Once upon a time I was a real writer. I put things on paper and went back later and looked at it and made changes and was happy when it was good.

I'm not a real writer anymore. I'm something else. I don't know what to call that something else.

Ok. I lied. I didn't EVER think I was a REAL writer.

One day in the near future I will put words on paper, go back and read them, change them, pretty them and make them into a real live manuscript and send it to lots of people who may or may not like it. But one of those people is going to find a reason to put it in bookstores and then I will be neurotic and happy simultaneously. I imagine that then I will be a REAL writer but i'm not entirely sure.



In case you were wondering, parenting is HARD.


It keeps dawning on me that I'm never going to get IT all done. not ever.
What I need to figure out is how to be ok with that and WHAT to do when I can do SOMETHING.

I have an aching desire, a twisted, pathological need to be cool. I can't define what cool is.

I'm a pacifist who likes to shoot BIG guns.

I like nature and all that goes with trying to keep some around but I like me some big FAST engines too. Loud ones draped in shiny chrome.

I can't decide if bitching is healthy or just annoying.

I want a media agreement that there must be equal time for good news.


Its emotionally frustrating to have brainstorms and rarely have them come to fruition.

I've recently become a different person financially but I don't feel like a different person.

My kids make me smile.

eating seasonally

dumb title but kinda what I'm about lately.

REALLY concerned about the crap going into our bodies becasue all the food we eat for convenience is just one food-corn.

I've recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma and it was sobering. I intuited a lot of what he was pointing out but here was some validation.

SO I'm working towards eating real food. This means, mostly, cooking from scratch. Tough with a toddler but making the effort anyway.

Today i ate frozen waffles (mostly a no no but its good ingredients ) with farmers market white nectarines. oh man was it good. the nectarines were soo juicy they were the topping
and the syrup.
Meant to take pic but batteries in camera dead.

its nice to be dreaming again

Gosh I just can't get into the blogging habit. It seems like such a theoretically easy thing to do.
I enjoy reading other blogs and I'm inspired by them and I see how absolutely useful they can be. And yet here this poor blog sits abandoned.

There is a learning curve disadvantage. Things I'd like to do here but don't know how and a there are small people in my life who don't like when I sit at the computer.

But the smallest person is getting bigger and

woo hoo The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Hi!
I'm really excited that this book is about to hit the shelves any second now! Joshilyn Jackson has become one of my really favorite writers...I discovered her blog, Faster Than Kudzu http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/
and I have never laughed out loud so much at a blog. SOooooo when I realized she had published real live books I found them and read them voraciously, oh so fast I reached the end and now I have another one to devour yay!

So please do yourself a favor and pick up this new work and prepare to get sucked in.

Here's a little blurb to whet your whistle:

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother make sure the very literal family skeleton stays buried or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel's life seems neat and on track--a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna--everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 14-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne.

The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is inexplicable--an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia's help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

I lost some days somewhere

I am glad to report that I am mostly in the habit of walking now. This weekend was a bit of a bust. I only got a mile-ish walk at 5 year old pace, with a stop at the park, but we needed the sunshine that had poured forth briefly after days of grimness.

Then friday at mall was a goofy walk because Uly was impish and fussy and didn't sleep the whole time but then I probably made up for what I lost by shlepping him all over the mall and then to trader Joe's and then back to the car with a full bag of groceries and then I did something else physical but damned if I know what it was.

I think thursday may have been a day where I walked without Uly but lost track of how many laps I walked. OR Soph had a snow day and I didn't walk at all.
I think that I walked monday and tues.

I find that I am less frustrated in the course of the day if I get out and about. I also remember that I like physical activity and have begun daydreaming about what else I can do.
I really want to add some yoga and strength training because everything but my belly is shrinking. I probably also need to start trimming my food intake since Uly will be weaning soonish. I read the other day you only need 500 more calories a day for breastfeeding. That may be scientifically true but if I don't eat like a horse when I nurse I would probably get to a point where I would start just randomly eating people who crossed my path.

Got major brainstorm fever lately. I hope I can carry them to fruition. I need to do significantly more research and buckle down and get soem words on paper and get some more human beings on board. But I do feel like they are feasible.

I Did Walk The Neighborhood

and surprisingly made better time than i did ever! Like a twenty five minute mile. yeah. groovy.

