From my journal

Thursday, January 7th 2010.
7:49 AM (EST?)

I am in an airplane that will bravely and apathetically carry me over one third of midwestern America. At roughly 12:30, I will be dropped off by this metal behemoth in Phoenix, Arizona.
I am not at all acquainted with Arizona, and this seems like an unfortunate start to our relationship. If there is an area in the terminal where smoking is permitted, however, it might be the start of a beautiful human-state friendship.

Just under two hours after I arrive in Phoenix, grab some lunch, and call my parents and Tim, I will be boarding another plane, this one headed straight to my new home, Honolulu. I have never been to Hawai’i before. I am now about to start living in a state thousands of miles away from anyone I have ever met and anywhere I have ever been.

This is a challenge of my resilient nature, as well as my ability to carry off fantastical and/or spontaneous decisions with pleasure and success. I am up to the challenge.

I did not sleep last night, both out of a fear of oversleeping and a knowledge that I was too excited to realistically hope for unconsciousness. Between the time change and the plain lack of sleep, I may be in a less-than-healthy state when I arrive at Chaminade University of Honolulu. I plan to fake it till I make it in this case.

Rachel

Linking you up

There are certain links that anyone interested in my writing might consider worth checking out. Over the past few months I've been doing a lot of writing and a lot of marketing. This has led to my first full-length novel (as opposed to my attempted novels that got abandoned after the first few chapters) which I am currently editing. It has also led to my first acceptance letter from a publication that is not local or student-run. Lastly, it has led to a much greater online presence for me. The following blog entry is a list of the links that I consider to be most pertinent to my writing career at the moment!


I have a new website. It's the best resource out there for all things Rachel Knight. I have a sign-up form for an occasional newsletter that will be sent out whenever I get published or have an otherwise important announcement, a Peanuts allusion mimicking Lucy's 5-cent psychiatric help booth (it really does only cost a nickel through Paypal,) selections from my new novel, information on my non-profit organization, and more good stuff like that.


I also have a LinkedIn profile. Feel free to add me as a contact.

For my fellow NaNoWriMo participants, here is my profile. I post in the message boards frequently, even during the off season!

As always, there is my Facebook fan page.

I am participating in WriYe, a NaNoWriMo spin-off in which each participant sets a word count goal for the year. Here's my WriYe profile.

Lastly, the wonderful PDF e-zine and paperback periodical Breadcrumb Scabs will be publishing "Mary Anne" this year. To keep up-to-date on the release of the online issue and printing of the paperback (which should be up for sale in July) subscribe to the newsletter on my site! Here's the link again. I sometimes award awesome prizes to new sign-ups.

I'm listening to the Paste Culture Club podcast and looking hopelessly at my very-disheveled room. My mother will have her first heart attack if I don't finish cleaning this mess of a bedroom by morning, but for now I feel a desire to blog.

Blog what, though? I might as well start with a poem.

I am not a literary exhibitionist.
the blood and soap that rinses off of my arms
do not collect into words and stanzas on the shower floor

My poetry is November.
it lands cold on my skin
but does not threaten danger like January ice.

I want to make poems so close to myself
that they glow from inside my skin like bright blue veins
I want to shake readers like my body under the force of sobs
I want to turn every literary journal that will have me into a girlie magazine
with a centerfold of my naked body
I want to make my emotions so loud you can read them!

I can't do poetic confessionals.
I write of stages and old men and things I feel no relation to
But I want so badly to write what I feel (and not what I know that I am good at writing)
that I bled through as much as ninety lesions every time I bathed for three years
and wrote words on my stomach and thighs with straight razors
in that way, maybe, I wrote lines that weren't so separate from myself
as every piece of writing I've ever done that I think is decent

but with scar cream being the price that it is
I've made too much of an investment to take my words off of paper

but for once I want to smile and shake and cry and scream and laugh
not just for theatrics during these public readings
but because I can't help it, I feel the art too deeply
I would give half my talent in verse to make my words
show the love that I feel!


I started working at Dunkin Donuts last week. My new job is very different than any that I have had before. Before making lattes and asking people what Munchkins they wanted, I had been editor-in-chief of my school newspaper, and the year before that, a staff writer for the same paper. That's it for paid jobs.

Now, instead of doing intellectual work without registers, or rushing, or customer service, I'm doing a job that I wasn't made for. I love it. It's difficult, but it's a rush. I'm using a different sort of skill set than I've ever even pondered before.

Thank you to @vinylart for getting me a few new readers. No one's commented yet (but I know that you're there! Google Reader doesn't lie) so please comment so I can give you a proper thank you.