Finally!

My story "Los Prisioneros Pequenos" is available at the Amazon shorts site.

Go here.

Can we give him a going away party?

Mei Sheng, a panda at the San Diego Zoo, will leave the U.S. in October. As per an agreement, cubs have to be sent to China at age three.

Until then you can watch him, his sister or the others on this panda cam.

Writing quote for 7/26/07

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.

--Vladimir Nabakov

Quote for 7/26/07

To love, and to be hurt often and to love again, that is the brave and happy life.

--S.E. Buckrose

Ah, stop being a wuss, Gwendolyn

You will never receive the gifts a man can offer if you don't open yourself to them.

That a girl, put on that summer dress. . .

Story #107

will be my most favorite of all I have written to date.

This story "My Two Daughters" came to me in a dream. I've learned and I sleep with paper and pen nearby. Moments after I woke, I was jotting down notes and lines that are, if I say so myself, simply beautiful.

I have been trudging through some other works, a serious lack of interest--the characters don't want to fully come to life, I have no idea what's supposed to happen in some of the works,among other things-- but this story has me all excited again. It will be a piece of magical realism and I'm fascinated to learn what this story wants to say about--

about?

I don't know but I'm ready to find out.

Writing today

and doing the blog thing does not count.

So later. Have yourself a very, very good one :)

Robert Bradley/Writer Profile Project

His interview went up days ago. Scroll down over at Kelly's website.

Writing quote for 7/25/07

I like to write about things that bother me in some way, that I have a lot in conflict with.

--Amy Tan

Quote for 7/25/07

It's what you learn after you know it all that matters.

--John Wooden

The police officer picked me up and tossed me across

the seat of his motorcycle.

He gave me permission to mount it and I was trying to figure out how to get up on that huge thing when he came behind me and helped me along.

I screamed in surprise though once on it, I could laugh along with him and the other motorcycle policemen gathered there.

Straddlling the seat, I took the handlebars in my hands.

"Can I take this for a spin?" I asked.

"Sure," he told me.

I was turning from him when suddenly I was screaming in surprise again.

Another police officer had come behind me and righted the motorcycle.

"Get going," that one joked.

Uhm. no. I could never keep that bike upright and going. Maybe he just wanted a Kimberly Stewart impersonation.

"Can I put on your helmet?" I asked the officer whose bike I was on.

"Sure," he said. "It's probably sweaty."

It was heavy. Though I momentarily saw myself riding along with Ponch on the Cali highway. Ha!

I took the helmet off and placed it back on the handlebar.

"Can I see your gun?" I asked.

The officer laughed and shook his head at me. "No," he told me. "You might go off shooting people."

We were still just messing around when this guy came over with a complaint about something that was going on in a nearby bar.

I distanced myself.

I watched the scene unfold and unfortunately the guy ended up getting arrested. Yikes.

Been there, done that. Not fun.

The police weren't laughing anymore.

Okay, okay I'll go out with you

For all my talk about finding the love of my life, I go out of my way to keep that very thing at bay. In Arizona, I let something develop with this guy so not what I want. He was more into me and had plans that I was not going to be a part of and I had to take responsibility, not for his feelings, but for what I did to encourage and more importantly, for what I didn't do to deter those feelings once I understood how he felt. When it was clear to me that I was leaving Az, I started feeling him out as to how he might take my departure and from what he would say, I gathered that it was going to be a bit messy ending that, but Life was kind and provided me an easy out. Not a good out, not the horrible out I thought might be, but an out nonetheless.

Here, I've been fielding men 'cause so many are not right for me (two men have actually given me their addresses and told me to come by. Uhmmm, sure, I'm that dumb. Besides, you, never 'cause you have desperation written all over you and you, well, I was feeling you, but you just got out of a relationship and I ain't competing with no memories, so no) and because quite honestly, I'm a tad more in love with the idea of finding the love of my life than the actual finding him.

But I have met this guy . . .

