Poetry Month—No Fooling

In honor of National Poetry Month, Literary Ashland is featuring interviews with southern Oregon poets—watch for interviews with Amy Miller, Angela Decker, Amy MacLennan, Gary Lark, Jonah Bornstein, Hannah Darling, and Vince and Patty Wixon.

And here are some upcoming Rogue Valley events:

On Monday, April 2, Bloomsbury Books hosts a reading by Richard Lehnert, Angela Decker & Jonah Bornstein at 7:00 pm.

On Tuesday, April 10, Southern Oregon University will host Sia Figiel, Samoa’s first woman novelist, in the Meese Room of the Hannon Library at 4:30 pm.

And on Thursday, April 12, at Bloomsbury, hear Steve Dieffenbacher and Chris Anderson at 7:00 pm.

On Saturday, April 14, Rogue Valley Chapter of the Oregon Poetry Association and the Medford Branch Library presents “Poetry and Pie” from 2 pm-4 pm. On Friday, April 20, at 7:30 pm, Chautauqua Poets & Writers presents Barry Lopez at Ashland High School. More about this soon. Tickets are on sale.

And on Friday, May 4 at 3 pm, the Hannon Library and the SOU Department of Language, Literature and Philosophy host poet Linda Bierds, who will give a reading/presentation titled Second Hand: A Poet’s Journey Toward Science. It’s in the Meese Room of the Hannon Library.

In non-poetry events, don’t miss the Ashland Independent Film Festival (animation =poetry) and Paul Steinle and Sara Brown’s presentation on Who Needs Newspapaers, a report of their 50 state interview project. That’s in the Meese Room of the Hannon Library on Thursday, April 12 at 4 pm.

And RIP to Adrienne Rich and Earl Scruggs, now forever linked in my mind.

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March’s Non-words

Here are the Non-Words for March:

    endeem, v. to cause something to become endemic. 1 Mar

    overmind, v. to pay too much attention to those in authority. 2 Mar

    ummify, v. to repeatedly use “um”s and “uh”s in one’s speech (the noun form is ummification). 3 Mar

    mehme, n. a failed meme, an idea or image that doesn’t propagate endlessly over the internet (from meh + meme). 4 Mar

    regretoric, n. the language of apology (contributed by Rob Adams). 5 Mar

    sgaggle, n. a succession of noisy groups (a spate of gaggles; not the same as a gagglepate, a gaggle of spates). 6 Mar

    counterproduce, v. to be counterproductive or inefficient, to waste time. 7 Mar

    codgertate, v. to reminiscence about how good or hard or cheap things used to be a long time go. 8 Mar

    movementum, n. The rate at which a popular, coordinated action proceeds (contributed by LeRoy Fulwiler). 9 Mar

    degreeter, n. person at a wholesale store exit who checks your receipt and cart to make sure you don’t steal anything. 10 Mar

    catch down, v. to reach a state of parity with those at lower rankings (“Other states will soon catch down to us”). Mar 11

    renegation, n. the act of reneging on an agreement or withdrawing a commitment. 12 Mar

    stenchmark, v. the process of comparing everyday smells to malodorous standards, such as feces, vomit, or rotting fish. 13 Mar

    mullify, v. to ponder a choice until a decision is no longer valuable (from mull + nullify). 14 Mar

    evocateur, n. Person or thing (object, word, song, smell) evoking a memory (suggested by Wilkins O’Riley Zinn). 15 Mar

    gesunbesuelude, interj. (GEH zun buh SWE loo deh) a multilingual response to someone’s sneezing (from Justin Close). 16 Mar

    o’nomastics, n. the yearly process of putting an apostrophe in names beginning with the letter O (like O’bama). 17 Mar

    ofrom p. a blend of “off of” and “from” and (“I got it ofrom the internet.”). 18 Mar
    corporaphilia, n. loving corporations as though they were people. 19 Mar

