Katie's Blog

Ahhh... Yes - the calm before the storm. I can hear crickets chirping as my thesis committee works on critiquing my manusciprt... LoL, yeah I had a little meeting with my thesis chair today and he was pretty encouraging. This just might work! ;-D Today I also sent in registration to VIPF, and submitted to DIAGRAM and and and, well now I'm feverishly trying to make some changes to thesis before, um, I have to go home at 5? Ok so I guess there's no real rush. By the way, in the past I've always hated Sylvia Plath (you know, back when I was beat into submission by a plethora of patriarchal poetry critics) but I'm starting to feel her vibes. Sylvia, oh Sylvia, I'm just starting to understand you. Maybe I'll get there, one day. Maybe I'll stick my head in an oven, too, when I finally do. Oh wells. So the countdown begins. I'm busy - please do not disturb (ok please disturb if you come bearing coffee or alcohol, just not both at the same time I'm not in th...

So last night at Carino's we proved that the poetry scene here in the valley is alive and well! There I am, enjoying a Merlot while I listen to Erika serenade us. My dad was kind enough to join me for the evening, he's right across the table. And here I am! Reading "Chocolate Sundae", "A Taste for Autumn", and "The Garden of Dresses", which went over well! I'd never read "A Taste for Autumn" in public before, so there's a first time for everything ;) And there I am, with the entire crew! Yes, I was distracted by, something. Oh well, I REALLY don't know how to pose for pictures. And next to me is the lovely Lady Mariposa, Alejandro something or another, Edward (the host!), Brenda Nettles Riojas, Daniel Garcia Ordaz, Julieta Corpus, another white girl poet named Katie from up north, and Richard Sanchez. Yay! Twas fun. Twas fun. My next reading probably won't be until the Valley International Poetry Festival, which is ...

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG I'm up on Word Riot. And you can hear me read poems there, even download me on your Kindle. I feel so exposed, naked... I think I'll hide behind some poems... http://www.wordriot.org/archives/2617 Check me out :-) Hear my lovely voice, and read my sexy poems (well, ok they're not that sexy actually they're a bit gross).

is so beautiful and lovely and OMG it's my favorite thing in the whole wide world. My thesis. It's driving me insane. So in about twenty minutes I have an appointment to meet with someone from the grad school to go over formatting with me. I've been working hard on this all week, trying to get my margins just right, my lines to wrap and curve in the right place, trying to whip my table of contents into submission.... heh... heh... heh.... ok maybe I feel a poem coming on about this.... Anyway - I'm going armed with an extra pair of shoes, in case I need to beat someone over the head with my pumps and end up losing them in the battle. I know this is going to be a battle. And it won't be a sexy battle either. Ok maybe it will be a sexy battle. Or maybe it won't be a battle at all. Ok off to the grad office, and when I get back, I have the daunting task of choosing poems for tonights reading at Carinos. You're going, right? :) I'll be there, as long as I do...

Ok so this is all last minute.... But I've decided to read tomorrow. Details, you ask? Why of course. Here they are: Poetry, Pasta and Vino: March 16, 2011 7:30pm Carino's Italian Restaurant 421 E. Nolana Loop McAllen, TX 78504 Proceeds to benefit Art That Heals MC: Daniel Garcia Ordaz Featured Poets: Veronica Sandoval aka Lady Mariposa, Edward Vidaurre aka the Barrio Poet, Julieta "La Poeta" Corpus, Alejandro Fernandez, Erika Marie Garza Johnson, Katherine Hoerth (me), Brenda Nettles Riojas, and Ernesto Duenas. Cool! :-) Yummy, I'm excited. Ok so see you tomorrow, 7:30. I just have to decide what to wear, and more importantly, what to read :-X

I sort of hate Fridays, because there's this celebratory air to them that I'm not able to indulge in. A particularly difficult Friday is this one - because it's the Friday before spring break and I have to work not only tomorrow, but through the entirety of spring break. My life sucks. LoL - Ok, no, that's not even a little bit true. But I am a bit down, looking enviously at those who are now donning flip flops and shorts. Tomorrow morn, I'll be spending my Saturday with a bunch of kiddos. And come Monday I'll be cooped up in my office trying to format my thesis manuscript between advisement appointments. When did life get complicated? Ah, screw it. I'm happy anyway :) You know what - I wouldn't want it any other way. So tonight I'm getting on Second Life and attending a poetry workshop. I'm a little excited about it, because I've never really done this whole second life thing before. I've always heard about it, been curious, but eh... ha...

So I'm movin' right along with my critical introduction. Right now my mind is absolutely swamped with everything I have to do yet. Yesterday, I went jogging with my dad to kind of get my head out of the clouds. My dad and I are strangely similar souls. When I was an undergrad, he was at the same university doing his masters so he can really sympathize with me right now. We're both goal oriented to a fault, and we both thrive on routine, physical exercise, and balance in life. So he gave me some great advice - to just get back to my 'basics' - to not worry about things beyond my control, and to keep my daily routine as much as possible. And it's been helping :) A little bit. Today I got a butt load of revisions done on the thesis, and it's finally starting to come together. I am now confident I'll have a draft ready for Dr. S on Friday, maybe even before then. I'm shocked at how fast I'm working now. Something 'snapped' in me - and now I...

Some Pictoral Reflections on NACCS: ire'ne - special guest reader of the eve' reading at Cosina del Caribe in Mission, Texas. Amalio Madueno, Maria Miranda Maloney, Lady Mariposa, Lau Cesarco Eglin, and... ME! :) I love these peeps! THE AUTHOR TABLE Me, enjoying the evening with the Mouthfeel Poets and my mom! And Daniel's trying to stalk us, or something. The evening's featured readers! I'm in the back. Here's Lady Mariposa, kicking off the reading! She was reading some pieces from her CD, Hecho en El Valle. Is that a Gloria Anzaldua t-shirt? Yeah, I think it is... ;) Me, 'womaning' the book table! I see ire'ne and Daniel were with me :) (Daniel, though, is obviously not 'womaning' anything) My professor, Emmy, read poems too. She has this amazing piece about the Rio Grande river. Maria pointed out to me that most professors don't read with their students, attend their readings, and sh...

Ok I'm back. I'm myself again, sort of whatever that means... Since I've been 'away' (mentally, not physically mind you) I have: Presented at NACCS! Organized one kick ass reading (if I may say so myself) at Cosina del Caribe Sold books to university libraries (yay! two copies of my book are going all the way to Michigan!) Wrote a new poem Submitted The Garden of Dresses to beautiful lovely and wonderful publisher (who I love, very much and who also happens to read this blog and no I'm not brown nosing in the least but I will certainly make her loads of delicious brownies and cheesecakes and chocolates and cookies and everything she wants if she decides to publish said chapbook on merit alone not dreaming of said sweets) Published TWO poems in Word Riot (and even made an audio recording my myself reading them!) And... drum roll please..... absolutely nothing else :) LoL! Ahhh I've been going to crazy lately with all of these looming deadlines. I'll get ...