Researching payment options

I got as far as FreshBooks in my research today. Google Checkout is being retired, with no plans by Google to replace it. It's easy to embed a PayPal button, but I'd like to include other options, like Visa Debit cards, and credit cards for those who use them. Likely FreshBooks is not a viable option, but I will call them tomorrow to see how it works and whether their service would fit my decidedly minimal needs.
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'the luminist poems' chapbook cover

This took hours because my internet went down and then it started telling me another IP address was using it resulting me calling the internet provider and changing the name and the password, all of which took upward of 3 hours (you know, running back and forth between computers, re-starting the modem, having little bowls of curry and cucumber and bananas and mango chutney, taking the dogs for pit stops). I just got it from my old computer, which is connected to a scanner, via the home network. Ok, you'll see it a lot in the coming weeks or months. And I still have to figure out how to make a 'shop' page... that's tomorrow's task... although I seem to be running a fever, so may need to go in search of a doctor since it's Sunday... we'll see. By tomorrow night's end I aim to have a Google Wallet page or some such - and then I'll become like all the other writers selling their book(s). Lol! It's a good feeling!!!!!

And tonight I managed to transfer the video of my launch reading onto a video drive. And even looked at 30 seconds of it. Who knows if I'll do anything with it... maybe a snippet, maybe the whole thing at some point, or not.

Clearly, though, despite a rising fever, tonight I have finally had time in the midst of a week long family crisis to remember I just had a small chapbook published, and to begin to do the tasks necessary for its little journey in the world.

(That I've got this far is good. A shop page is next. Then I have to start selling it at readings by getting up on open mic and not hiding away in the back row. :) (Though... I am a featured poet in two upcoming poetry events in July, so I'll have to step up to the plate, or mic, somehow.)

It's a small hand-made chapbook... by Luciano Iacobelli who owns LyricalMyrical Press. Bright primary colours. Printed on fine paper. Each of his chapbooks are jewels. He probably does 9 or 10 chapbooks a year. Collector's items. I am honoured to be among the poets he has published.

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Steam

encrypted image

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The Trawlers

I am writing poetry, have all along, but cannot post publicly anymore. This is due to the Trawlers, a group of poets who trawl the Internet looking for snippets to steal, tid bits that can't be traced back their source, inspiration, to keep their blogs going and to keep their accolades coming. I note that not one single one of the Trawlers has congratulated me on getting a chapbook published. It's as if the last thing they want is my work in print. Odd how I feel that way, isn't it.

The only time I've felt 'safe' in the last number of years was if I did, say, a poetry prompt in a poetry community and then received lots of comments, as you do when you participate in these beautiful little communities that pop up and disappear all too soon, as the last one did. Because of the traffic to my site, and that some of the participants also read their blogs, the Trawlers wouldn't sack that poem. They might get caught out. Geez.

Also I wrote a really fine poem a year or two back and never posted it but is is in one of my videopoems, one which has received 2,500 hits in just over a year, and I added it via the Subtitle option in YouTube. The Trawlers are unlikely to touch something that is in video form because, again, in the cross-overs of communities, someone might see my videopoem and then read their rip-off in something they posted on their site and the wires would mesh.

While they all hide behind Oscar Wilde, who said, "Talent borrows, genius steals," Wilde himself was very original as a writer and did not "steal." He was a very witty man. But the plunder of literature his famous comment spawned, now that's a sad thing, it really is.

It's as if people can't be bothered to plunder their own psyches and work at saying what they need to say in their own words - because writing poetry is hard work. Words create the writer and writing is a dangerous act. The Trawlers really don't like to put anything at risk - better to steal from someone who is dying into their writing. Then they can get some depth, something real into their own work, even if by theft, not by the hard work of mining oneself.

Even this post has a few nuggets a couple of the Trawlers would glom onto, I know.