These are my TOP TEN REASONS FOR SAYING YES:

10. He's persistant. I appreciate in myself my tenacity, my unwillingness to give up. I like that in him as well.

9. He's black and I haven't dated a black man in 20+ years.

8. He's black and speaks grammatically correct English.

7. He called me on some minor bad behavior (though it wasn't directed toward him personally). I like being held accountable for what I do and don't do.

6. He looks at me like he might, at any minute, go wild and ravish me. I find that very hot.

5. He's got a job. A man's got to come to me with two things that start with "p"-- paycheck and a pe--, well you know what I mean.

4. He compliments me; my ego likes to be stroked just as much as other parts of me.

3. He's unafraid to be vunerable. I respect and appreciate that. I'm terrified of vunerablity and openness. He challenges me to open myself, and it's not just to him but to finish what I'm trying to accomplish and open myself fully to the world and the people around me.

2. I've got some time on my hands.

1. A date is a very good reason to get a new pair of heels.

Writing quote for 7/20/07

Writing is both mask and unveiling.

-- E.B. White

Quote for 7/20/07

It's a simple equation: If you want to see what you think of yourself, look at your life.

--Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz

Day two

Did not wake up with the withdrawal headache I had yesterday. Turned on the radio, flipping through channels to find my favorite T. Petty/Heartbreakers song playing, yahoo! Opened the door to find a cloudy sky and a light sprinkle of rain coming down and I was on my way to lunch where, when the waitress informed me there were no free refills on orange juice, I could smile and think "Free to me 'cause I ain't paying" ;-)

So day 2 has so far been a good one.

aaaarrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

Corner of Broadway and 4th, maybe 5th, a Pepsi display.


"I'd love one," I told the woman who dug into the iced cooler on this 93 degree day, offering me a free bottle of a new Pepsi product, "but I gave up sodas yesterday."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


thunk, thunk, thunk

(beating my head against a wall)

Quote for 7/19/07

Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.

--Melba Colgrove

Writing quote for 7/19/07

Only until I fully faced my loneliness as a person, could I understand and appreciate what stillness and solitude would mean to me as an artist.

--Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz

Am I grouchy?

Well, YES!!!!!!

Today is day one without soda.

Random stuff

The Prez in town today. Woo-hoo.

NOT.

-------------

It doesn't matter that Vick is black; it matters 'cause he's sick. Yeah, like OJ. And Kobe.

-------------

How -- in a so-called "Christian" nation -- does a book series about magic and sorcery become the top seller. Hmmmm

Of course I'm supposed to be writing

but I've got to get my procrastinating in first;-)

Headphones on and Sam Cooke is crooning in my ears so I'm almost ready to get serious and work.

I have a flash I have to get done. I had mapped out a schedule and if I were to stick to it ('cause I'm making no promises) I would have 40 stories rewritten/completed by the end of July, with 1/2 of that number accepted/published and/or out in submission.

I just have to practice D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E!!!

But I'd rather be up dancing. Me and Mr. Cooke having our own little party.

Gonna try this again and cold turkey if I must

I am severly addicted to sodas. Especially Mountain Dew and all its incarnations, Baja Blast, pitch black, code red.

Not healthy and not drinking sodas was what I was going to do this year, but if we go back to my Jan. 2 post, we'll see that I had half a Mountain Dew and I've been back on the bottle and aluminum can ever since.

Ever dream of getting rich and think of all the funky things you'd have in your house. My list is this:

1. A Ms. Pac-Man game

2. A jukebox with nothing but Elton John songs

3. A Pepsi Freeze machine!

Writing quote for 7/18/07

Write until every word in your heart is spoken.

--Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz

Quote for 7/18/07

It is not so important to know everything as to appreciate what we learn.

--Hannah More

Gary Cadwallader is the writer interviewed . . .

for the Writer Profile Project over at Kelly's website.


Gary writes really great stories. Google him and read everything you find. Start with "Blind Lemon." Be awed and amazed.

On the other hand

I was going to write this evening, but I think I'm gonna just do the other thing I'm doing: listening to Billie Holiday and hoping for rain.

I'm off tomorrow. I'll make up today's writing then.

Or not;-)

Writing quote for 7/16/07

Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.

