Katie's Blog

Life's been pretty darn nice lately. It's summer and I have all the time in the world to write. Typically, what that means is I stare at my computer and get angry with myself for not having enough ideas. This summer, though, that's not happening at all. I've been writing writing writing. I've also been participating in several different forms of online workshops, which is helping me immensely, too, to keep on track with not only developing new material, but also revising and polishing my work, which I find just as important (if not more). So the two different types of workshops I participate in are a Skype-type workshop, live with a small group of poets, and then, an online poetry forum called Eratosphere. The first type of workshop is fairly new to me. I think it was around March that one of my Facebook friends, Terry, from Houston posted something about wanting to start an online poetry group. I'm always up for something new, so I asked him if I could jo...

So, Katiekins, what are you up to for NaPoWriMo? Well I'm glad that you've asked. 1. I'm excited to announce that this year, I've been invited to be a featured poet for the Valley International Poetry Month! This is particularly special for me. I've been involved with VIPF since 2009, and it's been this constant in my development as a poet. For those of y'all who don't know what VIPF is, here's the website It's essentially THE local poetry event of the year where members of our community and beyond get together for four crazy days of poetry readings over the entire Rio Grande Valley (including Mexico!). We put out an anthology, offer workshops, read our work all over the community, and it all ends in this enormous pachanga where 50 + poets take the stage and do their thang. So yay. There's that. As a featured poet, I'll be giving a workshop, signing books, and of course, sharing my work. I'm nervous (as always) and excited, ...

Phew! What an awesome summer this is proving to be! Ok, so I'm not traveling anywhere, and no, no, I'm not doing even working, or even getting out of my pjs every day, but you know what? It's felt really, really wonderful. I've been writing, yes, writing, a boat load, I think enough to keep me revising and rewriting and editing throughout the rest of the year :-P :-P :-P I'm happy to finally breathe a sigh of relief: I've gotten my second full manuscript to a "happy place" -- and no, that doesn't mean I'm done, but it does mean that it's at least done enough. I've wrapped it up, it has a pretty bow on it, and now it's ready to start going off to publishers. This was my main goal for the summer, and it feels eerily good (while at the same time horrible) to have it, well, somewhat done. I'm going to continue working on it until I get a publisher, though, revising, adding, taking out poems, that kind of stuff. What IS my second...

Not an empty seat at Hinovations last night! I'm coming off my workshop high, well, that and a slight hangover from cheap Goddess wine :) Last night went amazingly well, better than I could have dreamed of, in fact.  I guess I'll start from the very beginning, as stories oft go. It was maybe two months ago; Rachel Vela, founder of a local poetry reading series affectionately called We Need Words, sent me a message on facebook. "What do you think of leading a workshop?" she asked. I jumped on it. Of course! Yes, I was a little nervous, but it was an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone, to give back to the community, and to maybe grow as a writer myself. I agreed to do it. Rachel would organize and publicize; all I had to do was lead. Fair enough. I decided to teach what I know best -- the writing of revisionist myths. It was, after all, what I wrote my thesis about, and it's how I frame a lot of what I write within poetic discourse. I wanted to e...