Chapbook Progress

Had another meeting with my editor last night about my chapbook. (I still get giddy at saying "my editor"...) I would like to say, first and foremost, that I am so glad I am not self-publishing this. It's amazing how much of a growth experience this is – more so than I think it would be if I were doing it alone. It helps immensely to have that second opinion, outsider's perspective.

So anyhow, we're still in the process of sorting my stuff. We've probably given half of them a +/- as to whether they should be considered for the book. Well, more than half of them. But we'll have too many "yes" pieces for a chapbook. So it looks like next meeting we'll finish that process and start going back through to make more specific considerations on pieces as they fit into the collection.

And I am trying to think of titles... I've been stuck on "Lemonade and Rumors" since it snuck up on me this summer. But I don't know if it fits the book or not.

Which raises another interesting topic (well, sorta interesting): the theme of the book. It's mostly on the aspects of my "woman-ness," and if that sounds weird to you, you're not alone. It sounds ... I don't know. Just so feminist. Which is not something I've readily identified with, at least not consciously. Anyhow, the broken down themes include: Woman as Writer, Woman as Individual, Woman/Woman Relationships, Woman/Man Relationships, Growing Up, Motherhood, Aging, Death, and Faith. Not all of the themes will necessarily appear in print, but that's the break-up of the work now, with the bulk in the Woman/Man category. Just need to cull out my recurring lines and phrases and not overdo specific themes.

Anyhow, that's the news. Timeline talk is still about the same, though maybe only printing in March, releasing in April. It will be released in April (National Poetry Month!)

Oh, and I'll take advanced orders at a discounted price as things get more squared away... :)