Poetry & Death & Strawberry Shortcake

A new issue of online poetry mag. Arsenic Lobster is now up and includes two FALL (post-stroke) poems by me, plus many more. Read some for yourself; partake of editor Susan Yount's yummy notes and then click below:

"SUMMER/Fall ARSENIC LOBSTER an epicurean free-for-all!"

“May gorgeous crustaceans fall from the sky and onto your laps!”

& Susan Yount's little description of my poems -

"Garnish with the eerie, arsenic herbs of Juliet Cook’s Fall (I) and Fall (II) and you will find a tiny dried apple for a ghost horse. Add a glass of rosewater to satiate all your senses."

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/1content.html

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Then if interested in reading a short non-poetry piece of writing by me, about kids and death and strawberry shortcake, feel free to partake of my latest Associated Content piece here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5725268/death_trumps_ruined_jogging_suit.html?cat=70

My Creative Writerly Phone Sex Operator Interview

"Poetry is my passion and has been for a very Iong time. My college degree is in creative writing, was especially attuned to poetry, and I had a fun and enjoyable college experience. After that, I was already feeling resigned to the fact that I was going to have to secure a relatively meaningless and dinky doo day job in order to pay my bills. I seemed to have some sordid glamour in the notion of sleazy or seedy or alternative day jobs. Day jobs of which one's mother might disapprove. My friends and I would sit around and chat about questionable job options that might earn us some strange type of oddball street creds and would not require us to remove our body piercings or normalize our vibrant hair colors or otherwise compromise our sense of self. One girl was fond of talking about how if only she had bigger boobs, she'd shake 'em in a strip club (as if large breasts are a requirement in such an arena)--and one boy would wax poetic about the various delightful implements he'd have the chance to pilfer if he was employed in a hospital environment (to this day, I believe he has collections of catheters and speculums, plus he is now a nurse). As for me, the obvious choice seemed to be phone sex."


That's just a little tidbit. Read my whole article by clicking below.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5721912/a_creative_writers_phone_sex_operator.html?cat=31

Friday the 13th/Thirteen Myna Birds (+ another twist)

Friday the 13th/Thirteen Myna Birds update, writhing with lusty little suckers all over me!

For Friday the 13th, Thirteen Myna Birds has taken a lusty fling featuring a hideously yummy treat of darkly delicious and strangely scary female-centrism starring Mary Biddinger, Kathy Burkett, C. Delia Mulrooney, & Debrenee Adkisson.

Enjoy this euphoric plethora of womanly horror including slithering charm bracelets, an avalanche of nonpareils, a rainbow of glistening organ exposed, egg goo, a thirsty bloom, a gummy baby brain, always bleeding…

http://13myna.blogspot.com/

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In addition to Thirteen Myna Birds online, I am also in charge of Blood Pudding Press, which creates occassional hand-designed print chapbooks. Today one of those chapbooks is part of a Twist of Lime on etsy . See below.

Ectoplasmic Necropolis now exists in a Twist of Lime - http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c66a341ad7a8eefa6257645/with-a-twist-of-lime

(Ectoplasmic Necropolis is a 30 page Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook starring the work of the following oozing literati: Shane Allison--Aimee DeLong--Brooklyn Copeland--Nava Fader--Adam Fieled--Jeff Roberts--Susan Slaviero--murmurists--Ken Pobo--Suzanne Grazyna--Juliet Cook--Rebecca Loudon--Andrew Lundwall--Daniela Olszewska--Candace Turlington--Misti Rainwater-Lites--Rachel Kendall--J.R. Pearson--Sharon Zetter--Brian Foley--Eddie Watkins--Jayne Pupek--Nicole Cartwright Denison--Melissa Severin--Donora Hillard--Sean Kilpatrick--AnnMarie Eldon--John Moore Williams--Rachel Lisi--John Rocco.)

Yum.

Midwestern Gothic Poetry Reading (& More)

A recently received video of me reading 'Midwestern Gothic', the first poem from my chapbook 'Fondant Pig Angst' published by Slash Pine Press PLUS this reading was part of a big Slash Pine Press extravaganza this past April.

Thank you for the video Aunt Di & Sandy and thanks to yummy Slash Pine Press.

Also, if interested, partake of my other little Midwestern Gothic related note in the blog entry below. Slurp!

Also, you can partake of the other three poems I read during this event if you continue to click on the small poetry reading photos after the first listen. Those other pieces are 2. "Slumber Party Scandal -Operative Word" from my chapbook 'PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR' published by Spooky Girlfriend Press - 3. "Purple Speculum" also from PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR - 4. "Giant Squid" from my chapbook "Soft Foam" published by Blood Puddig Press for the latest Dusie Kollektiv.