    heisty, adj. in the mood to commit an unarmed robbery or petty theft. 20 Mar

    levitas, n. the virtue of dignified nonseriousness, especially as a leadership tool. 21 Mar

    hangry, adj. to become angry due to hunger (from hungry + angry, courtesy of Jessica Jade Zigenis). 22 Mar

    pastache, ambiguous n. an incongruous blend of leftover pasta OR a mustache of spaghetti sauce. 23 Mar

    artisn’tal, adj. having the quality of “artisanal” products but lacking the pretension and cost. 24 Mar

    wrang, v. to argue endlessly with no purpose other than arguing (clipping of wrangle). 25 Mar

    twalkers n. people who walk and text at the same time and nearly run into others. 26 Mar

    snlob n. someone who is snobbish about being a slob. 27 Mar

    confoundation, n. A non-profit organization that causes surprise or confusion by its actions. 28 Mar

    retromend, v. To advise or suggest a return to the past as a course of future action. 29 Mar

    growd, n. an angry gathering and one growing in size (from Bill Cameron, passed on by Robert Arellano). 30 Mar

    distopia, n. Any locale is which ritual insult is the preferred and usual means of interaction. 31 Mar

Thanks to Jessica Jade Zigenis, Rob Adams, Leroy Fulwiler, Justin Close, Wilkins O’Riley Zinn and Bill Cameron for their non-words. And catch down was a new usage I overheard from Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner. Catch down has a specific medical use as an adjective in catch down growth, but its use as a phrasal verb seems unique, so it’s in. Thanks, George!

Some suggested non-words that are already in the Urban Dictionary. Uniquity, suggested by David Brown (which has the nice allusion to both ubiquity and iniquity) and voiceterous suggested by Devora Shapiro (blending boisterous and vociferous).

Don’t forget to use these non-words: If you find yourself getting hangry you can have a pastache. Or you can go for a sandwich but with artisn’tal bread. But watch out for the twalkers.

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The Birth of a Book

I’m preparing for my spring History of Publishing class and came across this teriffic silent video of old school book making: Glen Milner’s The Birth of a Book.

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ePublishing Workshop

Today I attended the Ashland Mystery ePublishing Workshop at the Ashland Public Library where about 50 people heard from authors and publishers and author/publishers.

Ashland’s Tim Wolhforth brought the audience up to speed on the state of mystery–what’s being published, in ebook and book book form and where the profits are. (Think 50 Shades of Grey.)

L J Sellers talked about ePublishing from the author’s point of view. LJ explained some of the choices she had to make as an author but also as a small business person’s, with herself as the product! So how do you maximize your chances as an independent author using Amazon Select? She’s done it with the Eugene-based Detective Jackson series. And done it well.

My colleague Michael Niemann talked about the mechanics of ebook creation–formats like epub and mobi and tools like Scrivener, Open Office, Storyist and Pages. It’s easier than you think.


Midge Raymond of Ashland Creek Press talked about how an author builts a marketing platform for his or her work–from social media, to guest blogs (call me), to virtual books tours and give aways. Don’t miss Falling in Green and the Tourist Trail–two great mysteries.


Rogue River’s Ken Lewis, an author and publisher, explained how he developed Krill Press, and how a publisher finds authors, develops covers and produces books in all forms.

Some takes-away (or take-aways, if you must):

    watch those contracts
    POD is the author’s friend
    you are your product
    ebook sales can be a roller coaster
    it pays to give things away
    you’ve got to have [Facebook] friends
    pay attention to the publishing news
    don’t try to catch last year’s trend
    there are a lot of great writers out there
    ..and some bad ones too
    you need a thick skin
    ISBNs are cheaper in bulk
    ebooks offer options–from novellas to long novels
    a book needs to feel like a book
    $2.99 is the cutoff point for royalities…
    Hoot Suite!!
    don’t listen to your spouse about titles unless he’s a best selling author.

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