So that was saturday. It was cold and grey-ish but i went anyway while Carm had Uly. So glad I did it.

Sunday I got a kind of power walk at walk looking for tennis shoes to buy for myself. About 20 minutes or so. some consistency.

Then monday got to mall and got probably 5 or 6 circuits in. At least a 1/2 hour of quick walk. And tuesday too!

SO much better when Uly is in stroller.

Today got nuthin..visit Soph at school day which I missed because Uly was fussy :(

Tomorrow will be back.

Feeling definite attitude improvement and better energy. MUST keep it up.

Why don't human beings hibernate the winter?

still trying

Thursday I made it to the mall and walked for a half hour with Uly in the front carrier. A challenge. I felt like i couldn't get as fast a pace as i wanted. I didn't have much energy but I did it anyway because i need to make it a habit.

nuthin friday not even running up and down the steps 10 times in a row like i planned.

So last week I didn't get back to the mall but we built a snowperson on the one day of snow we had.

The next day we walked to the park but r e a ll y slowly.

About to try to walk the neighborhood.

boring but important to me

I'm going to post my walking consistently efforts here so I feel like there is some accountability.
I won't beat myself up because its not me alone all day trying to walk but me and Uly who is not a quiet kid and Sophie.

Anyway-yesterday I bundled him up and got to the park and back...maybe a dozen blocks, a solid 10 minutes.

This morning I attempted the mall early after dropping Soph. Uly hates the stroller so it didn't really work. I got one complete circuit of the top floor and then he cried. Echoing crying baby ....
nursed and let him walk, tried again. No dice. So tomorrow will try with the carrier instead.

Need some new tennis shoes too.

some pics

I just can't seem to stick to this blog. I won' t give it up entirely. But geez SOME consistency would be nice.

Anyway here are some photos from fall.

I'll come back again soon. REALLY.

Its the little man Uly-he's a pimp.
My mom as a Warrior Princess and Soph as Sally.
A 2005 one of Me as Stimpy and a smaller Soph as fairy.

a true fall gloomy day

and I didn't lose my mind! I have had such a struggle with seasonal affective disorder that I dread days like today. However, I took it in stride and it was ok. Let's face it though, its the MULTIPLE days in a row of weather like today thats gets me down.

Knowledge is half the battle and that is why I'm on a mission to discover fun things to do when its cold outside, with children. Playing outside is always a great option except my hands and feet got cold and they won't warm up again until approximately June.

I had a little victory today. Instead of stuffing myself with instant food, like twenty bowls of cereal in a day, when I got hungry today I grabbed some chicken breasts and baked them in mayo, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Pretty easy and tasty. Of course Sophie was attending Uly for the process. It would have been another bowl of cereal if she hadn't been here.

And I just baked a whole chicken with onions and garlic for dinner and then to pick on. We are talking of getting a turkey for picking on as well as a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Today I received my copy of the 2nd anthology I have a poem published in-Manorborn. I am in the company of some good poets. I feel good about that. I'll try to find a link for it or at least a shot of the cover.
The other anthology I have two poems in is called Attic.

Tomorrow I am reading at a fundraiser for African wells. I don't have any new poems so it will be dull for the people who were there last time. Maybe I should dig through some of my old old work and see if I could tinker something into a quality piece.

I want to figure out how to list the books I'm reading. There is a gadget that does that on here I think. Partly I would like to share it with others and partly as a record for myself. Someone I used to know has kept a list of all the books and movies he consumed. What a great record to have. Other people have great collections of their concert experiences. I do not. Which is a shame because I have a terrible chronologic memory and that might be a tool to help me overcome it.

I think tomorrow I'm going to treat myself to a trip to BookThing. Free books! Its like Christmas.

hi

It amazes me how quickly time passes between posts. I always wait until I have quiet time to write and then nothing gets written.

Maybe I'll try to write when I have time, although not necessarily quiet, and see what gets written. I really enjoy reading other peoples blogs, even when they are on the surface about mundane stuff. I think it helps to see that other people have a daily grind but still mange to accomplish their goals. I tend to gravitate towards blogs that highlight a creative aspect of a life. Many of the blogs are by parents,mostly but not entirely, mothers who are crafters or artists or writers or designers. Its great to sit and see the different worlds you get to glimpse.

