I'm Sorta Of a Poet, Dontcha Know It?

I've grown to love poetry over the last few years.  As a teacher and a writer.  In the course of lesson planning, I once came across this definition of poetry: "poetry is distilled language" - communication in its purest form.  Expression whittled down to its essence.  

I like that description.  A lot.

When it comes to reading poetry, I favor the classic scribblers, and when I do read modern poetry, it's by folks who actually SAY something - like Andrei Guruianu - or poets with a solid sense of lyricism, such as Joe Weil. 

So while I feel decent enough chops to edit something The Terror at Miskatonic Falls, I'm a little leery of my own verse.  I've had a poem or two published.  Here or there.  And I've had a few accepted that are yet to be published.  And MAYBE there's a collection somewhere too, that'll probably never see the light of day.

But honestly, I'm a dabbler.  A lazy poet, really.  Not that my poems are lazy (I don't think), I just don't spend as much time on poetry as a real poet does.  I've workshopped with those folks, and they attack poetry the same way I attack prose, get up in the wee hours of the morning to hammer out those lines of verse like I do a story.  

One of these days I'll make a concerted stab at poetry - maybe for that 365 Days of Creativity jazz - but for now I only write poetry when gripped with the need to do so, which doesn't happen much, honestly.   

Anyway, a recent poem of mine - "Physics" - was published in a special "Students & Teachers" edition of the poetry journal Solo Cafe.  Now, I don't expect ANYONE to drop $12 bucks for ONE of my poems, but I've got to put SOMETHING on this blog thingie, so...

Solo Café 8&9

Gerald Locklin • Laura Boss • Earl Sherman Braggs • Sally Buckner • George Burns • Kelly Cherry • Perie Longo • Ray Gonzalez • Michael S. Harper • George Kalamaras • Carol Lem • Kevin Lucia • Teddy Macker • Shayla Hawkins • Michael McFee • Maria Melendez • Susan Meyers • Lenard D Moore • Terre Ouwehand • Randy W Pait • Nancy Simpson • Barry Spacks • Lamont Steptoe • Gina Streaty • Jerry W. Ward, Jr • Bruce Weigl • Carolyn Beard Whitlow • Mary Ann Cain • John Bradley • Joseph Gastiger • Patrick Lawler • Karen McKinnon • David Rigsbee • John Tritica • Shelby Stephenson• Mel Weisburd • Jackson Wheeler

Winners of Hiram Grange Giveaway, Blog Tour Reflections

First off, I'd like to congratulate Jeff of California, Kenneth of Virginia, and Dixie of Georgia.  Goodreads has selected you as winners, so you'll soon be getting free copies of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One in the mail. Kudos! 

However, that's not all.  Because I like to give stuff away, (it's a compulsion, actually), I'm also going to throw in copies of The Midnight Diner, Volume Three - featuring my story, "Lonely Places" - and Abominations: 17 Tales of Murderous Monsters, which features my story "Water God of Clarke Street".  So, Christmas has come early for you folks.  Hope you enjoy the goodies.

So, the blog tour is done.  For a list of the all places I toured, go here.  Now...what's next?  What are my thoughts on the tour, about what I might have accomplished?

Mixed feelings.  First of all, my original tour idea - to ping Technorati's "Popular Books" Page (which no longer exists), see if I could drive a small press novella up the ranks was a bust from the beginning.  But with the overwhelming response from bloggers who wanted to throw their collective shoulders behind the idea, I went ahead anyway. 

And, it turned out to be pretty fun.  I enjoyed writing some of those different guest posts and answering a whole bunch of interview questions that somehow - amazingly enough - managed to touch on many different topics without much overlap.  Some nice reviews came back, and I wrote some new short fiction.  I hope things didn't get too "over pimpy", as I tried to maintain my regular blog presence, as well.

Did it impact sales? Not much, I imagine.  Did it help spread the word about Hiram and me?  Maybe. I did get a whole slew of new Twitter and Facebook friends during the tour, far more than I usually get in a month. Will that translate into new fans of my work, new blog followers? Who knows, really?

Probably the nicest thing about the tour, the biggest surprise and best result was this: all the folks who chimed in and basically said with their efforts: "Hey, Kevin - we like your work and we think it's worth supporting. How can we help?"  That was probably the best takeaway, and something that really made my day for a whole month, seeing folks cross-posting, re-tweeting and posting things to Facebook.  

Some folks even did RL (real life) things like ordering Hiram Grange for their libraries, (something I'll detail about later, after I've resumed my regular blogging), set me up with potential speaking and signing gigs in the area, stuff like that.  I'm thankful for that, thankful for all of it, really.

Now, however...

Time to drop off the promotional radar.  There are a few reviews and interviews leftover from the tour that'll show up eventually, a few other reviews that had nothing to do with the tour due anytime, but what I really need to do now is let Hiram Grange go his way, and have me go mine.   I have a huge opportunity with these three chapters and novel synopsis, an opportunity that's basically a Godsend.  

A chance to pitch something to a New York publishing house. That's a whole 'nother level of awesome, so you can imagine I'll be pretty obsessed with that over the coming weeks and months.

Also, I have The Drift (Shroud novel) to return to, and in the Spring - The Terror of Miskatonic Falls.  Also, a few stories requested of me, and when I get final due dates on those, I need to get cranking there, too.

Busy, busy, busy....