Long time coming

I don't need a calendar to remind me how busy September is. I could easily climb to the top of the paper pile and rappel straight down to the wooden surface of my desk.

This is an event-heavy month. I have a health event with author Donna Hicken Saturday, September 24, and then will introduce Patricia Gray, author of RUPTURE and director of Poetry at Noon at the Library of Congress next Thursday, September 29. Ms. Gray is our special guest for the Community Poetry Series I facilitate six or seven times a year for Mandarin's Barnes and Noble location.

I'm juggling several different assignments for newspapers and magazines, one on an organization that repairs homes for needy and disabled people; another a review of the movie Bears; yet another that will feature Billy Collins once he and I make contact. Still working on other projects--poetry and my novel. Got accepted as a professional member of the Online News Association. Will soon add a new site to my assembly, creativewriter.us. I'm putting it together as a resource and news site for writers; it'll be useful especially to those who come to the workshops and presentations I do here and there.

And of course still advocating for Taylor Wells, whose hearing has been advanced to November. Beth Ciofoletti has the scoop on that at her blog( http://justicefortaylor.blogspot.com/) I'm working on an essay that I'll post in a few days.

Books of note include KRAKATOA by Simon Winchester and ZEN FISHING by Dorothy Fletcher. Both are exceptional reads--Winchester's book explores not only the volcano eruption but also scientific minds like Charles Darwin and others whose work influenced both Darwin's and scientists of today. Dorothy's book is a combination of essays and poetry; she's an excellent wordsmith. I'm reviewing that book for the Pen Women magazine.

I'll try to get back in the swing of regular posting. I've been trying to deal with a back injury that occurred some months ago, courtesy of the beagle hound trying to play with our cat who leapt onto my leg then dug his claws in. I basically fell backwards. But I was in a squatting position, trying to empty the filter basket on the pool. Good thing is I have plenty of padding on the backside to cushion the fall. Bad thing is a disk is aggravated and the heavy summer travel didn't help.

So there you go. An update. Finally.

Best to all,
Kay Day