I would like to spend more time talking to or even possibly interviewing parents about how they juggle their lives and still have creative output. Particularly parents who lean towards the attachment parenting spectrum of child rearing. I fall somewhere in the middle road.
Mostly I am not a schedule follower.

I have found I somewhat envy the parents that talk of the success of their home schooling efforts. I also envy the parents that seem to effortlessly manifest wholesome time with their children. I always feel too stressed and distracted lately to do simple things and give my daughter my complete attention. Obviously some of that struggle is that I have a demanding 7 month old son and I nurse. I don't feel I always fail to give her my attention, its just more fractured lately.

I also am trying to anticipate the winter indoor doldrums by researching now, things to do around town. I don't want to spend oodles of money and somehow it needs to mesh with both age groups. Its really tricky to find other children to interact with after half day kindergarten. Most children are all day students. So we need to find ways to interact with other kids to break the winter monotony of one anothers' company as well.
All this needs to happen without bringing home every available winter germ too.

It is completely in my best interest to write here on a regular basis. It will accomplish multiple things simultaneously. I need to give myself the permission to let it be imperfect writing. I need to value it as the treasure it is to me. Writing is an integral part of the person I am and not writing makes me feel diminished.

While I struggle with the multiple plates spinning in midair that is life with children and a spouse, I need to remind myself that this, that regular writing is my refuge. I don't want to fall prey to that thing, that thing that seems to steamroll mothers the most, where sacrifices are made without consciously deciding to make the sacrifice. I think firstly it oppresses creative people, and then it preys on mothers, no probably parents.

I've also been shuffling ideas in my head about domesticity, feminism, modern rootlessness, the breakdown of the nuclear family and community, a book I bought recently touched on this very subject. A book I've somehow how already misplaced that has to do with "the hearth". This leads in to the other struggle I've had which is how to create some order from the chaos.

I feel like I waste so much time and energy being disorganized and disheveled. But it feels so pointless lately trying to make headway because I have so little free time to approach the tasks that need to be done and so few of them are small, "instant" tasks. I'm not giving up. But what a frustrating process. Which frustrates my yearning for creative output because there is always competition for the time.

I've also begun laying the foundation for a couple large projects knowing they can be successful but not knowing quite how they are going to get created in this crazy day to day life I have currently.

And don't forget, patience is not my first virtue.

I also want to dedicate time to the effort to impeach Cheney. I am constantly being told its a waste of time and won't amount to anything. But I feel like impeaching Cheney would be the best way to convey to the globe that Americans as a whole do not condone his activities nor the activities of the mega corporations he represents. I know I am an idealist but so much is at stake. I genuinely worry about the world my kids are inheriting. I feel a responsiblity to voice my concerns at the very least and be active in some way to create the kind of world I want them to have.

my newest project,please participate

Peace and Poems

I invite everyone to send a poem to each of their political representatives as a direct plea for peace.
If you do, I will publish the poem.

You can find contact information for your representatives at www.usa.gov
Please use the LOCAL OFFICE mailing address.

All I ask is that you send the poem with a Signature Confirmation Request from the US Postal Service. This ensures the poem is received by the designated representative. Then send me a copy of the poem and record of the Signature Confirmation.-You can send the paper receipt or the online version-the Signature Confirmations Request tracking number. There is a small charge for the Signature Confirmation but I think its worthwhile to use the service.

You can find information about Signature Confirmation at ww.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/signatureconfirmationservice.htm

IF you feel uncomfortable mailing your own work or know non-poets who would like to participate, simply find a poem that speaks to you and give credit to the poet who wrote it. Please make copies of any poems you send. I cannot be responsible for original versions and their return.

IF you mail different poems to each of your representatives, I will select one poem to publish.

It would be great if you could include a note that specifies the poem is sent because you are participating in "Peace and Poems". "Peace and Poems" is a plea to U.S political leaders to immediately work towards peace and NOT make decisions based on greed. This is a plea to bring US soldiers home from combat and it is a plea for legislations that embody peace-justice and sustenance for living things.

You can email your submission and confirmation to peace©poetryinbaltimore.com or mail your submission and confirmation to

Peace and Poems
8130 Clyde Bank Road
Baltimore, Maryland 21234

If you have any questions please email peace©poetryinbaltimore.com or
visit the blog www.peaceandpoems.blogspot.com

Please circulate this widely and encourage everyone you know to participate.

