Joanne Merriam » Um… yeah

We went on a hot air balloon ride this morning.

joannemerriam — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:21:30 +0000

Getting the basket ready.

Unrolling the balloon.

Inflating the balloon.

More inflation (now with heat).

Franklin area from above.
(This was really cool, but I didn’t get a whole lot of impressive photos.)

Me.

Treetops (on the descent).

Alan getting left behind, briefly.
They had some people get out when we landed,
to help walk the basket to a better pick-up position,
and kind of misjudged how many should get out.

Look at these happy people.

We went to Gatlinburg for the weekend.

joannemerriam — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:22:47 +0000

View from our cabin.

Blue heron posing for the paparazzi.

We went to the aquarium.

Jellyfish.

What up.

Penguins! We will be going back to pet them.

Gourds cleverly disguised as penguins.

a multitude of daggers

joannemerriam — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:21:59 +0000

My ebook “A Multitude of Daggers” is now available on Amazon!

It’s a Kindle edition only for now. Once I finish working out the kinks for epub I’ll put that up too, and add vendors (Apple istore, B&N, etc.). I’m having a few technical difficulties with my process for epub which I expect to straighten out by November. This is by way of testing my books and the various vendors before I publish other people’s work for Upper Rubber Boot Books.

It’s a fantasy novella set in a world where the ruling class can fly and the afterlife is real—and it’s a giant therapist’s office, run by the Boatman from my short story “The Boatman” (I really need to pick less obvious titles sometimes) and Greek mythology. A half-blind goddess with a devilish sense of humour basically effs up the life of another goddess’ acolyte to try to avert the war that’s brewing people the people who can fly and the people who can’t. The first 2 1/2 chapters are available for free in the “look inside this book” feature.

Kickstarter is totally awesome.

joannemerriam — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 03:48:26 +0000

I’ve posted a fundraising appeal for the Seven by Twenty anthology, 140 And Counting over at Kickstarter.

Go check it out, and delight in the charming yet awkward stop-motion video that took me way too long to make.

▌♥ ▌& Oaklands Historic House Museum

joannemerriam — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:59:32 +0000

Went to Oaklands Historic House Museum yesterday with my friend Diana. It was pretty interesting, and our guide was able to answer all our many questions. I now covet these sofas they have that have three distinct upholstered backs, which I have just this second learned are called medallion backs, like this (only theirs had red patterned upholstery).

I had taken the day off for Canada Day (it just feels wrong to be at work). I joked on Facebook that I was going to celebrate by eating maple cookies and crying and rocking myself silently, and I did indeed end up having maple cookies, which Alan got for me, but despite my predictions I had a lovely day. I’m spending today writing, for my sins.

Speaking of writing, my friend Eleonore Schönmaier has just had a beautiful poem in Prairie Schooner.

Seahorses

joannemerriam — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:47:30 +0000

I have a photo (of seahorses) in Scientific American!

So I’ve been busy

joannemerriam — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:53:19 +0000

This is some of what’s been keeping me busy:

Lake Erie from our cottage.

Alan and I at Cedar Point.

In writing news, I sold a poem to The Furnace Review! Yay! I love them. Also, I have two poems in the recently released issue of The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, including my sci-fi adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

Some of them, often the best of them, will go undercover—wear suits and carry briefcases, returning to their writing desk only after the sun has gone down and the city has gone to sleep.

joannemerriam — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:13:16 +0000

Last Sunday I went to see Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez read at Vanderbilt. I don’t speak Spanish, so I had to rely on the translations, which is always a bit dodgy with poetry. If you watch the video linked above, you’ll see he read a number of poems including “Gazing at the Stars with Martie” (not sure I have the name of his friend right), “White Holes,” “On the Banks of the Ohio in Kentucky,” “The Cell Phone” and “The Origin of the Species,” after which his latest book is named. The video is worth listening to – don’t know if it’s worth watching, so you could probably just minimize it and multitask. Best line (from memory): “The canonization of John Paul II goes against Darwin’s theory. It is not an evolution but a retrogression.”

In other news, this week was administrative professional’s day, which is what they’re calling secretary’s day now that we’ve collectively decided that “secretary” is demeaning (news in 2020: “administrative professional” now considered demeaning). In honour of my extreme awesomeness, my boss-doctors at the hospital got me a gift card to an online bookstore which shall remain nameless in a pointless attempt not to increase their market share. I got almost everything on my wishlist, and the bulk of it arrived today, including After the Ark by Luke Johnson, who is one of my P&W Speakeasy peeps as well as being a tremendous poet. Plus I got Turko’s Book of Forms, which I’ve been coveting for awhile, and a bunch of Robin McKinley (fantasy) and Jennifer Crusie (romance) books, and Joey Comeau’s One Bloody Thing After Another, which I finished yesterday and which is really fantastic and disturbing, as you might guess from the lesbian young adult romance vs chained-up monster mother plot synopsis.

I was interviewed by the Toronto Star.

joannemerriam — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:41:51 +0000

Ex-pat Canadians baffled by voting rules.

What I did last Sunday, and why I love living in Nashville.

joannemerriam — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:57:18 +0000

Queens of the Stone Age live at the Ryman: “Regular John” & “Avon” ; “If Only” ; “Walkin’ on the Sidewalks” ; “You Would Know” ; “How to Handle a Rope” ; “Mexicola” ; “Hispanic Impressions” & “The Bronze” ; “Give the Mule What He Wants” ; “Go with the Flow” ; “Turnin’ on the Screw” ; “Song for the Dead” ; “Monsters in the Parasol” ; “The Fun Machine Took a Shit & Died” ; “No One Knows” ; “Long Slow Goodbye“. (I can’t find “You Can’t Quit Me Baby” or “I Was a Teenage Hand Model” and probably have the order slightly effed, but this is pretty close.)