Happy New Year!

I have two new poems published to start the New Year, in two differerent online poetry publications.

The first I'll mention is an older poem called 'Sullied Honey'. Several years ago, this piece was accepted by a horror genre magazine called Poe Little Thing, but the issue it was supposed to appear in never materialized, as far as I know. Maybe the magazine folded or something. This poem never quite seemed to fit into any of my collections, but I still liked it, so I eventually decided to resubmit it--and it was picked up by the wonderfully quirkilcious ROBOT MELON.

Check it out in issue ten (click the N) here:

http://www.robotmelon.com/

If so inclined, you can also click the T to visit issue 5 from the archives, to read a couple more of my poems: 'Glass Cake Plate' (which also appears in my first full-length book Horrific Confection) & 'Pepper Shaker' (which also appears in my chapbook, PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR).

As for the aforementioned 'Sullied Honey', it appears nowhere excerpt HERE (along with work by Nicolle Elizabeth, Mark Cunningham, Jac Jemc, and more):

http://www.robotmelon.com/issueten.html

I also have a NEWER new poem published in a VERY new (first issue new) female-centric literary magazine called Bone Bouquet, which you may check out HERE (along with work by Daniella Pafunda, Sarah Vap, Allison Layfield, and more):

http://bonebouquet.wordpress.com/

If my Nellie Oleson poem piques your interest, I have another Nellie Oleson poem currently online in Prayers for Children, HERE:

http://www.prayersforchildren.be/first-degree.htm

I also have another piece from this mini-series forthcoming (in print) in The Columbia Poetry Review.

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I desired to post a new issue of Thirteen Myna Birds for the New Year and I shall soon, but I'm still craving at least a few more pieces of new content to add to the furiously fizzy little mixer. Check out my guidelines at http://13myna.blogspot.com/ and if you think you have some material that fits the bill aka beak, do feel free to send it my way. I have four new pieces of content waiting in the wings right now and as soon I receive a few more that ruffle my feathers the right way, the new issue shall be brought to life, hopefully by the middle of the week.

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Speaking of female-centric literary, I'm trying to finish up a piece for the upcoming Delirious Hem forum 'This is What a Feminst Poet Looks Like'; the forum will tentatively hit the scene January 15, so stay tuned for sundry and diverse takes on feminist poetics from a variety of hot female poets. I'm writing about meat curtains in mine.

As if that isn't juicy enough, I will be writing a new column for Read Write Poem this year (2010 baby), loosely centered around the theme of (conflicted) feminisms and (warped) poetics, so keep an eye out for more details about that soon.

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P.S. Once more for good measure--some best poetry books of 2009: http://bit.ly/4VPoyg (and coming soon--some predictions for 2010).

what is this, a pie eating contest for anorexics?

I'm very pleased that I've almost completed a new designer vagina!

I had kind've thought I had lost the impetus or inspiration for that series, but now it's back and I'm pretty happy about that. The latest piece includes the line, 'What is this, a pie eating contest for anorexics?'

Speaking of force feeding, I've been experiencing more than usual weird bad dreams lately. I don't feel like talking about all of them, but here's a small synopsis of sorts of two.

1. My dog and I had been kidnapped and were in the midst of some kind of strange interrogation situation. We weren't cooperating with revealing the information. My dog can't talk and I didn't know what to say. Our kidnapper/interrogator was growing impatient. He looked like a scrawny high school kid, but was pretty much terrifying anyway, due to his lack of compassion and twisted sadism. He threatened us with a torture that involved being force fed these hideous live bugs until we couldn't possibly consume any more, before moving on to the next torture. These insects were grotesque. They resembled large scorpions except the main thorax areas of their bodies were shaped more like those of extra-plump spiders. They were black with mottled white markings and very ominous indeed. By far, the worst part of the whole dream was me imagining poor Sockeye being force fed these awful creatures. As a dog, he wouldn't understand what was happening and most certainly would not eat them willingly, no matter what threats were flung at him--so his mouth would have to be yanked open and he'd be whimpering, shaking, and cowering, and it would just be a terribly disturbing scene. I'd offer to eat his bugs for him, but my offer would not be accepted, because the sadist would sense that it would be even more tortuous for me to watch my dog being tortured.

