Out of The Chrysalis: Feral Mom Attempts November Butterfly Book Tour Sans Kids

I am still basking in the warmth of a beautiful homecoming trip to Sonoma County where we celebrated November Butterfly’s arrival—I left Southern California with a bag full of books and returned with a scant three copies that were spoken for before my plane landed in San Diego. I traveled alone, having celebrated with my husband and my children at San Diego Writers, Ink the week prior. How odd, but lovely, a bit alien, to escape as writer self and leave mother self behind.

Or try. Within two hours, texts from the kids and husband trickled in… “Where are the car keys?” “When are you coming back?” “I miss you already!” And one graphic photo of a bloody toe…all gently eclipsed in San Francisco by my brother, his wife and my niece. They kindly whisked me off for a beer—even though I am not much of a drinker and fruitflies tend to get the better portion of any quarter glass of wine my husband pours for me.

But this was The Trappist, and in the bronze dusk of the unassuming low-lit hallway that makes the venue so cozy, I converted, sipping a very fine, dark, foaming 8 Wired I-stout, admiring the miniature tree limbs advancing up the wall above us with evenly balanced tendrils. I was further spoiled each day of my visit--omelets by my sister-in-law, Italian dinner out, and girl-time curing toes of their winter pall. Finally, by night, in the slightly freaky and deafening silence of putting only myself to bed, I succumbed to the pleasure of losing time between the covers of The Book of Symbols:Reflections on Archetypal Images, (Taschen), table of contents pulling me in with incantatory list: Egg, Breath, Star, Sun, Moon, Crescent, Eclipse, Comet….

Further north at my father’s home, my collaborator Robyn’s chrysalis artwork greeted me on the table. Inside, tucked in a butterfly pocket, she and my father had collected “magic words” (bookmark sized quotes to lift the mind).  At nearly a foot tall, the chrysalis card is a delight to hold and open, serving as a three-dimensional out-picturing of this year’s process.  After some superb seven-secret-ingredient pancakes (my father’s specialty), we headed out to Shiloh Park for a morning hike which is just what I needed in order to ground before the afternoon workshop and reading at Coffee Catz (thank you Debbie and Keli!).

The vibrant reds and golds of the changing leaves and sprawling oaks still linger in my mind’s eyes as do the heartprints of the friends and writers circling the workshop table and back room at Coffee Catz, and again, in Berkeley at Moe’s Books, where I had the honor of reading with Ruth Thompson (Woman with Crows) and Michelle Wing (Body on the Wall) to a full house at the invitation of Poetry Flash (which meant lovely introductions for all three of us poets by the generous and thoughtful Richard Silberg and venue set-up and arrangements thanks to Joyce Jenkins).

I also had the privilege of meeting Don Mitchell (A Red Woman Was Crying) for the first time in person (after months of email correspondence).  Don is the other half of Saddle Road Press (located in Hilo, Hawaii) and the man responsible for the book cover magic and logistics of poems on the page plus all the hand-holding during the thousand invisible decisions that signal final stages of book-making. Ruth Thompson, pictured here, is the other half of Saddle Road Press, and the woman responsible for editing November Butterfly and seeing it through to completion.

Other collateral joy: time with my poetry steady Liz Brennan—she’s already put up one of our new short prose Perhaps, Maybe video collaborations we had time to record over the weekend, The Hummingbird’s Complaint.

I am in the process of mapping out new book tour events and will announce dates as we confirm them; I am overwhelmingly grateful for the love and support of my family and friends.

Additional Links:

January Blogging Class:

I’ll be offering a four part blogging series of classes (from Beginning Blogging to Advanced Blogging) in person through San Diego Writers, Ink, starting in January, 2015. Here is the link to the first series of classes for Beginning Bloggers. I welcome bloggers at any point on their blogging trajectory, and former students are always welcome to join us again for blog support. I tailor my courses to fit the needs of each forming class.


November Butterfly Prompts:

As promised to workshop participants, I am still writing poetry prompts for the iconics in section 1 of November Butterfly--I will have one up for Nefertiti in the next couple of days. Visit this link to see all ten prompts up so far (from Marilyn to Jeanne d'Arc). 

Shower Juggling, Faux Appendicitis, and November Butterfly’s Book Launch

"Working" on 3D planet project, midnight

Everyone is breathing under my roof, more or less. Except for me—I’m inadvertently breath holding again as we near November 1 release date for my first poetry collection, November Butterfly (Saddle Road Press)…I’ve been in Ninja marketing mode, sending out press releases and review and event requests as soon as the kids catch the bus to school (and even when they don’t). By night, starring as Encyclopedia Brown on steroids, sniffing down the missing homework trail, tearing up the Silver Strand for 3 am runs to CVS for licorice, frosting, and $20 dollars worth of other assorted candy (should you, say, have forgotten your Model of a Cell project were due tomorrow…)

...or taking my turn as Harriet Home-maker, peeler extraordinaire of blueberry fruit leather off the ceiling. If you cram enough frozen blueberries in a blender and froth them for long enough, they form a temperature differential primed to explode the blender lid all the way up to the ceiling, at least under the supervision of my teen willowy 5 foot something I-just know-she’s-taller-than-I-am-now daughter…

…which is why we added Blender to the list of appliances not to use unless mom is home. Though a mother’s presence doesn’t necessarily deter dangerous activity…in fact, later that day, I was able to detect, over killer-bee drone of vaccuum, the ER scream from far side of bathroom door—

Diffuse Moons Robyn Beattie

…which turned out just to be my son reacting to the nasty crack of curtain rod over his back having downed it while foot juggling a tennis ball in the shower. I’ll take credit for inspiring the multi-tasking part. The rest, I’ll bequeath to my triathlete husband. We saved ER for the following week when the juggler came down with a right side stitch that kicked in after a X-Country meet followed by soccer practice.