--Joseph Pulitzer

Quote for 7/16/07

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

--Albert Einstein

A beautiful cloudy day!

Yes, I'm hoping for rain:)

You should go 'cause it sounds interesting, Maya is the ultimate in cool women and 'cause I said so

July 14th through August 31st, 2007
Opening Reception and Performance: Saturday, July 14th, 6:00 to 9:00 PM

CANG Xin, CAO Fei, CUI Xiuwen, DAI Guangyu, GAO Brothers, HAN Bing, HE Yunchang, HEI Yue - JI Shengli, HONG Lei, HUANG Yan, JIAO Yingqi, MA Yongfeng, OU Ning, PENG Kailin, Qing Qing, QIU Zhijie, Rongrong & inri, TAO Aimin, WANLI (Mari), WENG Peijun (WENG Fen), WU Gaozhong, WU Yuren, XU Yong & YU Na, ZENG Yicheng, ZHAN Wang


Catalogue Available


Deborah Colton Gallery is pleased to present China Under Construction: Contemporary Art from the People’s Republic, featuring many of China’s most prominent contemporary artists, curated by Beijing-based art critic Maya Kóvskaya. The exhibition is an illuminating and provocative alternative to the clichéd, dated images of Chinese art that have over-saturated the international media of late. These internationally acclaimed artists have been included in the most prestigious institutional and private exhibitions, and their work engages the transformations that are constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing the new China.

Chinese contemporary art has reached a turning point and the artists in China Under Construction are at the forefront of the new trajectory. In the early and mid-1990s, easily digestible, foreigner-pleasing formulas from China, such as Political Pop and Cynical Realism, captured the international art community's imagination. This first generation of works played on well-known Cultural Revolution imagery, popular political symbols, and representations of social disaffectation and alienation that fed easily into Western narratives about a China in transition embraced by the mainstream foreign media. By the late 90s, however, growing numbers of Chinese artists, many born in the 70s, were unwilling to manipulate this new discourse of power in order to follow the previous generation's path to easy success. Their formative experiences centered less around the Cultural Revolution imagery and more on the new processes of social and economic transformation unleashed by Reform and Opening (initiated in '78). Images of a country attempting to carry out unprecedented and rapid economic "modernization" have overtaken the old creative canons, bringing a more diverse generation of new Chinese contemporary art to the international stage. As rapid urbanization and globalization throw China into a state of post-modern flux, the experiences of the new era are more fragmented and diverse than ever before and the most relevant and progressive art coming out of China reflects and comments upon that diversity in ways that illuminate the human condition for us all.

China Under Construction is organized around conceptual clusters that involve various facets of the major changes taking place in China, which are illuminated by the artworks in the show: Deconstructing Landscape, Reconstructing Selves and Lives, Contesting Power/Constituting Knowledge, Destruction of an Old Order, and Constructing a Tenuous Modernity. Deconstructing Landscape explores change in the relationship between people and the natural environment, landscape, and built environment, in particular the shifts in conceptions of the "the human being and nature," as people rethink tradition in the context of "modernization." This section features photography works by Wu Gaozhong, Zhan Wang, Hong Lei, Dai Guangyu, Han Bing, Huang Yan, He Yunchang and video by Ma Yongfeng. Reconstructing Selves and Lives investigates change in the conditions of everyday life, change in social status, class and identity, and the tension between ordinary people's dreams of a new world and uneuphemized realities of the present world, featuring Cao Fei & Ou Ning's acclaimed video "San Yuan Li", and photography by Qiu Zhijie, Weng Peijun (Weng Fen), Han Bing and Cang Xin. Contesting Power/Constituting Knowledge interrogates change in discourses of power and authority, discipline and punishment, and the ways in which gender, capital, discourse and power intersect poignantly in the ever-expanding sex trade that has come to represent the seedy underbelly of China's transformation of lives and livelihoods at the nexus of public and private. This section features Cui Xiuwen's pathbreaking video Lady's, Dai Guangyu's eerie performance video "Missing," Ma Yongfeng's disturbing video "The Swirl," anthropological installation by Tao Aimin, and photography by Hei Yue Ji Shengli, Qing Qing, Zeng Yicheng, and the team of photographer Xu Yong and former sex worker Yu Na. Capturing the changing world from another direction, with works by Cao Fei, the Gao Brothers and the Sino-Japanese husband-wife team of Rong Rong & inri, Destruction of an Old Order examines the massive project of demolishing what has been deemed "backward," "outmoded," and insufficiently "modern," to make way for towering skyscrapers and gated community high-rises of glass, steel and concrete. In the midst of transformation, China is caught in a state of limbo between two fundamentally different modes of modernity. With an array of works; photography by the Cui Xiuwen, Qiu Zhijie, Peng Kailin, the Gao Brothers, sculpture by Wanli (Mari), video by Wu Yuren, and a live multimedia performance installation of "Love in the Age of Big Construction IV," by Han Bing. Constructing a Tenuous Modernity searches for the place of the human being in the context of China's massive juggernaut triad of "industrialization, urbanization and modernization," with its concomitant construction and arduous human labor.

