start writing a sequel to it. This is largely unfinished, and who knows if it ever will be, but it was fun to start so I thought I'd share it.

Anyway, some prologue: The original poem (which you can find in my new book) sort of covers how all those girls got into his stomach in the first place. But I kind of wondered, during the review, what Giant Robot and the 1000 Japanese Schoolgirl's lives were like post departure from Earth. (Yes, this is an actual poem...published by an actual press.)

Anyway, here goes, the sequel to a poem you haven't read yet!


Gigantic Robot and the Shortcake Planet

One day
A thousand Japanese school girls
(and a few friends hanging out)
were lounging in the belly-lounge
of Gigantic Robot’s stomach
when he ran out of
Strawberry Shortcake gas

He rumbled
And he trembled
And the thousand schoolgirls
erupted in a chorus
of ‘ohhhhs’
and even a few tea sets
got broken
and beanbag chairs
overturned

Whatever shall we do?
Where can we get more gas?
The girls asked
and then it was decided.
Going back to Earth
was no option
- too dull
for these well-heeled universal citizens
and the tiramisu just wasn’t that great -
No
they must go to the planet
Shortcake
Strawberry
but first
they’d need to buy
lots of gifts

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Zeus and the Giant Iced Tea Poster DESIGNED!!

Ok, I got it together and MAN does it look slick! It's bad that I'm more excited about the book cover at this point than the book in time, but slightly understandable, I suppose, after the innumerable man hours I put in over the holiday season proofing it (just print it already!) Anyway...look for some poster contests soon!

Now I've just got to find a printer...and someone to post them up on street posts ACROSS THE GLOBE!