Och, what a whirlwind!

I had a couple of days off from work last week, and now I need a vacation from my vacation! Last Thursday, I saw the Minions movie at a sneak-peek at the Alamo Drafthouse in New Braunfels. It was awesome. It's set mostly in the '60s, in swingin' London, with Jennifer Saunders voicing Queen Elizabeth, and of course Jon Hamm and Sandra Bullock as the main villains. If you're a fan of the mellow yellow fellows, you will love it. My new favorite word in Minionese is the word for electric guitar: megaukulele!

Your humble blogger, standing on one leg
with a sword on her head

Next was the Sultan's Feast, our big annual belly dance show here in San Marcos. Every Sultan's Feast is fantastic, but this one knocked it out of the park (with a hip bump). I consider it a real honor to be able to share the stage with so many amazing ladies.

Then was a dance workshop at Austin Belly Dance led by Roxxanne Shelaby, daughter of the original owner of The Fez Supperclub in Los Angeles, which was pretty much the cradle of American Cabaret style belly dance. Roxxanne held a Kickstarter campaign and has produced a documentary about The Fez. The workshop -- though I had to sit down about halfway through because I danced until the arches in my feet fell -- was hugely interesting and informative. It was a great experience.

And last night I performed a few poems at the weekly open mic at my beloved Triple Crown. I did one political-ish piece and two saucy pieces, including a poem about a "blue-eyed boy in a '67 Stang" and the raunchy piece popularly known as "the Excalibur poem." Favorite response from a stranger: "I have my '67 parked out back, and I left my blue contacts at home." Least favorite response from a stranger: "Make me a sandwich." Really, dude? (I responded with a "HEY! NO!")

Anyway, this week I am back to working on the novel, so most of my "spare time" is going to be devoted to that. I'll still make a few blog posts -- I intend to post a couple of excerpts from the current draft and then some lists that will probably be of interest to a few of you -- but mostly I'll be spending the next couple of weeks arguing with myself about a world that exists inside my own head.

Gettin' busy

My last post was bleak, but necessary. This one is happier.

I took a break from working on the novella this week so I could concentrate more on belly dancing because the big Sultan's Feast show is coming up Friday and for the first time, I am dancing in 3 different numbers. Eek! The costume changes alone are going to be feats of agility and speed. The show is two hours of lovely and talented dancers, with a meal catered by Euro Cafe. If you're in the area, check it out!

Saturday afternoon, I'm going to a belly dance workshop in Austin, and then Sunday, to get back into a writerly frame of mind, I will be performing some poetry at the open mic at Triple Crown. There are always some wonderful singer-songwriter types at the open mic, but there is poetry and comedy too. Signup starts at 7, and the show starts sometime after that. If you're looking for a mellow way to round out your weekend, come see me share words.

And speaking of sharing words, I will be doing some freelance work for SMTX/Bobcat Fans magazine here in town. It'll be great to spend a little time interviewing people, thinking up story ideas and writing about the town I love so much. I'm very excited about it!

It's National Poetry Month!

There are lots of things going on this month to celebrate poetry. Whether you're a reader or writer of poetry, there's something for everyone. This list is far from comprehensive, but it's a sampling of National Poetry Month stuff you can enjoy while basking in the glow of your computer screen:

• Knopf Poem-A-Day delivers a poem to your email inbox every day in April.
• LunaLuna is featuring one modern poet each day this month.
• Robert Brewer at Writers Digest is, as every year, offering daily poetry prompts for the Poem-A-Day Challenge.
• Huffington Post has a collection of articles about poetry, including my friend Jonathan Hobratsch's interview with T.R. Hummer.
• Julia Glum at the International Business Times has a great list of ideas for taking some time to appreciate the poetry around us and discover more.

You can find out more about National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets.

Poetry bits

For me, the autumn so far has been the Season of Dancing, with Cabaret Dance Camp in mid-October and then a weekend-long workshop with Hossam and Serena Ramzy at Zein's Dance Studio in Austin, and now I have at least one performance coming up before the end of the year. Woo! But as autumn fades into what is currently a hard-freezing taste of winter, so my heart turns to words again. I'm going to the Triple Crown Open Mic this Sunday, the 16th, to read some of my bawdy poems that I don't usually perform -- pitch some woo at the crowd there & see what sticks. Plus, poetry and music used to be very closely related, so spouting out some words on stage at the live music hot spot just seems logical. If you're in town and want to come see, things get started at 7 p.m.

Also, I've just sent some pieces to The Literati Quarterly, the fantastically designed San Marcos-based arts journal. It is really well-designed and they have printed some quality work, so I'm hoping that at least one thing I've sent them is pleasing to the eye and ear. If you've got something you'd like to submit -- poetry, speculative fiction, animation, video, artwork, music, critiques, etc. -- the deadline for the next issue is Dec. 1. Check out their submissions page to find out more about what they're looking for and where to send it.

If you've never read or heard any of my poetry, here is a piece that's usually a crowd favorite, commonly known as "The Fat Businessman" although that's not its actual title, published at Asinine Poetry. They also included it in their podcast that month (scroll down to #86), with some hilarious sound effects.

A quick note - poetry open mic tonight!

I am dragging my tired old ass back onto the stage at San Marcos Poetry Night at Wake the Dead. The shindig starts at 7:30. Come enjoy the talents of local poets! I've really only got one poem I'm planning on doing, but that could change depending on where the night takes me.