Untitled from Camerahead Sandy on Vimeo.

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Other notes and poetry tidbits:

The above was my first post-stroke poetry reading.

Speaking of post-stroke, ALL of my post-stroke poems have now been accepted for publication, as well as all but one more of my Designer Vagina pieces. Hurrah! Poetry bits of mine are coming soon in 'Arsenic Lobster', 'Barn Owl Review', 'Beggars & Cheeseburgers', 'Caketrain', 'Compost', 'Horse Less Review', & 'Source Material'. Yay! Now I need to work on writing more, more, more!

Speaking of more yummy poetry, stay tuned for the next delish issue of Thirteen Myna Birds coming soon! Slurp.

More Grotesque Poltergeistism

I grew up in a midwestern area with lots of farms, farm equipment, and cornfields. I love various aspects of the gothic, the grotesque, strangely scary Ouija Board snippets, poltergeistism as unusual female powers and other creepy yumminess. Some thinks that are yummy to me might be grotesque to others. Do you think I care? Well, part of me does. Part of me really wishes to be myself (including my strange, dark, oddball interests); but part of me is bothered by the semi-unacceptable aspects of myself that often feel like some odd cross hatching in between weird little girlish horror and increasingly older looking but not older feeling husker, getting closer & closer to death. Like chip chop meat stuck in a deadly doll head, like blood flying out of doll legs, like more horrific confection.

(I just sent that little remark about some of my poetry to Susan Yount, a poet and editor who is starting a new horrifically fantastic, female-centric, burlesque/grotesque sort of poetry workshop and asked if she could use my poem 'Midwestern Gothic' as part of her workshop class. Of course I was honored and said yes and sent her the poem plus the above little snippet, hurrah! Also, soon I hope to add a video of me reading the poem 'Midwestern Gothic' at the Slash Pine Press poetry festival this past April. More coming soon!)

Is a Poltergeist a Ghostly Interference or a Manifestation of a Suppressed Female Psyche?
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2402712/is_a_poltergeist_a_ghostly_interference.html?cat=34

Poetry Book Review Notes & Linkage

I am mentioning this here because I sometimes post links to my various Associated Content articles on Facebook and Twitter and recently I posted a link to a poetry book review I wrote a while back whereupon a woman mentioned to me that she really liked reading my book reviews, but was not crazy about reading them on Associated Content because of all the ads appearing on that site. I understood where she was coming from and did not disagree, but the main reason that I post them on Associated Content (even if they were published elsewhere first) and then link to that site is because the more page views I receive on that site, the more teeny tiny tidbits of money I will make. That said, though, I am also very pleased that some of my poetry book reviews in particular were first published within a variety of unique literary oriented sources, so for interested parties, here are a few links to those original creative sources:

- Strange Blue Dresses, FEIN by Kristy Bowen, reviewed by me / originally published by Galatea Resurrects - http://galatearesurrection9.blogspot.com/2008/03/feign-by-kristy-bowen.html


- Human Dark with Sugar by Brenda Shaughnessy, reviewed by me / originally published by Gently Read Literature - http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/human-dark-with-sugar-by-brenda-shaughnessy-reviewed-by-juliet-cook/

-The Revolting Body of Lara Glenum’s Maxiumum Gaga / originally published by Gently Read Literature -http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/the-revolting-body-of-lara-glenum%E2%80%99s-maximum-gaga-reviewed-by-juliet-cook/

-Panty Flowers Rising: on Karyna McGlynn’s I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl' / originally published by Gently Read Literature– http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/panty-flowers-rising-juliet-cook-on-karyna-mcglynn%E2%80%99s-i-have-to-go-back-to-1994-and-kill-a-girl/

- 'for it to work she has to look like a girl”: Michelle Detorie’s Ode to Industry, reviewed by me / originally published by Tarpaulin Sky Review' - http://tsky-reviews.blogspot.com/2009/10/michelle-detories-ode-to-industry.html

- 'The Future is Happy by Sarah Sarai, reviewed by me / originally published by Prick of the Spindle - http://www.prickofthespindle.com/reviews/3.4/small_presses/sarai/the_future_is_happy.htm

And below is the link to my Associated Content site, for those who might be interested in reading my book reviews there and/or partaking of my various other articles. Thank ye poodles!

Your questions and comments are always welcome.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/363475/juliet_cook.html

NEW Notes From a Dissected Poet

"I'm not a dead animal and my brain is better than that of a fetal pig. However, I still have not fully recovered from the results of my stroke and its resultant aphasia."