Thank You!
Julie Fisher

Is summer really over?

I'm in so much denial even though school has started.

Maybe, just maybe I can get some projects underway, since the sun goes down earlier and I don't feel like I

need to get every last drop of the day.

On the other hand, the kids are more attention needy when they don't play outside as much.

I had an idea for a book triggered at my site http://www.poetryinbaltimore.com/ but I don't know yet if anything will actually evolve.

I have poetry submissions accepted in TWO anthologies that are coming out at the Baltimore Book Festival.(http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/) I hope to read my poems at the festival, we'll see if it pans out.

I need to find other parents who have creative goals as well as kids at home and see how we can encourage one another. Brainstorming on ways to do that.

I've been coming across a lot of inspiring links lately. I hope to get them listed here in some fashion before they are outdated. But please don't hold your breath for them, I can't promise it will be soon.

Wish I was more techno savvy with this blog, say instantaneously, so I could incorporate all the things I would like. Patience I keep telling myself, and then I get distracted.

ok typing one handed or I can't type at all.

Adjusting to having Uly and squirming into a routine or a groove of some kind. I'm glad its summer and there are no absolute demands on my time except occupying Sophie and maybe keeping my little poetry beast tame...

I've been working hard to just be in the moment and not get crazy with demands on myself like"is Sophie having an exciting enough summer, and when will I ever have a clean house and why isn't all my poetry stuff organized yet and shouldn't I have gotten into a 1000 words a day habit by now, and why is this blog always so damned neglected..... and on and on and on.

For some reason an interview I read with Erma Bombeck has always stuck with me. I'm pretty sure she was fighting cancer at the time of the interview and when she was asked if she had any regrets she immediately answered that she wished she had not worried about the laundry and spent more time with her kids that grew astonishingly fast.

I always looked to her as a kind of writerly role model so those words hit a mark. So when I start getting crazy for no real reason other than my to do list, I remind myself of that quote and it helps me.

I do feel like summer is zipping by. I always swear i'll spend the summer daytripping and doing fun little projects and it usually becomes jaunts to the park and an occasional jaunt to a friends' pool club. We did still plant some veggies and Soph gets really excited when something is ready to pick.

breaking the ice

Its awful when you've been away for so long. Its difficult to get your writing groove back on. But ready or not, here I am again.

I do have a good reason for my absence- Ulysses Frank...my new little munchkin. He came into the world with a bit of drama. They took him at 32 weeks because I developed preeclampsia and HELLP so my liver was going nutty and the only way to fix it was to take him out of my body. Weird hunh? So April 6th he came into the world at 3 lbs 6 oz.

As of today he is 8 lbs 2 oz , and all is good.

There are so many great blogs I read that I find so inspiring and motivating and here sits my little neglected one. SO this is not the most succinct or fabulous posting but its the foot in the door post.

Hell yeah for spring!

Well so much for the once a week discipline I said I was going to have. This beast of a pregnancy is just throwing my plans to the wind. Its very frustrating but I try to console myself with the fact I can get off the sofa and get out a bit. I'm not on bed rest and I could be.

Its also a challenge to my nature to pace myself. I only get two good hours of energy a day and that doesn't get much done. I have trouble entertaining myself in down hours because I still have an energetic 41/2 year old to entertain as well. She's been remarkably understanding of my lack of energy but it has made us gripey at each other.

SPRING! will just about alleviate that bickering because she can play outside and get some ya-yas out over the course of the day. She's been picking inside stuff to do like coloring and cutting paper and various paper experiments but these activities don't burn the fuel like running around outside.

AND by spring this growing person will be a real person that I can hold in my arms and care for and not a something sucking the juice outta me.

I've been trying to guess what life is going to be like once Lump is in the picture. But its nearly impossible to even guess. I have no idea what kind oftemperament it will have, colic-y or no, sleeper or no. Just don't have a clue. It would be convenient if it were an infant like my son was...he slept and ate until he started to toddle. It was great.

Life carried on relatively easily. Sophie on the other hand consumed every waking moment (did I sleep at all?) for the first four months of her life with crying. So I've experienced the two extremes...maybe Lump could be in the middle? That would be fine.

But despite my pregnancy complaints I'm still mostly on track with poetry happenings.. Just recently have confirmed an event with Center Stage which is pretty exciting. Details still coming. The PIB site has finally had its updates and I can start undertaking some of the ideas I've been waiting to implement. So thats all good.

