Prep Work, Part 5

Before the end of the month, I plan to email Gloria Mindock with an updated version on Discarded. Since she accepted the chapbook, I've only edited one of the poems for clarity. Nothing else has been done to the poems since the initial submission to Cervena Barva. This is surprising even to me, since a good fraction of the poems were copy edited fairly quickly (for me) from the National Poetry Writing Month 2006 segments. Another piece (my favorite), was written barely two weeks before I submitted the manuscript. I owe it to myself to give the work a once-over, just in case there's an error or two I missed.

James has been at home, dealing with an injury I hope he recovers from soon. One of the more fortunate side effects is that he has more time to make more art (see the link for his updated blog). Earlier this week, he came up with another version of my idea for the book cover. One he was happy enough with to let me post.



I wish I had looked it over longer before calling him. One of my earlier thoughts (and please take note I'm not anything but a self-taught critic of art) was that the background was too dark and that Gloria might not want to make James' artwork as dominant as it was in Self-Portrait In Fire (where it takes up the entire front cover). I told him via voice mail to maybe try a background without as much "brown." James properly schooled me and told me it was a French Grey 80%. Had I enlarged the picture and not just checked it out during a quick lunch break, I would have been able to at least identify the color a little bit better.

Now that I've taken a longer look at the most recent "Trash Day" illustration, I have an even more positive reaction to it. I still would like James to try a version with a white background just in case; but maybe Gloria who puts together great chaps, can start to develop her own ideas regarding the cover before I think into it too much and cramp James' style.

At any rate, now the game is on. I just have to speed things up on my end. James, if you're reading this--and you will eventually--I owe you a lot and hope you recover soon.