Crossroads

Made an executive decision today to leave behind some of my smaller scribblings in favor of focusing on You Know Me, Etc. and expanding Cliterature.

Paper Cut

Today I gave myself a paper cut on my eye. It happened while I was juggling a pet carrier, the mail, and my keys at the front door. One of the weirdest feeling clumsy injuries in a while.

Chapter Nine and MYTHS Done

I'm exhausted but also relieved that within the last two weeks I've managed to finish Chapter Nine of You Know Me, Etc and also produce the MYTHS issue of Cliterature (and on time, to boot). MYTHS is a significant issue for me because it marks the four-year point for publishing Cliterature. Things have changed dramatically in my life and the rest of America's lives in that time. For one thing, social media has gone from a self-indulgence to a necessity for many of us.

I really don't think Cliterature would have taken off on the international scale that it has if it wasn't for two things: Cliterature is an exclusively online journal, meaning the distribution isn't limited by print runs or geography, and I've been able to promote it across several social media channels that reach a far wider audience than I could have done with more traditional forms of marketing. It makes me happy to see so many people from such different places and walks of life enjoying and submitting to Cliterature, many of whom struggle to see their work published in more mainstream publications. Over the course of the past four years, whenever I am able to publish someone for their first time, I feel a special pride that I am able, in my own small way, to get their voice into the public realm.

Bruised Foot, Twisted Ankle, Skinned Knee

I've decided to take a new direction with this blog. There will most likely still be discussion of writing and Cliterature, but I need an outlet for something else that I've lived with most of my life.

People who know me know I'm a prodigious klutz. I've tripped going up stairs, over my own pant leg, in the middle of the street, and honestly run into doors/drawers more times than I care to share. I've had at least five concussions in the past 15 years -- falling down a grassy hill in 1993, falling down an icy hill in 2005, falling into a brick wall in 2006, falling down in the bathroom in 2007, and standing up and hitting the freezer door handle in 2010. (There may be others. I've forgotten.) I've had an air conditioning unit fall on me, slipped on a wet mat at a water park, and astonished friends and family members with a creative knack for klutziness. Despite everything, I have yet to break a bone.

I'd like to begin some sort of record of this. Sometimes I think if I had lived 1000 years ago, they would have written epic poetry about me and my stories of accidental self-injury.

So. The day before yesterday, I dropped a large glass jar of strawberry jam on my right foot. (Ironically, where it landed and where the bruise is overlaps a childhood scar from when I tripped over a badminton net and split the top of my foot open.) Then last night, while lifting my leg to cross it over the other, I hit the same foot on the coffee table. I woke up this morning and noticed it was sore, and I was leaving my apartment I thought to myself, "Oh, that foot doesn't feel right at all. You should keep an eye on it."

Not thirty seconds later as I'm crossing the road, I miss a pothole just by the curb and capsize, twisting my left ankle and landing in gravel in the process. When I get to work, I have a moment to actually assess the damage. In addition to two already fairly old bruises on my left leg, my kneecap is now red, shredded by the gravel, and bruised. You can actually see individual bruises from individual pieces of gravel.

(I'd also like to mention that this is the same knee I twisted when I was nine and went to a water park. It's never been the same since.)

Random and Probably Not Necessary

If you submitted to Cliterature's CLASS issue, you should check your inbox. I emailed all the notifications out this morning.

And on a completely unrelated note, here's some fun stuff I found last week:

• "Demoralized Detroit aims to resurrect a ruin"
• Superstitions
• Maps of War
• Visuwords: Online Graphic Dictionary
  

Sunday Morning

First off, I must say that my favorite part of Obama's State of the Union was where he launched into the lobbyists staying the fuck away from politics -- and the whole room went quiet.

Do you use music when you write? I don't mean listening to music while you write. I mean specifically crafting soundtracks to use when writing certain projects? I do. Started when I utilized the soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream for She Bears a King. And for my current project, You Know Me, Etc., I've spent the last few years building a playlist tailored to characters and also Chicago itself.

Need to get going on my piece for CLASS, the upcoming issue of Cliterature. Can't decide between two completely different ideas, but must commit and race with one in time for the deadline.

Blogging Rehab

I find myself in a self-induced paradox whereby I intend and really want to blog about my writing and my work with Cliterature, but I'm too busy writing and working on Cliterature to get around to the blogging. From now on, I'm taking blogging like alcoholics take rehab -- one day at at time.

Update on You Know Me, Etc: finished with chapter six, trying to dive into number seven. Up to 150 pages now, but not even halfway through the story. In too deep to jump out now, but the end is far from in sight. If I was Harry Potter, I would have just been selected to participate in the Wizard's Cup.

Speaking of which, I want t re-read the Harry Potter series. Some of them I haven't read in years. Same with Lord of the Rings. Instead, I'm currently stuck on an 800 page biography of Alexander Hamilton. Most of it is boring and dry, but there are certain similarities between us that keeep me from putting it down.