I just totally look forward to the return of sunshine and warm weather. Especially on a day like this as sleet falls, and its so cloudy it may as well be night.

My house is warm, I've got plenty of food and everyone I love is healthy-so life is good.

trying to stay in the saddle

I'm just typing stream of consciousness today. Trying to get into daily discipline of words written.

I'm reading Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Fifth Book of Peace". It is not written in a traditional format. It mixes memoir and fiction. It seeks to understand war and create peace. It makes me think.

I've been kinda slack with my Artist's Way work this week. I seem to go in cycles, good week, lazy week sort of thing. There have been winter weather school closings too, which make lethargy easy. Besides lethargy is good for growing a person. I mean how much physical and/or mental activity can you expend and still be knitting a little human being?

I am trying to schedule the majority of the poetry readings for 2007 now, so I don't have to worry about it so much in the spring. I'll just have to remember to do press. Shortly, I'll have to devise the schedule for the 2007 anthology and when to make a call for submissions. I also need to finish recruiting my editorial committee.

FINALLY, I'm getting the work done on the PIB website that I've been working towards. I can stop feeling thwarted and start moving forward with additions to the site. Things I've envisioned all along but just haven't gotten to materialize.

I'm getting distracted with my mental to do list. I'm going to go accomplish a few practical tasks. But at least I've posted something for this week.

ch ch ch changes

I'm baaack.
I hadn't intended to be away for so long. It just happened. I'd sign on and not think of anything good to say. But I've decided to blog at least once a week because I need the discipline.

So yeah, changes is my title. Thats because there is one gigantic change growing right now. I am unexpectedly pregnant. Yup. Universe likes to throw curve balls doesn't it. So we'll have a third little person in our midst sometime at the end of May. ANOTHER Gemini in my life. Its all good. While definitely a shock we are welcoming this person with open arms.

Don't expect a really concise post here today. I'm just putting words one after the other to get myself back in the groove.

I'm realizing a blog, or possibly future multiple blogs, can be really useful. My daydreams and goals are slo o o w l y refining themselves and I've been taking little steps towards them.

Poetry stuff has been going well. The reading series are consistent and satisfying. Check www.poetryinbaltimore.com for the current calendar. Also use it to buy a copy of "Octopus Dreams-Anthology One", before they're all gone.

Still plugging away at the purge and organization of the house. There is SO much to do but we have been making incremental progress. Things are starting to find places to live, systems are coming together. I'm bringing Sophie kicking and screaming into the clean up after yourself process. I'm trying to embrace the concept before anything comes into the house there needs to be place for it. I'm meditating on the concept of simplicity. I'm such a collector that I don't know if I'll ever be able to embrace it but I can strive towards it. Especially from a sustainable living point of view.

I've undertaken "Artist's Way" again. Its been a punchy, sporadic undertaking but I feel it works for me. I have dragged a languishing, unfinished novel from its folder and have been tinkering with it. So that is welcome.

So, here's to weekly posts and embracing change.

the new year?

I am simply in denial that school starts next week. I'm not ready. There's part of me that looks forward to the dreary days and cold weather because then I don't feel the pressure to be outside enjoying the great weather and beautiful, fantastic long sun filled days. Although I love the new beginning feeling of fall that is entrenched in my being from so many years of public school, I still don't look forward to shorter days. I miss the sense of endless days and warm nights almost immediately.

There is always this resolution in me that we're not going to sit home in summer. That we'll take all the put off day trips and we'll go to museums and traipse thru state parks and we'll finally find a place to go horse back riding.

But then the end of August sneaks up on me and we've mostly hung around our neighborhood and its too late for all the day trips.

This year we went to England! I truly accomplished one resolution and got off the North American continent for the first time. I have a better sense of what foreign travel entails and I know I want to do it again.

I also had a daydream that I was going to lounge at my friends' pool club and write a few chapters of my novel. didn't even pick up a pencil, nor did we spend that much time at their pool.

I DID get a poetry anthology organized and to the printer this summer. It's not a novel but it is something I feel good about accomplishing. It will be really satisfying if people buy and enjoy the book. Because that is why you produce a book, to share it. To have other people share the delightful tactile sensations of turning the pages.