2. I wanted to buy a second dog, but not a "real" dog. I didn't think I could handle another real dog, so I had my heart set on this new hybrid creature that wasn't alive per se, but still exhibited certain traits of living creatures. For example, it made these little breathing sounds and motions, almost like some kind of pulsating. It looked kind of like a stuffed animal version of a black poodle fused with a rather bedraggled version of a real toy poodle, minus the fancy hair cut. Everyone else seemd to think I was weird, maybe even perverse for wanting this thing, but I wanted it all the same. Everyone else thought these hybrid creatures were creepy and ugly, but I found them adorable. I would name it Dagmar.

Then the scene changed and I didn't look like me anymore. I looked like some girl from the late 80s or early 90s, with long straight hairsprayed hair and acid-washed jeans. I was in some kind of holding room, maybe even inside a prison, and a burly male security guard started frisking me for contraband and weaponry, and he was being very rough and convoluted with his frisking process. I mean it was clearly obvious that I had a large knife strapped to my thigh inside a holster; I wasn't even trying to hide it; it was fastened to the outside of my jeans. So why didn't he just confiscate my knife and be done with it? No, something more insidious seemed to be afoot here. He saw my knife, but didn't seem to care about that.

He started getting even rougher with his frisking process and I think he was trying to teach me a lesson for wanting that perverted poodle-like creature. I started to struggle with him, even though he was brawny. He turned me around so my backside was facing him, forced my hands down onto a chair, and started tugging at my shirt. I thought he was going to rape me.

Instead, he pulled up my shirt, exposing my lower back, and then used a special device to pierce a hole into the flesh. A dog leash would be attached to the hole in my skin and I would have to walk my new fake dog using this leash that was attached to my own body. Although not very pleased about this procedure, it did cross my mind that at least it would have made for more convenient dog walking if he had pierced that hole in the front of my body rather than the back.

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Update: The coding glitch has been fixed and you can now read my poem in Denver Syntax 18 (in case you couldn't before and still want to)--

http://www.denversyntax.com/issue18/poems/poems.html

I had another real/fake animal hybrid dream last night, but this one involved a small panda bear like creature, sliding down the stairs...

Also, just a little note that my new poetry chapbook manuscript, FONDANT PIG ANGST, is coming soon from Slash Pine Press (tentatively sleighted for this December, which is very festive indeed, eh?). I love this little article/update on the Slash Pine Press blog, which includes the statement, "Juliet puts the Slash in Slash Pine"! (P.S. The cover art is going to include a woman riding a giant pig!)

http://slashpinepress.blogspot.com/2009/10/into-basement.html

Yay! I'm a slasher!

ALSO, new reviews are up at Tarpaulin Sky Reviews, including mine of Michelle Detorie's really good dusie kollektiv 3 poetry chapbook, 'Ode to Industry':

http://tsky-reviews.blogspot.com/

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Update: Another little dilemma of production versus creation:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2281067/the_ac_twitter_challengemixed_feelings.html?cat=15

meat curtains & banana curls

A few recent search terms that have led to this blog have been 'pretty peckers' and 'Nellie Oleson banana curls'. The latter is most likely related to some mention of my short series of Nellie Oleson poems (one of which is supposedly forthcoming in 'Side of Grits' and one of which was just accepted for the premiere issue of 'Bone Bouquet' and a few others of which are crying out for revision), but don't ask me about the former.

You can ask me about meat curtains, though, or at least about my recent chapbook, MONDO CRAMPO. Nathan Moore did and his one question and my one answer (and one small disclaimer about adult language) are posted over at Read Write Poem today:

http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/08/25/just-one-chapbook-thing-juliet-cooks-mondo-crampo/

In other news, I finished my first-ever artist grant application! Yay! That's almost good enough to make me forget about my infernal PMS (cramps and headache and bloat of the breed that do not want to respond to any treatment). At least I don't have to use crocodile dung tampons or Lysol douche.

Oh and speaking of Read Write Poem, their first-ever Virtual Book Tour will be starting tomorrow--featuring the latest lovely Blood Pudding Press tome, 'At night, the dead:' by luscious Lisa Ciccarello.

Oh and speaking of Blood Pudding Press, the next tome is coming soon--'The Spare Room' by Dana Guthrie Martin. Stay attuned.

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Update:

The Read Write poem first-ever Virtual Book Tour is now underway! Hurray!

Check out the entry there for details on how the tour will work and who will be involved and then stay tuned throughout the month for the poetry conversation.

I will also be posting ongoing updates on the Blood Pudding Press blog at http://www.bloodyooze.blogspot.com/

http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/08/26/read-write-poem-virtual-book-tour-%e2%80%98at-night-the-dead%e2%80%99-by-lisa-ciccarello/