A few good things for a Monday

It is Monday. Moreover, it is the first Monday in December. Sure, there’s an onslaught of marking coming my way (& yours, I suspect). Sure, there’s the to-do list of things I have been putting off since October that is now teetering and threatening to fall on my head. Yes, it has been an unusually difficult and emotional term, for me, at any rate. But guess what? I’m not writing a post about any of that today. Nope. Today I am writing a list of accomplishments and a list of neat discoveries. Today, I’m offering you a little bit of perk to zip you through your Monday and towards the celebratory rush that is the end-of-term and all of the various celebrations it brings your way.

First, accomplishments:

1. I set a goal in September, and I stuck to it! I have written one or two pages of my manuscript EVERY DAY THIS TERM. I could not have done this without my writing partner in crime. Thanks, K.

2. I co-organized a conference, it went well, and now we have landed a book contract for an edited collection of articles! About poetry! Poetry!

3. Last year in December my partner and I adopted a wild, damaged, lovely dog. We thought having a second dog would be Super Easy. After all, Felix the Wunder Hund is, well, easy. Calm, serious, thoughtful… Were we ever wrong. Little Mar has been anything but easy. He was abandoned, abused, and has serious anxiety issues. He has been a really, really challenging dog. He was way more effort than we wanted, and, frankly, he needed more time than we actually have. But you know what? Working with him has taught us an immense amount about patience and kindness. And it is paying off, for all of us.

                                           Felix is camera-shy. They hold paws. Cute, eh?

Now, neat discoveries:

1. Do you know this website? Brain Pickings is curated by Maria Popova, and it is described as a “human-powered discovery engine for interestingness.” How amazing is that? Maria explains that creativity is, in her view, a combinational force. Wow! Yes! What could we come up with here at Hook & Eye that worked even more with the power of our combinational forces? I’m inspired…!

2. Not so much a neat discovery as a hey-looky-don’t-miss-this! Lemon Hound, which began as a solo-authored blog by Sina Queyras, is now a monthly literary journal. I think it is curating some of the most exciting sets of voices on the interwebs. Oh yeah, and I get to write for it from time to time.

3. CWILA‘s critic-in-residence is going to be announced in the coming months! Women are in the news! There’s going to be more blogging, tweeting, and general discussion about women in the literary arts because we are making it happen. Email me if you’re interested in writing a blog post about a woman — contemporary or historical — who excited you and inspires your imagination.

Hang in y’all. Respite is coming. In the meantime, what neat discoveries have you made? What have you done — large, small, or in-between — that you want to brag about?