There is no solution to this continued and persuasive problem in the Internet blog world. Incredible poetry is being posted every day around the world in various blogs. And then there are the Trawlers, middling talents who are desperate, who happily grab this and that, mulching it into their own rather poor but self-inflated productions.

Talent Borrows, Genius Steals, but it's still Plagiarism on the Net
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On Invisibility

For me to keep everything in one place. I do apologize, but I'm at a point where I need to keep my poetry beyond the reach of certain people who have plucked from my work here and there as it pleases them as if they were vultures and I a fresh carcass.

(An image one of them will probably lift. I cannot imagine being so bereft of words and having to literally steal; or, alternatively, being so desperate to appear 'brilliant' that you have to trawl poets on the Internet for whatever you can scavenge.)

On Invisibility

Notes on My Mother's Death

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The Beautiful and the Damned - Who is Who?

I've begun a new journal and have been using graphite and charcoal powder. I particularly like this drawing. There is a synergy between the figures, who are together but not gazing at each other, that captivates me. And if you look closely, you, too, will see that it is simply not possible to decide Who is the Beautiful and Who is the Damned. Either could be either.

I loved the remnants of the powder I had smeared on to begin molding the faces in the paper, and so have included those earlier photos. The first one is of the finished drawing. There is a silvery-pewter quality to the drawing, the way the light catches that, that is hard to photograph, but I've done my best.

 Final.

 Final, detail.

 In-process.

In-process, detail.

Beautiful and Damned - Who Is Who? Brenda Clews, 2013, 16" x 10", graphite and ink, 

in a Premium C.D. Japanese Notebook (the paper is like silk).

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The launch of 'luminist poems' went well

I was so nervous I nearly didn't go! My daughter got me there. That was an unexpected reaction. I've been doing open mic for perhaps 6 months almost weekly, and had a few poetry features, and of course have a wack of videos, and I was so stressed I wanted to cancel out of the launch of my first book. You learn something new about yourself every day, I tell you!

It's hard to be present for dear friends with whom you are talking when the crowd around you is in your ears. When you are more of a one-on-one person who likes to get in to actual conversations, the requirements of meet and greet can be a little difficult. I hope I made everyone who came out for the launch feel as special as they felt to me.

Once the readings began, it was okay. Patrick Connors, who launched his chapbook, Scarborough Songs, went first, then me, and Lisa Young closed the evening with readings from her chapbook, This Cabin. They were great. We had been such a team for the promo, it was super to launch with them, and almost a bit sad after, as Lisa said, "Now that the launch is over, it feels a bit like we are breaking up."

My book, the luminist poems, is beautifully produced -Luciano Iacobelli, who hand-crafts all the chapbooks his Press, LyricalMyrical, publishes did a superb job, as always. A decent number of copies were sold. He hosted a warm, comfortable, loving evening of great poetry, camaraderie, and sharing in the best of literary traditions.

Everyone clapped after every single poem each one of us read! It seems so excessive, everyone clapping loudly after each poem, and yet there is such an enthusiasm for poetry in our 'niche' world. Poetry in Toronto rocks, it really does.

I went in terrified and came out the other end of the hours in a warm glow that lasted well into the early hours as I went with a few friends to a friend's apartment to celebrate.

My dear sweet niece, Freya Clews, gave me flowers. The flowers match my favourite lace dress! Almost my whole family came. I am so lucky! And many beautiful friends. All I can say is thank you! xoxoxoxo

My daughter, son and brother helped me take down my show today, and all the paintings are at home. Lots of lovely responses, but, no, no sales. Q Space, being a poetry cafe, I wasn't expecting to sell, but thought that having a show was a good thing for me at this point. You can see my paintings in the photographs - Luciano was kind enough to make sure that the show and the launch co-incided. My brother, Allan, took some fine video too, so I may post that at some point just because.

All in all, a fine experience; it's been an intense month with a solo show and preparations for and then the launch, and I am quite ready to retire from 'be'in public' for awhile! (Though I am a featured poet at two upcoming poetry events, so not totally!)

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