I guess the most logical way for me to lay out my series of thank-yous is go about it chronologically.<\/p>\n
If I start at the very beginning I must start by thanking Fran Podulka, my neighbor and mentor. \u00a0 Soon after I moved in, I was going through a Reynolds Price phase. While searching the library stacks for his works, I came across Fran’s novel The Wonder Jungle<\/em> (Putnam, 1973). \u00a0I read it, called her, told her I was a writer myself, and we have been friends since. \u00a0Fran never seems to have any doubts in me even though I am not always so sure of myself. \u00a0And this is empowering since Fran is an accomplished writer of fiction and poetry. \u00a0Her poem “The Fitting” appeared in the April 11, 2003 feature in the Chicago Tribune<\/a>.\u00a0 She introduced me to The Writers, a 50-member workshop group that meets Wednesday mornings. What a great group this is (I’m sure it will come up it in future posts). I have made invaluable friendships there and learned a few things too. \u00a0One is that it takes a community to raise a writer.\u00a0Lucky for us in Chicago we have so many literary resources. \u00a0Another terrific organization that helps writers be heard is The Guild Complex<\/a>. And\u00a0another woman who has always been in my corner is Beate Minkovski from Women Made Gallery<\/a>, a terrific resource for poets and visual artists. \u00a0Beate works tirelessly for the gallery and artists.<\/p>\n In starting this project, I bounced my idea off a few people. \u00a0One person acting as a sounding board was Charlotte Digregorio. \u00a0She has four nonfiction books of her own; the latest, Everything You Need to Know About Nursing Homes<\/em>, came out in 2005. \u00a0You might also have read Charlotte’s poetry; she is active in the The Haiku Society of America<\/a>. \u00a0Another person who met with me is Carlyle Cater<\/a>, who heard my ideas and encouraged me.\u00a0I am also indebted to the Lawyers for the Creative Arts<\/a> because lawyers are part of that community needed by writers and publishers, and \u00a0by the time I consulted LCA, I knew I was going to be a publisher. That’s also when I turned to other small presses for advice. \u00a0Kevin Watson of Press 53<\/a>, Dan Wickett of Dzanc Books<\/a> were generous in their replies to my questions about imprints. Others in the industry like Nathan Bransford<\/a> and Sarah Weinman (who now works for Publishers Marketplace<\/em>) were also kind enough to answer my emails.<\/p>\n Some years back I went to hear Joe Meno (his story “A Strange Episode of Aqua Voyage” appears in Solace in So Many Words<\/em>) at Comix Revolution in Evanston. He was part of panel and so was Dan Sinker<\/a> of Punk Planet<\/a>, and I was struck by something Dan said, which was something to the effect that if you want to see your work out in the world, if you want to see your idea come to fruition, you should do it yourself. \u00a0More recently I went to \u00a0lecture by Dan Sinker and Dominique Rachah of Sourcebooks<\/a> (another awesome publisher) put on by the Chicago Publishers Gallery <\/a>(another great Chicago resource). Dominque \u00a0showed us this breath-taking interactive book, and Dan spoke about how the phone figures in new literary communications; his project is\u00a0Cell Stories<\/a>. (These days\u00a0Dan’s name is also connected to a certain Twitter account and book deal–effing golden Mr. Mayor.) \u00a0Both these speakers spoke at length with ease and ability and it was obvious \u00a0they knew about publishing today. \u00a0But their brilliance wasn’t the only thing that overwhelmed me–I think it was the term, metadata, that made me realize I could use some help as far as the web, e-books, and other stuff I am just beginning to understand. ( Let me put it this way: the word “tags” has a new meaning to me now.) \u00a0Anyway, an email to Dan Sinker put me in touch with Paul M. Davis<\/a> who helped me figure out a few bits. \u00a0 He has a great blog Is Greater Than<\/a>. \u00a0Last but not least, I also want to acknowledge Ellen T. McKnight who put in hours proofreading. Ellen’s prose poem “Navigation” appears in the latest After Hours<\/a> and “In the Restaurant” appears in Thunderclap<\/a>. \u00a0She took time away from working on her novel to work on Solace in So Many Words. <\/em><\/p>\n All these people helped me \u00a0and for this I am grateful. And, these are just some of those in the community who have given me a boost up.\u00a0I know as soon as I post \u00a0I will think of others to add. But that is one of the beauties of a blog, I guess. I can go back and add it–at least I think I can–can’t I? \u00a0If I couldn’t be more obvious, this whole blog thing is new to me. \u00a0So I ask for patience with my ineptitude. And, I’ll leave you by saying thanks. \u00a0For if you made it this far, you certainly deserve it. \u00a0Ta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I guess the most logical way for me to lay out my series of thank-yous is go about it chronologically. If I start at the very beginning I must start by thanking Fran Podulka, my neighbor and mentor. \u00a0 Soon after I moved in, I was going through a Reynolds Price phase. While searching the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[90,60,65,87,78,66,81,71,76,79,72,84,61,23,67,83,75,69,68,73,82,70,77,74,80,88,89,63,62,86,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-after-hours","8":"tag-appreciation","9":"tag-beate-minkovski","10":"tag-blogging","11":"tag-cell-stories","12":"tag-charlotte-digregorio","13":"tag-chicago-publishers-gallery","14":"tag-dam-wickett","15":"tag-dan-sinker","16":"tag-dominique-rachah","17":"tag-dzanc-books","18":"tag-ellen-t-mcknight","19":"tag-fran-podulka","20":"tag-gratitude","21":"tag-haiku-society-of-american","22":"tag-is-greater-than","23":"tag-joe-meno","24":"tag-kevin-watson","25":"tag-lawyers-for-creative-arts","26":"tag-nathan-bransford","27":"tag-paul-m-davis","28":"tag-press-53","29":"tag-punk-plant","30":"tag-sarah-weinman","31":"tag-sourcebooks","32":"tag-tags","33":"tag-thank-you","34":"tag-the-guild-complex","35":"tag-the-wonder-jungle","36":"tag-thunderclap","37":"tag-women-made-gallery","38":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}