This is why I've been such a slacker. . .

This is Celeste Lenore, the newest addition to the family as of May 20th, 2009. On Wednesday, she'll be 12 weeks old, which I can't believe.

It's not a great excuse for not writing on my blog; in fact, I haven't been good at blogging since my move to Colorado almost three years ago. I don't know why, except for the fact that things have been moving at a breakneck speed ever since. I've been really thinking more about it though and really want to reinvest myself. I have a lot going on that I'd like to "talk" about, though the dozen or so people who used to read my blog have no doubt stopped by this point. Perhaps I'll get some new readers someday :)

The most dramatic change, besides Celeste's arrival, is my decision to take a semester (perhaps a year) off from teaching. I was a visiting professor at Metro last year, which I quite enjoyed, but my contract was not renewed. This means I would have had to continue as an adjunct, which I was not willing to do for the money. Instead, I'll stay home with Celeste, help my husband with his business when possible, and work on my own creative endeavors in the moments between the moments.

I've become part of a new publishing consortium called Black Radish Books, which I would link to if I could, but we're still in the infancy stage of the projects. It's an exciting project to be a part of, and I'm working on a manuscript for publication with them in the far-out future. Interestingly, our group of 16 grew out of our involvement in the Dusie chapbook project, which has always been such a delightful project for me.

My husband, Brian, went out on his own in January of 2008 to start his own software and consulting business, Inversoft. He's really finding his niche now in selling his products to the gaming markets, so I'm excited to help him with copywriting and some marketing here and there.

Mostly, I'm excited about writing and reading again. It's been a while since I've actually felt like part of a writing community- like my work was part of a bigger picture and being read. (Teaching 4 classes per semester leaves very little time for anything else!)

Right now, I'm enjoying Jessy Randall's A Day in Boyland, a collection which she gave me at a reading in exchange for one of my chapbooks. I very much enjoyed meeting her and hearing her read- her sense of humor is definitely a dominant force in her poetry. I've only made it through the first few poems- I'll try to give a more comprehensive review once I've finished the collection.

So I'm hoping I'm back on the blog train. And wow, does this blog need a facelift!