June

Again, thanks to those folks who ordered copies of Ghost Lights from me or somewhere else. The initial response has been much better than I anticipated, considering you constantly see and hear writers saying, "Don't expect more than a handful of people to buy your book." Or at least I've seen that enough to have expected it.

I have a handful of copies left right now from those I received a little over a week ago, and I probably won't be getting more until July, so if you're still interested in getting a signed copy, you can use the button on the top right of the blog to order through PayPal.

Oh, and for a shot in the dark, if anyone's interested in reviewing Ghost Lights, please shoot me an email and let me know, as I most likely wouldn't hesitate to get it into the hands of someone who would be willing to review it.

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Though a few dates from the July "tour" have changed (I believe we'll be reading in Pittsburgh instead of Buffalo, for example), things are coming together more and more every day.

I'm excited to get in the car with some clothes and a box of books and a GPS and just go. I think I not only need something like this in my life right now (and thankfully I have a beautiful and understanding wife who doesn't mind that I'll be gone for over two weeks), but it's most likely the last time I'll ever have a chance to do something like this (though I do hope to have more readings in my future, of course).

My goal's to sell some books, see some (OK, many) places in the U.S. I haven't seen, meet some new people, and hopefully get some ideas for new poems. I really can't ask for anything more.

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In the past few weeks I also received the new Nimrod and Center issues, which have within the pages a few poems from my new manuscript, in addition to some poems by friends, which is always great to see.

Thanks again to the editors for including me.

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I also just sent the new manuscript out to a couple last places until the fall. As I've said before, I'm not sure what else to do with it at this point, so it'll be good for me to take a manuscript hiatus over the summer, see if anything happens, and do my best to try and move onto some new poems. And perhaps even some kind of a new project.

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I have to also mention the new Hammock record, "Chasing After Shadows... Living with the Ghosts."

Not only is it one of the best records of the year, but there's also a 4-track Outtakes disc available, and a more ambient guitar-oriented 4-track disc called "North West East South."

With everything together, it ends up being one of the best non-official double albums I've had the pleasure of listening to in a long, long time.

I ended up ordering this package deal from their website because I couldn't resist the amazing hardbound book of gorgeous photos, and also Marc's studio I believe recently flooded (since they're from Nashville). It was worth it.

Listen to all that you can. These guys are nothing but inspiring, and I don't know how they consistently write and release such gorgeous music, but they do.

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There's also a Deepdiscount summer sale on for anyone interested.

Though Amazon usually has great prices, especially on Blu-ray discs, a lot of the Deepdiscount deals, especially for Criterion Blu-ray discs, are much better (around $25 or lower, including free shipping).

I'm trying to limit myself to $100, as there are way too many I've been wanting to get for the last few months but have held out on. But now's the time to suck it up and get it done.