That is one line from my new article about the matter here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5602556/full_length_dissection.html?cat=70

P.S. I did make a small mistake within my article - in this line I used the wrong link - "If anyone would like to help me out a little bit and partake of your own creative goods, it would be utterly wonderful if you purchased a special something from the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop at http://bloodyooze.blogspot.com/".

The correct link is http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress.

Thank you for partaking.

More coming soon!

Butterfly Boucher (Lilith Fair 2010)

One photo of me & my sister Natalie; four photos of Butterfly Boucher (from Lilith Fair 2010 at Blossom Music Center, Cleveland Ohio)

Darkly Delicious Blood Pudding Press PLUS Poetry

I've recently been adding new goodies to my Blood Pudding Press shop and some of you might be interesed in checking that site out from time to time, since my goodies are very well priced and some of them are selling out pretty quickly. Blood Pudding Press's last set of Vintage Skeleton Keys just sold out and only one more set of Holy Cards currently remains, but the shop is still offering a few other kinds of Religious Ephemera, a few Vintage Post Cards, a few Vintage Dish Towels, a few odd-creepy-hideously yummy doodads, & more- including my very favorite attraction, poetry chapbooks!

Feel free to investigate for yourself here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

Speaking of poetry, I am quite delightfully pleased to report that within the last two days, I have received two different acceptances from two different wonderously yummy poetry collections--the online collection, Horse Less Review (which accepted three of my post-stroke poems) AND the print collection, Barn Owl Review, which is fabulous since I adore both poetry and Owls. Yay!

More semi-soon...

P.S. In case you missed it, a darkly delicious review of my poetry chapbook "FONDANT PIG ANGST" appeared within the last issue of Arsenic Lobster (click below). Then, in Arsenic Lobster's NEXT issue (coming soon), two of my newer poems shall appear!

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/1review.html

Full-Length Dissection/Toxic Cheesecake

For days upon days and hours upon hours recently, I worked hard at assembling my second full-length poetry collection, so that I could submit it to a source I adore, which was accepting submissions up through July 15. I sent my submission their way the night of July 14, so pretty much just in time. Yay!

I imagine very many writers will submit there, so who knows how their readings will turn out, but I am very happy I am trying. Also, whether or not my collection is accepted by them, it now exists! I can add poems, remove poems, update other details and more, bit by darkly delicious bit now without having to spend quite as many hours upon hours.

On a not so happy note, having spent hours upon hours reading many of my newly included poems, many of them written in 2008 and 2009, I could not help thinking about how after many years of working on my poetry writing, just a few years back, I finally started truly liking, enjoying, and being impressed with and proud of much of my work. However, having suffered from an unexpected stroke early in 2010, losing part of my brain power, and still in the midst of aphasia and nowhere near fully recovered, I now cannot write (or otherwise uniquely express myself or read or remember/memorize or review etc...) anywhere near as tremendously as I used to and sometimes I really feel as if that is awfully unfortunate. Other times, I try to focus on the fact that I'm lucky to be alive and I need to continue to do my best to recover (even though I'm not sure how to do my best to recover). Frankly, the last six months of my life have been strangely unsettling in a variety of ways.

Back to poetry though, it is still important and wonderful to me. I'm glad that I still love it (and I'm glad that my personality has not substantially changed) and I'd like to think that working on trying to read it, write it, and think about poeticism has helped to improve my recovery and will continue to do so, pretty please with dark sugar on top and a reem of decadent poison darts.

My very first full-length poetry book, 'HORRIFIC CONFECTION', was published in 2008 by BlazeVOX and my print copies very recently sold out, but it can still be partaken online for free, right here: http://www.blazevox.org/ebk-jCook%20REAL.pdf.

It was easy for me to come up with that book's title 'HORRIFIC CONFECTION', because I had been working on some of those poems for many years and then had been submitting that collection to various sources for many more years. This time though, with my second full-length book, coming up with the best title did not come easily to me and I'm still not sure!

I tentatively entitled it 'ERRANT CONFETTI', but I'm not quite sure about that. Here are a few other titles I thought about/am thinking about which might be even more strangely interesting. Feel free to let me know what you think.

-CONFETTI DISSECTION

-BLOODY CONFETTI

-MACHINATED HALO

-Deadly Doll Head Dissection

-Anal Cheesecake Festival

-Toxic Taste Test My Vile Love

Of course, I suppose you might be able to think about that better if you knew what kind of oddly hideous poems where toxinated within, but you don't.

Alas.