SURPRISE!

For many years, Jeff Streeby and I have maintained a convivial, if distant, relationship and we correspond from time to time. Among other things, he is author of a remarkable collection of prose and poetry, Sunday Creek, a look at an Old West town from an engaging variety of viewpoints. He also taught English language and literature at high schools and universities, and has been honored with several prestigious awards and other recognition. Jeff is also Senior Associate Editor for OJAL Arts Incorporated, and manages its prominent publication, OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters, or O:JA&L for short.

The high-toned Journal features a wide range of poetry and prose, as well as the poets and writers who create it. They also publish a “Masters Series” of chapbooks featuring  a selected author, their work, and other material. Jeff offered me the shocking opportunity to be featured in the Masters Series. The result is a 52-page chapbook under the Journal’s Dally Post Press imprint, Saddle Work: The Art & Practice of Cowboy Poetry. The book features a handful of my poems, including some heretofore unseen, an essay on cowboy poetry, and an interview in which I attempt to provide rational answers to Jeff’s probing questions. I can’t remember the last time I had to think so hard.

The O:JA&L website is featuring one of the new poems, “Give That Cowboy a Hand,” (with more to come) as well as the entirety of Saddle Work: The Art & Practice of Cowboy Poetry. Click on the links and take a look. Being included in the Masters Series is an honor—and a big surprise.

Guest Post: Lessons from the Poets.

Lynn Wiese Sneyd of LWS Literary Services—a firm which provides a variety of marketing and publicity services for authors—kindly asked me to contribute a guest post to her site. The post went online today. It’s titled “Three Things We Can Learn from Poets” and talks about a few literary techniques employed by poets and how writers of prose can employ those tools to improve what they write. Read my contribution here, http://wp.me/p2CvCp-jh, and be sure to check out the rest of Lynn’s web site to access a whole bunch of interesting and helpful information.

The ideas in my guest post are condensed from an in-depth treatment of the subject I will present in late October at the Kanab Writers Conference. (More about that later.) 

And now a word from our sponsor.

My new collection of poetry, Goodnight Goes Riding and Other Poems, is now available from Pen-L Publishing. (!) It’s available exclusively from the publisher until the end of the month, when it will go into wider distribution to all the usual places that sell books.

Until then, Pen-L is offering the book at a 15% discount, saving all you early purchasers some money. Follow this link for this special, limited offer: http://Pen-L.com/GoodnightGoesRiding.html.