Monday, October 25, 2010

Holy Shit

Yeah, I'm blogging again. We'll see how much time I will actually have once our little baby comes, but we'll see. There's a lot going on.
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For baby stuff visit our blog here
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Right now, I'm teaching Composition for Itt-Tech. It's really different. I'm not allowed to wear jeans or tees or anything. I have to wear slacks and ties. It's quite constricting for me, but I'm starting to get used to it. I just hate having to tie a tie when I teach. My classes are on Wednesday morning from 9-12:30 and night 6-9:30, with a huge break in between. The students get bored by hour 2 and it's a struggle to keep them focuses. We spend a lot of time discussing things or getting off track. It's good though, the classes have become really comfortable, where debates and discussions don't feel forces...at least for the most part. We'll see if I get another teaching job as well at ITT. I hope so.

My other job is working at the Residence Inn in Redmond. I work at the front desk and I have loads of a shinagans to share, though not today. Maybe I'll post a whole blog about all the shit I've experiences, all the people I work with, all the incidents with guests, and all the drama. I actually like the job, considering. One, I get lots of material. Two, many of the people are cool. Three, I get to meet a lot of cool people from all over the world. Four, I get to hear tons of awesome stories--I met a guy who has been in the movie theater business since before there was sound. He was there for the converting of theaters in Chicago. Yeah, and he was from Chicago and talked like it. Way cool. Anyway, it's going good. I just got a raise and I think I know what I'm doing. Plus they're cool about taking time off for the baby and teaching.

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I've been waiting to hear back about my revisions to When the Wolves Quit. It's been a while, but I'm really stoked about the work I did. I threw out close to 15 poems and rewrote 16 more, plus completely gutted and revised 80% of the book, including reorganizing, removing characters, scenes, etc. I'm really proud of it, and hope that the executive board agrees. Fingers crossed.

There's a small press looking at my novel, Bumping. I haven't heard from them in months, but they like the first 30 pages or so. So, we'll see.

I've published a short story in Barnstorm (coming soon) and a poem in Rougarou out of Louisiana(coming soon), and many other poems and stories still in queue. In the next couple days, I have to submit a shit-ton of poems out to journals, and do it before the baby comes, so I can just wait for responses. It's a lot of work, but I think I did most of the grunt work. Now, all I have to do is email, post, or mail. I'll post links everywhere when they're out.

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I've been writing like crazy over the summer and fall, and I've got a new chapbook titled Bellingham vs. Las Cruces vs. Chicago. Guess what it's about. And I've finished the producing most of the material I will use to put together the first draft of This is the Way to Rule. Which is a post-apocalyptic book of poems. I've also started mapping out The Story Thief: Book Two, as I've been revising (once again, but mostly the first chapter) of The Story Thief: Book One. Ian, you will be psyched for the stuff that happens. Also, there will be many cameos. I also started fiddling around with a script idea about a bunch of 40 year olds who are obsessed with a band who's recordings disappeared from their studio in the late 70s (and the record was supposed to be their Pet Sounds or St. Peppers), and these 40 year olds, who are in a cover band of this band (The band's name is Mission), decided to try and find the tapes. Anyway, lots of writing. I'm guessing I won't have much time coming up.

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I'm behind on Mad Men, so don't ruin the ending of this season for me. Emily and I were in the process of moving and just got behind.

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The Wire season 4 is in the mail. Can't wait!

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Always Sunny in Philadelphia... watch it. Danny Devito--enough said.

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Books I've read recently/reading:
Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen - Maureen Seaton
Black Maria - Kevin Young
Heyday of Insensitive Bastards - Robert Boswell
One Girl Babylon - Ruth Ellen Kocher

And I've read a ton TON TOOONNN of literary magazines that I picked up at AWP last year:

Top Ten (no order) -
Puerto del Sol (Yeah, I read for them, but they're rad)
Sonora Review
Black Warrior Review
Ninth Letter
Hotel Amerika (yeah, Columbia College)
Columbia Poetry Review (yeah, Columbia College...wondering why I want to go there?)
Denver Quarterly
Water Stone Review
Pleaidas
Mid American Review

OK. That's all for now. More stuff soon. Maybe pictures of the new place. Pictures of our summer. And hopefully soon, pictures of our baby boy.

Peace out.
Love.
Bye.
Joshua



4 comments:

Chelsea said...

Yeah, you're prolific. I want pictures.

Dave said...

The first scene of Season 4...you will see realness.

Headlights and Vapor trails said...

Hi guys!

Choppyrocks said...

So like when the baby comes does that mean you'll only be putting out like one project a month? As Chelsea said, you're one prolific bastard. I have to admit my disappointment in the new season of Always Sunny, but that doesn't meant it's stopped me from watching.