I'm trying to keep up...

but it's hard with Elliot and work and stuff (to read a bunch about him and us, please go here). Elliot is amazing! I'm sure you've seen pictures by now...cute! Anyway, I've just lost a bought some of his fussing and Em has rescued him from my arms. He's quite fussy today, and I think he's gassy or something, or he's tired. It's still adorable. Anyway,that's other blog...

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I'm in the revising and submitting phase of how I work. Basically if we were to chart my work it starts out with the idea process (which can be just random ideas and fragments, or the skeleton of a poem or story), then to first drafting (hand-written in notebooks...could be as little as one draft, as many as ten), second drafting (re-writing in another notebook), the third drafting (actually typing it out), fourth revision (final revision--before the "book revision"), then I start submitting. Usually, that's in the fall, but it can span the whole year. Actually, if I think about it, I am always in different states of different projects, so while I'm submitting the Story Thief, I'm organizing This is the Way to Rule, revising B'ham vs. Las Cruces, and drafting a short story. Anyway, I've been doodling mostly with new poems, and revising (in many stages) of my projects/poems.

This reminds me. Ian (And whoever might be interested, I'll try to put together a list of journals that have online subs, that are cool, that you might want to submit to...it may take while, but I'll finish it).

Speaking of ideas: I keep figuring out things for the second book of The Story Thief, which maybe should have another name. Book One will be The Story Thief. Book Two will be The Resistance or The Story Tellers (or something that isn't lame). Book Three would be ... But it's getting pretty HUGE in scope, and I'm looking forward to working on it...which will probably be this summer...if I'm being realistic.

Teaching has been going OK. I still don't have a key to my office, so I have to stand outside the door and knock till someone lets me in. They just won't give me a key. It's ridiculous. But other than that, I'm enjoying my job. Some days are easier than others, some days are great! Yesterday we were supposed to debate. But debates are stupid, and sometimes, bullies in the class use this as a chance to be assholes and yell (they think they're winning, but they're just acting like Fox News anchors), and other kids shit their pants at the idea. So, instead of doing a typical debate, I tried something progressive (or at least I think it is). We "walked through each team's debate. So, we'd start with the introduction, and move through points one by one, then I'd ask how they would close. Each point, we would rebut, discuss, and occasionally, take a sidebar to discuss what we were doing, and why something wasn't working. I tried to get them to look at the process of argument and rhetoric, to not think in terms of win or lose, but in terms of how it works, how it should go, and how it could go. It's tough. People get heated, and ignorance is a problem, but in the end, even the side who I vehemently opposed (for the Arizona Law) were making logical claims, I suggested they avoid the topic of "human rights/american rights" like they'd avoid an ex in a grocery store. But the other side, I suggested really going straight towards that slant of the issue. Both my classes had successful results, and almost everyone participated, probably better than they could've with a formal debate. What's great is that I tricked them to think that they had to debate, so they were prepared to, and were relieved when we would just walk through it instead. Anyway. Now, I have to read their rough drafts about the same issues. Fingers crossed.

We're getting through THE WIRE season 4. It's good. Enough said.

My reading is lax lately, but I've been reading Carmen Gimenez Smith's Bring Down the Little Birds. Seriously. Read it! I'm writing a review for the Bellingham Review, and really I don't know what to say. The book is about motherhood and family and being an artist. I started reading it in the hospital, and it was just clicking. I put it down for a couple days just to gain some objective distance from it, but I know it'll pull me right back. Her voice and honesty is brutal and warm at the same time. She is open, and she knows that people judge (especially other parents), but it doesn't matter. She's going to write it. Anyway, enough of that. I got a review to write.

OK. I was gonna go longer, but fatherhood calls.

Later.

I'll be blogging again soon.

Joshua