Through photography, video, sculpture, installation, and performance, China Under Construction examines the ways in which China is being constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed in this era of transnational flows of people, culture and capital, localized globalization, and so-called "modernization." We live in fragmented times, times that need an art that offers not only a mirror in which to see the status quo, but also transforms our understandings of ourselves, giving us new ways of seeing who we are and can be. Explorations of the everyday lived connections between the individual and the social, the micro and the macro, and the local and global realities that we all, increasingly face in this rapidly changing world, imbue this new generation of Chinese art with unprecedented global relevance.


ABOUT THE CURATOR

Maya Kóvskaya is a Beijing-based art critic, curator and writer with over a decade of experience in China. She is Art Director and Chief Curator of Futurista Art Beijing and has curated contemporary art exhibitions and underground cultural events in North America and China including Bitter Sea (PRC, 1996), Spaces of Appearance (USA, 1997), Cold Blooded (PRC, 1998), Post-Socialist Visions of Selfhood: Documents of the Beijing Underground (USA, 2002), Love in the Age of Big Construction (PRC and USA, 2006),Quotidian Iconic (co-curated, PRC, 2006), The Other Shore of Desire (USA, 2006) Estrangements and Engagements (Canada, 2006), Misalignments (USA, 2006), Other Modernities (USA, 2006), The Fatalistic Language of Things (USA, 2007), Han Bing: On the Stage of Modernization (USA, 2007) and The Fragmented Gaze (USA, 2007), and others. Her writing has appeared in English and Chinese in numerous art catalogues, academic volumes, journals, and magazines, including Contemporary, Eyemazing International Contemporary Photography Magazine,Yishu: Journal Chinese Contemporary Art, Flash Art, ArtPost, Art iT, Art Map, Today Art, Art Management and Investment,and positions: east asia cultures critique. She is currently writing a book on Chinese contemporary art.

Deborah Colton Gallery is founded on being an innovative showcase for ongoing presentation and promotion of strong historical and visionary contemporary artists world-wide, whose diverse practices include painting, works on paper, sculpture, video, photography, and conceptual future media installations. The gallery aspires to provide a forum through connecting Texas, national and international artists to make positive change.



Deborah Colton Gallery
2500 Summer Street, Third Floor
Houston, TX 77007

T 713.864.2364
F 713.869.9592
info@deborahcoltongallery.com

But I will, of course

work with this insight.

I'm pretty much down to the last few things in that closet. (Ever have three piles when you're cleaning out your closet? Keep, give away, throw away. Well, with this closet, I'm doing a lot of throwing away. I've given my pain to others, those of you forgive me,I'll not do that again. And I will only keep those things that can be altered, transformed, give it a new style and wear it differently.)

I love watching my own transformation and growth.

