CSUPCBP

Way to go Allison Titus! She didn't win, but the book got picked up. I love, love, love her chapbook. Can't wait for the full-length treatment. My buddy AC had two manuscripts as finalists... damn. Another best bud was a semifinalist. And I was a semifinalist! [Not sure what's up with the formatting on the CSU website, but whatever].

Had an OB appointment today. The cervix has stopped thinning! For the moment anyway, things are okay. The contractions are still there, but they are less intense and less frequent. Thank god. We are far from out of the woods though. Things can turn at any time. So it's more bedrest and wishful thinking. Eight more weeks and M can come off the meds. That's a LONG eight weeks! I have never been so stressed... you can imagine how M's been feeling. The last couple weeks have been really hard.

Okay, back to Vathek. Finished The Castle of Otranto yesterday. What a thrill!

ENG 6100: The Gothic Novel

I'm taking this course this summer. It's a 7-week course. Without even knowing the graded assignments (essays, presentations, etc), I think this course is gonna be tough. Just look at this reading list (and this is for a 7-week summer class I remind you):

Maturin Melmoth the Wanderer
Radcliffe The Veiled Picture
Edgeworth Castle Rackrent
Walpole The Castle of Otranto
Walpole The Mysterious Mother
Lewis The Monk
Beckford Vathek
Dacre Zofloya
Shelley The Last Man
Shelley Zastrozzi & St. Irvyne
Hogg The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Stoker Dracula

There will also be secondary reading (historical, societal, etc) of essays and possibly one or two book-length critical studies.

Wow.

Oh and I missed the first class due to a minor oversight on my part. Here at WMU we have two summer semesters. Summer I ended Wednesday (yes, two days ago), and Summer II began on Thursday (yes, yesterday). I thought for sure that the first day of class was this coming Tuesday, but I was wrong. So not only do I have this pile of books on my desk, but because of my stupidity I have no idea which one to read first. Hopefully the prof (who is a very nice guy) will write me back with the reading assignment for Tuesday. I feel so dumb.

Okay, off to read some Auden (who knew that later in life he become obsessed with sound-play and word-play?!) before bedtime.

CFIDS research needs your help

Let's find a cure. It's not me I'm worried about (I'm doing well, all things considered... though there are still times of struggle); it's the thousands of others who have no quality of life, who are bed-ridden and have no voice: I speak for them. This disease, this syndrome, this monster has robbed thousands of people of their lives. A cure must be found.

my naughty girls (get your mind outta the gutter)

The dog I posted earlier isn't mine. These, however, are my babies. The big one is Rilke (she's an 11 month old Weimaraner) and the little one is Bella (a 2-year old mini-dachshund). They bark a lot. And play. And make me laugh and yell and curse and love.

how i feel today...

tarpon and crevalle jack

Part of the reason I've been away from the blog is that M and I spent a week in Florida at the end of May, quickly followed and/or preceded by 2 weddings and 2 trips back to Illinois for visits/occasions. Phew. A couple pictures of my accomplishments in Florida. The big one is a 127-pound tarpon. He fought for almost two-hours! It was exhausting but extremely exhilirating! Amazing. The second, smaller guy, is a 12-pound crevalle jack I caught on 6-pound test. Was an awesome fight. He jumped like crazy!

update

Been a long time, though I've been reading everyone's blogs regularly. Not sure I can explain my absence... not sure anyone cares to know. ;)

Got a couple new poems picked up by New England Review. This is huge for me. I'm excited. I'm very excite! That movie (Borat, for those of you not in the know) has been playing constantly on HBO lately... and I've been watching far too much television.

My wife, M, has been in pre-term labor the last week or so. It's been a scary experience. She's on mandatory bedrest now at home, but there were a few tense days of hospital visits, overnight stays, medical tests, steady and painful contractions. Being only 26 weeks pregnant, the survival rate for baby McDowell was low. We, or I should say she, made it through the toughest part. Now we wait until our doctor visit later this week to find out whether the cervix has continued to thin or whether things are status quo. We've been terrified; we've been (well, mostly me) cleaning the house, getting baby's room together for fear of early delivery. We're hoping that our fears are proven unneeded.

In other news, the contract for the anthology has been sent back to Rose Metal Press. Dan and I are officially in business. So exciting. The book will be out in the spring of 2010. Next we have to put together an email to all of our contributors requesting things like permissions, bios, etc... and a lot of them haven't heard the good news yet, so we'll be updating them on that, too. Then we need to put the book in a preliminary order and send that to our editors by mid-August. And the introductions, which Dan and I are co-authoring, is due January 15th. Rock on.

I have been reading new books by Kevin Prufer and Julie Carr. Also reading lots of trash: Maxim, Golf Digest, Playboy (some good fiction lately! Seriously!), etc.

Need to get back down to work. A collaborative poem to write/edit, a series to finish up, some edits and submissions to do. Plus work for Third Coast (we open in August!! Send in!! It's all online now!!). Then there's the everyday stuff: teaching, attending class, writing essays for said class, cleaning house in prep for baby (and for visiting friends and family that are coming this month and next), taking care of the dogs (they need lots of exercise and attention), making sure my beautiful, vibrant M is healthy and happy, etc.

I am exhausted and thrilled, tired and happy, depressed and malaised... but onward ho I must go.

More soon...