Fireflies

Several new titles are available on Amazon.com. I’ve created a Kindle edition of Blue Horse and Dog Star Winter. Koans for the Inner Dog, which still sells regularly, will be available in Kindle and Nook formats in a little over a month.

Meanwhile, I’m working on a new book of fiction. I’m grateful for all the support. I enjoy readers’ reviews and comments. Always welcome.

The only research I’m doing currently (aside from that for my new book) is for a Lesbian/Gay walking tour/history of Olympia, Washington. This is a fun project that will be ready for the community by Pride weekend during the first part of June, 2012.

Cover of new collection available sometime this spring on Kindle

Collection of recent work forthcoming soon on Kindle. Watch here for more information.

Am busily revising a novel written almost ten years ago: Romance of the Village of Solucion. I don’t know how long it will take to finish editing and revising. Plan to shop this one for a while and see if I can get it “picked up.” It’s a good one.

Big Adventure on Moa Nui: The Very Mysterious Events on a South Pacific Island and Their Resolution is ready for sale. It looks good and I’m pleased. The follow up Fiona Elizabeth Kelly book is already in the works.

I slog on revising and fine tuning Katie Gale’s Tombstone. Want to finish and get it off by end of October. I continue to find more material I want to incorporate and am thinking of a trip to Juneau to study Wickersham materials.

This morning I heard someone on the radio say, “The only reason we publish is to stop rewriting.” Got the message.

Big Adventure on Moa Nui is almost complete. Watch here for details of its publication. Katie Gale still awaits some minor revisions. Goal is to complete by end of September and return to publisher. Mountain of Shell article still awaiting publication in Columbia. My time is focused, now, on completing the two books. Having a great time reading chapters with a friend who is writing a memoir. We seem to really help each other.

May 16: Paid a long overdue visit to David Whitener. He is a direct descendent of some of the people in the book Katie Gale’s Tombstone. I had some of my earliest conversations about the project with David. He inspired me with his own talks of the history of the area. He even arranged a trip to Squaxin Island during an Evergreen summer faculty institute. I showed him the printed (xeroxed, not yet published) book with the dedication to him. He reminded me that he had heard Katie spoken of as “Kitty.” He recalled some other stories from that era and about his family.

On April 17: Yukiko Abo passed at age 91. I will miss her very much. I look across the Bay at her home and wonder who will be there this time next year. I’m sorry my article that features her life had not yet been published. Hers was a rich life, a large part of it spent on her wonderful Oyster Bay home.

See new poetry by clicking on Poetry 2011 above. These are works from my studies during the past two months.

Underway: A book of fiction, novel length, call Big Adventure in Moa Nui. It should be published sometime this year.

Still waiting: for Columbia to publish my article, Mountain of Shell. Accepted but not yet in print.

Still waiting: for response to newest revisions re: Katie Gale Tombstone, on contract at University of Nebraska Press.

Eager to see some new work in print.

I’ve posted the revised manuscript to editors at University of Nebraska. Now I’m going on a vacation. Whatever comes next, I’ll be well rested and ready.

I realized yesterday that I did keep a journey/diary of my work these past two months…the work of revising Katie Gale’s Tombstone. I will post that journey/diary one of these days. What it doesn’t tell is that I watched adaptations of English novels (to film) and Sherlock Holmes television serials almost every night. No television news, sitcoms: none. I did not go out much. I did eat well and I did exercise: approximately 4 miles a day of walking, treadmill, or jumper plus some stretches and yoga. This has not been an easy journey. It has taken an incredible amount of discipline: more than I thought I could muster.