I get back to me and that thrills me to no end:)

For black women writers

PMS: Poetry, Memoir and Story (To be published in Spring
2008). If you identify as a black (or African American) woman and
would like to submit work to be considered for this special issue,
the deadline is October 1, 2007. Please send up to 5 poems or 15
pages of prose (fiction or memoir) with SASE to: PMS (Black Women
Writers' Issue), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dept. of
English, 900 South 13th Street, Birmingham, AL 35294-1260. DEADLINE:
OCTOBER 1, 2007

-------------------------------

Torch: poetry, prose, and short stories by African American Women
www.torchpoetry.org

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Open June 1 to August 31

Torch was established to promote the work of African American women. We provide a place to celebrate contemporary poetry, prose, short stories and artwork by experienced and emerging artists alike. We prefer our contributors to take risks and offer a diverse body of work that examines and challenges preconceived notions regarding race, ethnicity, gender roles, and identity.

Some previously featured contributors to Torch are Sharon Bridgforth, Shia
Shabazz, Patricia Smith, Remica L. Bingham, Lenelle Moïse, Metta Sama,
Ana-Maurine Lara, Venus Thrash, Wura Ogunji and Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Submission Guidelines

Submit only previously unpublished work. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted.

Poetry: send three to seven poems (max 40 lines each). Poems should be individually typed on separate pages. Email submission as one MS Word attachment with the subject line 'Poetry Submission' to poetry(at)torchpoetry.org (replace(at) with @).

Prose: send two prose pieces (max 500 words each). Prose and should be
double-spaced. Email submission as one MS Word attachment with the subject line
'Prose Submission' to prose(at)torchpoetry.org (replace (at) with @).

Short Stories: send one short story (max 2,000 words). Email submission as
one MS Word attachment with the subject line 'Short Story Submission' to
shorts(at)torchpoetry.org

Photography & Art: send three to seven high resolution JPEG images. Email
submission with the subject line 'Art Submission' to art(at)torchpoetry.org <
replace (at) with @>.

Subscribe to the FREE Torch e-Newsletter. It’s distributed quarterly and
contains information on upcoming call for submissions, info on Torch
contributors and more. Visit www.torchpoetry.org to subscribe today.

I have to go write now

I said I'd be a good girl today.

(Rain) quote for 7/12/07

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.

-- unknown

!!!!!!!!!!!!! there's been days of it :)

Writing quote for 7/12/07

What I like in a good author isn't what he says, but what he whispers.

-- Logan Pearsal Smith

catching up

on other people's blogs.

Susan's on a wonderful roll.

Her book "American Cool" is available from Rebel Press and she going to have ANOTHER story in ANOTHER Best New Erotica anthology. Yay! I love her stories, expecially the sexy ones. Look for that in Jan 2008.

And another story is in an anthology called "Five Minute Fantasies 2"
All so sexy hot it's cool;-)

Now on to Sharon's. Let's see what's she knitted new and now. . .

Katrina Denza: Writer's Profile Project

Interviewed over at Kelly's website.

I wish you could have access to what I think is one of Katrina's best works, a piece about a wife who wants another child and her husband doesn't; it's magical realism at its very best.

Still there are some other great works to satisfy your reading appetite. So go read: here.

Quote for 7/09/07

Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.

-Leonardo da Vinci

Writing quote for 7/9/07

. . . and to write
is to engage with an agenda

--William Allegrezza

And you've been keeping up with the Writer's Profile Project, right?

I shouldn't've have to ask. Surely you've been to Kelly's website without reminders from me.

X LA

Thought I'd be flying into LAX but doesn't look like LA is going to happen for me this year.

Cancelled the June 30th event. From Arizona, the cost was $60; from TN, the cost of the trip became 10 times that amount. (I pay as I go) so I had to bow out which totally stunk 'cause John Singleton and Nikki Giovanni were going to be there!!!

:(
:(
:(

It's looking like I won't make the Black Book Expo either. I would love to be at these big events but I need a book to promote. I can't afford not to have it that way.

My schedule for the rest of the year is the Chicago reading, maybe the Harlem Book Fair, Chicago ('cause I'm still waiting to here for definite on that); and maybe another New York reading series.

Finish the year off facilitating two workshops, one in Detroit and one in Baltimore. Waiting to hear.

Why can't you just fall into my lap?

I am trying to find someone.

