Katie's Blog

Well it's New Year's Eve. What have I accomplished in 2009? 1. Published "Deisies Bloom in Fall", "Aisha", and "Jesus Loves Jackie" in the Journal of Texas Women's Writers (Jan 09) 2. Presented "Bah! Comic Books" Presentation at SWTX Popular Culture Association in Albuquerque, NM (Feb. 09) 3. Presented "Three Hundred Euros" at South Texas College's Human Trafficking conference (April 09) 4. "The Double Murder" and "On South Padre" published in Boundless anthology (April 09) 5. "Santa Rosa of Lima" accepted into Spring 2010 issue of Reflections (Oct. 09) 6. "Among the Mariposas" chosen as a winner of the Nuestra Voz chapbook competition, and will be published in spring (Dec. 09) Yes, that's right! I'm having my own book published! So exciting!!! Did I accomplish enough this year? I remember at the beginning of this year, I said my motto would be "Just live your dream...

I haven't been writing lately. I don't think my work will be accepted into Touchstone. I did submit to Borderlands Review, though. I think my submission got sent out late though, so who knows. I submitted "My Reflection in the Rio Grande", "South on HWY 281", "My Shadow Watches Me", and "The Birthday Girl". It's a long shot. But maybe? How can I stay motivated to improve my writing? Ugh. I'm disappointed in myself.

I've avoided writing about my mother for many years. We have a... complicated relationship. But it's a good sort of complicated. I'm attempting a poem about her. Here's my brainstorm. I hope it can springboard into something. You - so accustomed to your womanhood Naked and brown - your hands like ice skates sliding a razor across your slowly expanding legs. You didn't miss a hair. My legs - waving with unsightly peach fuzz that collected dirt and felt ugly in gym class. You made it look so damn easy. Your body smelled always like jasmine and sweet I watched you struggle to rise to lift your burdon of womanhood from t he bathtub, your breasts rising glistening and sagging. You grabbed a towel you'd neatly folder beside you and wrapped it around your tired curves and you sighed before heading out to your bedroom to go about the other burdens (find a new word) that womanhood so lovingly requires. You made it all look easy, mom, the way you instinctively twisted you...

I've been rather ambitious. I know it's a super long shot. I saw a call for manuscripts for a short chapbook by a woman living in the border region. I'm not a sterotypical border woman, and I don't write stereotypical border poems about my grandmother's hands, making tortillas, or working the fields (nothing wrong with that, of course). However, I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't exactly have a manuscript ready, but I had a lot of spare time yesterday. I basically pulled two poems out of my ass, threw together a bunch of poems I've written about my old teaching job (in an impoverished border town) and I'm calling it a chapbook. Will it get published? Probably not. But at least I've gotten some writing done on the subject, and found some sort of closure inside of myself. Anyway, I'm proud. I had planned on really putting ass to chair this thanksgiving break. It didn't happen at all. Some people write better when they're depressed. I...