49 writers weekly roundup

Friday the 13th followed by Valentine’s Day. I know it happens every seven years or so, but it seems like a karma klash. Yes, I hate those kitschy k’s too, but this one was just too tempting. I’m thinking of coining it as one word: karmaklash. But I’m not sure if it can compete with some of the cool new words from the 2009 Washington Post Mensa Invitational. Sarchasm? The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it. Dopeler Effect? The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. And in what has to be the Alaskan favorite, beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

With no transition from beezelbug either intended or implied, Alaskan author Dana Stabenow has a great guest post this week on Jungle Red this week. This title (by the Jungle Red host) will surprise no one who knows Dana: “Dana Stabenow makes us need a nap.” It’s great dialogue on internet marketing. Supplement your reading with this recent Publisher’s Weekly piece on social media as a marketing tool.

Speaking of social media, guess what I learned on Facebook? Effigies, an anthology of writing by indigenous peoples,will be released in the UK and Australia in about three days. The US/North American release is forthcoming. Effigies is a new series, from Earthworks of Salt Publishing, collecting four chapbooks by emerging Indigenous Poets into one volume to introduce essential voices to the field and canon. According to the promotional piece, “dg okpik, Cathy Tagnak Rexford, Brandy Nālani McDougall, and Mahealani Perez-Wendt are four exceptional emerging poets. Their
Pacific Rim relationship invited opportunity to publish these four chapbooks in one collected volume. Like effigy earthworks, stone, and bone carvings, the books included in this volume portray representational imagery as testimonies to the stunning spirit, landscapes, and lives from which these poets derive. A significant statement as to the changing state of the world, this collection is a rich pleasure — an honor to undertake.”

Ketchikan librarian Charlotte Glover, fresh back from the American Library Association mid-winter conference in Denver, reports that she came across a new first person memoir/life in Alaska book by an author from Homer in one of the mainstream publisher booths: Tide, Feather, Snow – A Life in Alaska by Miranda Weiss. Always great to see an Alaskan title get shelf space in a national venue. Anyone know the book? Miranda, are you reading? Charlotte also reminds us that poet Tom Sexton has a new book out from the University of Alaska Press.

Finally, a small personal plea. This week I was assigned a travel guide update – 390 pages, due in four weeks. Yikes. The good news is that the physical production of books is very fast these days. I turn the manuscript in on March 9, and the book’s on the shelves in May. Bad news: it’s tough for me to get the inside scoop on everything in such a short time – and in the winter, no less. So if any of you who are reading from Seward, Homer, Kenai/Soldotna, Valdez, or the Valley have an hour or so to spare, I’d love to email a Word file on your area for you to QUICKLY peruse. I’ll do all the nitpicky fact-checking. What I really need to know are tidbits I can’t get from a distance – maybe a restaurant changed hands and isn’t so great anymore, or there’s a new bakery that everyone’s raving about. I’d need your input within the next week or so. All I can offer as compensation is a shout-out in the acknowledgements, a couple of free books, and of course my undying gratitude. If you’re able to help, please email me at debv@gci.net.