I had lists and lists of what I wantedf to accomplish around the house. The major organizing campaign I keep threatening to wage was usurped. We thankfully got Carnm's folks to sell their house and move into a nearby condo. It was HUGE job getting them motivated and packed but it is such a joy not to drive that endless drive to Shrewsbury. We also accumulated a bunch of their stuff. SOooooo my organizing campaign got kicked high on the priority list.

I have been making some strides in day to day maintenance. I hate doing it but I like a relatively not-filthy house.

I'm also tickled with the occasional glimpses into my novel. Its just a framework right now but the characters are begining to grow flesh and plump blood thru their veins. I like that. When the weather is dark and dreary and its nighttime right away, I plan to curl up in that world and describe it to you.

I want to put more effort into the cyber worlds too. I am going to learn more about the mechanics of blogs and try to get a better habit formed. I want to interact with other bloggers more.

I defiitely want to extend the reach of www.poetryinbaltimore.com but its not going to be easy until I get a webmaster. A little more time needs to be spent resolving that issue. I have a lot of event planning and shmoozing and PR to do for Octopus Dreams as well. I want it to be a good thing.

I want to design a better garden and more attractive landscaping in front of my house. I want to spend more time in creative projects like embroidery and beading and painting and making art dolls. I want Sophie to spend more time making fun stuff too.

There are so many layers to living and I want to try to live those layers consciously. By making specific choices that enrich me and my family and friends. I don't want to pursue empty tasks that don't feed my soul. I want to be one of those people who seem so cool that you just want to get to know them. I want to share more. I want to yell less. I want the arc of my life to travel meshed within my creative work and caring for the people I love. I don't know what else makes life worthwhile.

octopusdreamsweb

octopusdreamsweb
Originally uploaded by sp8cemunky.

It's coming! Octopus Dreams-Poetry In Baltimore Anthology. Only 250 copies. Would you like to pre- purchase? Visit www.poetryinbaltimore.com or email me: julie@poetryinbaltimore.com

Hey Everybody!

I’ve been busy the last few weeks and now we have “Octopus Dreams- Poetry In Baltimore Anthology One” to show for it! I am so excited to bring this volume to you. It will be ready in late September. ONLY 250 copies printed so if you want to pre-purchase you can do so at www.poetryinbaltimore.com or email me: julie@poetryinbaltimore.com

I have a fantastic editing committee: Dan Cuddy, Leslie F. Miller, Men Maa Aim Ra, Tanefa Wallace and Eric Whitehair. I simply could not have done it without them.
I also want to thank Alan C. Reese at Abcedarian Books for taking this project on at the last second and holding my hand through all of the steps. Justin Sirois for the awesome cover design and artwork. The many artists who submitted work and of course all the poets. Who knew that putting a book together was so much hard work?

I had been daydreaming about this project for months and months. I’d talk about it, whine about it, get all wistful about it and finally with a LOT of support, I shut up and did something. Without Carm Matricciani, Meilena Hauslendale for getting me off my duff and making the Poetry In Baltimore website a reality, Charly Postma, Sophia Matricciani, Eric Ankers, Chip Irvine, Big Carm & Dorothy, Corinne Parks, Niki Matricciani, Gilbert Fisher, Virginia Fisher, Rita Stein, Karla Mancero, Brian Langston, Joe Crespo, Tom Swiss, Steve Yorkman, Mic Life, Bleek, and Daniel Stuelpnagel this project would just not have happened.

Minas and Peggy held the first poetry reading I ever attended at the old store in Fells Point and happily offered the Hampden store for hosting one of my first ever poetry readings. Minas has offered many insights and Peggy ALWAYS gets the press out.
All of the poets and audience members who have come to Enigmatoloy (no longer running) or 52 Fridays or 2nd Sundays or any of the many special events….These poets have made lasting impressions on me, they have been some of the first poets I saw doing what they do best and encouraged me to keep on …David Franks, Olu Butterfly, Ad Lib, 5th L, Linda Joy Burke, Barbara DeCesare, Alice Hellawell, JaHipster, Moira Egan, Gary Blankenburg, Rupert Wondolowski, Mark “Wireman” Coburn, Dan Cuddy, Leslie F. Miller….. I know I’m forgetting someone.

We’re planning some release events and hope to have “Octopus Dreams” available at the Book Festival. Remember-only 250 copies are being printed.