Another one of those how-the-dots-connect sort of things. Something I did in Arizona made it possible for me to be in Tennessee at this time. Of course, I was not aware of the HUGE picture; I thought I would just be closer to the Southern states I needed to be near in order to finish some works, but not even close, Gwendolyn.

I am working on something (Robert Olin Butler advices not to define a work initially; it could end up a play or a short story or a novella or even a novel) dealing with Freedom Summer and the Freedom Riders. I thought I needed to be in Mississippi, but I've found something happened in Tennessee that was a crucial turning point and I've also found that the Freedom Rides started in Washington, D.C. and continued through the summer.


Hey, I was just in Washington, D.C. on a summer day and that was because I had to reschedule the Burlesque reading 'cause I got arrested last year and the event had racial overtones and if you remember this time last summer I was dealing with the FBI on the civil rights violations and guess what -- I'm still waiting on the FBI and the Dept of Justice and I find it very frustrating except for the fact that in my research I found out something that the Kennedy administration did that was totally wrong and surely it added to the frustration level of the Freedom Riders and now I have an idea of what they felt.

Again, do you think it's possible that artists are chosen to create certain works? That, like I said before, somehow Life orchestrated events so that I could "know" certain feelings to give my work a certain authenticity?

And that I could be in a place I needed to be at for the right reasons?

I almost didn't make this reading but a miracle happened for me on the day it would have had to.

I now have a sense of the physical surroundings in D.C. in the summer (the original reading was going to be in the Fall) and as I passed the Supreme Court building, an image, a scene waiting to be developed, came to me.

And while in Washington, I was invited to read in Chicago. I've been talking to the librarian who runs the Civil Rights Room at the public library. I asked her if the person who keeps popping up in my research -- a crucial player in the Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee-- was still alive. "Oh, yes," she told me. "She lives in Chicago."

Okay, pick me up from the floor.

I asked the librarian to pass a message on for me. But Life is generous and going to help me out with this one.

On a mad search to find a restroom. Ended up at a Starbucks. Glancing down at the morning paper: An article about the Freedom Riders. The name of someone who might also be able to help me contact her.

And then there's contacting the alumni association at her former college.

I gotta work for this contact. And I will. Though my sometimes-lazy-butt doesn't want to.

Teach me

I was walking behind two men. The younger one stopped to light a cigarette and noticed me.

A writer, I have a notebook and pen handy.

"You're ready to take my number?" he asked me.

(Must be *the* line in TN 'cause I've heard it several times already)

I smiled at him. "I am probably old enough to be your mother," I said.

He considered me for a moment. "That's alright," he replied. "You could probably teach me a thing or two."

I corrected him. "Probably three or four."

His eyes lit up with surprised amusement. "Alright," he told me. "Alright."

GJM Update

Alive and well, thank you. Life remains *interesting,* we will say.

----------------------------

Tennessee is &@^%*#&$ hot and I know what people mean when they say "It's the humidity." Ugh.

Yeah, I'd even do Arizona over some days here.

------------

The reading in Washington was great fun. Thought you'd see some skin? Well, that was the original plan last year; I was gonna do a short skirt, heels and the seamed stockings,(and the stockings and garter belt would have been what was auctioned) and I was gonna show leg, lots of leg, but well, I'm working with a slightly different set of rules this year and modesty is the name of today's game.

Met some wonderful people. Got a reading in Chicago (it's looking like October)out of the event. Went to the Library of Congress and got a library card. Had dinner at a wonderful place. Was introduced to this poet who's moving to Tennessee in a month and we exchanged emails/numbers so when he gets here, I have a writing buddy to go to the Poetry Open Mic with.

--------------

The writing is going slow, I've got some other projects and my life in general to sort out and stuff. I have however made my way up to, I think, to 106 stories. I'd have to make sure I added some micros I wrote recently.

Some acceptances and I've got to go to the post office to check for forwarded yeses. (I'm hoping)

-------------

If you ordered my book, you've no doubt noticed that it is not in your mailbox yet. And June has passed. My apologies. I have to have them sent to me and me getting to and situated in TN has been more than I expected. They will arrive. I promise. Soon. If you want a refund, just let me know.