With a middle child’s sense of timing, he waited twenty-four hours, full moon casting its light across the carpet just before bedtime, to tell me the pain hadn’t subsided and was in fact, he told the advice nurse, (the clincher), moving into his chest. One doctor on duty, 30 people in the waiting room, an IV, CT scan, and seven hours later, we were on our way back home just as the sun came up, armoured with the admonition to “drink more water” and a good dose of the queasies from listening to everyone else’s catalogue of injuries from scorpion bites to falling off stools to broken jaws.

So that’s where I’ve been…while squeezing in a bit of blogging up poetry prompts on the main site. If you are too far away to come to a writing class or November Butterfly workshop, stop by the website and write with me virtually….I’m using November Butterfly’s Table of Contents to create writing exercises based on the poems in the book…you can access the ones I’ve gotten to so far here:

Marilyn, or No Girl Sets Out to Die

Sylvia, is it Sleep or Words You Miss

Amelia, Crossing for the Crossing

Jay DeFeo’s Rose, or Stein Cursived Hers on Her Ceiling for Alice

Sisters of the Orange, A Tale of Three Oranges

Lolita Wake! 
She Dressed in a Hurry (For Lady Diana)

Cover Photo Robyn Beattie
Cover Design Don Mitchell

November Butterfly Book Launch at San Diego Writers, Ink

Join me in person on Saturday, November 1, 2014 (Dia de los Muertes), at 2:30 for a one hour writing workshop, Writing Past Fear: Free Your Butterfly. We will write about our mentors and play with paper cutouts as a way to approach core stories we haven’t been able or willing to write about yet. The $30 fee includes a copy of November Butterfly. Or, just come out for the reading and book signing following the workshop, $5 suggested donation. (Register here with San Diego Writers, Ink for Free Your Butterfly workshop).

Sonoma County November Butterfly Book Launch

In Sonoma County, I’m launching on November 10 (Veteran’s Day) at Coffee Catz in downtown Sebastopol. Catz is a fabulous coffee shop near and dear to my heart. I escaped after the birth of my first child on Fridays to write; in fact we held the baby shower for that first child (blueberry blender girl) in the back room behind the velvet curtain. I return to teach the writing workshop described above at 2:00, followed by free book signing and reading.

November 11, I’m thrilled to be reading in the company of my Saddle Road Press sisters, Ruth Thompson (Woman with Crows) and Michelle Wing (Body on the Wall) at Moe’s Books in Berkeley at 7:30 p.m. Reading and book signing event free of charge.

For more information about these three events, visit my Events page.

AROHO Fellowship Award:

It is difficult to celebrate this next bit of news when so many of my friends and fellow retreat participants submitted applications to these awards from A Room of Her Own Foundation. I wouldn't be where I am today without the love and support of the many women gracing my life as a direct result of AROHO's retreats. I am deeply grateful for this turn in the sun, and very honored, to have been selected to attend the 2015 AROHO Retreat as the Marg Chandler Memorial Fellow at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico next summer. 

We have a beautiful program waiting for us at the 2015 Retreat and Waves Discussion Series: Writing Against the Current with Waves Discussion Fellow of Distinction Maxine Hong Kingston. I still have my copy of Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts from undergraduate study days at UC Davis when I was lucky and brave enough to have troubled Kingston for a signature. I can't wait to hear what she has to say in 2015 and to bask in the inevitable fertile discussions fed by the minds of the AROHO women. 

Robyn Beattie Photo Assemblage

Related Links:

Bloggers in theTextroom: Alexandria Peary Defines a Lineage of Female Mentorship

Not just because we are featured in it—but also because of how interesting it is to look at women’s mentorship models over time, I absolutely love the in-depth scholarly article Alexandria Peary, PhD, wrote, titled, Walls with a Word Count: The Textrooms of Extracurriculum (published by College Composition and Communication on the National Council of English Teachers' website last month). We blogged it up at Mother Writer Mentor where you’ll find a link to Peary’s full article. She draws some parallels between the practices of an editor of a 19 Century magazine titled Godey’s Lady’s Book and writer/blogger/editors at three sites (She Writes, Mother Writer Mentor, and VIDA’s blog Her Kind). Top photo is mine; the rest are by the amazing Robyn Beattie.

The Woman Warrior at 30: Maxine Hong Kingston's Secrets and Lies at Slate by Jess Row (2007)

Katniss Everdeen: A New Type of Woman Warrior A Radical Female Hero from Dystopia at New York Times by A.O. Scott and Manohla Durgis (2012)

Top photo is mine; the rest are by the amazing Robyn Beattie.